I had punched the coordinates to Red Bridge River access into the GPS and parked the truck there. After getting our packs on we were greeted by a couple of Boy Scout Troop leaders from Fruitport, MI. We chatted for a while. Their maps were much better than ours and they offered us one to take with us, I am not used to hand outs so this little bit of trail magic was awkward for me at first but paid off big dividends along the trail. One of them informed us that we weren't supposed to park here but had to use a lot about a half mile east of there. The Manistee River Trailhead isn't near the Red Bridge access parking lot, parking is on the North Country Trail side. Before we left we posed for a picture, then stowed our bags and moved our truck to the trail head.Once we finally had the truck parked in the right place we donned our packs, did a quick gear check, and headed the wrong way down the trail. After we hiked a few hundred yards down the trail my internal compass turned us around the correct way and we headed the correct way down the trail. The first half mile or so is relatively flat until you reach the first hill of the trail. I would wager this is the longest climb on the entire loop.
Daylight was quickly fading so we found a suitable site to set up a tent along the trail and made camp for the night. Darkness quickly settled in around us and the critters of the night came out to play. The real adventure begins tomorrow.
