Celebrate National Trails Day on Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail

You can celebrate National Trails Day, June 1, on the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail (SBHT) at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. National Trails Day encourages all Americans to get outside to celebrate the importance of natural places where you can recreate, breathe some fresh air, and experience what nature can offer, including inspiration, education, solitude, amazing scenery, and peace of mind. There will be information, activities, and a refreshment stop hosted by the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes (FSBD) and Park Rangers along the first segment of the SBHT, which runs from the Dune Climb to Glen Arbor. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Parking is available at the Dune Climb, the historic village of Glen Haven, or in Glen Arbor at the lower Alligator Hill trailhead.

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“Pickin’ on Joah”, Empire to remember a gentle giant

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This Sunday, May 26, from 4-6 p.m. at the Village Inn in Empire, the Empire Area Community Emergency Fund will hold its monthly fund-raising concert to honor and celebrate the memory of Joah Dye, a beloved member of the community — not a musician, but rather a lover of music, people and life. The performers have chosen to “headline” Joah at this event. Among some of his favorite musicians are Chris Skellenger, Tom Fordyce, Norm Wheeler, Paul Koss and Patrick Niemisto who lovingly coined this event “Pickin’ On Joah”.

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Glen Arbor Art Association announces 2013 Manitou Music Festival lineup

The Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) has announced this year’s Manitou Music Festival lineup of musicians. The highlight will be this year’s Dune CLimb concert, on Sunday, July 14, featuring the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra.

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Glen Arbor Art Association features Jim Jacoby

Photographer Jim Jacoby of Livonia, begins his artist-in-residency with the Glen Arbor Art Association June 2. Jacoby will focus on the region’s special natural features — from the dunes in pre-dawn and dusk hours to other ecosystems off the beaten path.

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Fill ‘er up, work your core, launch the boat, taste delicious chocolate

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What services are imperative for a small town like Glen Arbor? How about a grocery store, a hardware store, a gas station and an active Chamber of Commerce. Check three of four for Jeff and Georgia Gietzen, the Grand Rapids transplants who acquired Northwoods Hardware three years ago (and became sole owners in 2011), who have also become Chamber leaders, and this spring bought the gas station just north of town. Northwoods Filling Station now boasts vintage 1950s signage, sells gasoline and quick bites, and most importantly stays open 7 days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. That’s a big improvement over having to drive to Empire or Maple City for petrol.

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Misleading Bike Signage

This sign at the eastern edge of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, as it approaches Glen Arbor, misleads bikers (and everyone else) into thinking they should turn right to access downtown Glen Arbor and its restaurants, shops and galleries. In fact, to reach Glen Arbor, folks should turn left and proceed 0.3 miles on Forest Haven Drive, and then turn right on M-109 (West Harbor Highway) for 0.1 miles. See the Google Map below.

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Federal sequestration wrecking ball hits Sleeping Bear

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National Park week, which begins April 20, is typically an opportunity for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to strut its stuff and demonstrate its value to the local community a month before the summer tourism season opens with Memorial Day weekend. During this year’s National Park week, the Lakeshore will hold a water testing demonstration on Esch Road Beach, a swearing-in ceremony for junior rangers, a showing of the film Chasing Ice at the Empire Visitor Center and a star gazing party on Platte Point Beach.

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Trillium Carpet

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The cold winter weather of 2013 that lingered well into May has delayed the emergence of our beloved trillium, prolonging their bloom time into June. The large flowered trillium (trillium grandiflorum) has a single, stout stem arising from a deeply buried bulb, three leaves and three big white petals. A Michigan Protected Flower, trillium are fragile and should not be picked, as this kills the entire plant. Besides, they lack fragrance and wilt quickly. In an emergency situation people can eat the leaves and bulb. White-tailed deer also eat trillium, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources predicts that between habitat destruction by humans and grazing by deer, trillium could disappear in the next 30 years. So enjoy the trillium today, and do what you can to ensure their survival for your great grandchildren.

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Empire Asparagus Festival 2013 Poetry Contest winners

Here are the top three entries from the Empire Asparagus Festival’s 2013 Poetry Contest. The winners are Mary O’Neill, R.D. Andrews and Sylvia Duncan

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Center Gallery features “North”

If there’s a theme to painter Jamie Miller’s work, it’s “the itch for northern Michigan”. The scratch for this Ada, Mich., artist’s itch is his aptly-titled exhibition “North,” which opens May 24 at Glen Arbor’s Center Gallery on Lake Street across from Cherry Republic.

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