Huron-Manistee National Forest-Manistee River Trail

My friend Paul Imm took me on a 7.6-mile hike on the Manistee River Trail while visiting him in the Cadillac, Michigan area. We accessed the trail from the Slagle Creek Road.

A bridge that crosses over the Slagle Creek

We took several breaks along our hike and took in the panoramic views from the high banks.

There weren't many hikers so Sunny, and Gypsy was able to go leashless for most of the trip.

I found this an intriguing portion of the forest. Instead of the forest floor being covered in dead leafs this area was very grassy.

Our destination was here at a small waterfall from a creek that emptied in the Manistee River.

The dogs and I viewing the falls from the bridge.

One of many designated campsites with a fire ring for backpackers.  

The Manistee River Trail is 11 miles long, and if you combine the North Country Trail on the other side of the river, you can make it a loop of 20 miles. This would make a nice 2-3 day backpacking trip. 

Huron-Manistee National Forest- Wakeley Lake

All the years living no more than forty-five minutes from Wakeley Lake,  I never hiked the trails, but do remember walking once to the lake, and fished on an intertube. While on vacation in my hometown of Mio, Michigan, I took the 20-minute drive West on M-72 from where I was lodging and hikes for two and a half hours (approximately 5- miles). 

Wakeley Lake land area is 2100 acres and is considered moderate in size. I'm not sure the size of the lake, but it was larger than I had remembered. If I hadn't had some commitments later on in the day, I would have hike most all the trails, but on this day I hiked from the trailhead to intersection 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then back to 4, 3,2, then out. 

Gypsy and I started off going down the Beaver Pond Loop.

Much of the Wakeley Lake Trails looked like this- a narrow footpath through a typical Michigan mix forest overgrown with Bracken ferns.

One of the larger beaver ponds that I had passed by loaded with Lillypads.

Ant mound.

Intersection 6 the post is leaning up against tree and map is missing. I got my first glimpse of the lake.

If it has been rainy, between intersection 6 and 4, there is no way in which your feet are going to stay dry.  The trail goes between two swampy bodies of water on a somewhat elevated portion of land. I thought maybe walking on the edge where you see the grass would have been dry but still had to slush through several inches a muke and water.

Wakeley Lake.

The lake access and campsite 1 (5 campsites total) are only approximately quarter miles from the trailhead.