Benzie, Leelanau and Grand Traverse

We set off early on Saturday down to Benzie County. Everything I read about the Betsie Valley Trail said it was beautiful and an overall great trail. We headed into Beulah and the trail goes right through downtown. We got a coffee first at a great little eatery, The Phoenix Cafe. The service was excellent and friendly. Wes got his computer and took advantage of their Wifi as I walked for a while on the trail.

It's one of those deals though where there's the trail and it's great but there is no shade. I did 2.5 on the trail and then went back to the cafe. Wes bought me a really cool hat that shades me a little bit at a little shop there.

I thought this was a neat house and it was right across from Crystal Lake. Great location!

Actually this is right across from the house above. Their property includes the lakefront.

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The old railroad station which is next to the rail trail (duh).

We decided to go over to Frankfort to get the rest of my 5 miles. Frankfort is a really pretty city on Lake Michigan. It used to be the terminus of the Ann Arbor Railroad. There are some pretty impressive houses there. Also a beautiful beach and a nice long pier.

Ducks are pretty cool, especially the babies.

Wes taking a picture of the harbor light or whatever this is technically called.

Here are some of those impressive houses.

Nice landscaping along the path to the beach. Benzie was done at the end of our walk on the pier and around the neighborhoods. Nice town, people a little snooty but I guess I would be too if I had people gaping at me as I tried to enjoy my life. Whatever....

Then we went up to Empire to start Leelanau County. I love Leelanau and one of my favorite places on earth is the Grand Traverse lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. But we didn't have time to go up that far so we started in Empire which is in the Sleeping Bear Dune National Lakeshore Park. We ate at a restaurant there which was pretty good and I started walking. Got a couple miles and then headed over to the Tart Trail (Traverse Area Recreational Trail) that goes from Traverse City to Sutton's Bay. It was so excellent and shady and beautiful. And I thanked God profusely that they also had a porta potty a little ways down the trail.

A couple of pictures from this trail. Look at how clean this water is!!! It's just a beautiful area and a beautiful pathway.

By the time I got Leelanau done it was about 7:00 and I still wanted to finish Grand Traverse which is right there over the county line. So I basically got out of the car and walked about 2.2 miles east and then walked back and met Wes. He walked with me the last little bit. It was a nice walk along the bay and there were some pretty cool boats out there like this tall ship.

The sun was setting by the time I was done. I had done 15 miles and my feet felt like it but it was very gratifying to have completed 3 counties. Yay!!!! We got back to Petoskey at 12:30 AM.