Today I went back to Manistee County and connected with the place I left the North Country Trail for the Udell Fire Tower.
It was cool and only partly sunny, so a little gloomy. But I can't complain. I started at Udell Trailhead on M55 and went south to the Big M Shanty Boy trail. I hadn't hiked any of this. It's primarily a mountain bike trail, but walking it is allowed. I took the Shanty Boy trail west. Passed this glacial erratic rock. Fairly big for here. We have more sand than rocks.
I did see a smaller rock that was quite pretty with all the mineral stripes. What the photo can't show you is that the white stripes have quartz or something in them, so they glitter in the sunlight.
Once again, the Avenza app makes it really easy to bushwhack. While I was on the Shanty Boy Trail, I could look left and estimate that the NCT was on top of that ridge.
Can't tell where it is? I've marked the top with a yellow line.
The distance between the two trails where I chose to cut over was minimal. However, the elevation change was impressive. I cut across the slope, and that way it wasn't bad. Now I'm up on the ridge- the NCT was right at the top, and the Shanty Boy Trail is down in the valley. You can't even see the bottom in this picture.
I am really enjoying seeing "my" trail in this time of year. I don't think I've been on much of it with the leaves off before. I had not really appreciated that the NCT follows this ridge through Udell Hills for about a mile and a half. Really "on top of the world."
So I did 6 miles in the pack, and then dumped it and did 3 more. NCT miles this year is at 126.
In other news: Not much- a little volunteer stuff and then I went hiking.
North Country Trail, Manistee County, MI. Udell TH south to Big M Shanty Boy Trail west about 2 miles, bushwhacked to NCT, continued west to mile 810.1, back to Udell, then north to Huff Rd and back. 9 miles total
 | See Udell Fire Tower |
1 comment:
That smaller rock is interesting. It sort of looks like it has a wood grain to it.
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