A New Direction - Day 423

Today, two friends and I hiked another section that will count for my big NCT hike. Oddly enough, with all the times I've hiked this piece, I don't think I've ever done it in this direction, except for a short out and back once on part of it.

It began north of the current Highbridge, connecting with where we hiked on Saturday. About a mile of trail there is "new." It's actually eight years old, but that seems new to me. That hike went through the area where we got to help with an archaeological survey (see link below).

Anyway, as we came down to the road bridge (which is not high at all... the name refers to a former railroad bridge across the Manistee. It's long gone, but I'm sure I've blogged about the foundations, but I can't find the post.) I was showing the friends who were with me where the trail used to go. You can just see the line of the old treadway down in the bright green strip.

The trail used to go about where I've added a yellow line. It was really neat. The trail just gently climbed up the bluff. But the bluff is quite steep in some places, and right near where you could see the bridge footings, it began to slump. First we built a boardwalk to go around that. Then it also began to slide downhill. Eventually, the Forest Service considered a stairway to get to the top of the bluff, but it turned out there was some disputed property there, so we ended up having to completely move the trail. Now it stays beside the road and doesn't go into the woods until topping the bluff.

Here's yet another crossing of the Manistee River on the road at Highbridge. This is actually the last (in this direction) place the trail crosses it, but we aren't quite ready to say goodbye.

For a few more miles of what we hiked today, you can still see the Manistee River. This is a backwater called Blacksmith Bayou where there is a Forest Service campground.

Altogether, the NCT roughly follows the Manistee River for about 60 trail miles.

My companions today were Colette and Marge.

We passed a private campsite that the property owner keeps for NCT hikers. He has had a sign out just waiting for me for months! It says, "Congratulations on being almost home for your (flip-flop) 2nd hike. Welcome to Pine Knolls."

It was a lovely day, and there were quite a few flowers. So I'll save those for tomorrow when I have to stay home and get some work done!

Miles today: 6.6. Total miles so far: 4674.9.

More Peeps, New Peeps See Archaelogist for a Day