North Country Trail Recap | as told by Mark Crews
7pm and we are feeling the excitement, packed like sardines (not the ones in mustard sauce, just regular water) in Ed’s van finding our way down a dirt road to the proposed trail head. “We are looking for No. 19 Rd.” I say to Ed and our official lookout Pattie. About a 1/4 mile up we see a deer pop out of the woods. Bryan reminds us that there are usually more behind them so keep slowing down. No more appeared, but this obvious young deer didn’t really know what to do with itself as it saw our large silver sardine transport coming down on it. This poor deer’s head didn’t know what it’s lower half was doing as it was running down the road ahead of us zig-zaggin back and forth. “Just get off the road” Ed proclaimed. Which the deer did after realizing that running away wasn’t working.
We poured out of the van at our start. Everyone got situated with packs and shoes and one last stop to the luxury of a toilet stationed at the parking lot. The one lane bridge crossing the Manistee was a great photo opp for the “before picture” prior to ducking into the woods on the north side. This was clearly a new trail as you could see the remnants of fern stalks still in the path. It has only been maybe a year since this new trail had been cut due to a re-route further south that puts the hiker along the Hodenpyl dam backwaters. Our pace was enjoyable as our only goal was to exhaust a little daylight and work in about 3 miles. Bryan and Ed took the lead (which was to be expected) while Pat and Pattie brought up the back taking their time to enjoy their surroundings. Kate and I bopped along in the middle along with Alex who quickly got the new trail name “Yo-Yo” due to how he would dissappear to the front with Ed and Bryan and then drop to the back with Pat and Pattie while sometimes hiking with us in the middle. Our first night was on an open bluff overlooking the river. Some of us scrambled down to the river to get a look and watch master fisherman Ed make “not catching” a fish look good. As we settled in next to a fire we could tell that the forecast of thunderstorms and rain was not looking too good.
I always enjoy waking to the oven affect the tent gives off from the morning sun hitting it. But, as I prepared myself to see the rain clouds looming in the distance as our forcast had called for I saw exactly what I suspected, filling the sky, threatening the enjoyment of our day…..big huge rays of sun. Just as I thought, the forecast was wrong again which was going to be a theme the rest of our beautiful weekend until Sunday morning’s rain showers. While packing up we observed our newest to backpacking Pattie trying to get her pack all filled. So as the experts that everyone wants to be, we decided to help and put in our thoughts. Whenever you are new to something there is a learning curve that has to be overcome and backpacking seems to have a pretty steep one.
But no fear, we had her set and a little more educated. The pack was definitely a little on the heavy side so our hero of this story Bryan volunteered to swap packs. Pattie’s = 35lbs, Bryan’s = 16lbs, which one would you want to carry? Well, after a hearty breakfast and everyone was packed we moved out on our day that was to be around 14 miles. The pace was again nice, easy and steady. With plenty of overlooks the Highbanks rollaway area is a wonderful trail to hike. The only downside to this beautiful hike is the lack of water along the way up on the bluffs. So when you hit a stream, make sure you use it. Bugs were very under control. Just make sure you Ed with you for them to follow….. Our lunch stop at “the” Highbank Rollaway was hot and a little buggy with black flies, not biting, just landing on everything. Our next stop was to be a creek right before we hit our 2.4 miles of road hiking (an unfortunate, but necessary part of many sections on the North Country Trail).
The creek was like a little Garden of Eden for us as we were all low on water and hot from the hiking. Shoes came off and bottles were filled while we relaxed. After our road section we ventured down an overgrown two track to make our way back towards the Manistee River. Our hope was to find a nice spot like the previous night to set up and relax. The bummer was that this didn’t happen for a few more miles than expected so we were beat. But the good side was having the river again that we could soak and relax in as well as having a good view at our camp. That night we made cheesy potato burritos that made short work of filling our stomachs… very delicious. As we went to bed we were all amazed at Yo-Yo (Alex)(we’re trying to get his trail name to stick) who simply put down a pad, doned his rain shell and bug net and pulled a tarp up to his head. He was going to just cowboy camp. How simply lightweight and sweet is that? Well, not too great when we woke up at 5am to pouring rain. At which point Ed came up to my tent, “Dude, let’s boogy into Cadillac and get breakfast”. My wife, Kate, and I replied, “done and done”. So we all packed up in the non-stop rain and started hiking. This is where the extra hiking the night before really paid off. Only 4 miles and we were back to the other vehicle we had dropped on Friday night.
Once again, sardines stuffed into a can to make our way to the start and the van that we left two days ago, only this time we were sardines in the mustard sauce, looking a little nasty but feeling so good. And by 9:30am we were stuffing our faces at an all you can eat breakfast bar. The other beauty to backpacking is the feeling of treating yourself after a job well done: Hiking all that way, defying mother nature with her bugs and unpredictable weather, being able to comfortably survive in the wilderness for two nights and enjoying every bit of it.
