Top Ten

A 1,288-acre former Boy Scout camp is now open to the public as a nature preserve.

The place once known as Camp Tapico re-opened last week following a four-year, $4 million campaign by the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy to save the wilderness in Kalkaska County from development.

The property, now known as Upper Manistee Headwaters: The Milock Family Preserve, features a 130-acre spring-fed lake, a mile of the north branch of the Manistee River, more than 13 types of wetlands, several kettle-hole ponds and a mix of northern forests and fields.

The property was operated as a Boy Scout camp from 1946 to 2012 and had long been on the conservancy’s radar. When it went up for sale on the open market in 2016, the property was nearly sold to a private developer before the conservancy swooped in.

The property is now open to the public and features a six-mile trail network.

Inland Seas Education Association’s (ISEA) flagship schooner, Inland Seas, is back at it. Following a long break this spring and early summer, the bright green boat with the bright red sails just made her way up the bay from Traverse City to her home dock in Suttons Bay. And Aug. 3, the ol’ gal will kick off its entertaining and educational public sails — Evening Sky Gazing, Fishes of Lake Michigan, Great Lakes Under the Microscope, and a Fall Color Sail, to name just a few. Act quickly to make your reservations; extra health and safety precautions will be in place, which means reduced capacity on the ship and limited tickets available. Learn more at fareharbor. com/schoolship

The North’s most famous juggler, magician, street show performer, and unabashedly corny comedian, Tommy Tropic, will attempt to break the Guinness Record for “Farthest distance traveled on inline skates whilst juggling three objects” Friday, Aug. 7, on the Boyne Valley Bike Path, starting near Dam Road at 6:30pm and finishing at Boyne Mountain. One mile will break the record, but in typical overthe-top Tommy Tropic style, he’s going for two. And he’s making the feat all the more worthwhile by turning it into a fundraiser for the nonprofit ACT Katwe, an acrobatics circus troupe that fights poverty by teaching acrobatics and juggling to 200 kids in Katwe, the largest slum in Kampala, Uganda. The event starts with a 5pm cocktail hour on the lawn of the Mountain Grand Hotel at Boyne Mountain Resort, Boyne Falls.

767 Duell Rd. Traverse City 1833-WB-CATER (922-2837) westbaycatering@gmail.com westbaycatering.com

If you’re among the lot that likes your chardonnay “unoaked” yet find yourself thirsty for something that’ll sprout hair on your chest long before it lifts your pinky, consider the equally elegant but considerably harder (and, happily, hardly fast) Northern Rye. The latest from Mammoth Distilling has spent the last nine years in two different American oak barrels — at least seven served in a second-fill oak barrel and just a portion of that spirit in a new oak barrel for the remaining months. The result is what Mammoth Founder Chad Munger calls a brighter, more versatile whiskey than your usual oak-dominated straight rye whiskey. The flavor of its grains — mostly rye with just a wee bit of corn and barley, but each distilled separately, then blended — outshines any oaky notes with hints of vanilla, pear, cherry, and a llingering ginger spice we found especially refreshing over ice and downright fantastic in an Old Fashioned. Find a recipe for a classic Old Fashioned, made with Mammoth’s not-so-traditional Northern Rye, at www.mammothdistilling.com; find yourself a bottle where Imperial Beverages are sold. (Not available in Mammoth’s tasting rooms.) Northern Express Weekly • aug 03, 2020 • 5