On Sunday, Sept 10, Holland, Mich. resident Jon Ornée completed what he believes to be the first-ever unassisted swim from North Manitou Island to South Manitou Island. Ornée started from Donner’s Point on North Manitou Island at 7:45 am and reached shore at Gull Point on South Manitou Island at 9:24 am. The 4-mile swim took him 1 hour and 39 minutes to complete.
You could say that the famed AuSable River runs through the veins of Lindy Kellogg, a Cedar resident who works at the Leelanau Conservancy. The AuSable River Canoe Marathon, which held its 75th race on July 29, runs from Grayling to Oscoda, a distance of 120 miles. This year, Lindy joined the marathon for the first time together with Kolee.
Glen Arbor’s annual Running Bear Run, a popular late July family dash which the Glen Arbor Women’s Club will hold for the 16th year on July 25, is now a chip-timed race. The Running Bear 5K Run/Walk & ½ Mile Kids’ Run features 16 age categories for males and females from ages 10 and under to 80 and older. Winners will receive medals and prizes from Cherry Republic and Crystal River Outfitters and The Cyclery. Youngsters running the ½ Mile Kids’ Run get to run with the Bear and take home a ribbon and a coupon for a free ice cream cone from Cherry Republic.
Detroit native Pam Baad—pictured here jogging up the Lake Michigan Overlook at Pierce Stocking Drive—was named women’s “champignon” of the 2021 Bordulac Attack. The informal race is organized by the Bordulac family, includes six segments in and around Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and must be completed between June 15 and Halloween. Anyone can form a team or compete solo on any given day by using the Strava mobile app.
Ryan DeCook, a 42-year-old resident of Washington, Michigan, won his second consecutive M22 Challenge on Saturday, June 10, with an overall time of 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 47 seconds. This was the third time he has won the popular triathlon, which local organizers consider one of the most beautiful races in the nation.
Writer Tim Mulherin, who splits his time between Indianapolis and Leelanau County, shares his “big fish” story, when conservation officers with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources weighed in his brown trout at 7.8 pounds and rainbow trout at 4.5 pounds.
Snow conditions are very good in most places along the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, report Friends of Sleeping Bear, which grooms and maintains the popular multi-use trail in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Get out there before the weather warms up the middle of this week.
Mike Ramsdell, a filmmaker from Brighton, Mich., took his son Asher, age 11, and nephew Ryan, 13, on a “walkabout” in the Sleeping Bear Dunes on a brisk Dec. 3. Ramsdell takes each of his children on a walkabout when they turn 10, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the adventure for Asher and Ryan.
On Saturday, Aug. 27, at 7:20 a.m., a whaleboat—the likes of which hunted the world’s largest mammals in the mid-1800s in the North Atlantic Ocean—left the public dock in Glen Arbor as its crew rowed, then sailed across the Manitou Passage. The crew’s goal was not to catch a whale but to reach North Manitou Island. Leelanau local Pam Houtteman spotted the crew at the dock and took photos. She took down captain Shane Brosier’s phone number in order to send him the images, but when she asked for his name, he offered the famous opening line from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, “Call me Ishmael.”
Late this month, Traverse City native Jake Bright will attempt a nearly 7-mile solo swim from Sleeping Bear Point to the South Manitou Island Lighthouse. If all goes well, his will be the first swim across the Manitou Passage that follows USA Swimming’s open-water rules. The date of his feat will depend on weather conditions, but he hopes to make the journey between Aug. 22 and Sept. 3.