Leaving Footprints

Among those who walk, the day after Thanksgiving is typically reserved for a "Turkey Trot." Ideally, this should be a brisk walk in cold weather to help the body burn off all the fat grams consumed the preceding day. In our case this year, it was a slow meander on a warm November afternoon.

I'm also ashamed to say that the walk was followed by a pint of beer and some Mexican food. So much for the good intentions.

As we did two years ago, we met our friend Dick Bolton and about a dozen others up at Deerfield Nature Park in Isabella County. This scenic park is laced with twisty trails, some of which follow or catch glimpses of the Chippewa River.

I don't think Julie and I were the only one's feeling a little lazy after the previous day's holiday feast, as most of the hiking boots in our group shuffled and plodded rather slowly down the trail.

With such a big crowd and the leaves all off the trees, there wasn't much for wildlife watching. Instead, we enjoyed some low-impact exercise in the company of good friends.

At the end of the hike, we came upon two curiosities. First was the bridge pictured here. It is a wire suspension bridge, so it bounces actively with every footstep and sways a bit in the breeze. Abbey had a great deal of fun trip-tropping across this bridge again and again.

The second curiosity is the burnished steel sculpture of a hiker that implores visitors to take only memories and leave only footprints. It was nice to see this ethic promoted in a fun, non-preachy way in a rather urbane park that introduces a fairly large number of people each year to the natural mid-Michigan landscape.

We followed the advice of the burnished hiker and took home some memories of good friends, warm November skies, and a lazy walk in the woods.

Hoist Lakes

On November 3, a friend and I went up to the Hoist Lakes Foot Travel Area for a three day hike. The Hoist Lakes are located in the Huron National Forest in the northeast corner of Michigan's lower peninsula. A cold snap had rolled through the day before, so there were traces of snow and the temps throughout our hike stayed in the 20s and 30s.

We found the area to be devoid of any wildlife, except squirrels and assorted birds. Likewise, we also found the area lacking in other hikers. In all, we only saw five other hikers. All five were in two different groups, and were spotted in the same location 24 hours apart (walking in to South Hoist Lake from the east).

The first day we walked the south perimeter of the foot travel area, starting at the eastern entrance and ending at Byron Lake. We camped on the east bank of Byron Lake that night, high up on a bluff in the red pines.

The next day we hiked out to the west trailhead junction, and then around the north side of the loop, exploring all the interior trails along the way. We are glad that we investigated the interior trails, as they cross some of the best parts of this tract, chocked full of spruce, fir and birch.


That night, we camped on the northeast shore of North Hoist Lake.

Even though there were no significant animal sightings, the area is still interesting. Being from further south, I was impressed by the spruce and fir trees found in the lower, wet areas. I was also taken by some of the stands of birch.

While we didn't see many critters, we sure saw evidence of them. We found dozens of holes dug by badgers, plenty of coyote scat, and hundreds of trees gnawed on by beaver. At night we heard the barred owls, howling coyotes and splashing beavers.

The area looks attractive for crosscountry skiing, and I'd like to get back there for some of that this winter. If you're interested in hiking this area, a downloadable map can be found here.