The Great Fall Adventure 2023: Day 1

Would you drive out of your way on vacation to climb the 43rd highest peak in the United States, a “mountain” that’s more of a “mole hill” at only 1,549 feet?

We did.

But is it really “out of your way” when you’ve added it to the itinerary?

We were on our way to…

Well, I’m not quite sure where we were actually on our way “to.” We had destinations in mind, but we weren’t really heading to just one place in particular for a long stay. We had a lot of short stays in mind.

Since Campbell Hill was one of the 50 state high (and I use that term very loosely) points and was only an hour-ish out of our way as we headed toward West Virginia, we decided we didn’t mind the extra time and miles if it meant we could check off another state high point.

Now let me tell you something very embarrassing. We were in Ohio. (No, that’s not the embarrassing thing, though our son would disagree. I was born there and lived in three different towns there during my childhood, so I take offense at his disgust of all things Ohio while also being glad–no offense, Ohioans–that I no longer live there.) Anyway, we were in Ohio with flatland stretching for miles, and we couldn’t find the high point even though there was clearly a hill in front of us.

Choosing to ignore what we could clearly see, we decided to follow our phone’s GPS. We wandered for quite a bit before FINALLY walking toward that little hill. Then, even more embarrassing, we asked a stranger if we were going the right way. (Insert eyeroll here!) He must have thought we were dumber than a box of rocks.

(If you’re looking for Campbell Hill, it’s part of the grounds of the Ohio Hi-Point Career Center in Bellefontaine, which has the look of the air force station it used to be. One might think the high point would be found in the Hocking Hills of southern Ohio. One would be wrong.)

With the high point in our sights, we chose to run straight up it. The entire run took maybe thirty seconds. Probably less. And we weren’t even breathing hard when we made it to the top. But we had fun and checked another peak off our list.

As for books…

Hubby and I listened to The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny in 2023. I was actually not a fan of this one. I realize that she can’t set every book in Three Pines or the entire population of that little town would be dead after just a few books, but I don’t enjoy the stories set in different locations nearly as much. I like the cast of characters in Three Pines and miss them when Gamache solves mysteries elsewhere.

A Rainy Wheels on Rails Experience & a Hike

It was a gloomy September Saturday with the promise of rain, rain, and more rain in the forecast right when we were scheduled to embark on an adventure in Grawn, MI.

A few months earlier, a woman in our community band told me she’d had a great time at Wheels to Rails with some friends. I’d mentioned this to my mom, and after a few months of saying how fun it sounded, we finally settled on a date just before Labor Day for a trip north.

The tickets were purchased, and the weather looked promising.

Until it didn’t.

No worries, said the website. The experience would be on unless lightning threatened.

We packed our ponchos, and I doubt I was the only one hoping we wouldn’t end up as drenched as the time Hubby and I got caught in a rainstorm (thank you Hurricane What’s-His-Name that hit Florida in October of 2022) 6 miles from our car in the Slippery Rock Gorge in Pennsylvania. (That was a top ten memorable hike, thanks to what felt like near hypothermia by the time we reached the car.)

Despite my hope that our ponchos would stay tucked in their little plastic pouches, we had to don them before we even set out on our adventure since it started to sprinkle before our trip leader could finish giving instructions.

With rain hitting our faces and running down our ponchos, we set out on our 4-person bike for a 3-mile round trip down some old railroad tracks.

The first part of our ride took us alongside US-31. Within a short time, we were peddling through the woods. Our turn-around point was under an overpass where we all disembarked from our bikes so our leader could spin the bikes around for our return trip.

Once back at the car, the weather, of course, improved. Thus, the second half of our day could proceed as planned. After a stop for lunch at Olive Garden, where Hubby was served the absolute worst coffee ever (our waitress determined someone had brewed the coffee without removing the teabags that had been used for tea previously), we drove to Empire and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for a 1.5-mile out-and-back hike along the Empire Bluff Trail. Someday, I’d like to return to walk further along the ridge overlooking Lake Michigan.

View of Lake Michigan from the Empire Bluff Trail

As for books…

One of my final books for 2023 was The New Couple by Alison James. I have three things to say about this book.

1. Despite finishing this book in either November or December (I don’t write down the dates I start or finish books), I had to look up what this book was about because I could not remember a thing. After reading a short description on Amazon, I finally had some clue about the plot. It took some digging around in the garbage bin of my brain to remember the finer details. So…clearly it wasn’t the most memorable book despite my remembering that I found it enjoyable as I read it.
2. The story was told from too many different points of view. I recall thinking as I was reading it that there was a lot of repeat information.
3. The main-ish character was a bit much. She was an obnoxiously nosy neighbor, and as someone who has the exact opposite of an obnoxiously nosy neighbor (in fact all of our “neighbors” are as un-nosy as could be), I was shocked at how nosy she was.

Holiday Recovery: In Progress

Who else feels the need for a vacation to recover from the holiday season? It can’t be just me.

This year, the holidays looked a little different from most we’ve had. Excluding Christmas break of 2021, when we decided to take off to Texas with our middle daughter, we’ve always been together as a family on Christmas. This year, with multiple police officers and a nurse in the family, we had a bunch of awkward work schedules to work around, and family togetherness on the actual holidays just didn’t happen. Thanksgiving ended up being celebrated a few weeks early with a sushi dinner at a restaurant near where two of our adult children live. A rousing game of Taboo–during which our daughter’s dog, upset about being outside when he could see us having fun inside, looked in the basement window at us, raised his paw, slapped the window, and broke it–rounded out the day. (Their dog is just over one, so he’s just heading from the puppy stage into the German Shepherd velociraptor teenage years. Unfortunately, 80+ pounds of chaos is quite a bit more destructive than 20 pounds of puppy chaos.)

Christmas was celebrated twice–once with our middle daughter and once with our eldest daughter, her fiance, and his son. (The window-breaking dog came along and, thank goodness, broke nothing. The K-9 came also but had to remain in the garage, where she attempted to climb one of our tall garage shelving units when her handler was slightly distracted and, thank goodness, did not knock anything over onto the car.) Our son got to enjoy the festivities both times. During December, we also enjoyed another visit from our middle daughter and her new boyfriend, some visits from our son and his new girlfriend, a meal and afternoon of card playing with my parents, and a trip to visit with Hubby’s family. I love my family, but must say that the introvert in me is peopled out!

Amidst all of the visits and the visiting, we decided it was finally time to lay our kitchen faucet to rest. Hubby had attempted, several times, to fix its drippiness with the opposite of success. The faucet ordeal involved three trips to Home Depot, a broken bolt that meant some drilling and brute strength were needed to remove the old faucet, and a couple 2 am bedtimes as Hubby worked late so we could have a functioning kitchen sink in time for New Years. (Or, as it was celebrated in this house: Christmas #2.) Because the kitchen sink ordeal wasn’t enough to deal with, I found an amazing chandelier that lights up the kitchen with the light of a thousand suns at 75% off to replace the one above our kitchen table that lit up the kitchen with the light of one dim flashlight. Our son and I, with a bit of help from Hubby, installed the chandelier. I also found elephant coat hooks that I wanted hung by the front door and decided it was time to fix the drain in the kids’ shower. (It just needed a new drain flippy thingy and, even though I have no actual idea what the proper name is for the part, I’m pleased to say that I fixed the issue.)

On a side note: I listed the old chandelier (made by Dale Tiffany) on Facebook. Someone kindly told me I had put way too low of a price on it. Now I’m wondering what to do with this old chandelier that is worth more than I thought. Would it be weird to install it in our basement storage room?

Now, with our son back to college and the house FINALLY put back in order, I’m ready for a long winter’s rest.

Which will hopefully involve reading lots of books! However, I began the year with The Three Musketeers, so the likelihood of hitting 100 books this year is already looking slim.

After logging all of my books for 2023 into Goodreads–something I’ve never done before–I discovered a couple of things.

• I did not read as many books as I thought I did. It seems that in my bullet journal, I couldn’t read my own writing and skipped from #20 to #29. I ended up reading 52 books, not the 60 I thought I’d read. While I didn’t hit 100, I feel like I did pretty well last year considering I read Anna Karenina and two Outlander books.
• As Goodreads gives a “Year in Review,” I learned that I read approximately 20,100 pages. (Probably more, as The Year of the Hare was listed on there as having 0 pages. Although, that was an audiobook so…
• I learned that only 37 people have “shelved” (which I assume means “read”) the Book Mammoth Cave Curiosities on Goodreads, which was one of the books I read this year.
• The highest-rated book on Goodreads that Hubby and I listened to this year was How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny, which was not my favorite for the year. My favorite for the year was probably Anna Karenina, followed by the two Outlander novels.

Over the next few posts, I’ll catch you up on the remaining books of 2023 and some of our 2023 fall hiking adventures. There are some great ones (adventures, not books, though some of those were good also), so stay tuned!

Wilderness State Park

We found ourselves in the “wilderness” in mid-August, Wilderness State Park, that is. Located near Mackinaw City, this park has 26 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and 20+ miles of hiking trails, some of which are part of the North Country Trail.

We parked at the Lakeview trailhead and headed south along the North Country Trail toward the Sturgeon Bay trailhead. Considering it was mid-August, the weather was lovely for a long hike, and we had the woods to ourselves, which is always a bonus! We spotted many clumps of Monotropa uniflora (aka ghost plant, ghost pipe, or Indian pipe) along the sides of the wooded trail and, for the first time, I spotted rose hips on some plants along the trail where it followed a power line. (Is it weird that I’d never seen rose hips before?)

When we reached the Sturgeon Bay trailhead, we took a short trip down a trail that followed a powerline until we reached the Lake Michigan shoreline. The miles walked along the powerline and the shoreline wouldn’t count toward our NCT 100 mile challenge goal for the year, but that was okay. The views of the lake made up for that. There were many beachgoers on the shore that day, but they were spaced out enough that the beach didn’t feel crowded.

When we returned to the Lakeview Trailhead, we made the decision to continue on the NCT to the north. As we progress along the trail, getting to “new” miles for us is an increasingly longer drive. It’s about a 2 hour drive for us to hit “new” northern miles and about 1.5 hours of driving to find “new” miles to the south. As such, we try to eek out as many miles as daylight and our feet and legs will allow us on each of our trips. On this day, we added three more miles to the north, bringing our NCT total for the day to 9 miles and our total for the trip to around 12 once you add on the beach miles.

I’m looking forward to completing the miles we have remaining in Wilderness State Park as it was an enjoyable area to hike. We have 7 miles left, which will make for a longer day since out-and-back will total 14. We’re so close to having all the miles from home to the Mackinac Bridge completed, and we’d hoped to finish them up this year. With hunting season starting next week, though, and with earlier sunsets and cooling (Maybe? It’s supposed to be 50 degrees plus next week.) temperatures, our chances of checking off that goal are looking slim. But there’s always next year!

As for books…

Hubby and I recently listened to The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny. I have to say, I was disappointed. The original narrator of the Inspector Gamache audiobooks passed away and his replacement just isn’t the same. (It’s a guy who had a role on Downton Abbey.) I also wasn’t a fan of the plot of this novel, which revolved around some big “gun” found in the woods. As with most series that go on for many, many books, I find myself growing just a little bored. (It happened with the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich and the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber.) Yes, I want to know what happens in each of the characters lives since I’m invested in them after however many books this has been, but I find myself less and less interested as time passes.

A Less Than 100 Year

Who’s reading 100 books this year?

Not me, despite that being the name of this blog!

But before we get to book #47 for 2023, how about I tell you about another adventure we had this past summer? It is, after all, the fault of these adventures that I don’t have as much time to read as I’ve had in the past.

In mid-July, Hubby and I headed out to hike and bike a 5.5-mile section of the North Country Trail near Croton Dam in Newaygo, MI. (We covered 11 miles out and back, but for purposes of logging our miles for our 100-mile patch, we can only log the 5.5 miles that we completed on foot. For info on the 100-mile challenge, click here: https://northcountrytrail.org/hike-100-challenge/ . It might be quite a challenge to log 100 miles this year if you start this late, but there’s always next year!)

Have I mentioned in the past that I don’t enjoy biking? I’m sure I have. But this section was mostly road walk, and while I don’t mind tackling road walks on foot both ways, one of us likes to bring up using the bikes to make covering these sometimes boring sections faster. I reluctantly agreed and vociferously wished I had not for the majority of the time my butt was on the bike seat. Poor Hubby had to listen to these complaints. Thankfully, we got the biking part over first, choosing to chain up our bikes at a boat launch before starting back to our car on foot.

There’s not much to say about the road walk portion. Parts of it were heavily traveled, which made for less-than-ideal biking and hiking conditions. There was a tiny portion of the trail that wandered through a wooded area, which was peaceful.

The best part of the day was when the hiking and biking were over (that’s not something I normally say) and we walked along a path down near the dam. I would caution anyone hiking in this area to avoid the vault toilet located here if at all possible! I will not go into specifics!

As for book #47…

I recently read The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave in just a little more than a day while recovering from hand surgery. (I’m now 3 weeks post-surgery and my incision is now 2/3 healed. Unfortunately, I still can’t make a fist, which means there’s still a fair amount of swelling.)

This was the first book I’ve read by Laura Dave, and now I’d like to look to see if she’s written any other books. While I remember enjoying the book and that the fast pace kept me interested, I can’t remember too many of the details thanks to a post-surgical cocktail of painkillers.

A Ticky Day

Years and years ago, back when the kids were young, we’d walked the Mackinaw Bridge during the Labor Day Bridge Walk not knowing that way in the future we would be hiking the North Country Trail and that walking the bridge was part of completing the trail in Michigan. (I think it was Labor Day 2002 because the bridge was lined with National Guard Troops as we were still living in a state of hyper-worry following 9/11 the year before. I’m not sure what those troops would have been able to do to help any of us should someone have decided to take the bridge out, but there was probably someone who felt safer due to their presence. In my memory, though, I could have sworn that our son was with us. However, he wasn’t born until the following June.)

Did we enjoy walking the bridge? Should you do it?

It was definitely an experience.

An experience that I wouldn’t want to have again, though some people around here seem to make it an annual tradition.

The walk isn’t long compared to some that we’ve done. It does not compare to the nearly 26-mile hike we did in Pennsylvania last fall. But back then, with at least two little kids and us adults who weren’t the seasoned hikers we are today, those five miles were a lot. Especially when you consider that there are no restrooms available and you’re completely exposed to whatever weather the day happens to bring…which in Michigan could mean anything. Also, it’s a bridge, and I don’t like heights.

Early July (this year) found us just south of the bridge, picking up where we’d left off all those years before. It was a lovely, though warm, day for a 16-mile hike. We parked a bit south of the bridge and walked north toward the bridge through the Biishkimikiing Wild Area (yes, there are that many i’s in that word), which had a nicely paved path where we would see the strangest site we’ve ever seen while hiking. A woman rode past us on her bike with what I believe was a Macaw in a basket on her bike. (This is not the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen while enjoying nature. That award goes to the woman canoeing down the Manistee River with a monkey chilling under her shirt.)

After returning to where we’d parked the car, we continued south past French Farm Lake. This section of the trail gifted us with mosquitos, deer flies, and ticks despite our pre-hike “shower” of OFF. The tick count for the day was 6. Five of those ticks thought I made the more attractive host. It is a wonder how we’ve avoided Lyme Disease.

The feet and legs were a little sore as we finished the 16 miles, which made me wonder if I’d gone a little soft over the winter. I’ll have to adjust my winter workouts this coming winter to keep myself in tip-top hiking shape. There are still a lot of miles left to cover!

As for books…

I recently read Identity by Nora Roberts. I enjoyed this story which was typical non-trilogy Nora Roberts. (Meaning there weren’t any witches, vampires, or other made-up characters. I’m not a fan of supernatural-esque books.) I’d wanted to read the book for a while, but getting a new Nora Roberts title from our library involves a LONG wait.

Can someone explain to me why nearly every book she’s written in recent history has someone drinking a can of Coke? Is she getting marketing money or something? And is it an actual Coke or is that just used generically because she doesn’t want to get into the “pop” vs “soda” debate?

The Unwilling Hiker

It was mid-June. Middle Daughter was due to start her job downstate in just a few days. We wanted to get as much fun in before she left as we could since we knew we wouldn’t be able to see her as often as we were used to. It wasn’t as if she was moving across the country, but she would still be over two hours away.

This particular evening, we decided that the four of us (Hubby, Son, Middle Daughter, and I) would drive north for sushi. (Our town lacks restaurants that aren’t Mexican, American, or Chinese. I should note that when I say “our town,” I mean the closest neighboring town. Our actual town has maybe one or two mom-and-pop style establishments that serve food I can easily make in our own kitchen for half the price. Think grilled cheese and eggs and bacon. When residents of the neighboring town are questioned on the community Facebook page about what type of restaurants our area “needs,” the comments lean toward Indian and Japanese. But then a new Mexican restaurant pops up–there are six now–or another Chinese restaurant opens–there are three. I’m a fan of both types of food but a little variety would be nice!)

Anyway…I apologize for that tangent.

As I was saying, we decided to drive north for sushi. After a tasty dinner, we ended up at a short nearby hiking trail.

And that is when Son felt bamboozled.

He hadn’t signed up for a hike when he got in the car.

There was a lot of frowning and a lot of grumbling. If looks could kill, the photos would be considered armed and dangerous! As such, it’s best if I don’t share those here. I will, however, share a photo of the lovely area where we hiked. With that serene river flowing past, you’d think someone’s ire would have been tamed. Not so.

As for books…

I recently read The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. Shortly after reading the book, Hubby and I watched Knock at the Cabin, the M. Night Shyamalan adaptation. The book was engrossing–one of those rare books that are difficult to put down–but I really, really hated the ending. I also really, really hated the ending of the movie.

The book left this question unanswered: Were the four people who showed up at the cabin kooks or weren’t they? I hate when things aren’t neatly wrapped up. Am I the only one who thinks this is like the author saying they just couldn’t decide how to end things? There was something else that happened in the book that did not happen in the movie which I won’t mention because it would be a HUGE spoiler. And let’s just say it was horrific to think about.

As for the movie version…the ending was wrapped up, but I just didn’t like how it was wrapped up.

While it was a can’t-put-it-down kind of book, it was like that in a can’t-look-away-from-impending-disaster kind of way. I actually felt pretty gloomy after finishing it. And I was left with questions. Tough questions. Like, if four strangers showed up on our doorstep and told us that we had to sacrifice a member of the family to save the world, what would I do?

Sorry, y’all. Guess it’s the end of humanity.

O Canada

With just a couple weeks left at home before her big move downstate, Middle Daughter wanted to visit Canada. We live just a few hours from Sault Ste Marie, so we could easily manage a day trip. We selected a couple places to visit and set out on our Canadian Adventure early on a Sunday morning in mid-June.

Our first adventure for the day was a hike around St. Mary’s Island, which is located within view of the Sault Ste Marie Bridge that connects the Michigan city of Sault Ste Marie with the Canadian city of the same name. Unfortunately, due to high water, we weren’t able to explore the Whitefish Island loop that is connected to the St. Mary’s Island hiking trail. The portion of trail we were able to hike was pleasant, and there were boardwalks, which is always a plus!

Our next adventure took place on Gros Cap Trail near Prince, Ontario. Would I do this hike again? Probably not. The trail wasn’t well-marked. Though we had a pretty view of Lake Superior where we parked, there were no real views from the trail. The highlight seemed to be a hunk of rock at the peak.

We continued on to Kinsman Park near Thunder Bay, Ontario, which was a winner with a waterfall and many trails to choose from. We did struggle to figure out the trail system there, as there were many connecting trails and many signs! What wasn’t a winner, was the outhouse. I’ve seen some pretty nasty vault toilets in Michigan (There was a particularly disgusting one near the NCT near Croton Dam.), but I’ve never seen one this disgusting. You don’t want details.

Following an early sushi dinner (Don’t get me started on how you had to order singular rolls from the waitress and not on the tablet that she presented us with when we sat down, which was apparently only for if you were ordering all-you-can-eat and caused some confusion because this was not explained to us.), we took a walk through downtown Sault Ste Marie to see the many murals.

A quick ice cream stop at The Machine Shop put the cherry on top of the day and kept our bellies from rumbling as we waited an interminably long time to get back into the US.

As for books…

It took me FOREVER to read Revenge by Lisa Jackson. This novel was a compilation of three of her earlier books centered around a trio of siblings. Lisa Jackson’s books are hit or miss for me. I’ve enjoyed some in the past, but I just can’t get into them now.

A Short Stroll in a Pretty Place

It was a BIG day. An important day. Middle Daughter would be taking her nursing licensing exam. She wanted to focus all of her energy on her upcoming exam and none on driving herself to East Lansing where the test facility was located, so she asked Hubby and me to go along as moral support and chauffeur.

Oh, the stress! We knew she could pass. She’d been a 4.0 student all through college, but aren’t we all like that when we have to be tested on something? Worried that this will be the time we’ll fail when passing matters so much? And a lot was riding on her passing the exam. She had a job lined up, with a start date looming, that she wouldn’t be able to begin without a passing score.

Hubby and I dropped her off at the testing facility and assumed we would have several hours to enjoy some local pathways. Harrison Meadows Park was nearby, so we drove there and took a stroll on the adjacent Northern Tier Trail.

Harrison Meadows is alledgedly a “wildlife” park. Sadly, we saw no wildlife. What we did see, was a stunning display of copious quantities of dame’s rocket blooming along the sides of the trail.

I don’t recall how many miles we walked that morning, but it couldn’t have been many, as Middle Daughter called us up not long after we’d dropped her off for the test to let us kow she was finished.

Then the nail-biting began as we waited for her test results to be posted online. To pass the time, we dined at a nearby sushi restaurant. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long for her results. She found out she passed on our way home! (Amazingly, all her classmates also passed on their first attempt.)

As for books…

Hubby and I recently listened to The Outsider by Stephen King. Overall, I liked the story, though I’m not a fan of authors who inject their very obvious political leanings into their stories and paint all people of their political persuasion as wonderful and those of the other persuasion as horrible people. We don’t need that type of stereotyping and divisiveness everywhere we look.

Slow and Steady is How We Roll

Well maybe not roll, but it is how we hike.

A goal was reached in early June. Or, rather, .5 of a goal was been reached! Hubby and I finally completed half of the North Country Trail in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. We’ve been working on this goal since the first time we participated in the NCT Hike 100 challenge in 2018. Since that time, we’ve completed 295 continuous miles of trail in the lower peninsula. (As most of our hikes are out-and-backs, we’ve done most of these miles twice. We’ve also done some favorite nearby sections more than once, and we’ve completed some miles in southern Michigan, the upper peninsula, and Pennsylvania.)

On this day in early June Hubby, Middle Daughter, and I finished up a tiny wooded portion of that Boyne section we’d worked on the previous weekend. We’d run out of daylight and been unable to complete about a mile of trail. We then drove further north to tackle a section north of Petoskey. We added 7-1/2 miles to our tally for the year and would have added more if the mosquitoes hadn’t descended on us in droves whenever we stopped for a water break.

My highlight from the section north of Petoskey was finding several Dryad’s Saddle mushrooms. If you like interesting tidbits about mushrooms, here’s one: the Dryad’s Saddle acts as a parasite on living deciduous trees and as a decomposer on stumps and logs.

By my calculations, Hubby and I will need to live to be approximately 200 years old if we want to hike all 4,600+ miles of the North Country Trail. Or we’ll need to pick up the pace just a bit.

As for books…

I really, really enjoyed listening to The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica. I was so confused until almost the end!