Manistee River Trail Loop - Day 3

Sunday morning was cold.  We woke up a little earlier on Sunday than we did on Saturday.  I boiled water for coffee and oatmeal, we packed up camp, and headed south down the trail.  There was a large family camped at the coveted campsite four.  As we crossed through the camp site I wasn't sure what the allure was, perhaps that it's on a bluff overlooking the river is what gives it its appeal.  Immediately south of the campsite is a small flowing stream that leads to a waterfall.  The water is crystal clear and sounded like a much bigger water fall.

 We crossed the bridge over the stream and walked next to camp site number three.  In my opinion this is a much nicer site. 

As we walked along the trail we noticed that this trail was a bit more technical than the North Country Trail side. However the views from this side were spectacular, not only of the river, but of the areas reclaimed by nature.  Where the NCT side of the river was a typical hardwoods trail, the MRT side was much more diverse.

We made good time on the trail, putting some distance between us and last night's camp site in a relatively short amount of time.  We stopped for a snack on a ridge overlooking the river.  I had my second grapefruit of the trip.

After our break we had several uneventful miles.  I remember passing by a mile marker that said "5 MILES" and thought it was odd because I didn't remember seeing any other mile markers and it made me wonder what we were 5 miles from.  As we made it to the aptly named log bridge I noticed something floating in the water.  I walked to the left of the bridge and saw a mother duck and several ducklings behind her trying to swim against the current.  Aparently my appearance on the shore was enough of a distraction to make them forget about swimming for a second and head down stream.  One of the ducklings got stuck behind a log but swam to the side and got carried by the current to the rest of his family.  It was cool to see them swimming together.

 I'm not sure if it's because it was early in the season, or if the trail has been neglected, but we had crossed several places along the trail where the ground had eroded away leaving gaping holes in both the trail and campsites.  This left a few unsafe locations along the trail, but they were easily spotted and avoided.

In preparing for the trip I head read where there was a short section of trail that went through a swampy area and was known for getting hiker's feet wet.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that somebody had placed wood planks as a foot path through this section, and we made it through unscathed.

The remainder of our journey was uneventful.  We passed a father with his new born child in a carrier on his chest headed north.  It appeared that they were only out for a short hike, but I thought it was cool that he was introducing his child to the woods at such an early age.

We made our way up the final ascent of the trail prior to reaching Coates Highway.  I had forgotten that we had to hike almost a mile along the road to get back to our parking area.  I left Chrissy near the trail head, took off my pack, and hiked the last section solo.  I made it to the truck, rolled down the windows, turned my phone back on, and returned to pick her up.  It was nice to not know what time it was for a couple days, I didn't miss my phone either.

We headed east toward Manistee and stopped at Big Al's Pizza in Manistee.  We had been told that they had great subs, and we weren't lied to.  We both ordered a sub and the largest Coke they had.  It was delicious!  We talked about the trip for a few miles as we headed south toward home and made plans for the next one...

More Photos from the Trip   Hike to Afterthoughts