AKay09
Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2015
- Messages
- 96
Howdy!
Over Memorial Day weekend I brought my girlfriend on her first backpacking trip. Our first plan was to go to Red River Gorge in Kentucky for a two nighter but mother nature thought that was a bad choice. So we made a last minute switch to Michigan. The Manistee River trail is a popular beginner backpacking route in the midwest, the loop is created by joining with the North Country Trail as it moves through Michigan. The loop is about 23 miles so we decided to do it in 3 days, with a short hike out to the car.
Day 1: The drive was about five hours from the Chicago 'burbs so we arrived around 2pm thanks to the time change. We hiked north on the NCT for a good 10 or 11 miles and the terrain had a lot more elevation gain than I was expecting so it was a more difficult day than I was anticipating but it was okay. My girlfriend is in better shape than me so even though it was her first hike she was more than fine. Around the 7 mile mark was the first water we came across and it was here that I realized that a rubber gasket on my sawyer mini was missing and so my water filter was no good. Thankfully I had some tablets to purify water for the rest of the trip, which was a pain but we survived. We were getting pretty anxious for camp at this point as the first 10 miles were all just in the woods with almost no views and no access to the river. When we finally got to the bridge to cross the Manistee River we were pretty thrilled. Sadly all the good spots for camping were already taken. We ended up taking a side trail down to the river on accident and ended up finding a semi flat area right off the river for the tent and so we took it. We built a little fire, set up the hammocks and relaxed for a bit before dinner and bed. Of course at about 10:30 someone came walking down the trail right up to our tent basically with flashlights scaring the crap out of us before they turned around.
Day 2: We got an early start on day two since we knew there are only a limited number of sites along the trail and they are all first come first serve and I had heard some stories about them all being taken pretty early. It was kind of weird, we hiked by a bunch of sites, 6ish?, that were just feet off the trail or that the trail literally ran right through. So we were walking through other hikers breakfast which was a bit awkward. A few of the camps also had full cases of beer and coolers, so people were carrying these in for miles. Besides all the people this side of the river the hiking was much nicer. It had plenty of good views of the river and was a bit more flat. The only issue we had with this day was that we knew we had to be quick so our breaks were short and we hiked fast to stay ahead of others. We ended up getting to our second site before noon and it was the last good site on the trail, so we got lucky. It was also only about 15 yards off the trail as well which was in the way of the river, so for a few hours we had a steady stream of traffic walking by. Again we set up the hammocks and took some naps. Around 5pm the traffic of people really died down so we spent the rest of the evening resting by the river and watching the geese and listening to some sandhill cranes.
Out like a light
Throughout the night we had the pleasure of listening to a few barred owls chatting it up, so that was nice. We hiked out pretty early in the morning which was only about two miles. I didn't take many pics on the way out so don't have anything worthy of sharing. Overall the trip was fun but the stress of the crowds and the first come first serve site system brought down the enjoyment a bit. The weather was pretty much perfect though, mid 60s to low 70s during the days and low 50s at night so that was good. My girlfriend enjoyed the trip even with the rushing and she can't wait for our trip to the rockies in September so that's good!
Over Memorial Day weekend I brought my girlfriend on her first backpacking trip. Our first plan was to go to Red River Gorge in Kentucky for a two nighter but mother nature thought that was a bad choice. So we made a last minute switch to Michigan. The Manistee River trail is a popular beginner backpacking route in the midwest, the loop is created by joining with the North Country Trail as it moves through Michigan. The loop is about 23 miles so we decided to do it in 3 days, with a short hike out to the car.
Day 1: The drive was about five hours from the Chicago 'burbs so we arrived around 2pm thanks to the time change. We hiked north on the NCT for a good 10 or 11 miles and the terrain had a lot more elevation gain than I was expecting so it was a more difficult day than I was anticipating but it was okay. My girlfriend is in better shape than me so even though it was her first hike she was more than fine. Around the 7 mile mark was the first water we came across and it was here that I realized that a rubber gasket on my sawyer mini was missing and so my water filter was no good. Thankfully I had some tablets to purify water for the rest of the trip, which was a pain but we survived. We were getting pretty anxious for camp at this point as the first 10 miles were all just in the woods with almost no views and no access to the river. When we finally got to the bridge to cross the Manistee River we were pretty thrilled. Sadly all the good spots for camping were already taken. We ended up taking a side trail down to the river on accident and ended up finding a semi flat area right off the river for the tent and so we took it. We built a little fire, set up the hammocks and relaxed for a bit before dinner and bed. Of course at about 10:30 someone came walking down the trail right up to our tent basically with flashlights scaring the crap out of us before they turned around.
Day 2: We got an early start on day two since we knew there are only a limited number of sites along the trail and they are all first come first serve and I had heard some stories about them all being taken pretty early. It was kind of weird, we hiked by a bunch of sites, 6ish?, that were just feet off the trail or that the trail literally ran right through. So we were walking through other hikers breakfast which was a bit awkward. A few of the camps also had full cases of beer and coolers, so people were carrying these in for miles. Besides all the people this side of the river the hiking was much nicer. It had plenty of good views of the river and was a bit more flat. The only issue we had with this day was that we knew we had to be quick so our breaks were short and we hiked fast to stay ahead of others. We ended up getting to our second site before noon and it was the last good site on the trail, so we got lucky. It was also only about 15 yards off the trail as well which was in the way of the river, so for a few hours we had a steady stream of traffic walking by. Again we set up the hammocks and took some naps. Around 5pm the traffic of people really died down so we spent the rest of the evening resting by the river and watching the geese and listening to some sandhill cranes.
Out like a light
Throughout the night we had the pleasure of listening to a few barred owls chatting it up, so that was nice. We hiked out pretty early in the morning which was only about two miles. I didn't take many pics on the way out so don't have anything worthy of sharing. Overall the trip was fun but the stress of the crowds and the first come first serve site system brought down the enjoyment a bit. The weather was pretty much perfect though, mid 60s to low 70s during the days and low 50s at night so that was good. My girlfriend enjoyed the trip even with the rushing and she can't wait for our trip to the rockies in September so that's good!
