Dale Painter's Biathlon Adventure Farm Country Savvy: Leave Gates as

A Biathlon Adventure on the North Country Trail By “Trail Dale” Painter

Most of us certainly lay claim to a favorite stretch of the North Country Trail. I’ve hiked mine numerous times over the past 20+ years. In early June, as I was contemplating yet another foray onto that very familiar, 48-mile section, I wondered how I might spice up or add a new dimension to my routine trek up the impressive Manistee River Valley in Michigan’s west-central lower peninsula.

Interestingly, I recalled reading a blog of two hikers who made a detour on their NCT hike along the Border Route Trail in northern Minnesota when they encountered an impassable stretch of dense underbrush and blow-downs. To salvage their hike, they spontaneously opted to rent a canoe from an outfitter at their nearby resupply stop and successfully by-passed about 30 miles of the problematic trail segment via a Boundary Waters canoe route. A light bulb suddenly flicked on in my normally landlubber-prone hiker brain: why not add a canoe leg to my early season hiking agenda?

Two days later, I found myself backpacking my favorite 48 miles of Trail up-river from Red Bridge as the NCT traverses, in roller-coaster fashion, the banks and high bluffs and bottomlands along the heavily forested Manistee River. However, instead of heading back home at my normal end-point near the Old M-131 Campground, I exchanged my hiking boots and trekking poles for water shoes and a canoe paddle in order to ride my (secretly stashed) canoe back downriver for the 65-river-mile return trip to my starting point and parked vehicle.

The venture offered a distinctly “bi-polar” approach for experiencing the beauty of both the Trail and the river but from two totally different visual and experiential perspectives… 22 hours of hiking followed immediately by 18 hours of canoeing. Ahhh, “variety is indeed the spice of life,” even on the NCT! By adding the canoetrail leg, I discovered a whole new realm of planning logistics, magical moments, and, yes, a few “trade-offs” unfolding before me.

New Sets of Logistics: Selecting the appropriate trail/river segment to be tackled requires a bit of study and research, especially related to the river leg of the “hike.” Of course, the NCT map sets give the exact mileage and terrain for the hiking leg but I needed to check out a whole different set of maps and guides to plan and navigate the river leg. This includes factors such as river access points, on-water distances and float times, potential camping spots, degree of difficulty (rapids/white water) and assessing whether I had the requisite canoeing skills to meet the river’s challenges. Fortunately, the upper Manistee River involves only strong currents and hidden snags, but no real white water, although all of the river’s twists and meanderings present real challenges knowing exactly where you are and how far you have to go!

Further downstream, paddling across the expansive seven-mile-long open backwaters of Hodenpyl Dam necessitates additional decisions aimed at reducing effort and fatigue. Ideally, the long crossing needs to be carefully timed (early morning or evening is best) to avoid the usual head winds that can set up exhausting battles with the whitecaps and waves. Below the dam, the logistical challenges continue as a whole different character of the river emerges as the now-quickly flowing river stirs up exhilarating sets of rapids requiring modest river-reading and paddling skills.

Dale starts to haul his canoe out of hiding, with his hiker pack still on his back.

Photos: Matthew Painter (Dale's son)

Determining where and how to pre-plant my canoe and canoe gear poses another important strategic decision to ensure that my canoe and gear would be there when I arrived several days later! In my case, I had planned to ask the campground host at the Old 131 State Forest Service Campground if he or she would watch my stuff at their site, but when I found the entire campground deserted, I decided to paddle my canoe downriver a mile or so and hide it on the bank, below a point where I’d be passing by on the NCT. I was also careful to hang the food and gear bags for the canoe leg in a tree to protect it from four-legged critters.

This naturally leads to decisions about the new sets of gear that need to be taken. Miserly-like packing of my backpacking stuff has become a complete no-brainer for me, but since I had never done a solo overnight river trip, I had to consult with my canoeing-obsessed son for advice and equipment decisions (life jacket, paddles, dry bags, Crazy Creek canoe seat, sponge, ropes.) Unlike packing my minimalist Osprey backpack (where every ounce and inch of space matter), loading my ancient 17-foot, aluminum Grumman canoe was pure heaven! There were seemingly tons of “cargo space!” I confess that I even threw in a folding lawn chair, but resisted the temptation to take a cooler for beverages. (Hey, I’m still headed into the backcountry, not to a pool party!)

New Sets of Magical Moments: Prior to my June biathlon, I never realized just how different the landscape of the NCT appears when viewed looking up from the open water in a canoe as opposed looking down from the forest banks and bluffs of the footpath. For example, a totally unexpected thrill shot through my psyche the first time I caught a river-level glimpse of one of those comforting blue blazes painted on a tree up in the woods that signaled the NCT was right there beside me!

Wildlife encounters are always magical moments anywhere on the NCT. However, the river’s more open sight-lines greatly increased my chances of viewing my furry and feathered friends, especially in the morning and late afternoon hours: a doe and her two fawns lapping water at river’s edge; a family of racoons digging in the river bank; muskrats swimming across the current; turtles basking on logs; two up-close encounters with bald eagles swooping low searching for breakfast; the frantic, broken-wing acting job of a mama merganser as she flopped and zig-zagged wildly in front of my canoe to protect her newly hatched ducklings from the menacing, shiny monster passing by; and the numerous families of swans, Canada geese, and sandhill cranes which graced the sandbars ushering the entrance onto Hodenpyl Pond.

I will also not soon forget the simple pleasures afforded by the canoe leg, like the stash of fresh apples and oranges I carted along that I would never dream of toting in my backpack, or dangling my hot stinky feet over the gunwales of my canoe into the cool, refreshing water as I quietly glided along. And I discovered that the proverbial “trail angels” are also alive and well for the backpacker who just happens to be riding in a canoe. Case-in-point: As I reached the portage point at Hodenpyl Dam after four hours of uninterrupted Continued on page 14

CREATE YOUR OWN BIATHLON TRAIL EXPERIENCE WHEREVER THE NCT COINCIDES WITH A WATERWAY. A STATE-BY-STATE SAMPLING OF OPTIONS MIGHT INCLUDE:

North Dakota: Sheyenne River, Lake Ashtabula, Lake Audubon/Sakakawea

Wisconsin: Brule-St Croix River Portage, Upper Lake St. Clair

Michigan: Kalamazoo River, Manistee River, Lake Superior Shoreline (150+ miles!)

Minnesota: Boundary Waters Canoe Area Ohio: Miami River, Maumee River, Auglaize River

Pennsylvania: Allegheny River, Kinzua Reservoir, Lake Arthur

New York: Black Water Feeder Canal, Erie Canal