Trails
I did not grow up hiking — while my family did a lot of camping, the closest we came to hiking was a yearly walk on a leaf-covered trail while doing the annual family color tour in the woods of northern Michigan. Rather, my love of hiking began as a teenager while living with a family of avid hikers as an exchange student in Switzerland. In our correspondence during the months preceding my exchange experience they told me to get a good pair of hiking boots and have them broke in before I got there. So I dropped a week’s worth of tips (I worked as a waitress during high school) on a good pair of boots, climbed up and down the stairs and walked around the neighborhood for a few weeks before packing them in my suitcase. During the summer of 1978 that first pair of hiking boots got quite a workout and faithfully carried me through some of the most incredible places in Switzerland — Davos, Diavolezza, Grindelwald, Zermatt, Murren, Gstaad/Schonried, Hoch Ybing, the Engadine… For the most part this small town West Michigan girl was overwhelmed by the experience and the awesomeness of it all — it was the kind of thing that you have to pinch yourself to make sure it is really happening to you, that you are really there, living in a postcard in the midst of some of the most amazingly beautiful places on earth. My unseasoned feet saw their share of aches and blisters, but those unforgettable adventures left in me a lasting love and hunger for the trail.
Living in Michigan, there is no shortage of wonderful places to hike. Without question I am drawn to the Upper Peninsula, particularly Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Porcupine Mountains State Park, but I am fortunate to also have superb hiking trails within minutes of my home at P.J. Hoffmaster State Park and Muskegon State Park. Further north, but still easily within reason for weekend exploration, places like Ludington State Park, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Manitou Island, Leelanau State Park and the Leelanau Conservancy hold endless possibilities. In Michigan we are also fortunate to have the largest percentage of the North Country Scenic Trail — just over 500 miles in the Upper Peninsula and nearly 550 miles in the Lower Peninsula, as well as 3 national forests (Hiawatha and Ottawa in the U.P. and Huron-Manistee in the L.P.), 3 wilderness areas (Nordhouse Dunes in the L.P. and Sylvania and McCormick in the U.P.), and Isle Royal National Park in the Western U.P. This list doesn’t even begin to include the ample selection of great trails in the eastern and southern regions of the state.
For most of my adult life I have been taking annual fall hiking trips to various places in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but despite my penchant for journaling, I have never really documented my hikes. A few years ago I set a goal to hike all of the named trails in the Porcupine Mountains within my lifetime and also have a 3-year goal of logging at least 50 miles on the North Country Trail, so I have started keeping better record of my hiking adventures. I will add some of the more recent and memorable hikes to these pages but will not go back over the years, rather will primarily add things going forward.
As with anything written in a blog, the opinions expressed here are based on my personal experiences and perceptions, and are not meant to be taken as fact or advice. While I will attempt to be accurate with trail descriptions, location and navigational information, my memory may at times jumble information and nothing here should be used as a sole source of information when planning your own hiking adventures.