Category Archives: Hiking and Kayaking Michigan

Hiking the North Country Trail Through the Porkies

“Jane, why did you agree to this? Why didn’t you say, ‘Let’s go shopping and see a movie?’” I asked my hiking buddy as we slogged up a steep, muddy, rooted death-trap of a hill. Checking off all of the North Country Trail miles in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park had seemed like suchContinue reading “Hiking the North Country Trail Through the Porkies”

A Fall Weekend at the Muskegon State Park Yurt

The shoulder seasons of late fall and early spring find me reluctant to commit to backpacking–it’s just too cold and wet. The rustic cabins and bunkhouses offered by the DNR are a nice compromise. This past weekend some friends and I stayed in the yurt at Muskegon State Park in order to hike the park’sContinue reading “A Fall Weekend at the Muskegon State Park Yurt”

A ukelele, beads, and rubber chicken on the trail

Over the last ten or so years, I have hosted many backpacking trips for adults, and since retiring from teaching three years ago, I’ve been guiding backpacking and canoe camping trips for a local camp. This past week I took a group of twelve teens aged 13-15 on a 30-mile trip on the NCT beginningContinue reading “A ukelele, beads, and rubber chicken on the trail”

Like an old friend

“How long have you had that backpack, Jen?” I had to stop and think when a friend asked me this question a few weeks ago on a backpacking trip through the Highbanks Rollaway on the Manistee River in northwest lower Michigan. I bought my Gregory 44L in preparation for a section hike on the AppalachianContinue reading “Like an old friend”