Hiking weekend...................

On Saturday Gerry, Tristen, Reina and myself went out for the day. Laura had to work. It was such a lovely day, sunny and cool, but warm when walking. So I have wanted to check out the trail that goes up "The Whaleback" The Whaleback is a forested hill that lays near Leland. From a distance the hill looks like, well, a whaleback. It is said there is a nice view from up there and we like the woods.............so off we went.
This is a picture of the Whaleback from the website where I found the Leelanau concervancy web site (anna-pentuik)

So we began.


It was not a difficult hike, but the trail had loads of tree roots and Tristen would not slow down and tripped.

They found lots to explore as they usually do in the woods.Fairy houses and marks made by animals


A nice lady offered to take our picture at the top

we had a full day. After the hike we went to Northport and had our picnic.

We wandered around a little but there was an art/craft show going on and they close some of the roads making getting around a bit difficult. So we went off to Peterson Park. The kids stayed in the playground

Gerry stayed with them while I went down to the beach and had a good half hour or more alone. It was bliss.

I found Petoskey stones

The next shot is looking down on the beach

Bout kilt me on the way back up with my hoard of stones. Phew!!!

After the hike earlier the steps from the beach (easy going down) did me in. Got a picture of the kids in the tree that our kids climbed and the grandkids climbed before them. Tristens mum climbed it so I wanted a picture of him where she once was

We finished off that day by going to the Native American Museum. I had wanted to go for a long time but could never find it. When we were at the Pow Wow I asked so it was easy to find.

Sunday Laura had the day off and called to see if we wanted to do anything. Well it was a nice day so yes of course. Reina had had fun the day before and wanted to go again. So off we went. Gerry stayed home. One hike was enough for him.
We decided on going to The Alligator. We had wanted to do that all summer. As we were going by we stopped at Gallaghers, got some veggies, apples and blackberries. Donuts for the kids and Laura none for me..............


The Alligator is named so because the shape of the hill looks like an Alligator.

At the trail head are some kilns left over from days gone by.

As always the kids had fun in the woods. The trail was long, very long, or seemed that it was. We saw a few critters here and there and I will cover that in another blog. There were a few people about, being such a nice day people wanted to be outside.

We finally got to the top and this was the view. There was a couple who had put up a hamock. I think they had probably hoped for a quiet afternoon with their dogs.

We didn't want to disturb them but had not gone all that way for nothing. The view was worth it



We had intended to go to another look out but it would have been about 2 miles round trip and the kids were whooped. So we started back down.


There was a meadow right in the middle of the forest, they explored that. Funny how kids are like puppies they travel twice as far as we do by running back and forth.
We finally got back down and were glad we didnt attempt the other trail. It was a long walk after going the day before as well.
So what next. We didnt want to go home just yet so we set off for Port Oneida. We took a different road on a whim. I had been along it many years ago and long forgotten where it went. We took a side road and found a beach. It was beautiful. One couple sitting there so we went up the other end and spent a good hour looking for stones and beach glass. Very rare these days due to all stuff being in plastic or cans. We didn't want to leave.


The sun had began to go down and we knew we would be late home so now to find a place to eat. We did. We got home just after 8pm and it was dark by then. Straight to bed for Tristen and I was whooped.
I didn't want to make this a really long post so I gave some links to the places we stopped if you want to read up on these beautiful places, I am so thankful for living in such a beautiful place.