Pre-Trip Planning
We probably began planning this trip to the Manistee River Trail - North Country Trail (NCT) about 1 month in advance. I had been very cold on our first overnight trip to McCarthy Lake (also on the NCT) earlier in April. Therefore, we really took getting the right gear seriously...maybe too seriously... My end game was mostly concerned with doing whatever I could be to sure I have enough clothes to be warm, but as little as possible to keep my pack light.
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| Map from "Backpacking in Michigan" by Jim DuFrense. |
Anyway, we had reviewed the section on the Manistee River Trail in "Backpacking in Michigan," so we knew what to expect as far as terrain, but also where we would camp each night. The book turned out to be a great resource because the Ranger station ended up sending us a very nice map without the trails marked on it! We used a combination of the book map and a USGS topo map we downloaded from the internet. I am not sure if this is the best option for someone but since the trails were pretty well marked, this seemed to work out.
We had all of our food separated out into compression sacks for breakfast, lunch, and dinners. As we look back, this was one portion of the trip we were probably over prepared. We packed too much food...way too much Gatorade powder, beef jerky we never ate, too much tofu, too many elbow mac and cheese noddles (and that weight probably added up for Mike). We probably could have skipped out on the marshmallows and cookies I wanted to bring.
Anyway, in the end I guess those are just key takeaways from the trip for next time :)
Night 1
Thursday evening
We ended up driving up to Seaton Creek campground on Thursday evening. We parked that the trailhead up there, and decided to hike in across on the river and camp somewhere off the NCT. There was a decent size trailhead parking lot there, but the cheapest option would have been to park at the bottom of the loop near Red River Access since the parking there is free. (Seaton Creek is $4/day...so not terrible.)
We crossed the suspension bridge over the river to the NCT late enough at night that it wasn't bright enough to have a picture of that (I wish that I did.) We hiked about 2 miles to a place we camped. The original location we planned to camp (as designated on a map we had) was no longer a designed campsite. "NO CAMPING" signs were present. We did find another place to camp close by (it was clear that it had been camped in by some others since a few remnants of fire pits were there. It wasn't until the morning that we learned how nice the views were here.
We had to use our headlamps by the time we finished setting us the tent, so that meant that the nighttime bugs went crazy over the lights (quite a few beetles in addition to the normal buzzing friends.) Fortunately, we both had bug nets for our faces, so the bugs zooming near our faces didn't seem to be much of a bother. Once we made a small camp fire, this also helped out with the mosquitoes. Despite the fact that it was quite warm (still around 75 late at night), we went to sleep looking forward to a big day tomorrow. We would be completing the whole NCT (10 miles) side of the loop.
Day 2
Friday Morning
I woke up early, but the sun was already up. I had a chance to walk about the campsite and see where we had landed the night before in the dark. It turned out that we had a great view of the river. The campsite had plenty of space, so I predict that if it had not been a Thursday evening, we might have had to share the space with some others.
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| Here's our tent after Night 1 |
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| Manistee River views from the campsite. |
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| Mmm. Oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. Here's the cook! |
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| Mike makes another fire in the morning. He used Vaseline covered cotton balls to get the first started. |
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The day turned out to be quite warm, probably in the high 70's. We took a few breaks for lunch and rest, but seemed to get through the 10 miles quickly. The highlight was seeing the baby fawns near Red Hill Lookout. We almost missed them, but if you look closely in the picture, you should see them mixed in with the leaves.
Friday Afternoon - Red River Access
We hiked down to Red River Access (there are a free National Forest campsites) by 5:30. This seemed to be just early enough to get a campsite of our choice. There was only one other person there camping at that time. However...people soon showed up. Within 30 minutes to 1 hour, the place was full. Apparently, that place fills up first and its first come first serve. Its a little disappointing as a backpacker since, there is a boat launch and parking lot there, so about 1/2 the campers were not hikers...just car campers. The forest ranger who stopped by said that he expected to be busy this weekend. He also mentioned that there were dispersed sites further on as well. Those sites might have been quieter since it further away from the boat launch and trailhead parking.
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| Campsite #2 - Red River Access (see the parking lot for the boat launch behind) |
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| One nice thing about this spot was the perfect trees to hang and rest in the hammock! |
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| We took full advantage of the table to spread out all our supplies. |
Day 3
Saturday - Manistee River Trail (part 1)
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| Crossing over the river to start on the Manistee River Trail in the morning. |
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We decided to spread the reminder of the trip over 2 days. We were only going to hike about 7 miles this day, so we took it easier in the morning and didn't rush out of camp first thing in the morning. We even made a backpacker's egg skillet for breakfast!
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| Since you are up on the river bank at the south end of the Manistee River Trail, the views are quite nice. |
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Saturday Afternoon - Tenkura
We tried to venture out and see if would could catch any brook trout from one of the streams along the way. We were pretty sure that the ranger had told us to try at Cedar Creek, but didn't have much luck there. Ss soon as we came to Slagle Creek, I would probably have to say this would be a better option. I'd recommend this creek instead to anyone hoping to snag a fish.
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| Mike returns back after tenkura - he got a bite, but no fish. |
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| This is the wooden bridge across Slage Creek. After crossing we did see some folks fishing from the opposite bank. |
Saturday Evening - Campsite
We stayed at designated campsite number 5 on the Manistee River Trail. We shared the space with another single backpacker. This was the first spot that we came across that had not been taken with 2 or more tents (spots #6 - 9 were already occupied.) Compared to the NCT, the Manistee river trail was much more popular; we saw several backpackers and even some day hikers. For anyone hiking this part of the trail in similar timing, I would recommend site 5, 6, or 7 as the most scenic. I was not impressed with the sites near the waterfall, and this would likely be more crowded anyway.
We shared our campsite with a veteran backpacker, but this was her first trip solo. She shared a few stories of her favorites trips. In the end it seemed she enjoyed the company in the evening since we also made a nice fire. (note - we need to have a mini hacksaw to help deal with fire wood.)
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| Our tent. The river is below us, but you can't see it well in the picture. |
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| Cooking by the fire. |
Day 4
Sunday Morning
As we had thought might happen, we had thunderstorms and rain most of the early morning. The thunder stopped around daylight, but the rain didn't let up until 9 am. Well, Mother Nature brings some strong rain. Once the rain slowed, we made some cream-a-wheat for breakfast (my favorite) and took our time taking down camp. The weather seemed like it was almost going to show the sun later...
This turned out to be incredibility false!
We only hiked about 20 minutes past the waterfall (which is nothing to get excited about), and then the sky turned immediately dark. Within 5 minutes it was raining very hard and thunder and lightening were making another debut. Fortunately, we only had about 3.5 miles to go, so we just hiked as fast as we could. Thank goodness we packed the serious rain gear.
By the time we arrived back at the car, the rain had stopped and it was clear the thunderstorm had moved past. It was as though it signaled the trip was over. We did it; we just completed out first multiday trip. 22 miles - 2.5 days of hiking in a variance of summer weather. We had a great time, and we learned that we had definitely over packed, but I guess that is part of the process...getting better with each trip.
Until next time...
ps. White Mountain are up next!
