Troutarama and the NCT

Our Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA has a new position called Communications Coordinator, and one of the duties of that person is to work on outreach opportunities to tell more people about the trail. Taylor's first big effort was to get us in the Troutarama Parade in Baldwin. She is in the yellow shirt.

The parade was a decent length and a lot of people turn out for this. (It's a four-day event with all kinds of activities)

We handed out candy and flyers about the trail.

I've shown you this once before, but this is the statue commemorating that Baldwin was where brown trout were first released in the United States in 1884.

The statue now has a very nice garden with a couple of benches around it.

And coneflowers

The parade got me some walking, and then I had to go right past the trail on the way home, so I stopped and got in some more miles.

It was a little cooler and a little less smokey. There is a lovely breeze that made life tolerable. Still, not much else happened. I didn't sleep well last night and had trouble getting up this morning.

Miles walked in 2026: 219.1
Hike 100 Challenge: 80
Onekama Challenge: 31

In Baldwin for the parade and to get to my car- 2 miles. NCT, Lake County, MI, Timber Creek to Wingleton Rd and back 4 miles.

See The Rest of Yesterday

An Orangely Success

As everyone in the northeast knows, the air quality is terrible due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. It is unpleasant, but it affects my ability to function much less than the heat and humidity.

Next topic. Some of you know I signed up for the Onekama 30-day Challenge. This is just to help motivate me to get into shape for the longish hike I hope to do this fall. At 78, I can't just "wing it" the way I used to be able to do without conditioning.

So I set my goal for the challenge to hike 100 miles in those 30 days. That's 25 miles a week. Today is the end of the first week, and I needed 6+ miles. I could NOT make myself to get up and hike early- besides, it was already hot in the morning. Then it got hotter. Then the air quality went bonkers due to the fires in Canada and Minnesota. But the smoke blotted out the sun enough that the temperature declined to 82°. Still not great, but better than it was all day.

So... I headed out at 6 pm to get my 6 miles.

What the heck? Someone's been using spray paint in the woods?

Then I saw spots like this all over. Then I realized there were also stripes on the trees. It's the sunlight from the very orange sun through the haze!

Just for fun, I saw little orange mushrooms.

And other little orange mushrooms.

And the evening sun trying to shine through the haze.

A great horned owl flew across the trail in front of me, but no picture.

How'd I do? Got my first 25 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 213.1
Miles walked for the Onekama Challenge: 25
Miles walked for Hike 100 Challenge: 76

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, from Timber Creek to 8th St and back and a little more.

In other news: I stayed inside and edited a lot.

See The Small of Orange

Spirit of the Woods Hike- February 2026

Today was the annual hike and attached chili feed. We had a big group despite the cold and snow. We think 25 people hiked. A couple of them did not get in the picture.

The snow was unbroken, but our two stalwart Dans led the way and most of the group did a total of about 3 miles.

I turned around earlier. My knee is still sore, and I want it to get better not angrier. The return woods was quiet and the trail was nicely packed after all those people had been on it!

The rest of the event is held at the warming shelter at Big M Ski Area. Loren does most of the work for this. There's a nice wood stove, and she heated the chili. She's dishing some out in this picture.

People also brought other foods to complement the chili. There was lots of food! This is just one secton. (It's hard to take good pictures in the building because the light is from those huge windows and it's hard to get a shot without a big blob of light behind it)

We think the total head count was about 35. It's a great time every year, and having a slightly warmer indoor place to visit makes it really nice. Several new people came.

Miles walked in 2026: 30.5
Hike 100 Challenge: 10.2 miles

North Country Trail, Manistee Co, MI. Madison Rd north about 1.2 miles out and back

See SPW- January 2026

A Heat Wave

It was 22° today which felt really warm. Cathy and I went for a hike. It turned out to be a fairly tough hike.

I knew this section of the trail had been walked, and we chose to go in boots. Should have taken the snowshoes.

We started at 5-Mile Road and went south. Not only was it in the 20s, but the sun was shining!

We went just a little past the Big Sable River.

The Vince Smith Bridge was sporting a big load of snow. Kind of interesting that it hadn't been knocked off.

There were interesting little snow worms crawling along the rails.

I have a bit of a sore knee, and this was tough going, but we were glad to be outside. And I really overdressed. Guess I'd gotten used to the cold, so I was really warm!

The trail is broken for some distance beyond the bridge, but snowshoes are recommended. Even compacted it's still deep. We kept breaking through. (If you park on Mac Road, please park on the west side. The property owner on the east side is not friendly and will have your car towed.)

I didn't accomplish a whole lot else today. Well, a couple of little things that are parts of other things. But they feel like "nothing."

Miles walked in 2026: 27.5
Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 9 miles.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Mac Road to south of the Vince Smith bridge and back 2.3 miles

See To McCarthy Lake

2.5 Sloppy Ones

Since yesterday was so nasty, I really wanted to get out and do some hiking today. Cathy and I went to Timber Creek. The snow was better for snowmen than for hiking.

It was very sloppy. I wore the foam snowshoes, and Cathy just wore cleats. Neither was ideal. Ideal was not an option. The woods was stark with wet trees and partially melted snow.

The most interesting thing we saw was a hole where some critter poked its nose. We didn't see tracks, though.

We walked out and back. So if you want to hike north from Timber Creek things are pretty well compacted for 1.25 miles right now!

I edited and did miscellaneous stuff.

Miles hiked in 2026: 9.2
Hike 100 2026: 6.7

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Timber Creek north for 1.25 miles out and back.

See SPW January Hike

Spirit of the Woods Hike- January 2026

Twenty-seven people showed up despite a 19 degree temperature to hike. The five dogs didn't care what the temperature was!

Each year, each chapter can present an "Honor Award" to the outstanding volunteer of the year. This year, that was Jack Barnhill, a relatively new member. He's showed up for almost every work opportunity and eagerly helped. Jack's on the right, and chapter president Dan Driesenga on the left.

The trail had been walked by others, so that made things much easier. Most everyone went out past Leaf Lake, just over 2 miles outward bound.

And look who came! My hiking buddy Bill drove over just to participate with us. Did I remember to take a picture of us together? No. But here is proof of the adventure.

About half of us went out to eat afterwards. I did get a picture of one of his Christmas presents. This is a knife made from a piece of metal from the Mackinac Bridge. When they replace parts they sell the pieces. Lots of people have sections of the grating (some of the roadway is grating to help with expansion). I have never seen a knife like this before. Notice the interesting pattern on the blade.

So I have the first 4.2 miles toward my Hike 100 Challenge for the 11th year!

I've decided to count treadmill miles (yesterday), but I'll keep them separate.

Total Miles hiked in 2026: 6.7
NCT miles hiked in 2026: 4.2
Treadmill miles 2026: 2.5

North Country Trail, Newaygo County, Nichols Lake north out and back 4.2 miles

See SPW December 2025

Hiking Swag for 2025

It's possible I'd find something else to do this year to get more patches, but probably not. There are hiking challenges you can do that you pay for, and part of the porceeds go to various charities. It's a great concept, but I can't pay $25 for a patch.

There are two categories of swag I got this year: stuff I earned and stuff I bought.

These are earned. The certificate, round patch and NCT sticker are for the Hike 100 Challenge. I finished that on June 12, in the Adirondacks. My NCT mileage for this year is now at 221.3. Not bad. Not great.

The other patch and sticker are for a challenge created by the Cadillac Area Land Trust. 30 miles for 30 years. You can still get this until the end of the year. Go to their website.

On the right is a sheet of paper with a wooden nickel and a ribbon. This was a scavenger hunt quest you could to at the Hike Fest. There were 12 questions you had to answer. The coordinates were given and the answers were mostly on interpretive signs. It was a fun game!

I also bought some cool stuff at Lake Sakakwea State Park. The patch has the name of the park on a knapsack. The hiking stick medalion has the NCT terminus sign.

The other two are stickers they had for sale.

I felt better today. Not hugely energetic, but I managed to keep moving and worked on putting things away and doing various small jobs that needed to be finished up. Still chicken and corn to eat. Yum! Diane and now Marie are both home safely. I guess that means this adventure is really finished.

And, yikes! August is nearly finished too. Where has the summer gone?

See Hiking Swag for 2024

Day One- We Did It!

Officially, we only hiked 7.5 miles today, but it was closer to 9. There was some backtracking and side trails, and then we had to walk back to our campsite.

Bill signs us into a trail register.

We made it to one of my favorite places for lunch- Bear Lake. The hill has no name, but I really like this spot.

There is a boat there- no oars, but it made good seating for lunch.

And guess what! I got my 2025 Hike 100 there.

We even saw a pair of loons

I think this birch "hand" was reaching down to grab the mossy knoll.

OK, this is hard work to collect all this data. Tomorrow we have 10 miles to do. Maybe we got some of the kinks out.

Gull Lake parking to McKeever. I'll update these mileages etc later. Barely enough service to blog.

Miles hiked in 2025: 220.3
NCT miles hiked in 2025: 102.1

See Bear Lake Trail Adventure

Loving the Green!

This was my last chance for a real conditioning hike before the Adirondacks. (I'm leading a hike on Saturday, but it's shorter).

I'll start by saying that I'm just loving the GREEN woods. Yeah, it's nice to see the topography when the leaves are down, but the greeen just makes my heart sing. Wild thing.

Four of us hiked all ten miles (Shannon, Colette, Kim, and me). Gary and Marge hiked in from the end point and back for a shorter walk. Then they took us back to our cars.

I chose this hike location because it has a fair amount of elevation change for this area. It starts at 730 feet and climbs to 1130, goes back down to 1030 up to 1100 again, and ends at 900 feet.

We started at Wingleton Rd on the NCT and hiked north to McCarthy Lake.

Just north of Wingleton is where the microburst occurred in 2018. I was totally surprised to discover that the area has been replanted. Every white tube has a baby tree in it. The tubes protect them from being eaten until they are bigger.

And what was planted? Maybe a variety of things. This has been done extremely recently. Most were still bare twigs, but this one identified itself as a red oak.

We hiked to McCarthy Lake, one of my favorite spots on the local NCT. Kim had never been there before, so she got to ooh and ahh. Actually, we all did. It was a wonderful location for an ending.

It got a little hot in the afternoon, but basically the weather was lovely. I'm not exhausted, but I confess to not doing much else today.

Miles hiked in 2025: 206.8. Hike 100 Challenge: 93 miles (and the hike Saturday has only a little NCT, so I'll get to finish my 100 in the Adirondacks!)

North Country Trail, Lake Co, MI, Wingleton Rd to McCarthy Lake. 10 miles

See 8, with Day Pack