Huron-Manistee National Forest- Hoist Lake Foot Travel Area

Forest Service sign along Sunnyside Road.

Typical view of the trails.

Northeast view of Byron Lake.

The forest floor had a thick covering of ferns.

In some parts of this country, Hoist Lakes would be called a wilderness area like one I visited in North Carolina. That so-called wilderness is about half the size of Hoist Lakes' 10,600 acres.

I was once very familiar with the Hoist Lake Foot Travel Area, backpacking and camping here on several occasions in the 1980's. Until this latest visit, I think the last time I walked these woods was in the Summer of 1991. 

I made three visits in the Summer of 2013. My first time was in late June. I walked a loop from the M-65 parking area. Hoist Lakes doesn't name each trail, but each trail junction is assigned a number carved into a wood post. On this day, I began at post number 1 and did a 3-mile circle going to  2, 14 and back to 1.

My second visit a week later, I started at the Sunnyside Road parking area and hiked an hour to a hill that has been given the name "The Vista."  The Vista today is a vista in name only. What once was a clear-cut along a hillside that gave you a distant view of the AuSable River, that view has been blocked by tree growth.

On my third and final hike, I again started at the Sunnyside Road parking area. I hiked to Byron Lake. At about where the primitive campsite begins there is an intersection that is post marker 10. From there I traveled to 5 then to 6 and back to the parking lot on Sunnyside Road.

Hoist Lakes is an ideal place to get away from it all and gain a greater appreciate for God's marvelous unspoiled creation. It takes you back in time before the automobile and when Michigan's highways were only Native American footpaths.

In these woods, you would have just about all Michigan's forest animals except for wolves. I observed the scant of black bear and coyotes. I heard the call of a mother fox and seen several deer and grouse in my few hours of hiking.