40 miles in 3 days...by accident
Stunning views. Easy navigation.
Highlights: This hike is beautiful. It is easy to navigate. The trail is very well marked with only mild elevation changes throughout. There are long periods where you hike along the lakeshore on cliffs and have many stunning overlooks to observe the famous "sea caves" and arches. There is beautiful varied terrain and landscapes. We started at the Grand Sable Visitors Center. The first place we took a break was at Log Slide, which was about 4 miles (ish) in. This is a can't miss spot with beautiful, massive dunes. We stayed at Au Sable Campground the first night which was nice, but not stunning. We wish we had explored a bit past the campground before dinner and checked out the lighthouse. The second night was a bit of an adventure as we weren't a fan of our campground (Coves)...see lowlights. My two favorite campgrounds that I saw were sevenmile and beaver creek. We encountered our first bear, which was awesome. It was about 25 yards from us and was standing on the trail. We saw it before it saw us. I contemplated taking a picture, but chose life and shouted "Hey Bear", while clicking my poles. It looked at us and took off away from us, terrified. There is almost always access to water. The most we had to carry was a liter and a half on one long stretch. Finally, I LOVE wooden bridges. I am not sure why. I just think they are beautiful. This hike has a TON of them.
Lowlights: If you are hiking in the summer there is a good chance the mosquitos will be dense. There are long periods where you are not walking along the ledges where the wind would keep them at bay. We spent a few miles walking along the rocky beach rather than on the trail in order to avoid the bugs. We had to walk fast and spray often. On our second night we had reserved Coves campground, which sits back into the woods and has areas of standing water, so the bugs were terrible. We instead pitched our tents on a cliff, which proved terrifying at 1 AM when a huge wind and rain storm came in. We relocated inland at that point for safety. On our last day we somehow missed the cutoff for our campground. Our 12 mile day turned into a 19 mile day and we had to hike to the car since there was not another place to camp. It was painful, but we did it. The experience helped us learn that our ideal daily distance is between 10-14 miles. 15 is our max.
Tips: Nock and I parked at the Munising Visitors Center and took the shuttle to the last stop: Grand Sable Visitors Center. The shuttle took about an hour and a half. It was very convenient to take the shuttle first and hike back to our car. Chapel Beach is another beautiful campground.
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