Monday, May 31, 2010

Michigan Trail Running Vacation Article--Pt. 1

A stressful, manic month of work left me frazzled & sick to death of Corporate America, and it was time to find myself again deep in the heart of northern Michigan. Mission accomplished.
After going north out of Flint for just over an hour I headed northeast out of Tawas City and deep into the heart of Huron National Forest for three days of trail running. My first foray into the woods was at Corsair hiking and x-country ski trails. The sign actually said there were exactly a total of 26.2 miles of trails, which of course made it the perfect spot to start a running weekend. My map indicated that there were easy, moderate and most difficult stretches. Those designations were for the skiers, but I would agree that the Most Difficult stretches weren't particularly easy (read: hilly). I fell in love with the place immediately; very runnable two-track through woods, woods & more woods.





Saw a couple deer, and zero people. Did a nice 9 miler to get my legs under me, then did a quick drive over to Harrisville for a swim in Lake Huron and some dinner.





That night I camped at Horseshoe Lake campground (caught a couple nice bass from the shore) and set off the next morning for Hoist Lake foot trails. My achilles had a knot in it which would dog me the entire day, but it didn't hurt, I knew it was temporary and it didn't really affect my running. This was mainly single track with varied cushy terrain,





again hilly and only when I was near the 3 lakes where the campground was did I see any people. Otherwise, I had the entire forest to myself.





Ran about 12 miles (out of a possible 20+), didn't want to push it with the heel-issue.
Later that day I visited Reid Lake foot trails & campground, would've loved to run these 8+ miles of two-track but instead just did about a two-mile hike to see the lake, drop a line in the water & get a feel for the place. So peaceful, serene, it just epitomized northern Michigan. I then drove to Jewel Lake for a swim, and that night I camped at Pine River campground, which required a long, bumpy 2 mile drive on dirt roads and was well worth it. The best places on earth have to be earned, right? They used to grow rainbow trout in this section of river 70 years ago. I literally saw a hundred fish jump in the span of 15 minutes, I think baby rainbows or small brook trout. Did a two mile hike through more dense forest at sunset, which was yet another highlight of a trip filled with highlights.
Woke up the next morning with miraculously no more achilles issues, and headed north to Negwegon State Park, which required another long, slow drive on remote sandy road. At this park there are two loops of woodsy two-track, the shorter Potowatomi which runs along the lakeshore and gets really sandy (almost un-runnably so) and the longer Algonquin. I did both, and then did most of the Algonquin again because, after 2.5 hours of running, I felt like a million bucks and didn't want to stop. Those last 1.5 hours were the most enjoyable running I think I've ever done. It was effortless, I was in the zone, truly zen running at it's finest. Maybe it's because it was fairly flat and hills tend to chew me up & wear me out, maybe it was the remoteness of the area, maybe I was on endorphins overload. Generally it was exceedingly runnable,



other times it was Dude Where's My Trail (hint: it's right in the middle of this shot)




and it got swampy in spots. I wouldn't change it for the world. Ran 19 miles that I will never forget. Afterwards I took a short walk to the lake for a quick dip before heading back home.
I wish my three day weekend could've been doubled because there were many other areas that I had to save for another trip (I skipped Highbanks, and Eagle Run that goes along the Au Sable river, etc.). But it was a great introduction and I learned a lot: for example, if you're going to do three days of camping & trail running when temps are in the 80's, you must have a nearby water source for post-run swims. This will hopefully be the first of many more trips up to the greatest unknown trail running mecca in America: Northern Michigan.