North Country Trail - Red Bridge to Hodenpyl Dam Hike & Paddle Planning

Chrissy and I were discussing the fact that I had bought a canoe earlier in the summer and we'd never taken a trip in it.  Our schedules were getting tight with the kids being back in school, so we were going to have to make it a quick trip.  We both really enjoyed the North Country Trail side of the Manistee River Trail loop, so we decided that we were going to hide the canoe near the Hodenpyl Dam and hike to it from Red Bridge.

On our hike in the spring we found a great camping spot on a ridge about 3 miles north of Red Bridge.  It's on a point to the east of the trail overlooking the valley, we'd really like to stay there on our first night.

Itinerary:
Friday: Drive north to Hodenpyl Dam and hide the canoe near the dam.  Drive back to Red Bridge, park the truck and hike north on the NCT to the campsite on the ridge.

Saturday: Hike to Hodenpyl Dam.  Load our gear into the canoe and float downriver a few miles.  Set up camp along the river somewhere and stay the night.

Sunday:  Float to Red Bridge.  Load up the truck, head to Big Al's for a late lunch and head home.

 Hike to Day 1

North Manitou Island - Afterthoughts

The long first day was a little rough on the group. I was disappointed that we didn't find what we were looking for at the Pot Holes. I did more research after returning home and it looks like we were just a few hundred yards west of where we should have been. They are still on my list to see on a future trip.

Mac collected a couple deer ticks, but the Permethrin treatment on our clothes seemed to have helped keep them away from Chrissy and I.

A huge thanks to the Lenawee County Undersheriff for rescuing us from our missing key. I always make sure to double check to make sure I know where it is when I lock the truck now. I spoke with the fine folks at Manitou Island Transit, and they said they would be more than happy to hold onto your key at their ticket counter until you returned from the island. Double check with them when you check in prior to leaving.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I managed to get into some poison ivy. I hate poison ivy almost as much as I hate mosquitoes, and slightly more than I hate ticks. I won't snicker the next time I see somebody walking down the trail with long pants, gaiters, and hiking boots on next time, I suppose it's what I get for enjoying shorts and sandals.

When we go back I think we will base camp for a couple days, do some exploring, then move to a new site. The island is small enough to be able to access quite a bit from well placed base camp.

It seems that Big Al's is starting to become an after trip tradition. I wouldn't say they are the best pizza shop in the State, Fricano's in Grand Haven, MI has a firm grip on that record, but their subs are delicious especially after a few days of trail food.

Stay tuned for more adventures!

North Manitou Island - Day 4

I had promised Chrissy that we would sit and watch a sunset before we left the Island, but our position on the eastern shore prevented us from seeing a sunset. We woke up early on our last day of the island and headed to a nice vantage point to see the sunrise over the Manitou Passage. The sunrise was beautiful!

After sunrise we returned to camp for breakfast and began breaking down camp. Somewhere between the time I placed the tent in my pack and grabbing the last bit of personal items I realized that I would need my key to my car, so I might as well place it in my pocket now. My key... where was my key? Great question, if you happen to know, please let me know. I turned my phone on to try to start working out a way to get a key, but it wasn't meant to be. Oh well, the key was lost, lets enjoy our last couple hours on the Island.

The short mile hike back to the Village was uneventful. Once there we dropped our packs on the dock and watched the boat come in from the mainland. We watched the happy smiling faces of the passengers of the boat as they stepped off the boat and onto the dock. The truth is that it was a great place to watch people. They were all full of energy and excited to be there, and we were all tired and ready for a shower. We were farther back in line boarding the boat so we sat on the main deck in the open aft section.

We watched the dock fade into the haze and sat down to enjoy the ride. It was much quieter on the way back to the mainland, no excited conversation about religion, politics, or trashy novels.

When we arrived back in Leeland I checked to see if there was a lost and found that may have had my key. Nope. We walked to the car hoping we had left the key somewhere there. Nope. I called a car dealership and my insurance company, between the two of them they figured out how to make me a key, I just had to get to Traverse City to pick it up. I checked at the dock to see if any of the workers there would be willing to give us a ride to the dealership. The only offer we got was from a kid who wanted $50 plus gas! Mac got on his phone and started making calls, a few minutes later he smiled and said that the Sheriff's Department was going to send a car to take me to the dealership and back. Wow... I owe some return favors for this one!

We had lunch at the Village Cheese Shanty and it was just as good as everyone had told us it would be. As we finished lunch a Sheriff's Department car pulled up and a very friendly Deputy gave me a ride. He told me we may get diverted if he got a call, but we'd get there eventually. I didn't care, his car was air conditioned and we were on our way to get the key. We picked up the key, returned to Leeland, packed the car, and headed south.

As has become tradition, we stopped at Big Al's Pizza for a sub and huge fountain pop.

 The rest of the trip home was a blur, most of the passengers were sleeping by the time we reached Ludington and slept most of the way home. Once home we unpacked our gear, took showers, and laid on the bed enjoying the air conditioning.

To date, we haven't found the key.

Approximate miles traveled on foot: 1

Hike to Afterthoughts

More Pictures From The Trip 

North Manitou Island - Day 3

Day 3, our final full day on North Manitou Island. After breakfast, morning routines, and of course a swim, we sat around camp discussing a plan for the day. Mac suggested we take the trail north to the Village to fill our water bottles and explore a little. We all quickly agreed and proceeded to get all of our water bottles together and head north.

The trail isn't as well maintained as the main trail, but it was still a decent trail. The trail exits the woods at the south end of cottage row. We passed by several cottages in various states of disrepair. A couple were in decent shape, however most had started to show the signs of time.

After filling our water bottles, the ladies enjoyed using real toilets before we turned to head back. Mac had stopped to speak with the ranger, who seemed like a decent guy. He had been working on the Island for several years and really liked being there.

We resumed our journey back to camp, stopping along the way to take pictures of the cottages, and peek in a few windows of the older ones.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Once back at camp it was Mac and Renee's turn to take naps so Chrissy and I decided to explore more of the east side of the island. We followed the trail south until it met up with the main trail.

The trail was nice, skirting a decent sized hill and exiting the forest into a completely different landscape. You leave the hard wood forests and end up on rolling sandy hills. The trail splits and heads east and south. We followed the easterly trail first and were treated to a great view of Lake Michigan and the mainland.

The sandy beach and blue water were beautiful! We backtracked and continued south, eventually arriving at the cemetery. There were several grave markers from decades ago and one from only a few years ago. I wondered what their attachment to the island was.

We continued down the trail, which looked more like an overgrown two track road. We unexpectedly found our self at Bourniques. The old homestead looked like it had been neglected for several years, but some newer looking timbers indicated that somebody had tried to stabilize the home to prevent further damage.

The outhouse still stood behind the house, however biting red ants protected it from too much inspection. The barn had long since fallen and was laying in ruins. We followed the trail behind the house hoping it would lead back to the main trail, but after several minutes we decided to head back the way we had come. Since we had only planned on taking a short walk, we didn't bring any extra provisions or water. The day was hot, the water quickly disappeared, and a swim was starting to sound good.

We followed the trail back to camp and made lunch before going swimming. We leisurely passed time until sunset where we went back down to the beach to enjoy one last night on the island.

On the mainland we could see three separate fireworks shows in honor of Independence Day. After the food was consumed and the dishes were done we headed to our tents for one last night under the stars. Homeward bound tomorrow.

Estimated distance traveled: 6 miles

Hike to Day 4

More Pictures From The Trip

North Manitou Island - Day 2

I don't wear a watch when I'm out in the woods, so I'm not sure when we all woke up, but the sun was already shining brightly and it was starting to get hot. We had covered more distance yesterday than I had planned, so we had an option to cross the island and camp on the east side a day early.

After breakfast we headed out to find The Old Grade trail which runs north and south on the west side of the island. Once located we turned southward toward Swenson's Barn. We easily found the trail to the Barn, took off our packs, and followed the short trail to the barn. The trail breaks out of the woods into a clearing with a great view of the barn.

As we approached the barn we found several short berry bushes near the barn, but their fruit wasn't ripe yet. We took several pictures and explored the area before heading back to our packs.

Once we had our packs back on we continued south on the trail until it meets the Centerline Trail, which bisects the island, where we turned left at the sign post and headed to the east side of the island. I wanted to see if we could find Tamarack Lake, so we kept an eye out for trails leading to the lake but were unsuccessful in finding any, as far as I know the trails to the lake aren't marked. The NPS officer at registration said that it was hard to find, and most likely had an extremely low water level. Another item on my list of things to find next time.

Once on the east side of the island there is a trail that continues past the intersection with the main trail and leads to a lesser used trail that runs parrallel to Lake Michigan. Just north of this intersection, and east of the secondary trail we found an ideal spot for a campsite. We double checked to make sure it was legal and then set up camp. This site was so nice that we kept it as our campsite for the remaining two nights of our trip.

Once camp was set up we went down to the beach for a swim. The cold water was refreshing, however the bottom was rocky as opposed to the sandy bottom we had experieced on the west side. Once we cooled off we filtered water and returned to camp for lunch. Intending to read for a while, Chrissy and I went to our tent and laid down only to fall asleep for a well earned nap.

After waking we went down to the beach to enjoy the view. We met up with Mac and Renee for dinner and conversation. I had stowed a flask of Leelanau Celler's Great Lakes Red in my pack in honor of Renee's birthday. We poured the wine in our cups, toasted Renee on her repeated 20th birthday and watched the sky change as the sunset.

After sunset we made our way to our tents and quickly fell asleep. Sadly, only one day left on the Island.

Estimated mileage for today: 4 1/2 miles.

Hike to Day 3

More Pictures From The Trip

North Manitou Island - Day 1

The plan was for Mac and Renee to arrive at my house at 4:00 am, put their gear in my car and head north to Leland, MI to board the ferry and head to the Island to start our adventure. My phone rang at 4:01 and I rolled over to answer it. "Where are you?" Mac asked, "I'm at home, where are you?" was my not quite awake response. "I'm sitting in your driveway..." damn it, I forgot to turn on my alarm clock. "Give us 20 minutes and we'll be ready". Well this is a great start to the day. Chrissy and I got up, showered, and were ready in less than 20 minutes. We weighed our packs in the driveway, stuffed them in my car, turned on the GPS, and pointed the car north. The much anticipated trip was here, and the wheels were rolling.

We made it just north of Manistee before we got hungry. Hubbell's Restaurant and Bait Shop was the next local restaurant we came to so we stopped. It looks like an old house converted into a restaurant. The sign made us all laugh, but the food was good, and the service was good.

After breakfast we resumed our trek north. Once in Leland we ran into a little traffic trying to off load our gear near the boat dock. They were doing construction on the parking lot across from the dock and the less than helpful construction workers were clogging traffic. I jumped out to get our tickets and Chrissy moved the car to unload our gear. Once I had the tickets in hand I jumped in the passenger seat and Chrissy drove to the parking area. This would be the last time any of us remember seeing the car key, but more on that later.

We took the shuttle back to the dock and met up with Mac and Renee. A last minute group photo before boarding the boat and we were all set to go. We found seats on the upper deck of the boat for the ride over. We could see the Island from the dock so there was a stir of excitement in the group as we waited for departure.

The trip to the island was uneventful. Once at the island we quickly unloaded the boat and walked to the ranger station to register. We waited for an eternity for the National Parks Ranger to come out to give his briefing speech about ticks, fires, leaving no trace, and poison ivy. After his speech we filled our water bottles and headed north on the path that takes you near the Village campground. We stayed on the outermost trail and took a snack break near Paul Maleski Place. I was finally able to start relaxing, I was on the island and we had a couple miles under our belts.

Outermost Trail heading North From the Village

We reshouldered our packs and starting hiking again. I was a little disappointed when we crossed the pole bridge, it was just a bridge over a swampy area of the trail. Further research upon returning home indicates that there used to be a pole bridge in this location, now it's a much simpler bridge covering the outlet of the large swampy area to the south of the bridge.

Swamp near  the "Pole Bridge"

A short distance past the bridge we came to the Stormer Camp and all of the beautiful old trucks! This was a shock to me because for some reason I had thought this was on the southern half of the island and we wouldn't get to see it on this trip. We stopped for lunch after taking several pictures of the trucks.

Old Trucks at Stormer Camp

After lunch we continued on the trail. The trail was well maintained, and began to rise along an old rail bed as we headed west. Just after the trail starts to turn south there are two large stones on the south side of the trail, near there is a unmarked trail that heads north to the Pot Holes, which were to be our destination for the day. The trail goes from a single track, unmaintained trail, to a narrow trail similar to a game trail, to bush whacking. We eventually made it to the potholes, but they weren't what I was expecting. There was no place to camp in the area we were in, and the rocky dunes I had had seen in pictures were actually densely wooded steep hills. We continued along the ridgeline until we found a place that we could decend to the lake shore. I wouldn't recommend bushwacking in the area, it was rough and slow going.

The Potholes, but not as I expected them.

We exited the dense forest and were treated to an amazing view from the bluff above the beach. We made quick work of getting down to the shoreline and cooling our feet in the water. However, this presented a new problem. You can't camp within 300 feet of the high water mark of Lake Michigan, so we hiked south to find a good place to set up camp.

 Along the way we saw several deer an coyote tracks, but never saw any animals.

Where the deer and coyote play.

We eventually made it to the lower dunes near the Crescent dock on the west side of the island and set up camp the appropriate distance away from trail and water. After we set up camp, we filtered water, made dinner and went swimming in the chilly water. Chrissy got some great sunset shots before we all climbed in our tents for the evening.

Our post trip estimatation puts today's mileage at around 9 miles, about 4 more than we'd planned on.

Hike to Day 2

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North Manitou Island - Planning/Itinerary

When I was in high school my family used to take annual trips to the Leelanau, MI area to go skiing.  We stayed in a cabin within walking distance of Lake Michigan.  Our view from the beach included both North and South Manitou Islands, places that I thought would be great to explore.  Years later I did some research on the islands and figured a trip to the Island was a little out of my league at the time, so it got placed on the back burner for a while with the rest of my outdoor adventures.

Fast forward 20 years and the topic of backpacking on the island comes up again.  A friend's wife had bought him some backpacking equipment for his birthday. Planning for the trip got serious in the fall of 2011.  We had no idea how it was going to work out, but sitting by the campfire at deer camp commitments were made to make the trip to North Manitou Island happen during the summer of 2012.

I started doing some research again, this time made easier by better resources available on the Internet, and we started making plans.  I studied several maps of the Island, as well as trip reports from other backpackers.  I stumbled across a trip report written by a guy that had spent 14 nights on the island in a hammock.  I  also found a guy whose family used to own a cabin on the island in his youth when the Island was a private hunting preserve.

Excitement was building!

We settled on a 4 day trip at the end of June, we guessed the weather would be good, and everybody involved was able to schedule time away from work. This trip was going to be Mac, his wife Renee, Chrissy, and I.

Tentative Itinerary

Day 1
Leave home early and drive to Leeland to board the ferry to the Island. Arrive on the Island, complete our arrival briefing by the National Parks Service, hike toward the North West corner of the Island near the Pot Holes.  Find a suitable camp site for the night.

Day 2
Explore the west side of the Island, moving camp somewhere south. I wanted to find Tamarak Lake.  Planned points of interest include Swenson's Barn and Fredrickson's Place.

Day 3
Move camp to the east side of the Island.  One of my college professors told me about a hill covered in strawberries near the school house, I thought it would be great to have some fresh strawberries while out on the Island with breakfast. 

Day 4
Hike back to the boat dock for the ferry ride back to the main land.  Have lunch at the Village Shanty Cheese Shop which I heard had amazing sandwiches, and then drive back home.

Our main goal for this trip was to get away from people to some relaxing peace and quiet.  We wanted to explore the north half of the Island and leave the south side for another trip.  What I really wanted was to see the stars without any light pollution from the main land, I've only been able to experience that once on a sailing trip on Lake Superior and couldn't wait to do it again.

Hike to Day 1

Manistee River Trail Loop - Afterthoughts

We learned a lot on this trip, mostly about ourselves.  The hike on day two was about 3 miles longer than we were ready for, 10 miles is our comfortable daily limit.

Our gear performed flawlessly.  The hours spent researching gear, reading reviews, and comparing details, really paid off.  It took us a few miles to get our packs adjusted right, but once we had them dialed in they fit great.

Chrissy's work on the menu really made a good trip great, especially the grapefruits!  She has vowed never to carry 2 pounds worth of fruit on a trip again, but I will see if I can sneak one in when we head to N Manitou Island.

We really liked the North Country trail side of the river.  The trail was well marked, the hills weren't that steep, and it was an easy hike.  We didn't like the Manistee River side as well.  There were many more roots to have to negotiate around, the trail was muddy in spots, and there were a lot more hills.  This may have been due to over exerting ourselves on day 2 and not really enjoying day 3 as much.

We can't wait until our next trip, and have already started planning it.

Manistee River Trail Loop - Day 3

Sunday morning was cold.  We woke up a little earlier on Sunday than we did on Saturday.  I boiled water for coffee and oatmeal, we packed up camp, and headed south down the trail.  There was a large family camped at the coveted campsite four.  As we crossed through the camp site I wasn't sure what the allure was, perhaps that it's on a bluff overlooking the river is what gives it its appeal.  Immediately south of the campsite is a small flowing stream that leads to a waterfall.  The water is crystal clear and sounded like a much bigger water fall.

 We crossed the bridge over the stream and walked next to camp site number three.  In my opinion this is a much nicer site. 

As we walked along the trail we noticed that this trail was a bit more technical than the North Country Trail side. However the views from this side were spectacular, not only of the river, but of the areas reclaimed by nature.  Where the NCT side of the river was a typical hardwoods trail, the MRT side was much more diverse.

We made good time on the trail, putting some distance between us and last night's camp site in a relatively short amount of time.  We stopped for a snack on a ridge overlooking the river.  I had my second grapefruit of the trip.

After our break we had several uneventful miles.  I remember passing by a mile marker that said "5 MILES" and thought it was odd because I didn't remember seeing any other mile markers and it made me wonder what we were 5 miles from.  As we made it to the aptly named log bridge I noticed something floating in the water.  I walked to the left of the bridge and saw a mother duck and several ducklings behind her trying to swim against the current.  Aparently my appearance on the shore was enough of a distraction to make them forget about swimming for a second and head down stream.  One of the ducklings got stuck behind a log but swam to the side and got carried by the current to the rest of his family.  It was cool to see them swimming together.

 I'm not sure if it's because it was early in the season, or if the trail has been neglected, but we had crossed several places along the trail where the ground had eroded away leaving gaping holes in both the trail and campsites.  This left a few unsafe locations along the trail, but they were easily spotted and avoided.

In preparing for the trip I head read where there was a short section of trail that went through a swampy area and was known for getting hiker's feet wet.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that somebody had placed wood planks as a foot path through this section, and we made it through unscathed.

The remainder of our journey was uneventful.  We passed a father with his new born child in a carrier on his chest headed north.  It appeared that they were only out for a short hike, but I thought it was cool that he was introducing his child to the woods at such an early age.

We made our way up the final ascent of the trail prior to reaching Coates Highway.  I had forgotten that we had to hike almost a mile along the road to get back to our parking area.  I left Chrissy near the trail head, took off my pack, and hiked the last section solo.  I made it to the truck, rolled down the windows, turned my phone back on, and returned to pick her up.  It was nice to not know what time it was for a couple days, I didn't miss my phone either.

We headed east toward Manistee and stopped at Big Al's Pizza in Manistee.  We had been told that they had great subs, and we weren't lied to.  We both ordered a sub and the largest Coke they had.  It was delicious!  We talked about the trip for a few miles as we headed south toward home and made plans for the next one...

More Photos from the Trip   Hike to Afterthoughts

Manistee River Trail Loop - Day 2

The morning came earlier than I anticipated. Chrissy was up and taking pictures of the sunrise even before I poked my head out of my bag.  I've read numerous trip reports where people get up early and are on the trail by 8am, this has always impressed me because I can never seem to drag myself out of the tent early in the morning.

Chrissy made granola bars based on a recipe she found at the Trail Cooking website.  We had the granola bars and coffee for breakfast.  Chrissy also surprised me with a grapefruit.  I'm convinced there's nothing better than a grapefruit on the trail... except a Snickers Almond maybe.

NCT Blue Blaze

We broke camp and headed north on the trail.  The trail is well marked and relatively clean.  We hiked for a few miles and enjoyed the scenery, stopping every hour or so to take a break and adjust our packs. We made good progress for most of the morning.

We hiked past a campsite on a point on the east side of the trail that we wanted to come back to on another trip.

Before our trip I had read that bears had been seen in the area.  I kept my eyes open in the hopes of seeing a bear, or at the very least some sign of bears in the area.  We didn't see any bears but we did see some scratches on a log that crossed a valley near the trail.  Aside from the scratches we didn't really see too much wildlife.  Squirrels, birds, lots of frogs, but nothing bigger.



Bear Scratches on a Log

 

There wasn't much traffic along the trail.  We passed a couple guys who were hiking together a few times throughout the day, we met a couple out for a day hike, and the Boy Scout troop headed back to Red Bridge to meet the rest of their team passed us headed south.  A few of them looked beat, but their leaders were friendly and gave a nice trail report to us.  

We continued on our way until we got to forest road 8060.  We stopped here for a lunch of tuna wraps and coffee.  After a short break we hoisted our packs back up to our shoulders and continued north up the second longest hill on the loop.  

The next several miles were mostly uneventful.  Walk a while, stop and adjust some piece of gear, hydrate, continue north.  Some maps indicate that there is a water source near Sheep Ranch Road, however trail reports reviewed prior to our expedition said that the first water source is Eddington Creek.  As we crossed through the area where the first water source was supposed to be, there was no obvious source of water, so this confirmed the info we received.  As you cross through this area it's a potentially easy place to lose the trail especially where the forest road crosses the trial, the trail follows the ridge line north-northeast.  Just follow the blazes and you should be good to go.

We arrived at Eddington Creek with plenty of water in reserve.  We filtered water and stopped for a short snack of jerky and chocolate.  There was another couple stopped at the creek with similar plans as well as the guys we kept trading the lead with. 

The trail north of Eddington Creek is a little different than the previous 7 miles.  Everything south was well marked trails with minimal interaction with roads, north of Eddinton we begin to hike closer to roads, through day use areas, down a road and through a parking area.  The trail changes a little bit too.  As you cross over from the hardwood forests of the south into the coniferous woods north the trail isn't as well marked and you need to watch for signs identifying the trail. 

I'm not sure if it was the monotony of the trail, or my adventurous personality, but we managed to lose the trail and end up on the shore of the Manistee River.  Somewhere in one of the day use sites I proceeded to where I assumed the trail resumed but failed to not if there were blazes marking the way.  The trail led us to the river.  This was as good a place as any to take a break, so we took our shoes off and waded in the cold flowing water.  It was so cold in fact that the crayfish on the bottom of the river wouldn't move as you walked by them, I had never seen this before.  A few fishermen floated by on kayaks but it looked like they were having better luck emptying beer cans than catching fish. 

Our trek resumed with some bushwhacking to try to find the trail again.  I figured if we kept the river to our right and kept going north we would eventually find the trail again.  About a half mile through the swamp we met up with the trail and resumed our trek.

You can see the Little Mac from the foot path about a mile from the bridge as well as the last 100 yards or so before the bridge.  The bridge is more impressive in person than it is in pictures, although not by it's size but by it's beauty in the surroundings.  We stopped to take a few pictures before crossing over and starting our southbound trek. 

Our intent was to cross the bridge and make it to campsite 4 to make camp for the night.  However, as we crossed the bridge Chrissy said that she was getting sore.  She's not known for complaining so I knew this meant she was more uncomfortable than she let on.  I began lookin for a place to make camp for the night.  This proved harder than I anticipated.  I always like to find a campsite that had a nice view, or is something more than a flat patch in the middle of the woods.  This combined with restrictions on distances from trail or water limited our choices.  We found a spot one hill climb shy of campsite 4, and as luck would have it there was already a family camped there, so our plans would have to be altered either way.

Our campsite was great, although I may have mis-measured the distance from the river by a foot or two.  After camp was set up we filtered water and made dinner.  I don't carry a watch on backpacking trips, so I'm not sure what time it was when we laid down in the tent to read, but the sun was still up and it made the tent nice and warm.  We kept the rain fly off as we fell asleep reading.  We woke up when the chill of night hit us, opened our sleeping bags, crawled in and got some sleep.  A midnight jaunt from the tent to respond to the call of nature revealed a beautiful starry sky, a mist was floating up off the river, an owl was hooting somewhere in the distance, and coyotes could be heard playing across the river.  This was as close to perfect as I could imagine. We crawled back into the tent and slept until sunrise. 

More Photos from the Trip   Hike to Day 3