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1

Walking the Lake Michigan beach — a public right, or trespassing?

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It’s common knowledge that the public can walk along the Lake Michigan shoreline. You can walk it anywhere on public property. That means public road ends, or the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The question is: how far from the water’s edge can a person legally walk along private property? This is an important issue, since about 70 percent of Michigan’s “third coast” is privately owned. The answer is unclear, because neither courts in Michigan nor in other Great Lakes states have offered a clear and consistent answer.

2

Walking the ordinary and extraordinary, and what’s in between

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More than mere proof of motion, walking is an act both ordinary and extraordinary. It has the unique ability to shape human experience in both subtle and profound ways. A first step marks the beginning of independence, like those of a small child—something Leah Hilton Turner, lifelong Glen Arborite, knows well. The mother of twin daughters, now almost three, recalled the pure joy and excitement of that milestone.It is this vast spectrum of meaning—walking as both instinct and intention—that is the focus of the latest exhibition of the Glen Arbor Arts Center (GAAC): Walking. Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC’s gallery manager, is the visionary behind Walking. Predictably, Bearup-Neal infused the exhibit with her signature energy and curiosity. As with past shows, her concepts, while deceptively simple, are profoundly cerebral. The exhibit remains on display through May 29.

3

“Packed” beaches? A curmudgeon comes around

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One Friday afternoon last July, Tim Mulherin’s wife, Janet, suggested they go down to Good Harbor Bay Beach CR 651 (Good Harbor Trail) for a few blissful hours of relaxation. That favorite Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore location is conveniently located about two miles from our home in Cedar. Janet had the right idea: It was a glorious northern Michigan summer day, the kind that makes you want to drop what you’re doing and report to the nearest Lake Michigan beach. “Sounds good,” Tim said, “with one exception: It’s July and the beach will be packed.” Mulherin, a self-described curmudgeon, writes here about accepting “packed beaches” at the height of summer.

4

Revisiting the Empire shoreline—beach boulders, concrete slabs, and high water

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Decades after writing the piece “Wind, waves and healing solitude,” I revisit the shoreline to the bluffs along Lake Michigan accessed from the south end of Empire beach. Years ago, in order to protect the shoreline there were concrete slabs positioned at a steep angle so that it became a tricky maneuver to reach the shore. Agile younger folks managed by using quick running steps over the slabs. This old lady found that going backwards on all fours was the safest way down. Fortunately, sand was recently piled atop the slabs affording easier access to the shore.

5

Private beach wall could dramatically change Empire shoreline

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The Storm Hill Homeowners Association, whose properties are located on the high ground between Empire’s public beach and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Empire Bluff, applied in June to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to armor the base of their bluff near the shoreline with a 740-foot-long steel seawall along 6 properties—that’s the length equivalent of 2.5 football fields.

6

The other 2020 crisis—record-high water levels wash away beaches

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Social distancing of 6 feet or more during the coronavirus pandemic is even more difficult this spring and summer because record-high Great Lakes water levels have eaten away beaches where we otherwise could walk at our leisure.

7

High waters, shrinking beaches up ante over road end lake access

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Higher Lake Michigan levels have shrunk beach areas and are exacerbating the struggle between public beachgoers and private landowners over access to our shoreline. A prime example can be found at the 60-foot-wide beach access at Reynolds Street in Leland, which for decades has been called “South Beach”.

8

Will Lake Michigan water levels set all-time mark?

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We are closely monitoring Lake Michigan’s extreme high water levels this summer—their impact on beaches and beach walking, commerce and the economy, and whether their meteoric rise since bottoming out in 2013 represents a “new normal” in the age of Climate Change.

9

Beach Alert! Areas of Lake Michigan shoreline unwalkable on rough water days

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Pack away those dreams of walking miles from bay to bay along the shores of Lake Michigan this summer—unless you want to get wet, that is.

10

Supreme Court reaffirms Great Lakes public beach access

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The public has the right to walk the Great Lakes shoreline, even along privately owned beaches. The United States Supreme Court reaffirmed that right on Tuesday. The court declined to hear an Indiana case filed by riparian land owners who live along the south shore of Lake Michigan.