Friday
Inevitable delays: needed new moleskin, stopped at Rite Aid. Realized on the way that we had forgotten the water bottles, so had to stop at Family Dollar in Baldwin. Had to take a detour of several miles off M-37 because there’s a bridge out just south of M-55.
Made our last stop at the gas station on the corner of M-37 and M-55. Filled the quart water bottles we bought in Baldwin and bought a couple of 1 liter bottles of Aqua Fina. I figured we’d do the North Country Trail side of the river first, so we needed plenty of water.
We reached the Upper River Road trail head at 4:30. I wanted to park here instead of Red Bridge simply because it saved us 0.8 miles of hiking on Friday. Since I had no idea where we were going to find a spot to camp, I figured the sooner we were on the trail, the better.
There were quite a few mosquitoes circling the van as we changed in the parking lot before hitting the trail, but they didn’t seem hungry. I didn’t even bother putting any repellant on and they ignored me. The weather was about perfect: mid 60s, not too humid, almost no wind. No hint of rain yet, but the 70% chance of overnight rain was another reason I wanted to get going sooner. We hit the trail at 4:50 PM.
The woods were amazing! It was sunny, and breathtakingly gorgeous! The woods were filled with steep hills with views partially obscured by thick foliage. Speaking of steep, the trail itself was steep. It started out steep, and got steeper, as the trail generally ran north along a north-south ridge. Also, there were many steep climbs followed by steep descents. This is about the steepest hiking I have ever done in Michigan. Some of the hills were as bad as some of the Adirondack high peak trails. I had to take frequent rest breaks, even though I was carrying only 18 pounds. My back surgery has changed the way my body reacts to hills. I put more strain on my hips than ever before, and they were aching.
We reached Forest Road 8060 at 6:50 PM. This is a little over 2 miles from where we started. Considering the frequent rest stops we were taking and the trail condition, a mile per hour was a reasonable pace, I think. The topo map suggested some flat areas about a half mile past the road, but it also showed a steep climb to get there. By 7:20 we had climbed back up the ridge from the road, and had found a perfect campsite about where the map suggested things leveled out.
It took less than 15 minutes to set up camp and get the stove lit. Supper was Minute Rice with spices added. In addition to the minute rice I added dehydrated green beans to the boiling water to sit while the rice cooked. When it was done I opened three salmon steak packages and added the entire contents to the pot, then simmered everything for a few minutes to heat the salmon and steam off the extra water. It was incredibly good. I’ll be doing this again, it’s a lightweight meal that’s simple to fix.
Saturday
The rain hit at 4:40 AM. It rained very hard but nothing seemed to be leaking, so I fell back to sleep. We were awakened about 6:30 in the morning to the sound of people running on the trail. Seems there was a 75 mile, six person relay race going on, and our trail was one of the legs of the relay. Later in the morning I found a paper dropped by one of the runners, describing the terrain of this trail as “gut busting” and “visually orgasmic.” Both descriptions seemed pretty accurate.
It had stopped raining by the time we got up, so we didn’t have a lot of wet gear to pack. The tent kept us almost 100% dry. The Tyvek ground sheet worked great, and the packs were dry under the large vestibule. We hit the trail at 8:30, after a breakfast of granola bars and trail mix.
The terrain continued to be quite rugged, and remained gorgeous. There was a steady upgrade for a while (long but not steep), and at one point a beautiful grove of tall red pine trees (that smelled great!) We left the North Country Trail and connected to the Manistee River Trail at 10:50. We reached the suspension bridge a half hour later, at 11:20.
We stopped for a 15 minute lunch break, enjoying the view and talking to a few people who were on their way both directions. We talked for a while to a group of boy scouts from Lansing who spent the night at Seaton Creek Campground (1.25 miles east). They were hoping to do the entire Manistee River trail today and the North Country Trail tomorrow. Ambitious!
It doesn’t seem to be as densely wooded on the east side of the river, and the frequent views of the river added something to the scenery that made for a very different kind of beauty. Also, it seemed like the trail was less steep for the most part.
Most of the time the trail is 100 to 150 feet above the river, and it’s too steep to climb down to the river. I was getting worried about finding water to filter, until we crossed a small bridge over a fast-flowing stream. I filled some empty water bottles so we could filter when we stopped for the night. And I worried about where we were going to camp. I wanted to stay ahead of the boy scouts, so that we could get the site I wanted before they ran out of steam (I didn’t think they would make it the entire nine miles to Red Bridge in one afternoon). But they were ten and I’m fifty, so they got past us within about a half hour.
Camping is only allowed on designated sites on the east side of the river. As we reached each of these sites we found they were already taken. It would work to be there with someone else, I suppose, but I wanted to be alone if possible. As we passed people heading north I asked if the next campsites were taken yet or not. Campsite 3? Yes. 4? Yes. 5? Someone was just setting up there when we passed. 6? Not yet. So campsite 6 became my goal, even though it meant we would probably end up going almost 9 miles today (and I thought I was sore after 2.5 miles yesterday!).
We reached campsite 6 at 2:15. It was empty, so we claimed it for our own. What a beautiful spot! The river here flows straight south, bends sharply to the east, then sharply back to the west, sort of like a flat question mark. There is a fire pit on the bank next to the trail, just a few yards from the cliff above the river. The view from the site is straight north. Two hundred yards or so to the east, along the sharp bend to the west, is a cliff filled with swallows, who entertained us by swooping, darting, and flying over the water while keeping the mosquito population down. Looking to the northwest in the distance we could see the hill we camped on the night before on the North Country Trail side of the river.
I took a half hour nap, then filtered water. As I was finishing this, the boy scouts who had passed us a few hours earlier passed us again. They had taken a wrong turn, and some of the kids were almost in tears as we talked with their leaders. They still had five miles to go to get to Red Bridge, and it was after 3:00 already. I felt sorry for them, and wondered how they would make it through the more rugged North Country side tomorrow.
Supper was dehydrated chicken fettuccini, which was very tasty. We were so tired that we ended up going to bed at 7:30.
Sunday
We were up at 7:00 (slept over 11 hours, wow!). There was no rain through the night, but our campsite was windy and cold (down to the low 40s). Our food bag was soaked from dew in the morning. Even though I had packed the instant oatmeal inside a plastic bag inside the food bag, the packages were wet and the oatmeal was pretty much inedible. So it was another breakfast of granola bars and trail mix.
We packed quickly and were on the trail at 7:45. The trail south of our campsite continued to be beautiful, but there were fewer views of the river. Some of the smaller creeks we crossed were very pretty, and tasty, once we filtered them. About two miles south of our site, at the top of a large bend in the trail above the river, we ran into the boy scouts who were hoping to reach Red Bridge yesterday afternoon. We passed them about 9:30, while they were cleaning up from breakfast. I hope they didn’t try to make it to Red Bridge, up the North Country Trail, and back to Seaton Creek campground with that late of a start. At their pace they wouldn't make it back to Seaton Creek until dark!
We packed quickly and were on the trail at 7:45. The trail south of our campsite continued to be beautiful, but there were fewer views of the river. Some of the smaller creeks we crossed were very pretty, and tasty, once we filtered them. About two miles south of our site, at the top of a large bend in the trail above the river, we ran into the boy scouts who were hoping to reach Red Bridge yesterday afternoon. We passed them about 9:30, while they were cleaning up from breakfast. I hope they didn’t try to make it to Red Bridge, up the North Country Trail, and back to Seaton Creek campground with that late of a start. At their pace they wouldn't make it back to Seaton Creek until dark!
We finished the five miles to Red Bridge at 11:00. Some of the views at the south end of the trail are amazing. After a 10 minute break, we headed out on the final .8 mile trail to get to the parking lot, covering that in about 20 minutes.
Total distance: about 16.5 miles
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