The Manistee River Trail

I searched various locations across the state of Michigan for a suitable first true backpacking trip with my oldest son, Duncan. We had been doing various hike-in camping experiences the last few years and we thought he was ready for a true multi-stop trip. I picked the Manistee River location for two main reasons.

The first is that the trail is a beautiful backpacking experience. By many accounts one of the top in the state and I certainly don’t argue with that point. The Manistee River Trail also connects up with the North Country Trail that passes along on the west side of the river to turn the experience into a 20+ mile loop.

The second reason is that hiking in a National Forest offers the ultimate in backpacking flexibility. There are a number of designated sites along the Manistee River Trail, but backcountry camping is also allowed. Despite feeling prepared, you never know how someone is going to respond to their first experience of this type. I had planned for a 4 night long weekend, but we could flex depending how things went. This flexibility turned out to be key.

First off, when I said I felt prepared, I meant I felt he was prepared. I knew I had rushed this trip a bit around work schedule etc to make sure to get in the opportunity for an extra night, which brings me to lesson one.

1) Don’t Schedule too Tightly or Rush Out the Door

I work nights and basically cut a nights worth of sleep to get an extra night for the trip. This also meant we started out in a bit of a hurry and rushing to get on the road. This led to trouble, as it always does, and we ended up having to turn around after 20 minutes of driving. I had left the fuel canister sitting on the deck where I had topped it off. Kind of an important item to bring along.

This began a series of setbacks and issues that made this trip a challenge. Thankfully we both love being out in the woods and the beauty of the area itself more than made up for it. In any case, after the delayed start we ended up set back another hour by a traffic accident.

All of this in an attempt get that extra night in, which, as you’ll see, we didn’t end up using.

2) Don’t Overestimate Your Own Strength

My son is a fairly experienced hiker for his age, but backpacking multiple days is a different story. I knew this. No big deal though, I can carry the extra load if needed. Well, from the moment we hit the trail, items started making the way from his pack to mine. Again, no big deal. I expect adjustments at the beginning of a trip, especially when prep hiking might have been glossed over (See lesson #7).

However, in this case, my pack ended up looking more than a little comical by the end of the trip. Not only were my legs hurting on the trail, I was also more than a little off balanced. This can honestly be dangerous out on the trail.  

3) Listen to Your Body (And Your Companions)

The arrival day was a shorter hike. Even with the added weight and lack of sleep, I still felt in a pretty good place as we made our way along the trail. Duncan also seemed to be doing decently well once he adjusted to his pack. That said, after a longer than expected car ride and a rough start before those adjustments were made, he wasn’t exactly loving the hilly terrain. This is why I wanted to do a National Forest in the first place. Once we made it back to the river, we made camp.

This was a beautiful site, that wasn’t a site. Despite the early issues, it had me feeling pretty confident about the trip, perhaps overconfident. Day two, I wanted to make up for lost time and mileage. We skipped multiple possible sites despite objections from my son and my own body.

When we finally did make camp for the second night, I very nearly passed out. Being my first trip like this as a parent, I had not fully thought out the logistics of an unplanned evening nap. The second half of the day, I had in my head that I just need to camp, and then I can recover. Not quite how it works when your travel companion is ten.

Single-mindedly I had pushed myself (and my son) to go just a little further, just a little further. Then once camp was set up, and I sat in my camp chair recovering, I started to drift off. Just before I did, the thought hit me… What if something happens to him while I’m taking this little catnap? That was enough for the parent part of my brain to pretty much freak out. In the end I realized that I needed to keep myself awake until night time, somehow.

This was a rough ask of my body. After the lack of sleep and rushed trip the day before, the more than expected pack weight, and the extra miles on the trail, my body told my mind it wasn’t having this. Those of you have pushed yourself to a point like this know what I’m talking about. It’s a level of exhaustion that honestly feels like there’s something wrong. To be at that point and need to still keep myself awake hours past when the adrenaline of the actual push had ended, was brutal.

All because I didn’t listen to what my body and my companion were telling me. Still pushing to complete the whole trail, and this is where the trip took a turn downhill.

4) Pack a Meals Worth of Snacks (or Two)

This end of the day exhaustion brings me to this next point. It’s something I well knew, but had just plain forgotten. You don’t want to always be reliant on boiling water and cooking for a full meal’s worth of calories.

When I went on backpacking trips earlier in my life, we had trail mix, protein bars, etc. In a pinch they could easily be consumed without prep to get both quick, and lasting energy, depending on the item and the quantity. Why I didn’t bring something like this on this trip, I honestly don’t remember. I guess at the time it seemed like a good way to cut on cost and pack weight. Oatmeal, Raman, and backpacking meals, with a couple little snacks for the trail. That’s all we needed.

Nope. Being able to sit down to dinner that second evening without needing to filter water and set up the stove and cook would have been a beautiful thing. That said, I might have still done the backpacking meals even if we had non-prep foods. The next morning, however, is a different story.

5) Plan For Rain

Now, I flat out can’t complain about weather on camping trips. For one, there’s obviously no point. Second, I have had a tendency to be extraordinarily lucky when it comes to cooperative weather on the trail. The down side of this is that I hadn’t really updated my rain gear in quite a while and my luck was not with me this day.

When I came to in the morning, it was pouring. That’s what it felt like after the rough day before. When my son woke me up in the morning it was more like regaining consciousness than a normal waking up.

Oddly enough, despite years of camping and hiking, I had rarely had washouts. Like I said, I’ve been lucky. And this was definitely the first in my experience on a trip when I was dependent on going out to filter water and setting up a sheltered area to set up the stove.

All I wanted to do was roll back over and wait for the rain to end. In retrospect, that’s exactly what I probably should have done. Again though, camping with a child makes some things very different. Just lie there calmly and wait, get some extra rest, we’ll just have to hold off on breakfast. None of this was going over well. The rain kept coming and eventually I gave in.

The rain let up a little, and I had a “brilliant” idea. I could use the rainfly of the tent attached to some trees as a makeshift shelter. Did I mention I was still a little groggy and not thinking straight?

The wet clothes, wet sleeping bags, added wet weight to the packs, the grumpiness and bad decisions of the morning. This unfortunately made for a low point in my life of hiking and leads me to my next lesson.

6) It’s Almost Never Really That Bad But Know When to Call It

Two of the most important things when being in any situation is to keep your calm and keep perspective. I find this especially true in being out in the woods and in being a parent. Knowing this fact, though, does not make it easy to follow through.  

On a third or fourth attempt I did get a shelter together where I could set up the stove and make breakfast. By that point though, the little lull in the rain was well past over, and all of our gear was pretty well soaked. Also, I am more than a little ashamed to admit that through it all, I had not exactly been patient with the new backpacker I was traveling with.

The frustration of having to take care of most things on my own overwhelmed the logic of that being inevitable. Duncan didn’t have the experience, strength or height to do some of the things I asked him to do. I had too much confidence in his previous camping experience carrying over to this trip. He had only just turned ten, and was dealing with being cold, wet, and hungry just like I was.

It wasn’t the end of the world, just discomfort. We were in no real danger, no one got hurt, we didn’t even miss a meal. If I had led by example, and kept that in mind, he might have followed suit. Instead, we were both pretty miserable by the time we hit the trail and not just from the dampness. The trip had lost its fun.

Seeing this, I made what turned out to be the right decision and our direction was back the way we came. This meant we only ended up with three days of hiking and the fourth night was spent in a bed rather than a tent, but the mood lifted as soon as the call was made. The hike back ended up being the best of the trip, even with the on and off rain, and ultimately, Duncan did me proud. Despite the low points, it’s a trip we’ll never forget, which is definitely good thing.

7) Prep Hikes are Never Unnecessary

I saved what is probably the most important lesson for last. It’s a common sense one to anyone who’s done a lot of time in the woods, including myself. That said, it’s also one that having more experience can cause you to ignore, which is what happened to me on this trip. Hopefully never again.

I thought day hikes on regular camping trips and the few hike-in stays I had done with Duncan had him fully prepared for a longer trip. In fact, if it wasn’t for time restrictions, I had wanted to do a full week with him. Wow, would that have been a mistake. The trip itself turned into the shakedown trip we should have taken prior.

Maybe all it would have taken was a weekend before the big trip where the two of us actually camped out of our backpacks to see what was missing in terms of equipment and knowledge. Who knows. At the very least I would have had a better understanding of how much weight he could actually carry. His birthday present backpack still had a new smell about it when we set out on the trail. Definitely, a danger sign.

The result of the trip ended up being that he’s a little leery about backpacking. Thankfully, he’s still more than happy to give it another chance. With luck, we’ve both learned these lessons. When we go out again we can make completely new mistakes, but hopefully keep our heads, and enjoy the time on the trail even more the next time around.