Starting the Upper Peninsula

This week I am trying to get the 15 counties in the Upper Peninsula done. Somehow I picked the hottest week of the year and the temperature is in the upper 80's on Lake Superior.

I met Wes yesterday at St. Ignace and the first thing we did was go for lunch and got this pasty:

It was pretty disappointing. I always thought that pasties are supposed to have cubed steak and this one had hamburger. I am going to continue looking for a good one. Maybe over in Ishpeming? Or Hancock...We'll see.

After we ate and I rested for a bit we decided to head up to Sault St. Marie and get Chippewa County done. It was pretty cool. We happened to visit the Locks when there were two ships in. This is the American Courage which was upbound toward Duluth.

It's been years since I've been to the Locks and the visitor center and observation decks were new to me. There were also some great paths for walking and I took a long walk along the river while Wes looked at the exhibits. Then we ate at an Irish pub across the street. We had to find somewhere for me to get more miles in. I had tracked down a trail but when we found it all we could see was a muddy rutty mess so we headed back to the riverfront and found a park next to an ancient hydroelectric building. We think it was a controlled spillway. This is what it looked like:

I finished up my 5 miles going to a historic village neighborhood that the city seems to be developing and there was a nice dock where we sat and looked over at the Canadian side.

There was also an old ship that was beached and that is being/will be used as a museum.

This morning I woke up with a start and the boat was flooded with sunlight. It was going to be another hot and humid day. I still had 3.8 miles to walk in Mackinac County (where St. Ignace is). I was up by 7 and walking. I love St. Ignace and I love the historical houses and overall atmosphere of the city. I walked up the hill and down the residential neighborhoods before heading back down to the waterfront.

I am definitely going to visit the Ojibwa Museum before going home. I plan to visit the gift shop too! They have beautiful gardens around the museum. Also, this is where Father Marquette is buried.

The waterfront has a nice boardwalk all the way around what you can see here.

At the marina there is a long pier to walk down. This is the end of it with the harbor light to the right.

We were headed out of town for a few days to get the rest of the UP done. We left the boat in St. Ignace but before leaving we had to get mocha's at Java Joe's. This is the back of the building.

I had a bad feeling about Luce County. We could have gone up to Tahquamenon Falls but I thought it would take too long so we were going to go to Newberry and walk around the downtown. There wasn't much of one and it was hotter than you know what and you would think with all the trees in this part of the world that they could figure out how to grow some in their downtown. I walked about 2.5 miles downtown and I was burning up and sweating like a hog. So we decided to get something to eat and drink and see how I felt. We ended up finding a county trail back off a gravel road and we walked that. It was in the woods and was cooler.

Wes was talking really loud and I kind of shushed him and told him to be considerate of the animals and he asked me if I'd rather sneak up on a bear. That shut me up quick!!! Then it occurred to me that Newberry used to be famous for having bears at their dump. I made lots of noise in the woods!!

We finally got Luce County done...thank you God...and then came to Munising.

To be continued....

Ogemaw, Alcona, Iosco and Arenac

On Monday morning I got up early in Port Sanilac and headed out to drive over to Saginaw to I-75 then up to West Branch to get Ogemaw County done. (Wes was taking off too with the boat and planned to meet me at East Tawas.) It took me about 2 hours and by the time I got there the skies were getting very cloudy and looking like a thunderstorm was coming. I stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall and decided to just start walking up and down the covered walkways. I had experience with walking in the pouring rain and it made blisters. I didn't want to go through that again. Eventually it stopped raining and I stopped at McDonald's to check my email and get my favorite morning snack (parfait and large decaf). Then I drove downtown and started walking through the neighborhoods.

This is a great old house on Houghton Avenue. Pink brick!!

A sad but beautiful little stone house.

This is a side yard to a house downtown with a brook flowing past it.

Downtown was bustling and had well kept brick buildings. There were several restaurants and a beautiful old train depot. I finished up my 5 miles (finally!) and headed to my next stop Harrisville. The road I took was lined with impressive trees and I can just imagine how beautiful it is in the fall. I went to Harrisville State Park which is just south of Harrisville. If I had a camper this is where I would head since there are campsites right on Lake Huron. There was a great nature trail and a wonderful clean beach. I managed to get my whole 5 miles in there but it took a long time since it was the middle of a very very hot and humid day.

I thought this tree looked like an upside down octopus...

Tree and rocks. Not sure why I took this....

I could leave for East Tawas but first I wanted to make a stop at one of my favorite places up north. This is the Lumberman's Monument on River Road west of Oscoda. It is an amazing place and was built in 1932 to honor the lumbermen who cut down the vast stands of trees that used to cover Michigan.

The view of the dunes from the trail.

The leg destroying stairway that climbs down the hill to the river.

It's kind of hard to see the figures in the monument. The statue was paid for with money donated from lumbermen's descendants to honor them.

When I was done at the monument it was finally time for me to go to one of my favorite places in Michigan...Tawas! I love it because the downtown is right across from the marina. The downtown is vital and most of the businesses that I remember from 6 years ago are still there. There is an awesome coffee shop about a block away from the marina. There was a concert going on at the band shell in the park.

Nicely landscaped entrance to the state docks. Wes had made it in and he got cleaned up and we went to a little restaurant right across from the marina, ate, and then went back and crashed.

The next morning I got up with the birds and got ready to leave but first had to get my 5 miles done. I headed up Newman Street which is the main street and then worked my way through the neighborhoods.

This is our boat. It's a 30 foot O'Day which we bought very used 11 years ago. I just thought I'd throw that in there.

I was almost done with my walk when I came up to the backside of Ben Franklin. I don't think there are very many of these around but this store is fantastic. You could spend an hour looking at all the cool stuff in it. It is well stocked with kids' games and toys and household decorating stuff. We bought our granddaughter a cardinal pinwheel.

Iosco County done I had to get Arenac County done which is down 23. I thought I'd try to find places to walk on the way to Standish and if desperate I would walk around downtown Standish. Not that there is anything wrong with Standish, it was hot and it is really hot to walk on sidewalks. I stopped in Au Gres and got about a mile and a half at the city park. Then I found a county park on the bay where I got another mile. I ran out of places to walk at the park and went out on the road and turned left and found a gravel road that went down to the shores of Saginaw Bay.

This is the county park. They have little cabins that they rent out right on the beach.

This is the end of the road that goes to Au Gres Point. So beautiful.

At that point I still had 2.5 miles to complete so I went down to Omer and found the public canoe launch site and walked down the gravel road that runs along the Rifle River. It was as good as any trail with hardly any traffic.

I was done for that trip and headed home. Next week I'll go to the UP which will be so fun (but very tiring!).

Genesee, Huron and Sanilac

Saturday July 9:

I woke up at 5:3o and had to get everything together including getting our dog up to Em's so she could watch her until today. I was heading up to meet Wes hopefully in Port Sanilac in the Thumb (of Michigan).

The first thing I had to do was walk in Genesee County. I had been avoiding it because I really wanted to walk on the Flint River Trail but I was worried about Flint's violent reputation and wasn't sure I wanted to risk it. Then I started thinking about it and I don't think it's really fair to paint the whole city with that violent brush. That's what people around the country do to Michigan and that makes me mad so.....I also have a connection since my father in law grew up there and he was a very special guy so I could kind of feel him walking beside me. Well, not literally but you know.

The part of the trail that I walked on started up by McLaren Hospital and went through a residential area. Then it headed south on Chevrolet past empty lots which I believe used to be huge factories. It's just so damn sad to think of all the lives that revolved around those factories. The parents that worked their butts of 7 days a week to try to improve the quality of their family's lives. Despite what some people seem to think about union workers the truth is what they did was hard work. Now they are tearing down the factories in Flint.

The trail followed the Flint River into downtown Flint past the site of the Flint Road Cart Company which was a carriage company founded by William C Durant. Look him up if you're interested in how General Motors, it's too complicated for me to attempt.

I felt pretty comfortable and safe in downtown Flint and wandered around for a while. They have arches over Saginaw Street (which is the main street through town) which are like ones from the early 1900's. I then headed back to the car and when I got there I still had about a mile to do.

I headed for For-Mar Nature Preserve which was absolutely awesome. They have all kinds of community education programs and a really neat little natural history museum that would be great for kids to visit. Anyone who lives in the Flint of area I'm sure have been and if not you should!!!

Genesee was done then it was on to Huron County but on the way there I wanted to make a stop at the Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park which contains the only Native American rock carvings in Michigan. Unfortunately for me they are enclosed in a fence and it was closed on Saturday. The rest of the park was pretty interesting though with a former lumber camp area and huge sandstone rocks. It was also very hot and sweaty with lots of bugs hovering around my face. I had put on bug spray so it was all good but it was one of those wood

s walks where the trail is 6 inches wide with vegetation grabbing at my ankles and that feeling like I was breaking through cobwebs. Ughy!!! But beautiful. So I got a little over a mile there for Sanilac County.

Then I went to Harbor Beach and I don't want to seem mean but the town smells like soy sauce. Dow Chemical has a huge factory there and I just looked it up and although it smells like soy sauce throughout the town what they are making is ingredients for insecticides: Spinosad and spinetoram. Very interesting!!!

It's a touristy town but I wasn't feeling it. I walked a little bit around there but I wanted to go to the county park down the road. That park was frustrating because they had some nice trails but huge trees had fallen over every single trail and they hadn't bothered to clear them out of the way. So I didn't last long there and went back to town and found a trail that led from a city park into town and finally completed the 5 miles.

I got a text from Wes that he had finally made it to Port Sanilac so I headed down there and took it easy the rest of the night. We had a nice dinner at a sports bar right downtown. They were having a Saturday night concert at the bandshell right next to the marina and they have a great breakwall around the harbor. I really like Port Sanilac and I finished my walk the next day walking around town and to the beach. It was soooo hot in the boat it was stifling so we went over and immersed ourselves in very cold Lake Huron. Then we went and had dinner at the Stone Lodge which was excellent and highly recommended.

The next day I headed out for West Branch very early and got to see a beautiful sunrise!

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St.Joseph County Part II

A few months ago I wimped out in St. Joseph County and left with only 2.5 miles done. So since it's getting to crunch time I had to get back over there and get it done. Last Thursday Wes left on his boat for up north so I figured it would be a good day for some Mom and daughter bonding time so I tempted Em with a trip to Shipshewana first and then we went up to Sturgis so I could finish my miles.

Shipshewana was great and Emily loved Lolly's which has all things quilts. Yoder's Department Store had a good selection too. We didn't spend much time in Shipshewana and headed up to Sturgis to get going. Em decided to wait in the coffee shop and was happily playing on her computer as I headed out. I basically just started walking up the street through a neighborhood and walked 1.25 miles and then turned around and came back. There are lots of beautiful old houses there to look at and it was a pleasurable walk.

Then we went to Walmart to get some change for the turnpike since Indiana for some dumb reason doesn't have attendants at the toll booths, you have to use a card or put in money and it never works right for me. I'm thinking it's probably operator error....Anyhow, we were in the parking lot and Emily got quite a kick out of the Amish buggy with a bass boat on a trailer behind it. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera since Wes was using it.

Oceana, Mason, Newaygo Counties and another 5 miles in Lenawee

I had the pleasure of going up to Oceana County last weekend to the cottage of one of my old high school friends, Kathy, who I haven't had much contact with in the last I don't want to admit how many years. She is related to one of my sister's best friends so that's how we got in contact again. She read about how I'm walking all the counties in Michigan and it just so happened that Oceana was the next one up the Michigan side coast so away we went.

Her cottage is only 1/4 mile away from beautiful Lake Michigan so we got up bright and early on Saturday morning and hiked around her neighborhood. Right inland from the big lake is little Stony Lake. So there's a whole little community around both lakes. The roads wind over and around dunes so it was a pretty good walk and we ended up walking along the beach and back to the cottage. We ate Friday and Saturday night at a little restaurant called the Stony Lake Tavern and their specialty is deep fried asparagus that is to die for.

Here is the road near Kathy's cottage. Very peaceful and beautiful.

View of the beach from the top of the dunes.

After catching our breaths and regrouping we headed up the coast the back way. There were little produce markets along the way. I could do some serious shopping out there! Then we stopped at the wonderful Little Sable Lighthouse. It is situated near Silver Lake and we went up to the top and it was awesome!!!! It's built of red brick and is one of the most beautiful lighthouses I've seen. In Michigan there is a program where people can stay at the lighthouses for a week for a small fee. They volunteer to man the doors and do other work around the lighthouse. We went to the top along with lots of other visitors coming and going. The view was beautiful.

Little Sable Lighthouse

In Mason County we figured we'd just walk around the harbor and downtown in beautiful Ludington. This is where the ferry to Manitowoc, Wisconsin is located. There are beautiful sculptures in the park along the walkway. There is a large marina and a pretty cool downtown.

Kathy took a picture of me with all these bronze children. Then a nice young lady travelling around in a wheelchair offered to take a picture of both of us in all our glory.

When we got done walking around the harbor and downtown we still had about a mile to go so we walked back out partway to the harbor light. There were people fishing along the pier. It was way cool and the lake looked beautiful.

We had decided that we would do one more county since we had a long ride home ahead of us and we still hadn't had a chance to hang out at the beach. So we got up really early and started driving over 20 towards Newaygo County. I can't walk without eating first, I don't know how people walk or work out on an empty stomach. We stopped at a really good restaurant in Hesperia called Daniels for breakfast.

Then we headed for the Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary. The deal is you are supposed to stop and get a brochure at the entrance that correspond with numbered stations that give you info on the different plants. We totally missed that and just walked around in amazement at how beautiful and green it was.

Beautiful pond with noisy bullfrogs.

I took this picture of a tree with numerous woodpecker holes in honor of my friend Kathy who hates woodpeckers!!!

A pretty little stream.

Then we went over to the Hardy Dam which is the third largest earthen dam in the world. Many people use it for recreation and it is one of 3 dams on the Muskegon River. There is a trail that goes down past the spillway and then climbs along the river.

We got done with the 5 miles and then I got some delicious Grand Traverse Cherry Fudge ice cream at the party store down the road. We headed back to the cottage, went to the lake for about an hour and a half and then headed back home. I had left my car at my son's house and got to see my grandbaby and read her Goodnight Moon before she went to bed which was actually the high point in my very eventful weekend. There's no place like home!!!

Today I went over to walk with my niece in Lenawee County on the Kiwanis Trail that runs between Tecumseh and Adrian. We walked 5 miles but I've got to say that it smelled like horse poopy for quite a ways. And there were lots of little nasty flies, the triangle ones. But it was fun. Now I'm home hanging out and trying to get up the energy to do some weeding in my gardens.

Montmorency and Otsego Counties

This is craziness. I'm finally getting to telling about what happened last Tuesday. Last time I was up at my niece's place with my sister. Tuesday morning we woke up, ate our bagels and headed up to Clear Lake State Park. I have this book called Hiking Michigan and this park looked good. Clear Lake is a spring fed lake and you really can see to the bottom.

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The trail was pretty hard to follow. It got a lot narrower after this. The ferns were totally covering it and it was just a single track. Once again, I had a map but the signs weren't very good and I ended up losing the trail. But I knew what direction the park was at so I found my way back to the road and was heading into the park when it started thundering. My sister was sitting in the park reading a book and we had the foresight to check that our phones worked before I left. Unfortunately, most of the park doesn't have cell service. So I called her and asked her to pick me up but I didn't realize the road doesn't go all the way around.

Long story short, we were both freaking out because I felt bad that I told her wrong and she was worried that I was going to get soaked by the approaching storm. The girl at the front told her how to find me and I had decided to stay in one spot by the back entrance and I was very happy when I saw her car approaching. I got in the car and then it started pouring. I was .6 short of 5 miles.

We decided that pie would make us feel better and I steered her to a great restaurant that Wes and I love in Johannesburg. It's called the Old Depot Restaurant and it is really delicious and cute and they have great pie!!! We relaxed for a while, had dessert and then headed for Gaylord.

Gaylord is like most Up North Michigan towns and used to be a lumber town. There was a huge demand for lumber after the 1871 Chicago fire. One thing you notice when in Gaylord is the Alpine theme. It was introduced in the 60's to spur the tourist industry. Normally I find artificially themed towns kind of dumb but Gaylord is okay.

I decided that I would just walk around the town since I hadn't been able to find any hiking trails I wanted to try in Otsego County. I started walking down South Court Street. Now I knew there was a park that had elk in it somewhere in Gaylord but hadn't been able to find it in the car but I happened to walk to it going down Court Street.

Here are the elk. Teeny tiny in the picture.

So then I saw a sign for Alpine Park and it had some awesome trails. Unfortunately it started pouring again and I was soon soaked. I headed back to the car and still had about a mile to go so I walked down to the middle school. There were neat looking houses on the way. I made it back to the car with soaking wet feet and blisters. Grrr!!! But I was finally done with Otsego County.

Next morning I finished up Montmorency County in the road behind my niece's house in the pouring rain again. And again I was thinking I'd do Genesee County on the way home but didn't. I don't know what the deal is. I've decided that I'll do Genesee when I go up to finish the counties in the Thumb.

Alpena and Presque Isle Counties

Alpena County

We woke up on Monday morning to a peanut butter and bagel breakfast. We headed out to Alpena. The ride over was interesting an abundance of trees. That's what "up north" is all about!

We found the BiPath in Alpena which winds along the Alpena Wildlife Refuge. We had downloaded a new book for Connie's Kindle so she was happy to sit in the car and read while I hightailed off. I was pretty impressed with the path and with the parks that were adjacent to it. I appreciate communities that care about the wildlife and realize what a boost it is to the liveability of a city to have places where people can get out and enjoy nature.

This is a view from the Bipath.

This snapping turtle and I had a little conversation. I told him/her I'd just take a quick picture and please don't bite me. Then I walked a few more steps and found a turtle nest with broken eggs next to it. I wish I could have seen the babies.

I got back to the car and still had about a half mile to go and Connie finished up that walk with me. I enjoyed Alpena more than I thought I would. We didn't go over to Thunder Bay since we were headed up to Presque Isle which is on Lake Huron so we'd be seeing the lake then.

Presque Isle County

We went over to 23 and headed north. Missed the turn to Presque Isle. The name in French means "almost an island". Grand Lake is west of Presque Isle and it is basically a long spit of land with two connectors to the mainland. We drove north to the other connector. Grand Lake is very beautiful to the east.

There is not much of a downtown which we found out as we were looking for a restaurant. We ended up getting yummy sandwiches at the deli across from the harbor and eating outside at the picnic table.

If you like lighthouses this is a great place to visit. The first Presque Isle lighthouse was built in 1840 but it deteriorated quickly and it was too short to be much help to sailors coming in to the harbor so it was replaced with a new lighthouse. I walked up to the top of the new lighthouse which is 113 feet high. I also just read that both of the lighthouses are haunted which I'm glad I didn't know when I was up there on top all by myself. It was easy going up except for running out of breath a couple of times but the walk down was not fun. The steps were see through wrought iron and I had a death grip on the railing. This lighthouse has a great gift shop and I spent lots of money on teeshirts and a pink hat.

View from the top of the New Presque Isle lighthouse.

Once we ate it was time for me to get to work and get walking. Connie parked at the old lighthouse which is through the trees from the harbor and I set off. There is a nice walk along the breakwall which I went up and down a couple times since it was so cool and I walked quite a way down the road. I then headed back through the trees and eventually got my 5 miles done. Another one bites the dust!!

View of the Old Presque Isle lighthouse from the end of the breakwall.

Up close view of the Old Lighthouse. Isn't it adorable?