Winding Down and North Central Trail

The AirBnB that we are staying in is about 15 miles from any sizable town, and the driveway off the road that it is on is at least 1000 feet long. They have a barn, so maybe their plow is in there; or else they pay someone a lot of money to dig them out after snowstorms. The house had belonged to one of the owner’s grandparents, and they purchased it about 8 years ago after it had been out of their family for some time. You can see why they were excited to get it back even though it has required a bunch of work. They have a view out over a field and some woods out onto Lake Michigan. We watched a spectacular sunset through huge living room windows while sitting in really comfortable recliners.

Weather Underground was showing thunderstorms overnight with a period of clearing in the late morning. There was definitely some thunder and lightning overnight; and it was still raining quite heavily in the morning. The forecast was updated to show a period of clearing in the afternoon, so we stayed in until the rain stopped. We drove down route 119, which is only a few miles away, which is noted as a “Tunnel of Trees” (apparently a big deal here in Michigan). It was about a fifteen mile long, pretty narrow and windy road with (admittedly) a lot of trees on both sides of the road, and many places where the branches reached over the roadway.

We were headed toward Harbor Springs which looked like it had a few shops to check out. On the way we stopped at the Thorne Swift Nature Preserve. It was quite a find – a nice building with exhibits and a great play area for kids, and a little over a mile of trails – mostly boardwalks since the area was quite swampy. They have left most of it on its own – if a tree falls or dies, other than moving it off the trails they just leave it alone. There are a few places where they have braided branches into a fence and several signs, but otherwise it’s like walking in an undeveloped forest. There are definitely a lot of woodpeckers around (at least as evidenced by their handiwork).

There is also an overlook onto the dunes and the beach. The tide was nearly all the way in when we were there , but Maggie for sure would love this beach – there was a lifetime supply of rocks to pick through.

Harbor Springs is a quaint tourist town – think Martha’s Vineyard or Woodstock. One place that was highly recommended was Tom’s Mom’s Cookies. It is in a little house on a side street, and all they sell are cookies. There was a line there whenever we walked by, so we finally got in line to get some cookies. Definitely worth it!

The projected rain never did arrive. When we got up on Friday morning the weather was updated to overcast, with little chance of rain. We decided to do one last ride on the North Central State Trail. We did an out-and-back on a section which ran along Mullet Lake, starting and ending in Topinabee, Michigan. Some nice lake views and lots of cabins along the lakefront. Otherwise, just a decent ride on a very muggy day.

Starting home tomorrow, stopping outside Cleveland and then visiting Tom’s Aunt Mildred and probably a few cousins on Sunday, and then arriving in Hudson on Monday evening.