Trip Reports

April's Fools Day (4/01) Manistee hike AM, paddle PM & Polar Bear Plunge

With 82-degree sunshine, why not make the most of this gorgeous day, and we all did, including the first annual April Fool's Day "Polar Bear Plunge"!

First, Nancy Briggs & Paula Dreeszen joined me for a 10-mile, 4-hr hike on the Manistee River Hiking Trail from Red Bridge to Woodpecker Creek near Hodenpyl Dam, where we'd locked up my solo Sandpiper canoe & my tandem Northwind. Along the trail, we met up with some ex-teaching friends of Nancy's from Cadillac, and 3 college men backpacking. Paula identified many of the birds serenading us along the way, and we found some early flowers, just starting to pop out.
 
Marv & Marlene Puska met us when we got back to Woodpecker Creek at 1:30 for a gorgeous 10-mile, 2-hr paddle back to Red Bridge, Nancy's first tandem, and Paula's first solo canoe. We avoided all of the "gators" (tree trunks stuck in the river facing upstream), trying to snag a dozing paddler, but were almost attacked by Canadian Geese. We also shared the river with mergansers, a muskrat & an eagle.  As we began to broil in the unaccustomed hot sun, a swim kept sounding better & better, which I am seldomed enticed to do, being so cold-natured. After much discussion, we all pulled over to a sand bar so Nancy & I could take the Polar Bear Plunge. There will never be another April Fool's Day when it's 82-degrees in northwest Michigan, and that's no fooling!