It’s been a year since I proclaimed my adoration for Good Hart and the astounding M-119, Tunnel Of Trees Road … a breathtaking drive from Cross Village, to Harbor Springs.

With that said, I am thereby allowed to have my yearly love proclamation.

I’m sure you could guess I was freaking out the whole time in the car … feeling I was being taken into some other land in time, heart stopping views of Lake Michigan peeking through the trees.

Made a pit stop at the Good Hart General Store.

Which is literally a general store … everything from a post office, to real estate to sandwiches.

We got lunch to go, bought TC a little something something and then were off to eat lunch lakeside and relax in the sun and sand. Check out these views!

 

It’s hard to remember that this is a lake. The crystal clear water never ceases to surprise me.

Brother couldn’t handle it.

He had to take it laying down, with the B. The B is the frisbee. I kept wondering what he and The BF were talking about. Yeah, I’m not always the quickest.

After Lake Michigan, we decided to try to find some more hiking trails and headed back towards Cross Village … picking up the North Country Trails.

Such trail was described as “challenging, with steep hills and ancient sand dunes.” Bring it.

Because I didn’t really believe it’d be all that challenging. Steep hills? Whatever. Nothing I didn’t think I could handle.

Ten minutes into this thing, I was beginning to think again. You know when you think you’re in really great shape and then you do something that you think is going to be relativity simple but gets your heart rate higher than it’s ever been? And your legs suddenly feel tried and jellyish.

That was me a little over half a mile. Half a mile! WTF. How the hell could I ever have made it as an Olympic athlete?

Oh, right. I couldn’t have. That’s why I’m not an Olympic athlete. But I kept thinking about them … for inspiration.

Telling myself and my legs to keep moving, don’t stop {I knew if I stopped I’d never ever start again} and that for the love of God, if they can swim and run laps and fly through uneven bars, I certainly could make it six miles on a hike.

So I kept moving. Foot in front of foot. You know, getting my game face on. The farther in we got on this hike, the more I started warming up … it helped that we literally were on ancient dunes. They weren’t joking about that.

We were on trail that was over 1,000 years old! You do the math. I couldn’t. I actually had to ask Brother, as I was breathless, how old that would make it. And he actually had to stop, turn his head to the side and ask if I was serious.

Of course I was serious.

When we made it our three miles to the end, we crossed the road to hit up another part of Lake Michigan, and were shocked that dogs weren’t allowed. But, Murphy is no ordinary dog, so he doesn’t count.

Today, because I particularly enjoy tormenting and challenging myself, we are off to continue and explore more of these Northern Country Trails.

I must be crazy, because I actually woke up, requesting a longer and more difficult hike today.

Yes, definitely crazy. That or everything just sounds better in the morning when you’re still laying in bed.

To another glorious day … Up North … you know those Northern Woods. Get me every damn time.

By the way, that is a joke … refer to the Archives of July 2010 for the post about me constantly saying “Northern Woods” to people and Brother not correcting me till we left … after I made an ass out of myself on at least 15 occasions and for the past how many years when referring to the gorgeous “Northern Woods.”

That’s classic me, with a dash of Brotherly love.