Up North Scott

Adventures around Traverse City

R.I.P. Grandview Light

It is time to say goodbye to something that brought much happiness to my life:

Traverse City Grandview Light

With the road work having started on Front Street between Grandview Parkway and Garfield, we will lose a good friend, the always-on right turn light where Front Street meets Grandview Parkway. Instead of being able to zip through that intersection on my way home to the West Bay area, now we are condemned to have to stop, wasting time.

If you look at this at the lens of our society, it makes sense. We govern to the least common denominator of human being, especially when it comes to driving. Someone in a cube in Lansing has decided that people in Traverse City need to stop there – we couldn’t possibly handle taking a turn at the outrageous speed of 35 MPH.

Another small joy in life is dead thanks to MDOT.

An Old Mission Morning

In the summer, Old Mission is usually a no-go zone for me unless visitors come to town. M-37 is really the only way to get around quickly, and during the summer, there are too many cars looking at too much beautiful scenery to get anywhere quickly. Add to that Traverse City’s infestation of Subaru Outbacks, the slowest car on the road, and it’s a frustrating ride.

Next year will be even worse, with the construction on Grandview Parkway coming next month, getting to the east side of town from my home on Leelanau will be a painful process, one not worth taking unless necessary. Sorry Jimmy John’s, my visits will be falling off quite a bit until the fall.

But during the off season, especially in the morning, it’s not a bad ride, and it’s not too difficult to zip around the slow drivers to get to the tip of the peninsula. My mission was the Old Mission State Park where I did a long hike. This time of year, the trails aren’t attractive – brown is the main color, with leafless trees, muddy trails and dead grasses.

The real draw is the water. While the path doesn’t follow the water the whole way, there are a few nice views along the way.

Old Mission
Old Mission

Bellaire Hiking and Other Up North Fun

My day started with high hopes. Adam, whom Andrea and I talked to over beer, nachos and cheesy bread at Short’s in Bellaire the night before, had suggested the Jordan Valley Pathway about 30 minutes north of Bellaire. Andrea was going to be at her medical conference all day, and his suggestion sounded better than the one I had planned. I considered this a fortuitous conversation.

I do recommend Short’s if you are looking for some good food and excellent beer around Bellaire. The nachos were good (not as good as mine, if I do say so myself, and I do) and the cheesy bread was excellent. The highlight of the evening was the Cone Thugz stout, an outstanding dark beer made with, among other things, waffle cones. This is right up there El Mexigander at Loco Boys as my favorite beer of the moment. The enjoyment was not derailed by the fact that we were sitting next to the door which opened and closed all night, a night where the temperature dropped to -7.

Back to hiking. Things went off the rails before I reached the trail. Turning off US-131 onto Deadman’s Hill Road, all went well until I reached the intersection of Edward’s Road a quarter mile before the parking area. At this point, a sign on Deadman’s Hill Road said that beyond that point, there would be no more plowing. Well, I thought, I have an all-wheel drive SUV, and the snow looked flat ahead. No problem.

Problem.

The road looked as solid as the part I had just driven over, but was actually 9″ of partially hardened snow that my tires easily sunk in to. So in less than 100 feet, my SUV stopped dead. After several minutes of back and forth, I was able to rock my way out and back onto the plowed section of road. Had I remembered to pack my snowshoes, I could have just parked on the side and walked the rest of the way. Regrets, I’ve had a few…

My morning plans shattered, I headed up to East Jordan to regroup. My options were a bit narrow because of said lack of snowshoes – the area had gotten around 18″ of snow over the past week. Snowshoes are now on my “Bellaire in the winter” packing list.

I settled on Brown’s Creek Pathway. I had hiked part of this trail before and hadn’t been terribly impressed, but I gave it another shot, treading on a new-to-me section of the trail. Luckily, someone had snowshoed earlier and made my walk a bit easier. The Red trail is actually a mountain biking trail which wove here and there, up and down, taking a long way to get not very far. And as I was halfway through the trail, my snowshoe hero had decided to stop and go back. I did the same. With so much snow, having never hiked this trail, I would have easily lost it.

I had expected to spend quite a while on the Jordan Valley Pathway, so I looked for another trail nearby over a Quarter Pounder meal and found the Rogers Family Homestead Nature Preserve. This was an out-and-back trail paralleled the Jordan River. It was not broken down as much as the day’s previous hike and the going was a bit harder. If you look closely at the image below, you’ll spot the deer that crossed in front of me.

I had enough gas in my tank for one more hike. Needing to return to Bellaire to get Andrea from her conference, I stopped at Glacier Hills. I should have skipped Rogers and gone right here. This is primarily a mountain / fat tire bike course, and the trails were packed down nicely. It made for the day’s easiest walk, so if you are looking for winter hiking around Bellaire and lack snowshoes, I definitely suggest Glacier Hills.

After picking Andrea up from her conference, we headed to Elk Rapids where we had drinks at Ethanology, one of those fancy-drink places. They distill their own spirits and we each did a tasting followed by an adult beverage. It had an interesting steampunk vibe inside – I didn’t expect that in Elk Rapids.

Just down the road in Pearl’s, the only Cajun restaurant in the area, and well worth the trip from TC. My first experience at Pearl’s didn’t go well – I was quickly sick after having a catfish po’boy. But that was in 2002 or so, and I have been a few times since and all has been well. Tonight’s meal was the corn fried catfish, which was excellent, as were the hush puppies and drinks. Service was spot-on and how can you not enjoy the hundreds of hot sauces lining the walls?

So just another dining, drink and hiking extravaganza weekend here Up North.

A bit of snow

It was quite a weekend up here in Traverse City. We got about 17 inches of snow where I live on the Leelanau Peninsula over the weekend, causing me to have one of those rare days where I don’t leave the house.

That was Saturday. On Sunday, it was back out on the trails. After a sermon at Bayview Church, I headed over to Hickory Meadows for a hike in the snow. There were a surprising number of people out. The trails were by no means full, but the skiers were happy to be on the groomed trails. Me – I stuck to the woods.

Hickory Meadows
Hickory Meadows
Hickory Meadows

An hour in Philly

I was recently in Pennsylvania and had an hour or so to explore Philadelphia. I have been there once before, when I accompanied Andrea as went to Conshohocken to take an exam for medical school, but as I’m a history buff, I thought I’d take another short walk around town.

I walked up Market Street to the Philadelphia Town Hall.

Philadelphia Town Hall

Way up top is a statue of William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania. If you’re looking for a closer looks at his fancy duds:

William Penn

As I wandered about, I discovered this nice little street, Quince Street, blessedly free of shawarma stands:

Quince Street

My favorite spot in historical Philadelphia is Independence Hall, where much of the debate that would determine the future of the United States for done. The statue is of Commodore John Barry, considered the father of the US Navy.

John Barry statue

And finally, Carpenter’s Hall that hosted the first Continental Congress in 1774:

Carpenter's Hall

A new year, and it’s time to hike

I hope you all had a happy New Year’s Eve and Day. At the Stoecker house, we started our year with bubbly wine from Bel Lago and many, many snacks along with sushi from Fuji.

Before the bowl games of January 1st, I needed to get out and hike, and Alligator Hill in Glen Arbor won out as my first hike of the year. When I arrived, I was happy to see no footprints in the snow, so I was the first to climb these hills for 2024. I didn’t win a prize or anything, but I could count on having the place to myself.

When I entered the parking lot, I was greeted by these brick and concrete structures. These are kilns built in the 1950s by Pierce Stocking, the man the Sleeping Bear dunes drive is named after. Pierce was a lumberman and there was quite a bit of waste wood left over, and these kilns were used to produce charcoal.

Alligator Hill kilns

The trail soon gave me a choice, left or right. I chose right because in that direction led the advanced trail, a section of the trail I hadn’t yet hiked. I can’t claim it is any more hillier than the other trails – Alligator Hill has a lot of vertical changes – but it was stepper than most of the trail system. And it escaped most the damage of storm of eight years ago, so you will see many more tall trees.

Alligator Hill advanced trail

Along the way, I saw numerous animal tracks. Animal footprints are not a specialty of mine, but my best guess was a coyote. I suppose it could have been a lone dog, but I went with the coyote theory because there were no people tracks beside it.

Animal tracks

Much of the trail still suffers from the damage of the August 2nd, 2015 windstorm that torn through the Glen Arbor area, downing many trees and damaging buildings. It will be decades before the damage is finally erased, hidden by new growth.

Alligator hill wind damage

My first hike done, I spent the day rooting for teams that lost in the bowl games. Nothing new there. That didn’t mar the great hiking I had done earlier. And as I only hiked four miles of the 9-mile trail system, I have many more miles to look forward to.

Alley by Night

Traverse City does a great job of lighting up its downtown area. Front Street is always well done, but let’s not overlook the J. Smith Walkway.

J. Smith Walkway in Traverse City

J. Smith was Jay Smith, an editor of the Traverse City Record Eagle and the co-founder of the National Cherry Festival, one of the defining events in Northern Michigan. It’s an easy piece of real estate to overlook as a connection between Front Street and the parking lots to the north, but it’s a neat little park.

There was once a fountain, but that was removed last year – it hasn’t worked in several years.

The houses are coming

Shortly after we moved into our house in Leelanau County in 2021, news came that a new housing development was coming to the corner of M-72 and Bugai Road, a partnership between Habit for Humanity and New Waves United Church of Christ to provide affordable housing, something that is needed around here.

Map of new housing development

The roads to the subdivision were put in later that year, and then… nothing happened. For a long time.

But things are on the move! The first two houses have started going up and progress is being made.

New houses

That area has seen a lot of changes since we moved in. Edge 72, the apartment complex, was just an empty piece of unused field on the southwest corner when we arrived. And a non-functioning windmill was on the northeast side. And the solar panel array expanded quite a bit last year.

I’ve heard rumors of other changes to that area, such as a gas station on the south side of the road (in Grand Traverse County). But there is no doubt the metropolitan area of Traverse City is expanding west.

Strange things are afoot…

Traverse City has gotten its very own Circle K! Yes, at the corner of South Airport and Cass, the legendary convenience has arrived, though it is still being rebranded from a Holiday station:

Circle K in Traverse City.

Perhaps “legendary” is too strong a word. Perhaps “excellent” is a better one. Circle K will always remind me of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the place where their adventure through time starts.

Bill and Ted's Circle K

Unfortunately, that particular Circle K (in Tempe, AZ) closed last year. We perhaps if there is ever a “Bill and Ted’s Part 4” movie, they’ll film it here.

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