Vince Smith Connections

Today was SO amazing!

Over and over, you've seen pictures of the Vince Smith Memorial Bridge that carries the North Country Trail over the Big Sable River. You might remember that the Forest Service and our trail chapter took out the old wooden bridge and replaced it with a fiberglass reinforced polymer bridge. That was in 2016. (The Forest Service wanted a bridge that didn't have footers in the river.)

The question of the day is, "Who was Vince Smith?" The answer, as we knew it, is that he was a key volunteer with the North Country Trail Association in the early days, before we were a chapter. We knew he spent a lot of time working on trail in the Manistee National Forest, and that the bridge had been named in his memory after he died of cancer. There was an article about him in the North Country Trail Association Newsletter (it wasn't even called the North Star yet) after he died, with a very useless, grainy picture.

The chapter had one tenuous connection. One of our charter members, Gordie Wilkes, had worked with Vince on the trail before he passed away.

Today, I got to meet his daughter Maureen (Mo), and nephew Craig, and their spouses. Here are Mo and Toby, Robin and Craig, on the end of the new bridge with the refurbished sign showing as well.

We got Mo and Craig down on the level with the sign.

Mo has sent me some newspaper articles, and this picture of Vince taken from the Ann Arbor News in 1991 is the best we've ever seen.

After visiting the bridge, we all hiked farther. Craig and Robin had their dogs Ila and Tanner with them. Here's Ila cooling off in the river. I guess I didn't get a picture of Tanner.

And we visited the "Blue Hole," a spring on the edge of the river.

Mo, Craig, the dogs and I hiked 6 miles on the trail plus the 0.3 to access the cars. Then we all went for ice cream at the Sweetfern Cafe.

This fills out a very incomplete story for me and our chapter that we've always wanted to know more about. I'll be writing an article for our chapter newsletter. And we had a great time!

Here is the original bridge the summer after our chapter formed. This is in 1999.

And here it is on one of our chapter hikes in 2015, the last year of the wooden bridge.

Miles walked in 2026: 263.8
Hike 100 Challenge: 98.7 (really close!)
Onekama Challenge: 75.6 (met the weekly goal)

North Country Trail, Lake Co., Michigan. South from 5-Mile Road, 3 miles out and back plus walk to car.

See Trail Adopter Training Day

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

Not Quite Spring, but No Snow

  Today, Loren and I did the same hike we did at the beginning of January (link below). However, it was much easier today with almost no snow on the trail. We started at 5 Mile Road and went south to cross the Big Sable River on the Vince Smith bridge. The boardwalk is the approach to the bridge through the floodplain wetland. You can see the bridge in the distance.

There is always a beautiful picture to be had of the Big Sable River.

The river and bridge are the best features of this stretch. From the river you climb about 100 feet to the top of a wide ridge and then drop back down again to 3 Mile Road, and just past that McCarthy Creek and Lake (beyond where we walked). So this section should also be remembered as one with a big climb and downhill no matter which direction you hike. Here is Loren starting down the slope in a valley toward 3 Mile Road.

I was trying hard to find things that weren't just brown and gray. You may recall that March is my least favorite month of the year. Well, I found a puddle of bright yellow-green moss on a stump.

The symmetric pattern of the bark flowing around the roots of this tree is intriguing.

Moss and lichen in a repeating pattern. I found this oddly appealing.

And a true hint of spring- also good with comparison to a year ago- Trailing Arbutus. Tiny tight buds. I compared them with the picture from a year ago, and they are just a little bit tighter than those. However, this is also 15 miles farther north, and spring "travels" about 15 miles a day. And we are still 4 days earlier than my pictures from last year. So, perhaps, everything is about on a par with 2020.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, 5 Mile Rd to 3 Mile Rd and back 7.5 miles total

North Country Trail miles in 2021 = 109

In other news: When I got home, I settled in and did some more editing, and also started reading a good book.

See 5 Mile to 3 Mile

5 Mile to 3 Mile = 7.5 Miles

  Loren and I did an out-and-back hike today on the North Country Trail starting on 5-Mile Road. We were feeling strong, so we kept going. We went to 3-Mile Road and turned around. All together, this is 7 miles on trail and an extra 0.5 mile to get to the car. All the trail miles were in wet snow. Well, I'm a little stiff, but not too bad! It was a challenge.

Here's Loren on the new (at least 4 years old now) Vince Smith bridge.

The bridge takes the trail across the Big Sable River. This is the river that is dammed to form Hamlin Lake and runs through Ludington State Park.

It always seems to be picturesque in any season.

This is the former Michigan East and West Railway. Link below for a summer picture. The trail just crosses it and moves on.

I thought this was interesting. A pileated woodpecker has been doing its thing on this dead tree, and this year from the looks of the hanging shreds of bark. And yet, those polypore mushrooms sprang up around the holes. I don't think I've seen fugus move in around the woodpecker holes so quickly before. They usually just dry out and appear as a naked line of ovals on the tree.

The proof we were there.

And just a little still life in oak leaves on snow. We didn't see a pileated woodpecker, but we did see a red-headed one and a hairy. Snow fleas, lots of deer, and rabbit, and squirrel tracks.

Hike 100 Challenge for 2021 is at 18.5 miles.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. 5 Mile Road at Mac Road, south to 3 Mile Road and back. 7.5 miles

In other news: I may have one of the other issues with companies fixed. Two down, two to go. (It started out as a total of three, but one of them really had two parts.) You know how much time those kinds of things take. I did not do a couple other things I should have. What else is new?

But, I did do this after I blogged last night. Cathy had loaned me a jigsaw puzzle that was in a baggie with no picture. Now, you need to know that I think this is cool! No clues to help. We thought it was another Coke memoribilia puzzle because of some of the pieces, but we weren't positive. So, I dumped it on the table, and thought I'd just do a little bit.

Ha! It was pretty easy, and it was fun. I kept thinking I was tired and should go to bed, but I could. not. stop. Voila!

I certainly seem to be on a puzzle jag.

See Michigan East and West Railway Big Sable River in summer and the old bridge

National Trails Day 2018

 
Today (first Saturday in June) was National Trails Day, and the Spirit of the Woods group took a hike on the North Country Trail. We headed south from 5-Mile Road and crossed the Vince Smith Bridge.



The floodplain was filled with cinnamon fern.



We were 13 hikers, and quickly spread out into various groups based on hiking speed.



The fastest people walked about 8 miles. I was the sweep at the rear, and our group did about 5.5 miles. Since it was an out-and-back hike this worked fine.



We wanted everyone to finish at about the same time, because a cabin belonging to members of our group is close by, and we met there for a finger-food picnic lunch. Lots of yummies!



There were a number of interesting finds for the day. Leafroller moths have been at work on both the oak trees and the witch hazel. I had to look these up, and it seems to be different moths for each species of tree. The Dichomeris ligulella is the one that rolls witch hazel, seen here. They don't do much damage overall. We did also see oak leaves that had been rolled, and those moths can be quite destructive.



Here's a big patch of scrambled egg slime mold. It's the most common one there is. I love slime molds, but finding any of the unusual ones is rare.



Caught a halfway decent picture of one of our bigger woodpeckers, the yellow bellied sapsucker.



The weather was perfect. The bugs weren't bad. Can't beat a day like today! Hike 100 Challenge for this year is up to 20 miles. Maybe it's time to get a little more serious!

North Country Trail south from 5-Mile Road about 2.5 miles. Lake County, MI

	See 78.3 and Walking
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Hike 100 Challenge- 78.3 and Walking

 
The weather is supposed to be great for the next couple of days. I thought about making another backpacking trip, but decided that the 14 hours of darkness in the tent is not all that much fun alone. And I didn't really have time to get three days of food prepared.

But day hikes work great- they just require more driving. And hiking both directions unless someone spots you. But for the Hike 100 Challenge the miles on the North Country Trail do not have to be different, so both directions count.

Today I did a section that I may have seen less often than some others. Or maybe not. I've hiked all of our chapter's miles multiple times.

These are just some of the good pictures from today. My favorite thing about this section of trail is the small lake known as McCarthy Lake. It's a beautiful gem tucked into the middle of nowhere. It can be reached by car, and those who know how to do that (unmarked two-track roads) fill the campsites each summer weekend. This afternoon there was only one man there, fishing.



Lots of people have been posting fungus and mushroom photos. With good reason- this has been a great year for them. Most are now past prime or have disappeared completely. But this polypore will march along dead logs all winter. I liked the leaf decoration.



I almost didn't see this little black fungus hiding in the leaves. I don't think it's a Chanterelle. It might be a tooth jelly. I've not seen them in black, but that doesn't mean anything. It could have been a different color when it was new. The shape is right, so I'll stick with my guess. I've seen these in some pretty amazing colors.



This was kind of fun. A Hawthorne (Thornapple) had dropped its load of tiny apples right in the trail. I sampled one. Sure enough they are really sour (as I had been told). One could eat them if very hungry. Historically, they were used for pies and jellies, and even medicine. If combined with some sweeter fruit they are fine.



Witch Hazel's funky fall blossoms were looking good.



And, as I entered the flood plain for the Big Sable River, the fall colors presented nice contrasts. The yellow tamarack against the pines with a maple in the foreground.



And this was my goal- my turnaround point- the NEW Vince Smith Bridge over the Big Sable River. This was a recent huge work project of the Forest Service and the local NCTA chapter. Unfortunately, I was working or sleeping every day they had volunteers helping, so I didn't do a darned thing. But today I got to see it. The Forest Service wanted a clear span bridge, with no footings in the river, so that's why it's so big.



The miles for the day were a couple more than I had desired, but I finished them with no problem. Total for the day, 12.8 miles. Total for the Hike 100 Challenge, 78.3 miles.

Yes, I'm going out again tomorrow.

North Country Trail Centerline Road to Big Sable River and back

	See similar Spirit of the Woods Hike
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