20 of 52
I set out this lovely Saturday to beat my personal bests in both individual hike and single day milage, which I accomplished. I hiked the entirety of the Highbanks Trail, which is a 12.7 out and back along the AuSable River between Oscoda and Iargo Springs. The “difficulty” of this trail is definitely in the length, not the trail itself, but I really appreciated the challenge and the since of accomplishment that finishing it brought me. I started and Oscoda and hiked back, but 50 Hikes in Michigan has you start in Iargo Springs and only does a portion of the trail, just past Lumberman’s Monument. I felt the book was a bit misleading, actually, as it only counts the OUT in its hike and is actually only a portion of the trail. Still, this is a good thing to remember when planning for some of my other hikes. I ran out of water with about two miles left of my hike, so it may finally be time to invest in a water bladder.
Right before I got to Lumberman’s Monument, I ended up on the Forestry Discovery Trail, which was super cool, as it taught you about the lumber industry which used to thrive in Huron National Forest and talked about the efforts that U.S. Forestry makes now to ensure the forest is growing healthy and protected. Lumberman’s Monument (my quarter-way point), near Monument Campground was hopping. Using it as a short break point, I kept myself masked due to all the people.
Then, I came across a first, the remnants of a forest fire. While I only hiked through approximately half a mile of burned forest, crossing paths with the forestry workers, this was an offshoot of a bigger fire in Brittle that had consumed 200 acres by that morning. Due to this, there was constant noise on the entire trail, as Forestry worked with chainsaws and planes and helicopters kept tabs on the incident overhead. For safety, Monument Campground was closed, but all other public spots in the area remained open.
Following this encounter, I came across Canoers’ Memorial, which had a beautiful view of AuSable River, and told me about the AuSable Marathon. (I thought running marathons were rough, but an overnight 120-mile canoe race sounds insane to me.) When I finally made it to Iargo Springs for my half-way point and some lunch, I met with a state officer who filled me in a little more about the fire, assuring me the area I was in was under control. I did not hike down to the springs (a 300-step trek from the observation deck), because I was over 6 miles in and had another 6 to go, but I did see several people go on that adventure while I sat there.
I was disappointed that you don’t get to see more of the AuSable on the trail, because you hike alongside it the entire time, but often can’t see its beauty. There are a couple of great dune overlooks that are worth climbing up for those views though. I was also surprised to learn a good portion of the trail is along power lines, so that was a little rough too, especially because the terrain around them were much more sand than the beaten path of the woods you also encounter.
Raven K 