We set out Thursday morning January 16th to northern Michigan's Manistee National Forest.
Day one I arrived at the Red Bridge River Access Trailhead at 2:30. After spending about a half hour shoveling a spot out for my car, I set off towards Arquilla Creek. I broke trail with my pulk sled and arrived at camp by 4:30 pm. John @Menofthebush and Matt @mattbundt9986 arrived just after sunset. Together we worked to process enough dead wood to keep a fire going until 11pm. We slow rolled in the morning before making our way to the last stream before the suspension bridge near Seaton Creek 8 miles down trail.
Once we arrived at our next site, Mark @tridudyonthetrail met up with us. We once again worked as a team to process enough firewood to keep us going until we were ready to call it a night. This night we got some rain and heavy wind, but fortunately it didn't last and made for decent hikinh conditions on day 3.
On day three, the 4 of us set out to our final campsite roughly 6 miles up trail. As usual, we processed tons of dead wood, laughed, ate good food and told stories. The final day had us hiking roughly 3 miles back to Red Bridge. All in all we hiked about 18 miles and had 6 fantastic fires. It was an excellent time and I look forward to getting the gang back together for another trip. Be sure to check out Trailside for you next post backpacking meal! Good eats & drinks at a fair price!