We have been slacking a bit this summer with regard to getting in our 100 miles on the North Country Trail to qualify for our patches, so we started getting serious about that over the last several days. More on that in just a bit. We also took advantage of the beautiful August weather by getting out on the lake with our friend Jennifer. She brought her new blow-up paddleboard and took our dog Red for a ride while we followed along in her blow-up kayak.
I had never been on a paddleboard before and enjoyed the experience!
The week was good for running as well. I slipped in a 5-mile run on the rail-trail on Monday and ran the Tolkien Trails at MTU with the Keweenaw Running Group on Wednesday.
Thursday brought the start of our North Country Trail hiking blitz starting with a 6.4 mile out-and-back hike from the Canyon Falls roadside park on US 41 south of L’Anse. The conditions were warm and sunny. The Sturgeon River was high from the recent rain that had hit Baraga County and for the most part had missed us. This segment follows the Sturgeon River with some modest ups and downs along the way.
We found ourselves wading through chest-deep ferns along the way.
A cool feature on this portion of the trail are the large white cedars you will find along the river!
With the higher fast moving river on this day, we decided not to swim and just enjoyed snacks at Flat Rock.
You can check out my GoPro video from this hike on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at
The next day we headed out south of Herman to pick up the North Country Trail where it crosses the Herman-Nestoria Road. We did a 7.5 mile out-and-back hike from that point with our friends Mark and Jennifer. Last summer I was part of a team that brushed out the corridor for this re-route. On this hike, we would meet up with the turnaround point for a hike we did from the Sturgeon River last summer in order to connect our steps.
The geology in this area has a granite look about it as compared to the slate you find down at the Sturgeon River. If you do this segment as an out-and-back, be prepared for a steady uphill climb on the way back!
One of the more interesting features in this segment is a narrow rock-walled valley featuring a creek with a number of beaver dams with the last being particularly tall. There are some older growth trees in this area that add a great deal beauty to the place.
You can check out the GoPro video from this hike on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at
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