Day 2: Only in Michigan

It was a beautiful night to camp in the forest. The threat of severe weather the dark skies at sunset predicted never materialized and we both were sound asleep by 10. I almost slept through the night, waking only to the sound of a Barred Owl calling out. We woke up at 7 am to the distant rumble of thunder and a dark sky to the west. The race was on! We managed to get breakfast (oatmeal) and coffee cooked and downed before the first rain drops started falling. We finished packing as the sprinkles rapidly changed to a full-on rain.
The first two hours of hiking were spent with our heads down trudging through the streams that poured down the trails searching for the path of least resistance downhill. Midway into our hike, the rain let up and eventually stopped. Today's hike passed through some surprisingly hilly terrain. We spent most of the day climbing in and out of ravines, passing over some beautiful cascading streams. The trail would cross a tributary of the Jordan River on a footbridge and then switchback several hundred feet to provide a bird's eye view of the valley before dropping into the next ravine and starting the process over again.
Just as soon as we had pulled off the hoods on our rain jackets a second, stronger thunderstorm rolled into the valley. Time seems to move more slowly when hiking in the rain. The forest tends to look the same everywhere when the rain is pouring down and it's hard to carry on a conversation over the noise. Eventually, you realize you have no choice but to stare at your feet and keep putting one foot in front of the other. This was our mode of operation for the last hour of today's hike. By the time we climbed back up Deadman's Hill we could wring water out of our socks (and would shortly!).
Upon reaching the Jeep we peeled off our wet clothes and changed into dry ones, taking advantage of the abandoned parking lot. As we drove away in the rain in pursuit of a hot cup of coffee it was hard to imagine the sun would ever shine again. 45 minutes later we were in Traverse City and there was not a cloud to be seen! The car thermometer reads 80 degrees as we drive South. Only in Michigan! All told we logged 19 miles of hiking in two days and saw some pretty cool country for the first time. Here are some pictures:

Packing

We leave tomorrow for the Jordan River Valley.  The night before a trip is when the excitement over an approaching trip runs head-on into the realization that none of the packing has been done and it’s 8:00 at night.  It never matters how far in advance the planning begins for a trip, or how excited we are.  Invariably, it ends being midnight on a school night searching for the carabiners that go on the nalgene bottles so they don’t fall out while hiking.  We live in a two story house, meaning that the most maddening part of the process usually goes something like this:  me:  “where is the jet boil?”  Mary: “um, I think it’s in the kitchen (downstairs).”  I go downstairs, retrieve our jetboil cooking system from the pantry where normal people would keep food if they actually stayed at home and return upstairs to the third bedroom.  The third bedroom in our house has become a bit of staging room.  Normal people might house a child in such a room.  We have backpacks, sleeping bags, dry suits and skis, scattered in a most random fashion.  As soon as I sit down to resume shoving items into my backpack Mary asks “where is my raincoat?”  Me:  “I think it’s hung up in the basement next to the dryer.”  I head downstairs in search of the raincoat but see the trekking poles sitting by the door to the garage.  Not wanting to forget them, I put them in the car, and head back upstairs.  Mary:  “did you get my raincoat?”  and on the process goes for what seems like a never-ending period of time.  All the while, our two cats sit at the top of the stairs with their chins on the floor, starring glumly at the backpacks that they know predict their impending abandonment.  Eventually everything is found and shoved into the car and the anticipation of another outdoor adventure returns.  The late night packing and sleep loss are more than worth it in the long run.  In a few more hours we’ll be headed north.