“It Never Always Gets Worse”

My recent trip to Bellaire made me think that day trips to anywhere in the lower peninsula are doable and fun if you leave early enough and don’t care when you get home. My friendship with Patrick has been forged on the habit of saying yes to bad ideas; mostly mine. But this one was his. The plan was to leave early, run the Jordan River Pathway Loop (between Gaylord and Bellaire), drop kayaks, drive the van to the end of the river, bike back to the kayaks, kayak the river, load the kayaks, go get the bikes and then grab a beer from Short’s. If it sounds complicated, that’s because it was. I didn’t totally understand it until it was done. Luckily, Pat is an engineer and had it all worked out. The logistics part was flawless. The actual running, biking and kayaking was a series of brief horrors mixed with beauty that I’ve rarely experienced in the Lower Peninsula.

The Run

We left at 5am and hit the trail right around 8am. The weather looked really scary the whole way up. Running in the rain is fine but running in lightning – not so much. Patrick avoided looking at the radar so he could maintain plausible deniability. When we arrived the storm split around us and we were good to go on a cooler (high of 80F), cloudy morning run.

The run started with a huge downhill that seemed to go on forever. The elevation chart shows it as a 5 minute, .5 mile downhill. And when we reached the bottom things continued to go downhill that weren’t based on elevation. We were immediately soaked by dew and raindrops on the overgrown trail making it an 18 mile run in wet shoes and socks. Not a big problem. I slipped on a wet log and flew like superman into the mud. From my neck to my ankles I was covered. At the river I took off my shirt and soaked it so I could use it to wipe sweat off of my face without mudding my face up. Also, not such a big deal. I rolled my ankle on a downhill but ran through it. No problem.

But there was a problem. The Covid virus is teaching our world that small things can be a really big deal. I feel like I’ve already learned that but I got another crash course on our crash course in the northern woods and the teachers we deer flies. Deer flies are the worst. I had a terrible deer fly run at Burchfield a few weeks ago but that was nothing compared to the onslaught of the hungry hoard of the Jordan River Pathway. I probably killed 100. They would land on my hat and shoulders by the dozens. I killed one with each eye lid and swallowed one. They inflicted their damage too. I had bites all over that swelled and itched. The ones on my head swelled up as if I had hit my head repeatedly. I had a nose bleed from the outside from two bites (a first!). Fortunately for Patrick the flies REALLY liked me more. He kept his distance and watched the horror as we went up and down the hills. “It never always gets worse” is something Patrick likes to say. It kept me going as the flies would only stick around for a couple of miles at a time and then I’d get a couple of relatively fly free miles before they’d come back with their hungry buddies for another fresh flesh party. I’ve never really known what to do with my arms while running. I look like a stocky T-rex. I was glad I could employ them as fly swatters as we ran. Our pace was quickened in the fly zones as we were more fleeing than running. If anyone had seen me running and flailing they would have thought I was absolutely crazy but there was no one else on the 18 mile trail. Despite checking trail updates we must have missed the fly memo.

We got back to our van over 18 miles and 3.5 hours later and despite the challenges it was an amazing run! Over half of it was North Country Trail and the river was absolutely beautiful. The color of the water is hard to describe; milky white and translucent blue. The mist was smoky. The ridges and hills occasionally opened up to glorious vistas. At one point on a bridge over the river, despite the swarm of flies, we stopped and I spontaneously prayed a prayer of praise because it was just so awe-inspiring. I also implored God to kill all deer flies even at the cost of ecological collapse and there were less flies from that point on. So if the environment takes a turn for the worst you know who started it.

The Bike

The 9 mile bike ride featured a welcome lack of excitement as we headed back to our kayaks for a river adventure.

The Kayak

The kayak was an unexpected return to peril. I’ve only taken my kayak on flat rivers, ponds and lakes so even the light rapids of the Jordan River offered a steep learning curve for me. I got pinned by a few trees but was able to dislodge without tipping. Some people we passed who had rented kayaks weren’t so lucky. Pat even managed to get a picture of me stuck in a tree because that’s what friends are for. The river was so beautiful; the water refreshingly cold. I learned that with a longer kayak I have to be aggressive in turns and trouble spots or the river will take the long side of my kayak where it wants to go (which is always in a tree). We saw kingfishers, a large water snake sunning and a family of mergansers walking on water and diving underneath. When we disembarked we had traveled over 36 miles by ped, peddle and paddle. We headed to Bellaire and made the most of Short’s takeout window since things are still weird from Covid. The drive home, like the entire day, was filled with great conversation from the mundane to the meaningful. Patrick gets a 9 out of 10 for adventure planning. The flies were out of his control but someone has to be blamed. In the end, the mantra proved true. It doesn’t always get better, but it never always gets worse!