Went up to my sisters cabin in Brethren, MI and after everyone else left to go back home I stayed for an extra day to do some hiking on a North Country Trail 'loop' known as The Manistee River Trail.
It's a 10 mile trail (one way) in my brilliance I decided to see if I could do the entire thing... 'there and back again'... 20 miles... of course I didn't decide this until I was already at the 5 mile point... meaning:
1. I started too late in the day
2. I only had about a quart of water.
3. I didn't have a flashlight
4. I didn't have any of the other 'emergency survival kit' junk one would normally take on a walk to the {mmm...tasty} end of nowhere.
At mile 9 I helped out a couple who were lost and trying to find some waterfalls (they went the wrong direction from their trail head)... we talked for a bit and they were kind enough to mention that I was a little crazy to try this task...especially without a flashlight... my response was that' I'm pretty good in the dark'... it was a clear sky and I did a night hike once before in Basic Training and in general I kick {mmm...tasty} at land navigation... so I went on to the end point and started to head back...
now that I hit the point of no return ... (err 'point of return or 'else'') and made a couple mile dent in my return trip let me take a bit to sum up my situation.
1. I had plenty of food
2. I had about a 3/4 bottle of aquafina water left. (out of an initial 3 bottles)
3. it's clouding up.
4. I've been on the trail for 8 hours.
5. I spot some large canine tracks
6. It's 8pm and getting dark fast.
Around mile 13 I get an idea that I should get 'some sort of water' to replace my last two swigs of purified water... so I find the cleanest tributary and fill my empty bottles (generally a very big no-no)
I push on and by mile 15 I could still see the trail but I had to pull out my only light...my cell phone... to read the mile marker. by mile 16 I'm flipping the phone open occasionally to see the trail... mile 17 had been burned so I had to keep the phone open continuously...
another thing... between mile 13 and 15 I spooked about 12 deer... so the river was getting very active with wildlife... and it was very much in my mind that there were bear, coyotes, and possibly timber wolves (a man was breeding them locally - who was later shot by police)
At mile 17 my phone rings... (yes Verizon still has service on most places up there)
it was my sister
(paraphrased)
sis: I was just calling to see how the hike went.
me: oh... well... I'm still on it.
sis: {mmm...tasty}?! how far did you go?
me: Red Bridge to Hodenpyle
sis: Holy Hell!
me: yeah... I'm using my cell as a flashlight
sis: I'll stop wearing down your battery then...
After this it is very dark and to make matters worse there are multiple 'user made' trails...and the actual trail is marked sporadically with non reflective aluminum diamonds.
I chug along the trail with a bit of stumbling because the 'cell light' doesn't afford much depth perception... I've already gone though the first bottle of stream water... when I get to a marshy area I promptly fall in..soaking my shoes.
Shortly after I trip and accidentally hit my phone onto speaker phone and hit a bunch of buttons... with all the tones being blared across the wilderness animals go nuts... it's like it was the mating call for everything within a 100 yard radius.
I finally get to the last major creek... (mile 18) cross the bridge and cant pick up the trail on the other side...
During this process I learned a number of ways to stay on the trail:
1. you cold usually make out the worn relfection in the low light of the cell phone.
2. Often there was a break in the overhead canopy where the trail was.
3. always... when you went off the trail you ran into
-like leaves, fallen trees, branches, etc.
But I was stumped... I found the trail marker...but couldn't detect the trail... I was getting really worried at this point... If I lost the trail I have to squat for the night and deal with the wildlife. But persistence paid off and I found it after about 15 minutes...
Fortunately the last two miles were fairly straight forward... ie if you go to far right you fall off a bluff into the Manistee river... I had my camera with me so I used my light duty tripod as a cane to feel along the trail to find the roots and bumps I couldn't make out with the phone...
Obviouly... I made it out...at 11:30 pm... which was almost exactly 11 hours.
side effects:
1. I'm sore as hell
2. stream water seems to have been ok
3. I count a total of 7 blisters
but I'm not little bits of bear food.
