Camping, Hiking and Backpacking Plans for this Year
It’s been a crazy year and I’m eager to get outside and spend some time with mother nature. I sure I’m not the only one. There is probably going to be a giant swarm of people at the big popular spots. I just hope that they practice good leave-no-trace practices. There’s quite a few places that I want to check out near my home state of Michigan. Right now, its rather cold though, so it’s almost too early to start camping. However, once the weather gets to be a little nicer, I’m planning on hiking at least one overnight trail a month. I’ll probably have to start in late March, in the more southern parts.
Consider this post part planning, part gear discussion and part message to take care of our backcountry areas.
Travel Plans
Most of these places are in Michigan, or close to Michigan, but these are my rough hiking plans for the future.
Morth Manitou Island
This is a pretty short hike overall. Only 14 miles, but the location makes up for it. This is supposedly a great location for stargazing, since you’re in the middle of the lake with not a lot of artificial light. Really looking forward to this. Probably going to go in June or so. Campsites here book super fast.
Porcupine Mountain Wilderness Loop
This trail is way up in the Porcupine Mountains, or the Porkies as some call them. There’s a beautiful view of Lake of the Clouds. I want to hit this in the fall. Probably September or October.
Potawatomi Trail
I would like to hit this trail earlier in the season. It’s much further south, so it should be less snowy sooner. I’ve done this one a few times, and mosquitos are fucking brutal here in the Summer. This is looking to be my March or April hike.
Lakeshore Trail at Pictured Rocks (Update: Completed August of 2022!)
This is probably the hike I’m most looking forward too. It runs for 40 something miles right along the north coast of the UP and goes right through Pictured Rocks. The only downside I hear is that there are an incredible amount of mosquitos and biting flies. But, you have to embrace the suck a little to get that view. This will probably be in late summer. Campsites here book very fast as well, so I need to schedule something now.
Update: I completed this hike in August of 2022! It was an expectedly pleasant hike of 42 miles. The flys and mosquitos weren’t really that bad, I ended up bringing a face net and wearing long pants and a hooded sun shirt for most of the trip.It was the first major hike I did with my wife, when we first started dating. It was really hard on her, we ended up switching backpacks on the last day. I was using some ultralight gear, while she was not, to say the least. Regardless, we made it and she stuck with me. It was a wonderful trip.
If there were a few things I would do differently:
- I would just stick to a jetboil, split between two people. The alcohol stove i brought was an unneeded pain in the ass, and I ended up just sharing a jetboil with Kate.
- We need to work on new backpacking kit for Katie. Her bag was excrutiating to use.
- For the first couple days, we tried to hike as a group, with the slowest person leading the way and the rest of us slowing down to keep pace. This ended up being very painful, since one of our friends had short legs. It was much more painful to try to walk slowly instead of going at our natural pace. I won’t do that again.
Manistee River Trail (Update: Completed!)
Instead of hiking this, this is actually going to be an overnight canoe trip. Basically we put in the north part of the manistee river, then paddle downriver, camp overnight one night and wrap it up. This is gonna be very chill. Moderately looking forward to this. Early Summer or so.
140-Mile Visionary Trail
More of a strech goal than an actual planned hike, I want to do a longer solo hike at some point this year, if I can get the time off. This is an extension of the popular 45 mile Knobstone Trail. In the south it follow the first 45 miles of the original Knobstone Trail. Then there is the Pioneer Trail consisting of 39 miles connecting Spurgeon Hollow (KT mile 45) to the Hoosier National Forest). Then five miles of the Pioneer Trail which is on well maintained trail on private easements, the other 34 miles is a scenic road walk on county roads.
Gear and Kit
I’m not one to stress too much over gear, but I do like to prioritize being somewhat lightweight. I have more fun when I don’t have to carry so much. It doesn’t really bother me to go without. I kinda go hiking to strip away some of the comforts and get a little more earthy.
I’m planning on hammocking whenever possible. I’m going with a 30 degree down quilt and underquilt. My pack is a Zpacks Arc Haul. They are super lightweight and are great for cases where you’re not carrying like 10 days worth of stuff.
For a stove and cook setup I have a TOAKS alcohol stove and a little 550ml pot. Most of my meals are going to be either no-cook snacks, or dehydrated food.
My rain gear is by Outdoor Research. They make super solid gear that I would reccomend. My clothes are probably going to change up quite a bit over the year, but my first couple of hikes are gonna be cold.
If you really care about my full gear list, here is a Lighterpack link.
Leave-no-Trace and New Hikers
I’m kinda worried about new hikers not taking care of nature. Like I said earlier, people are just as stir crazy as I am during these winter months. I’m more than willing to share the trail, but I don’t want to have to share a trail with their garbage and poop piles.
Here’s hoping that everyone does good Leave-no-Trace.