Senior Living 2017
Stay active and healthy! Check MyNorth.com/outdoors for ideas.
Janice Dustin
COURTESY OF JANICE DUSTIN
N RS
Janice Dustin is always on the look-out for an outdoor adventure, no matter the time of year or type of weather. The 68-year-old keeps news clippings of articles she finds that offer ways to explore Northern Michigan. “My husband and I have found all kinds of fun places,” says Janice, who lives in Traverse City. This is how she discovered the trails off Brown Bridge Road—in the Grand Traverse Conservation District’s Brown Bridge Quiet Area—which are now among the couple’s favorite spots to snowshoe and hike with friends. Last year, Janice learned of winter paddling. “I was reading about rafting from East Jordan and I thought, Oh, my gosh, does this ever sound fun.” She promptly reached out to her cycling friends through the Traverse City Senior Center to gauge their interest in the adventure. “They said, ‘sure,’ so I called the rafting place. We had probably 15 people, and it was just—I felt like I was back in seventh grade. One of the fellas was sitting in front of me and all of the trees were covered in snow. When we got close to the shoreline, he would grab those trees, and I was so wet and we made so much noise … It was so beautiful with all the snow. It was so much fun.” Afterward, the group enjoyed lunch and beer-tasting at Short’s Brewery in Bellaire. “When I plan an outing, I am always all about the food,” Dustin says, laughing. Janice credits her mom with nurturing a love of the outdoors—and an active lifestyle—throughout her childhood. “My mom and her dad used to take a walk together every night after dinner,” she says. “And my mom and
dad, they were very active, too. They started biking. We lived on a lake and my dad would get up and go for a swim before going to work.” When her kids were in preschool, Janice and her mom would go into town on bikes and pick up the children. Janice raised three daughters with husband Jim, 70, in Lake Orion where she grew up. Now, with four grandchildren and one “great-grandbaby,” the couple continues to stay active—in part “to keep up with them,” she says. They also enjoy the many friends they’ve met since coming north in the summers to their cottage on the south side of Elk Lake and then when moving up here permanently about 13 years ago. It was shortly after 9/11 when Janice lost her job at an ad agency, prompting the couple to retire in Northern Michigan. They now divide their time between a condo in Traverse City and the cottage on Elk Lake. Friends encouraged them to get involved with the many activities at the Senior Center. It’s where they’ve connected with people for hiking, snowshoeing and cycling excursions. Janice, who strives to reach 12,000 steps each day, also spends time at the gym, where she takes a twiceweekly “Silver and Fit” aerobics class. Last summer, to celebrate her 68th birthday, she and Jim rode 68 miles through the U.P. “For me, going and playing bridge, that’s not what I want to do,” she says. “I want to be out burning calories. I want to be the older people who are active.”
From the publisher of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine
2017_SL.indd 9
9
3/6/17 12:36 PM