Pigeon River Country

The primary reason I am over in the middle of the state is for the Michigan Outdoor Writer's Association Conference. For my morning activity, I chose to go to the Pigeon River Country Discovery Center. Pigeon River Country State Forest is the largest single piece of state-owned land in Michigan. It is the home of Michigan's elk herd, established in 1918. There are now about 1000 animals. The Woodland Elk went extinct, so all re-established herds in the east are Rocky Mountain Elk. Because of the elk the management of the forest is more strict, and recreational uses are primarily quiet ones.

Near the headquarters, they have turned a former CCC building into the Discovery Center which is all about interpretation.

It is pretty large for a residence because it initially housed CCC crews.

This room was used as an office after the CCC left, and the building was then used as both the home and the office of the manager. Here is it set up as it might have looked in the 1930s.

Right in back of the building, and defining the entire forest is the Pigeon River. It was so named because Passenger Pigeons nested along the banks. It flows north and eventually into Lake Huron.

After we toured the building (lots of interpretive stuff, but I'm trying to keep this post a reasonable length) the guide took us to see one of the nearby small sinkhole lakes. Northeastern lower Michigan has a limestone layer. These lakes form when the middle of the limestone erodes away to form a cave, and then the top of the cave collapses. They are very round, deep and are characterized by this aqua green color. This is Section Four Sinkhole where we were able to walk right down to the shore.

Then we went to a place called Inspiration Point which has the best vista in the forest. The reason I chose the link at the end of this post today is becase it's my one point of orientation in this area. When I hiked the Midland to Mackinac Trail in 2018, it goes through this forest. If you can just see a small triangle of blue to the right of center in this photo, that is the Cornwall Flooding (a small lake). The M2M Trail follows the far bank along the dam.

At the link below you can see the lake and Sue and me eating lunch at that spot.

After that, there was some free time before the evening activities started. I chose to do some hiking (big surprise, eh?). I tried the Watchtower Man's Trail. I was warned that it hadn't yet been cleared. We are at the heart of the damaged area from the ice storm earlier this year. I thought I'd see how bad it was. I got 0.5 miles on that trail before I turned around. I wasn't going to have time to do the whole loop

When I got back to my car, I went on a piece of the Shingle Mill Pathway that had been cleared. Much nicer hiking, although the tough stuff was good practice for June. It was also part of the High Country Pathway. I've now down infinitesimal pieces of both those trails.

The evening had time for networking, a nice dinner, and two speakers. The first was about the Family Forest Carbon Program that is working to allow smaller pieces of property to be used for Carbon Banking.

The keynote speaker was Scott Whitcomb who is the Public Lands Director with the Michigan DNR. He spoke anout several topics having to do with Michigan Public Lands. Tons of good information.

Total hiking about 3.5 miles. Miles hiked in 2025: 171.6

See Midland to Mackinac- Day 19

Day Twenty-Five - Midland to Mackinac

 
The joke's on me, once again, but it's OK. After giving Nancy the whole spiel about how terrible the roads were to get to the spot we needed to hike to today, here's what happened. Because Nancy was coming from the west, I went over that way to meet her and we drove in from that side. Sue and I had accessed the spot from the east, because we were east of there. It was the way Google sent us, and I had no local knowledge that told me otherwise.

Ha! From the west, the entire way except for the last two miles was paved.

With a little digital magic, I bring you Nancy and me, at the junction where the M2M joins the High Country Pathway for a couple of miles.



After rain and snow while I was loading the car, the day proved to be wonderful. A bit chilly, but we were dressed for it, so that wasn't a problem at all.

Don't know if they knew I was coming but someone had just touched up the blazes along the High Country Pathway. Like- this week. See the paint on the ferns?



Except for about 3 miles we were on back roads for the rest of the walk. Still, this can be a beautiful experience. I really like the shape of the white pine to the left of the road.

Purple leaves! They really were this color. No digital magic.



And although it remained overcast, the sky was bright enough to set the leaves glowing.



The drive home was amazing. The trees are about at peak color north of Kalkaska. I had to stop and take some pictures along the way, but this is my favorite.



Nancy and I did about 7 miles. Perfect length for her, she said. And it was fun to have company for the day. No losing the trail, which did not break my heart.

I thought the remaining miles were all on roads of some description, so I attempted to drive through and check it out. They are indeed on roads, and the puddles that stopped Sue and me are drained or dried. Sort of "killed" me to come home with only 9 miles to go, but as of now, I'm planning to go back this next week and finish.

Home again. Had my first ice cream in nearly a month. Got one piece of mail in that whole time which is worth reading. Living room is trashed. I need to be out the door with my author brain on at 7 am tomorrow. Wow! That is a fast switch from hiker brain.

Miles hiked today: 7- which is the same number that count. I like that equation! Total trail miles hiked: 206.5. This means that my guesstimate for my hiking days has been pretty darn accurate. The total will come in at 215.5, and the official guesstimate (no one has actually GPSed this trail) is 210. Good stuff.

	See Day Twenty-Four
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