Hike 36 - Escarpment/Lake of the Clouds

Awe, the last week before school starts. We tend to use this time to get away one last time before getting back to the school schedule. This year was a little different as we wanted to be as careful as possible with the spread of COVID-19. We tried to make minimal stops as we drove from MN to MI and then we stayed at a campsite, and while they were mostly full, everyone seemed to be keeping their space. Michigan also had a lot of restrictions/instructions in place. Basically, there were a lot more people wearing masks in MI than in WI - probably because they had to.

At any rate, we had big hopes of hiking a lot while on our 4 day get away. Unfortunately, after a week of migraines and then 3 days of horrible sleep, I was dragging badly. So much so that Jesse and Riley went on a hike while I took a nap. But, I did go to Lake of the Clouds with them. You can park in the lot and take a short trek to a beautiful view, or you can continue on to various trails of different length. We headed down the Escarpment trail and walked until we were tired enough, but not to tired to make our way may and up hill.

Hike #: 36

Trail: Parts of Lake of the Clouds and the Escarpment trail

Location: Ontonagon, MI

Trail surface: earth

Date: 9/30/20

I’m a big fan of the trails around the North Shore and Lake Superior of MN, but I have to say that I think I like the Upper Pinninsula of MI better. I’ve heard wonderful things about this area of MI and I’ve always wanted to visit so I’m glad it happened, even if it was brief and I sprained my ankle on the last full day of our trip. I can’t wait to go back and explore more.

Jo: ★★★★★

Jesse: ★★★★

Riley: ★★★★

Hike 33 - Parker's Lake

While Jesse and his buddy were hiking in 90 degree weather in South Dakota, Riley and I decided to enjoy a very windy, 60 degree hike near home. We’d previously attempted to hike around Parker’s Lake as a family, but just as we showed up the sky turned black and started pouring hours earlier than anticipated.

This time the weather was much more desirable and a far amount of people agreed with us as we saw plenty of other walkers out and about. Riley and I parked in the main lot and headed left which brought us through a neighborhood first. We used the AllTrails app to help us stay on track, but even that was confusing as we were following a trail where it appeared someone might have walked through some back yards. We found our way, and a little library so that was a bonus (along with a playground), but during this part of the trail, it was a solid 2 star. I walk through our neighborhood all the time, but for the sake of rating these trails, it wasn’t my favorite.

From the neighborhood we followed the Luce Line Trail which is a great and long trail that I would use for biking, but not my favorite for walking. It was in nice shape (newly redone), but there was no shade. I was delighted to pick up another trail covered in trees and would have been delighted if this was the path the entire way around the lake.

While the last half of the trail was much more ideal, I don’t see myself coming back here anytime soon. If I lived in the neighborhood, I would love to have this spot to walk, but not for a destination spot. Having said all that, I do appreciate anytime a city puts a trail together even if they have to peacemeal a couple trails and a neighborhood to make it work.

Hike #: 33

Trail: Parker’s Lake Loop

Location: Plymouth, MN

Trail surface: paved

Date: June 14th, 2020

Jo: ★★★

Riley: ★★★

Hike 28 - Murphy-Hanrehan

I think back to last spring and all the hikes we attempted, but were foiled with flooded trails and rainy weather and I am grateful for better conditions. Especially, since our ‘leave the house’ activities are limited by the COVID-19 stay at home order. Hopefully, we can make hiking more of a weekly thing now that we don’t have a bunch of other obligations (some of which I miss, of course).

The week before this, my in-laws called my husband and mentioned this trail close to them. They talked it up quite a bit so my husband suggested we check this one out. We headed out early as we tend to do, but were a little apprehensive by a fairly full parking lot. These things bring extra concern when you are supposed to be social distancing, but we noticed that most of the vehicles had bike racks and that most people were mountain biking and not hiking. We saw a number of people on the hiking trail, but it was far from crowded.

Hike #: 28

Trail: Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve

Location: Savage, MN

Trail surface: dirt

Date: May 2nd, 2020

Jo: ★★★★

Jesse: ★★★

Riley: ★★★★

This trail is also used as a cross country trail in the winter and we took the route that is opposite of the winter route. There were plenty of fairly flat areas, but also a number of inclines (and far fewer declines) which meant my glutes got a nice workout. It was a wide trail (for those cross country folks), but still had a nice nature-y feel to it.

We had a little confusion over if we were going to follow the 4 mile or 2 mile trail and ended up putting in about 2.5 miles which was fine. I’d totally go back to this trail - expecially after all the trees have bloomed. It was a bug free trail this time of year so I wonder what it will be like farther into the season. Maybe we’ll meet the in-laws here this summer to find out.