Macchina
Gold Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2006
- Messages
- 5,213
I have one very nice trail within a few hours of my house, and hike it several times a year. It runs along the Manistee River and is maintained just enough to be able to cross the streams on foot bridges, but not to the point of feeling out of nature. We did our usual agena last weekend, which is camp the first night, 8 mile hike in, camp for an afternoon, then hike back 8 miles in the morning. We discovered this trail about 6 years ago, no too long after they added the suspension foot bridge to allow a 23 mile loop which uses a section of the North Country Trail for half of it. The MRT side is beautiful, with most of the trail being at river level or a few hundred feet above the river. I camped out in my new Mountain Smith Sprite 1 I picked up from a forumite here. It is an extremely sturdy tent, and has everything you need, nothing you don't. There is very little space to spare in the tent, but I think I like it that way.
As far as tools, I brought my Bark River Bravo-1, which has always been a good companion on hikes. In my pocket was my Benchmade Rift and Vic Alox Farmer. Strapped to my pack was my new Granfors Bruks Small Forest Axe which far outperformed my expectations (based on the couple of Wetterlings I've owned). That axe is so nice in the woods for collecting and breaking down sub 4" hard and soft woods, I didn't realize how much effort I was putting into wood collecting until I used the SFA! For light I had my Quark Mini 123 and my Zebralight H501. Both of the Energizer Lithium AA batteries I brought were duds :grumpy:, so the H501 saw about 5 minutes of use the entire trip.
I have been into the outdoors my whole life and got into seriously backpacking after an 8th grade 50 mile canoe/backpacking trip (I'm now married, and in 19th grade and almost have my Bachelors in Engineering). I have tried out most of the classic favorites in gear and I find I tend to go with the middle of the road weight gear with a strong leaning towards robust/field repairable items. Every winter I tell myself I'm going to try to go ultralight (which is under 15 pounds for me), but then we do a cold weather hike like this and I remember how nice it is to have hot meals, an axe to gather wood, an comfy sleeping pad and bag, etc...
And now for the pics:
This is the suspension bridge we start the hike at. We found about 10 walleyes, 5 suckers, and a few brown trout under the bridge on the first night, but nothing would bite.
I went crayfish grabbing on the first night and got about 20 nicely sized crayfish. The water was around 45 degreees (the air was colder, so it felt warm) and the crayfish were pretty sluggish.
Warming my feet after the river walk, I started to get phantom pinching feelings in my feet as they warmed out and it was quite painful. Probably not the most intelligent move I've made...
As far as tools, I brought my Bark River Bravo-1, which has always been a good companion on hikes. In my pocket was my Benchmade Rift and Vic Alox Farmer. Strapped to my pack was my new Granfors Bruks Small Forest Axe which far outperformed my expectations (based on the couple of Wetterlings I've owned). That axe is so nice in the woods for collecting and breaking down sub 4" hard and soft woods, I didn't realize how much effort I was putting into wood collecting until I used the SFA! For light I had my Quark Mini 123 and my Zebralight H501. Both of the Energizer Lithium AA batteries I brought were duds :grumpy:, so the H501 saw about 5 minutes of use the entire trip.
I have been into the outdoors my whole life and got into seriously backpacking after an 8th grade 50 mile canoe/backpacking trip (I'm now married, and in 19th grade and almost have my Bachelors in Engineering). I have tried out most of the classic favorites in gear and I find I tend to go with the middle of the road weight gear with a strong leaning towards robust/field repairable items. Every winter I tell myself I'm going to try to go ultralight (which is under 15 pounds for me), but then we do a cold weather hike like this and I remember how nice it is to have hot meals, an axe to gather wood, an comfy sleeping pad and bag, etc...
And now for the pics:
This is the suspension bridge we start the hike at. We found about 10 walleyes, 5 suckers, and a few brown trout under the bridge on the first night, but nothing would bite.
I went crayfish grabbing on the first night and got about 20 nicely sized crayfish. The water was around 45 degreees (the air was colder, so it felt warm) and the crayfish were pretty sluggish.
Warming my feet after the river walk, I started to get phantom pinching feelings in my feet as they warmed out and it was quite painful. Probably not the most intelligent move I've made...
Last edited:
