It's that time of year again to get back on my favorite long trail, the NCT aka North Country Trail. This season, I still have to work my way down to Fife Lake to complete the majority of the NCT in the Lower Peninsula. Instead of my usual solo NCT trips, this time Donk_67 joined me for this adventure, since he knew what he was getting into. He made the 45 minute journey from Petoskey and I subjected myself to a 250 mile 3 1/2 hour trip from Clarkston. We met up at the hiker lot in Mackinaw City at 8:30, then with the help of his son Thomas, we made the quick drive to our starting destination at French Farm Lake.
Day 1: French Farm Lake to Wycamp Lake, 20 miles
We got on the trail around 9 or so and headed west, past the lake on the well groomed trail that is typical of any northern Michigan woods. Temps were in the high 30's and 40's for most of the day and it took a bit of time to get our "legs" back after a long winter of not enough exercise.
We entered Wilderness State Park (my first visit) and had a variety of terrain to deal with: hills, old two tracks, soggy trails, swamps and more hills. One highlight was seeing Nebo Cabin, which is available for rent and the big log lean-t0 shelter with fireplace. Too bad we couldn't camp there.
We did run into a couple rangers on ATV's, who were out checking the trails and a day hiker or two. We took a long break at Lakeview Road and enjoyed Lake Michigan.
Back on the trail, we really started hitting the hills and that really took it out of us. By 5:30, we passed Sturgeon Bay Road and rolled into Wycamp Lake 2 miles later. This would be our destination for the night. We followed the NCT all the way along the lake and wandered around the unofficial campground.
Not really finding anything where we felt comfortable (Wycamp has a tendancy to become a late night hangout for locals and it can get a bit rowdy), we worked our way to end of the lake near the dam area. Unfortunately, the area was brushy and the trees questionable, we backtracked a bit and found a spot off the two-track. By now it was 6:45 and we were done for the day. 20 miles was a huge day, especially since this was our first long hike of the the year. Congrats to Don for hitting his biggest mile day to date!
We set up our gear, had dinner, then enjoyed an evening around the luci light with 2 pints of Rochester bourbon aged red and brown ale plus a healthy dose of hot cider and whiskey. By 10:30 it was hiker midnight and sleep came fast....At least until 2:15 when a few cars decided to drive out in the middle of nowhere on a friday night to party and roast hotdogs. Maybe we were stealthy enough, so no incidents. It was a full moon, clear night and the temps hit a chilly 28 degrees.
Day 2: Wycamp Lake to Stealth Camp south of Stutsmanville Road, 12.5 miles
6:30 AM came pretty quick, so we got up, had breakfast, enjoyed a few more cups of coffee and packed up. By 8:30 we were on the trail for a quick 2 mile hike down to Levering Road. It was here that Don's brother was picking us up so we could avoid the 6.5 mile road walk on paved and dirt roads. Neither of us felt guilty "cheating" and why burn ourselves out with a needless walk on the road?
Jumping back on the trail at Van Road, Don's brother and dog joined us for the next couple of miles. Don knew this was going to be a "dry" section, so he had cached some water for us down the trail to get us through the day. It was nice easy hiking through a few hills and some really nice pine forests. The temps were warming up and we were already at 60 by noon. We were really making some good time, even after our overexertion from the day before.
It was more of the same typical Michigan woods walk with a variety of terrain, some nice views and a few reminders of winter still in the woods. There was another short road walk, but it went right by a township hall, so we took a break on the bench and watered up from the tap.
At around 3 PM, we passed Stutsmanville Road and a mile later crossed the two track where Thomas would meet up with us for the night.
We carved out a few hang spots off trail and got set up for the night. By 5, Thomas showed up with Jack the beagle, a 6 pack of Keewanaw Black Widowmaker and the "piece de resistance": pineapple and ham pizza right out of the oven. We also had stashed some extras in the truck, so we enjoyed our share of cookies and coke. It was a warm evening and with a low of 56 for the night, it was a good sleep.
Day 3 Stutesmanville Road to Kipp Road, 6 miles
At 6:45, it was time to start the day, so I got up and packed, then went down to the truck to get the coffee going and pull out a few things for breakfast: fake bacon and waffles in a bag. As we were enjoying our breakfast, Dirk (aka kg8jk on HF) hiked into our camp to join us for our last day on the trail. He had parked down and the next trailhead and we'd shuttle him back later.
We did a little slackpacking, since Thomas was going to park at the south end then hike north to meet us. Don got to test out my Ohm2 for a couple miles and Dirk was testing out his new front pack. We had more rolling terrain, a few hills and some more pine forest. We even ran into a bunch of snow and ice on the trail from nearby Nubs Nob ski complex. At 11:23 and 6 miles later, we completed our hike. From there, we dropped Dirk off, then ran back up to Mackinaw City so I could head home.
Here's our final stats for the trip: 38.5 miles walked, 2.6mph average speed in a total of 14 hours and 41 minutes of walking time. The local chapter really does a nice job with trail maintenance and there was plenty of signage and hiker registers. A few of the local trail angels also stash water on the dry sections.
In keeping with my long standing tradition of a picture heavy and long report, it's a resource for anyone that might want to do the same trip. The NCT through Michigan is a great trail and there are still many miles to do. Thanks for joining me, Don (and hauling me around, getting pizza etc and putting up with me for 3 days) on this adventure!
Link to full album:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/152341195@N04/n7JM70
https://northcountrytrail.org/
http://northcountrytrail.org/hrb/
https://northcountrytrail.org/get-in...100-challenge/
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