Those looking for a cheap night out might want to head up I-75 to Downtown Detroit. 

The Comcast Summer Film Series runs every Saturday night through August 18th at Campus Martius Park.  The movies begin at dusk.  Several of the films show at the park before they are in theaters.  Check out this link:

http://www.comcastfilmseries.com/

The Riverfront Concert Series is also free and runs every Friday night at 8PM just south of the Ren Cen on the Detroit River.  Grand Funk Railroad, Asia, Marshall Crenshaw, The Guess Who, The Romantics, Eric Burdon & the Animals and .38 Special are scheduled to appear.  Click on this link:

http://www.gmrencen.com/Happening/SpecialEvents/tabid/85/Default.aspx

One of the best things that has happened in Southeast Michigan during the past few years has been Detroit’s return to the river.  There is now a 3.5 mile trail along the Detroit River and it grows longer by the month.

The city is celebrating this great new pathway with the Detroit International River Days through Wednesday June 27th.  Check out the website below:

http://www.detroitriverdays.com/

I have to applaud the City of Monroe.  Each Tuesday and Thursday through the end of July, the Parks and Recreation Department is sponsoring a community walk from 5:45PM until 7PM.  They have a check-in station at St. Mary’s Park and people walk along the Elm Avenue Bike Path.  Those who register have a chance to win a trip to the annual Labor Day Bridge Walk in Mackinaw City/St. Ignace.

Check out the schedule on the City of Monroe website here:

http://www.ci.monroe.mi.us/

 

What I really love, though, is that Will Carleton, an area legend in his own right, wrote a fanciful biography of Silas Doty for the New York Star.  If you’d like to read it, you can find it here…

http://www.waldronmi.com/history/silasdoty.htm

Doty actually dictated his own biography.  You can find an excerpt here…

http://clarke.cmich.edu/detroit/doty1835.htm

Silas Doty was one of our region’s most colorful characters.

 

The North Country Trail is a mostly-Midwestern version of the Appalachian Trail.  It is not complete, but there are long sections that can be hiked.  The planned route of the trail takes it just below Monroe and Lenawee Counties through northern Ohio.  Then it heads in a northwest direction across Hillsdale County.

The section that I hiked on Friday is within Michigan’s Lost Nation State Game Area.  If you’ve never been to Lost Nation, you owe yourself a trip.  It is one of the most rugged hiking areas in Southeast Michigan.  And it has some of the neatest geological features of any area hiking spot.  For my money, it’s the best pure hiking trail in the southern tier counties (Monroe, Lenawee, Hillsdale).

I started at the small DNR parking area near the intersection of Gilbert and Reading Roads.  This location is only a mile or so from M-34 and about 20 miles west of Adrian, MI.

From the trailhead, I headed east into some heavy brush.  The trail itself is marked by blue blazes - the standard for the North Country Trail - but the markings have not been repainted in a while.  They are beginning to fade.  The trail is not terribly difficult to follow, but it is overgrown.  I’d recommend wearing long pants for this trail and sturdy boots.

A short while into the hike, the trail skirts the romantically-named Lake Number 8.  It really is quite beautiful, with some ghost trees, numerous lily pads and loud-groaning frogs.

At the eastern end of the lake, a hiker needs to step across the lake outlet.  During periods of heavier rain this outlet becomes a neat little gurgling waterfall.  Currently, it is barely a stream.

In just a little bit, the hiker follows a high ridge along the St. Joseph of the Maumee River.  The valley formed by the river is remarkable.  It creates graphic relief not normally found in this region of the state.

Eventually, the trail crosses Skuse Road.  The trail continuation is just a bit to the east on Skuse, so it is slightly challenging to find.

The trail south of Skuse is one of my all-time favorite area hikes.  The trail is up and down for a bit.  Then a hiker is forced to make two water crossings over a small stream.  After the stream, the trail begins a constant ascent.  Elevation gain is in the neighborhood of 200 feet in a very short distance.  I get giddy just using the phrase “elevation gain.”

Anyway, this is the closest thing that a hiker will get to climbing a mountain in Southeast Michigan.  There are several payoffs.  First, the views from the ridges into the surrounding forest are just beautiful.  And at the top of the hike, you will find a USGS survey marker called the Pittsford Reset.  This “peak” tops out at 1144 feet above sea level.  It really needs a more romantic name.

From this point, the trail descends quickly to Pittsford Road.  My recommendation is that you avoid beginning this hike from Pittsford Road just because you miss the hill climb.  And, unless you spot a car at this point, you’ll need to double-back on this point-to-point route.

I have only just begun to scratch the surface of Lost Nation SGA, even though I’ve been hiking here for years.  This was one of the final areas of settlement for the Potowatomi tribe before its forced resettlement in the West, so there are Native American mounds in the game area.  This area is also fabled to be the hiding spot for a member of Jesse James’ Gang.  A small cave in the game area is purported to be the specific location of the hideout.  I have not yet found the cave, but I will.

All in all, this place is a great spot for nearby adventure.

The official Department of Natural Resources map:

http://tinyurl.com/265eey

The Michigan Watchable Wildlife Viewing Guide entry:

http://tinyurl.com/24d2lw

Here’s a geocaching site with location information and pictures of the Jesse James’ Gang hideout cave:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=b311f3f2-724e-4e0d-8030-56f49bcfba9d

Here’s a site with information about the NGS/USGS survey marker at the top of the hill:

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=MD1746

This is the first of two topographic maps relevant to hiking in this area:

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=41.84165&lon=-84.47775&size=l&symshow=n&u=4&datum=nad27&layer=DRG

This is the second of two topographic maps relevant to hiking in this area:

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=41.82108&lon=-84.47856&size=l&symshow=n&u=4&datum=nad27&layer=DRG

Here is a North Country Trail Association website with relatively current trail condition reports:

http://www.northcountrytrail.org/explore/treports/milptreport.htm

Here’s the location of the trailhead parking area on Microsoft Virtual Earth:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!256&encType=1

Silas Doty Biography:

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/expatriate/?p=338

I have posted other hike reports about the Lost Nation State Game Area on the Great Lakes Hikes Yahoo board.  You can read them here:

http://extremesouthmichigan.blogspot.com/2007/09/lost-nation-state-game-area-hike.html

Two important figures in the hiking world died during the past week.

The first was a man named Colin Fletcher.  Fletcher wrote a book titled The Complete Walker.  It is considered the Bible of modern hiking and backpacking.  You can read his New York Times obituary here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/sports/othersports/19fletcher.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The second important hiking death is more local.  Guy Vander Jagt was a long-time Congressman from the Northern Lower Peninsula.  He was instrumental in the creation of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, located in the Northwest Lower Peninsula.  His New York Times obituary can be found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/23/washington/23vanderjagt.html?ref=obituaries

If you read that link, you will notice that the Times omits his role in the lakeshore.  You can read the entire history of the lakeshore’s creation at this site below:

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/slbe/index.htm

There is probably no more beloved nor oft-used trail in Monroe County than the section of Monroe’s River Trail that connects Munson and Veterans Parks.  In a few power-packed miles, a hiker gets a heavy dose of nature, history and social interaction.

The best trailhead for this walk is found near the Munson Park tennis courts.  Look for the “Bike Trail” signs and start walking east on the north side of N. Custer Road.

A walker will pass by the Munson Park playscape, a volleyball court and several well-manicured homes.  At the entrance to the Cranbrook Estates subdivision, the route turns towards the River Raisin and crosses N. Custer Rd.  Be careful here because the traffic is constant.

Monroe never looks better than it does right here.  The river is beautiful and the constant pedestrian pulse is invigorating.

A very short distance brings the walker within view of the site of Monroe’s first Catholic Church, St. Antoine’s.  The church later became known as St. Mary’s and it moved into town.

The site has an interesting recent history.  A cemetary was uncovered by developers here several years ago.  Community action led to the purchase of several building lots and the construction of an additional memorial.

A cadaver-sniffing dog named Eagle was used to locate the burial locations.  Eagle’s prints are memorialized in concrete at the monument site.

In the same general vicinity, a walker will spot the location of Frenchtown’s original blacksmith shop.  An historical marker makes for interesting reading.

The route continues along a pleasant and leafy paved trail.  Some of the trees are the descendents of those planted by Monroe’s earliest settlers.

While most of the monuments on this trail focus on “Big Picture” events, here’s one that remembers a single, beloved individual.  I like it.

Nature makes a nice companion for all of the surrounding history.  During my walk, I spotted several fishermen and this family of ducks.

As the walk approaches Veterans Park, take a look to the south.  Here stands Rex.  While his current job requires constant vigilance as a fire dog, he once protected the corner of Roessler and Front and the old Steel Castings plant.

Veterans Park is a generations-old picnic spot for Monroe’s residents.  It is filled with beautiful old trees.

The park is also home to the Waterloo Dam.  The dam helps to provide a nice setting for picnics, even if it makes life difficult for fish swimming upstream.

Many of Monroe’s military monuments find a home in this beautiful public space.  There are memorials to World Wars I and II, Korea, the Gulf War and the current War on Terrorism.  This is a very special place.  Whenever I stop at the monuments, I look for my great uncle, Stephen Tibai.

From Veterans Park, a walker can continue along the river into the city.  On this particular night, however, I decided to double back and return to my car.

Here is the route that I took:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!254&encType=1

The latest info. that I’ve been able to find about Toledo’s Glass City Skyway walk is here:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070621/NEWS11/70621001

I am not sure I want to spend $25 to get a true four-mile bridge walk.  I am equally unsure that I want to compete with 20,000 people for a seat on a bus so I can walk a half mile each way on the bridge deck.

Here’s a cell phone self-portrait that I took while standing on top of the sledding hill at Munson Park.  It’s a long shadow on the longest day of the year.

 

For a supposed “expatriate,” I’ve sure been in Monroe County a lot lately.  Tonight, I took my dad out for dinner at the Monroe Street Grille, which, incidentally, is located on W. Front Street, just around the corner from Monroe St.

But that is quibbling because the food that we had was great.  The menu included pasta dishes, salads, and a range of entrees that included fish and several steaks.  Let’s call it American.  The prices are in the middle range.  Most of the main courses that we saw were priced at $10 to $15.  That is not out of bounds for a good quality meal.  The restaurant also offers a variety of daily specials.

My dad and I were in a meat and potatoes kind of mood, so we both had the appropriately named “Monroe Street Grille.”  This was a ten ounce sirloin steak with a choice of potato, salad or soup and a side vegetable of asparagus and carrots.  The meal came in at $14.99, a fair price for this kind of dinner.

I have to say that the steak was great.  Many restaurants have difficulty cooking a steak to a specified rarity.  My dad likes his steaks medium rare.  I like mine medium.  When ours arrived, they were cooked as ordered.  My dad’s had the vibrant color and juiciness of a rare steak.  Mine had the subtle pinks and firmness of a medium steak.  The accompanying garnish was sweet and almost chocolate-flavored.  Good stuff.

My dad even went so far as to comment that this steak was “better than Michigan Bar and Grill.”  Well, I’ve had some great steaks at MB&G, so I won’t go that far, but it was a fine meal.  The vegetables were good and the salad was an excellent mixture of greens with a Betty-style dressing.

The restaurant decor is functional historic.  The tables are nicely-spaced and casual.  Most of the restaurant walls are exposed brick, lending authenticity to the space.  We came in at about 8PM and there seemed to be a few regulars sprinkled around the dining room.  It was a comfortable spot to have a conversation with dad.

The service was friendly and attentive.  This is not the most formal of places, so we had a nice running conversation with the owner and wait staff.  Everyone was very pleasant.  The Monroe Street Grille is a good restaurant on a key piece of downtown real estate.  It deserves every chance to succeed.  We will be going back.