It rained during the evening but the weather is supposed to be quite pleasant today. I have a long hike into Two Rivers today and it would be nice to have cool weather rather than hot sun.

I am up and moving by 6:30 as the trail continues through the woods where I have camped. This is a dispersed camping area, but there is no clear ground. You just have to find an area with fewer sticks and rocks than the other areas. And at this site the slugs are covering my tent which takes an extra few minutes to clear them off.

It is only 3 mi to the town of Tish Mills, and my destination there is the Dollar General. Much of the three miles is in between rows of crops. It reminds me of hiking across the Cumberland valley on the Appalachian Trail. My feet get soaking wet but it is easy hiking.

I have to kill a little bit of time before the store opens so I stop at the park to empty my trash and fill up my water bottles. I also change into dry socks so my shoes will dry out faster for the 6 miles of road walking I have ahead of me.

The trail goes across a covered bridge to get to the park. It’s probably the sturdiest built covered bridge I’ve ever seen. The concrete railings must be over a foot thick.

At about 8:15 I head over to the store to get my supplies. Breakfast today will be ice cream and lunch will be lunchables and Gatorade. They have a four pack of drumsticks that is about the same price as ice cream so that will be the perfect snack I can eat while I’m walking. All four have been consumed by the time I leave town and I’m able to dump my trash at the high school trash cans.

The morning will be about a 6 Mile road walk to get to a State Park area. Once I hit there I will be on actual trails until the last few miles into the town of Two Rivers. The road walk is a repeat of corn and soybean fields.

The trail begins in some sort of a school property and not actually the state park yet. The trails are nice but they are dancing in and out of swamps and across a very long boardwalk so the mosquitoes are pretty heavy. The swamps give way to pine forest but the mosquitoes are still present.

Once I am in the park you can hear the waves of lake Michigan. The trail is again through swampy areas but the mosquitoes are not quite as bad as the previous few miles. I guess being closer to the lake helps because the breeze is a little stronger.

My destination for lunch is the hiker and kayaker campsite on the beach. When I get there I am surprised to see that it really does look like a beach that would be on the ocean. There are coats there are sand dunes and there are waves about one and a half foot tall.

After I finish my lunch I walk down to the shoreline to feel the water. It is not cold at all and of course I have to taste it. The water is obviously fresh water and doesn’t taste like salt. This messes with my brain pretty badly. Waves are supposed to be salty.

I keep making my way down the trails which intersect with other loop trails and bike paths. But before long the trail heads straight out onto the beach. For the next 2.1 miles I will be walking on the beach sand. The sand is very soft, and there is not much of an apron of compacted sand near the surf.

Only 20 ft of walking in The Sand convinces me I should try closer to the water. The hiking is much easier but it is a pretty steep slope which doesn’t bother my ankles. The only problem is I have to keep pretty vigilant on the waves to not let them soak my shoes.

I apparently made good time on the beach, because I almost missed the exit point. I saw a structure in the distance and thought that must be the exit point so I decided to check my map. The map told me I had just passed the exit point so when I turned around I indeed saw the sign up on the dunes telling me to exit. Luckily I only went about 20 yards too far.

From the exit point it is now about 2 miles of back streets into the town. The road that is on the beach is one way only and has adequate pavement for bikes and walkers. It is a very nice setup.

It started to sprinkle on me while I was on the second half of the beach walk. But now the rain has let up so I can put my umbrella away and enjoy the sights. I can see the hotel from about a mile away so I know I’m going in the right direction and exactly how far I need to go.

Once I am at the hotel, I discovered that they have guest laundry. This will be chore number two after getting dinner. But right now a shower is chore zero.

I relax for about an hour before walking next door to grab a pizza. As is usual I order one that is too large. I order a 16 inch when I should have ordered a 12-in. I can barely eat half the pizza. I was wanting to have leftovers for tomorrow’s walk, but a half of a pizza is more than I was anticipating. I am not planning on starting hiking tomorrow until 10:00 a.m. so I guess Pizza will also be second breakfast.

I watch another horrible Star Wars movie while I am doing laundry. When will I ever learn. I will use the extra hours I have in the morning to catch up on email and blogs and planning out the next few days. I need to do a better job of food resupply because I have been carrying far more food than I need so far during the hike. Later on in the hike, I will have a 6 day and a 7 day carry. So I need to be more efficient in carrying only what I need for the next section.

Emotion of the day, Rhythm

I’m not sure you can call rhythm and emotion, but that’s what today felt like. Packing up this morning went like clockwork. The morning road walk to town went very quickly. The time spent in the Dollar General was minimal. The rest of the road walking and hiking on the trails just felt like hiking.

It feels like intuition is taking over a little more, and I am having to check the maps less and less. Even nearly missing the exit from the beach seemed like good luck. But somehow I just knew it was time to get off the beach.

I am not even dreading the road walks anymore. I have another long one the day after tomorrow. And it’s just a matter of looking to see if there are places where I can get water or not. I think I am finally into the rhythm of hiking again.