Backpacking the North Country/Manistee River Trail Loop

Description

Kyle and I did a 20 mile weekend backpacking trip in mid Michigan in the Huron-Manistee National Forest

Check out Kyle's youtube channel, he has some good videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEwOVEv2hfeLkXU_G_-8QOw

Tags: Backpacking,bushcraft,Camping,River,michigan

Video Transcription

okay Joe and Kyle and Joe and I Kyle and Joe and I we're about to embark on a two night backpacking trip we're going to cover about 20 miles we're in the here on National Forest the Manistee part of it got here last night about 11:30 night set up camp basically in the parking lot and so at 7 o'clock the morning got up about ready to go and we're gonna head out this is what we're dealing with mid April 2014 tons of snow of a mid Michigan still normally this would be all gone by now but it's not so bad the trails compact and there are lots of grass or bare earth we opted for trail runners this time to go lightweight it's working pretty good so far what's up yeah yeah it is wow this is a nicer spot that thought it was gonna be what's going on Joe Oh take it off a puffy jacket because a little warm now yeah the mineral coumarine oh yeah two times we got still got snow everywhere it's now starting to get warm and it's we keep postponing it's not not very much fun that's going on there huh see that this is a nice spring back back inside to be fair we are we are off trail right now but the trails not much better you called out again cuff is a regular occurrence isn't

Oh Pass

let's wear trail runners oh it's more than a foot deep I'm going down to my knees okay

you found the trail it's not much better Oh little one here it's no fun oh I just want to push you over right now okay no try the Express trip this is either gonna work or not yeah bill keeps like cutting me in back but it's really paying the butt so here goes nothing roll Kyle roll roll yeah I'm not doing that I will walk my eyes around ya scoot like a dog it's 10:30 we're making great time lots of snow we're on sheep ranch road - I think we were I don't know little me almost about quarter way down to the trail so I think good time this is a pretty cool area we're in this red pine plantation it's a little windy around here as the rivers right there we finally reach the Manistee river we've been walking five and a half hours maybe so we'll go over there and check it out no hopefully it's not too windy on the camera but here's a big old Manistee River and we're going to hike along it and cross the spent suspension bridge try to find this waterfall and camp there tonight we're about done it'll be about six hours that we've been hiking by the time we get there so looking forward to some grub and some whiskey that's no joke so mate it's the suspension bridge I guess this bridge was put in not too long able to connect the north country trail and the Manistee trail so that's how we're able to do a loop

we started the day and it was 28 degrees now it's about 67 so it's really warmed up by the it's lovely found this nice Creek we're going to hang out for a minute and relax well we've got everything set up for the night we've got a fire going everything's good we camp right here this nice Creek here so it's pretty relaxing it's good area keeps raining on and off but not much you can do about that this is a fun trip so far having a blast we walk for 8 mile 8 hours today probably took about an hour break total so I'd say actually walk for seven hours cover about twelve miles blood was through this like deep snow which is kind of hard to do but put your creation Kyle got our wind shelter set up set up fire in front all sorts of wood behind and Kyle's rigging up a little cross piece for this drying rack /pha hair cool bushcraft Engineering this is Kyle's a modified wind resistant lean-to Deeley I really liked the way he set that up he's pretty sheltered in there on three sides that's pretty cool

set up with his trekking poles lines over here just the normal a frame my war bonnet tarp which is an awesome tarp real lightweight and get it real tight I got it down low to the ground try to keep any wind off coming from the sides I got my setup in there just a bivy Kyle made with my suit pad and sleeping bag can you explain the method and the reasoning behind the trail runner shoes and what we're going to do with our socks and all that so what we've been walking through today has pretty much been puddles and snow up to our legs even if we had boots on our feet would have just got completely drenched because they can't breathe past soaked boots so it's better and lighter - you know we're lighter shoes and they dry out a lot faster they're actually pretty dry right now but we're going to dry them out next to fire and would be good to go by morning and we what do we do with our sucks we're going to use this you know same mount that we use for our pots put a stick up there and lay our socks over and they'll be dry we can switch them out I brought three pairs of socks what did you bring I got one pair of sleep - during the day yep I'll probably wash them out in the creek so they get rid of all the dirt and stuff and then hang them up there and draw make sense to me feet are dry now for the first time in over ten hours you got that great thing set up in front of the fire here in soles and shoes and socks I'll dry it out actually these things holes to feel pretty dry gotta love a hot fire all righty if the rehydrated ground beef rice and vegetables call it a meal we've already seriously all right the Cedar Creek for basically a couple hours away from our site for today and it's only not even 12 o'clock so we're making good time today we did a lot Esther day so today we don't have to do so much nice little area though so those hills off in the distance we were in there yesterday and the peaks and valleys walking in there and walked all the way around the river and now we're at this huge sand dune that we were actually able to see yesterday from those hills over there which is pretty cool we're at the campsite for tonight and starting to rain a little bit more we were walking through the rain fells down there and the shelter I'm in here just kind of hanging out we're exhausted we just got here anyway so take a little breather before we try and go get some firewood and all that it started raining considerably more so we're hunkered down under the tarp we got a bunch of wood out there and a bunch in here and comedic firewood storage with another tart behind me so we've got some dry wood

not want to split yes yes stuff well six o'clock down it's still raining and getting pretty cold the winds kicking up and whatnot the joys of camping in the early spring

well we're we were only about a mile away from our car at that campsite and this rain ain't stopped and it's supposed to get worse and it's dropped down to about thirty so it's cold and wet and we don't really have anybody you'll impress we feel like evening stuffed-crust pizza and sleeping in a hotel tonight so that's what we're going to do there's a great trip had a lot of fun and thanks for watching guys hope you come along for the next one