I took the photooo below as we were heading due west this morning from the Houghton Lake area to a section of the North Country Trail that follows along the Manistee River.

We had cloudless blue skies the whole day. It was in the 20s when I got up this morning and I made the GG stop at a gas station a few miles away from our trailhead destination so I could de-layer a bit, namely get rid of the DKNY tights that serve as both biz-caz winter hosiery and long underwear. That rather difficult operation required a bathroom.

We have never hiked this part of the North Country Trail before. When we got to the trailhead, the GG asked me if I wanted a hiking stick. I hemmed and hawed and asked what the trail would be like. I didn’t get a straight answer. Neither of us have hiked this trail before. I said no… Maybe not the best idea. The first quarter mile or so of our hike was straight up, or so it seemed. I was thinking something like, “I am gonna die!” (Why didn’t all of those walks I took up and down the Sault Ste. Siberian escarpment this winter prepare me for this…)

Anyway, once we got to the top, the view was something like this!

Our total hiking mileage was close to nine miles today. This was an absolutely gorgeous section of the trail. Here’s the GG at one of the high points.

And here is yer fav-o-rite blahgger. Playing bejeweled? Probably not on this trip… 😉

And then, we went down to Dublin (and my dern GPS thingy can’t even find Dublin in its database…) But there is the best jerky/grokkery store in Dublin. Just please do not buy the ostrich jerky. It will stink the heck out of your vee-hickle.

This was one of the most bee-yoo-tifful driving days ever. Totally blue skies all day and no wind. I drove us back to Houghton Lake from Dublin. Past Mitchell Lake and Cadillac Lake in the city of Cadillac and Missaukee Lake in Lake City. Driving from Lake City to Houghton Lake, I was going 70 (which is waaaay above the speed limit) but it felt like 50.

Home again… I took a long, hot shower and washed my hiking clothes. I couldn’t figger out where the GG was for a while but then I saw him down in the water putting up dock sections. In early April…

We sat outside and drank cocktails in the late afternoon and I heard a neighbor tell some children, “You can go down as far as the Courtois place but don’t go any further.” The Courtois place is *our* place and we sat out there and talked to the neighbor’s little girls and their dad when he came out. Life is good today. I hope it stays that way for a while…

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