Day 50

Mio, Michigan

Jun 25, 2013, 5:07 PM

Steve's plan for the day was to go to the Huron National Forest area and do some hiking and hopefully see wildlife. When we woke up this morning it was raining, so we took our time getting out the door and by the time we were ready to leave the rain had stopped. Mio was about a 45 minute drive from the campground. We had no specific location in mind so we just set the GPS to the city itself. As we were making our way to the Mio area we saw an overlook and decided to stop and take a look. The overlook was looking over the Au Sable River. It was a nice path to a deck over the river. It was really nice and we were the only ones around. There was a breeze and it was overcast so it wasn't too warm and we saw a cute little chipmunk. He was filling his little cheeks and then running off. Little did we know that was going to be the extent of our wildlife viewing for the day. 

When we got into the city there was nothing to direct us to a tourist information center or anything. I actually don't think they get a whole lot of tourists. There were canoeing, kayaking, and tubing places, but they looked like it was more for locals. We found a fish and wildlife station and they had maps and information and a nice ranger lady gave us a suggestion for a good hiking trail. By this time it was getting to be lunch time so we stopped at a local diner and had a really nice lunch then on to our hike. We were just down the street from the trail head parking lot. We got there and it was also where they put in canoes, there was plenty of parking, so we were off for our hike. We did about a two mile loop. The path was easy to walk. The ground was hard packed and most of it was flat. There were sections of the path that I don't think anyone had been on for a long time. Ferns were covering the path almost completely in places. 

I thought for sure we would see wildlife. This place was so secluded and there was NO ONE else on the trail, and do you want to know what we saw, well I can't tell you what we saw cause we saw NOTHING!!!!!!! This path was so beautiful it didn't matter that we saw no animals. There was so much fern everywhere, it looked like a primeval forest. Even though we saw no wildlife it was a perfect hike. We didn't have to dodge yelling running kids, no bikes to watch out for, no hikers at all, just us. 

When we got back to the car we were both ready to get home. Tomorrow we are going to just lay low. Steve has a few odd jobs he wants to get done, then Thursday we are on our way to the Upper Peninsula till after the 4th. I can't wait!!!!!!