Sports/Adventure

Running with freedom in mind

As I write this piece, thunder rumbles in the distance. It sounds like it’s moving closer, writes Jessica Sharry. Wind pushes through the window screens. I wonder if I’ll get to run this morning. I love weekend mornings. I lace up my running shoes, unhurried, and head out the door and onto the streets of Empire. I often choose the same route because, for me, running is less about the destination or itinerary, and more about the experience, and benefits derived. I like morning runs the best, though some days I run in the evening after work. I always have running shoes and running-ready attire in my car.

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Leland Gliders ski Vasa race

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The Leland Gliders club—coached by Karen Kirt—will participate in the North American Vasa cross-country ski race near Traverse City this weekend. The Gliders will join for the seventh year in a row. They are the only Leelanau County ski club racing in the Vasa, the region’s preeminent cross-country ski race. Kirt’s group includes two seventh graders, a sixth grader and a fourth grader, all of whom will ski the Junior Vasa on Saturday afternoon.

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Friends of Sleeping Bear report “fantastic” Heritage Trail conditions

The Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, which maintains the popular Heritage Trail and grooms it for cross-country skiing during the winter months, reported “fantastic” conditions in an mail update on Friday. Here are current ski conditions, as of Friday.

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Blanketed in snow, it’s time to winter play in Leelanau

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Winter arrived in a hurry after Thanksgiving, and Leelanau County is covered in fluffy snow. Here’s the downhill and cross-country skiing, sledding, hiking and tubing report, as of Wednesday, Dec. 4. Drive safe, stay warm, and enjoy!

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Biking in Leelanau County: an outsider’s perspective

Coreopsis. Cardinal flower. Spring beauty. Goldenrod. Buttercup. As I biked the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, I repeated these names to myself over and over so I could write them down in my biking journal later. Each new bench I passed was emblazoned with a different flower name in capital letters, and they began to feel like mile markers, a mental record of my journey on this uniquely beautiful trail. I had started my ride from the Glen Arbor trailhead at 6 p.m., hoping to finish before dark. It was cloudy and colder than I had expected, and as time went on, I found myself yearning to pass other people, nervously pedaling faster up and down the steep hills in silence. The more I listened to the insects chirping and felt the rushing wind around me, repeating the flowers to myself like a mantra, I began to feel connected to nature, far more so than the cars rushing by me. It’s a sentiment shared by many of the bikers I interviewed in Traverse City and Leelanau County. In this region, biking is inherently connected to the natural beauty to be found.

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Goodbye culverts, hello timber bridge over the Crystal River

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“Shooting the tube” through the Crystal River culverts under County Road 675 is now an experience of the past. This month the Grand Traverse Engineering & Construction will remove the three culverts and replace the road above them with an 80-foot timber bridge. The work should be complete by the end of November, according to GTEC construction manager Ken Ockert. S. Dunns Farm Road will be closed to thru traffic and rerouted around Big Glen Lake for the duration of the project. Labor Day Monday, Sept. 2, was the last day for kayakers, canoers and paddleboarders to float through the culverts. Their removal is bittersweet for the staff at Crystal River Outfitters, which has sent thousands of people down the river in the past three decades. “It’s fun to look back at the last 30 years and think that the term ‘shoot the tube’ has become synonymous with Crystal River Outfitters kayak trips down the Crystal River,” said Katy Wiesen, who co-owns the business together with her husband Matt. “Shooting the tube became not only an annual family tradition but also led to many variations on stickers, hats, t-shirts and more that are soon to be a piece of history.”

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Five out of five kids recommend golf at Glen Arbor’s new River Club

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Glen Arbor’s newest attraction is not your average putting course experience. Many of you have been to the River Club already, but for those of you who haven’t, here is a review, courtesy of 11-year-old Martin Ludden and four other kids between ages 8 and 11. During our two visits to River Club so far, there have been families on most of the course’s 18 holes, but they move quick. It’s a fun vibe, and with people talking and laughing it feels almost like a community treasure hunt. Plus, you can finish and start a new game. With your day-pass wrist band the place offers unlimited minigolf while your parents eat and drink, relax by the river or listen to live music!

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Maritime Heritage Alliance keeps history of the lakes alive

The interest in traditional sailing ships—both here in the Grand Traverse Region and throughout much of the world—holds many in fascination. This enthusiasm for both reconstructing and maintaining these boats visually draws past maritime history and current life together. Schooners would come to grace the waterways not only out of need in the early days of settlement, but again today, bringing a deep recreational satisfaction to many. Being aboard, skimming over the water, feeling the wooden planks underneath one’s feet, winds whipping the face, is sheer exhilaration for the adventurous. A passion for classic wooden boats brought together the founders of the Maritime Heritage Alliance (MHA) in the early 1980s. The group’s primary interest was to preserve the maritime history of the area. A quote from the late Bill Livingston, a renowned boat builder from Northport, typifies the alliance’s attitude: “The real joys in life consist of making something with our hands, not making money, but making something.”

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Yacht Club hosts Butterfly Nationals

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The Glen Lake Yacht Club hosts the Butterfly Class National Sailing Regatta July 16-18 on Glen Lake. According to Holly Reay, the Yacht Club is expecting a showing from seven other clubs around Michi- gan including Leland, Torch Lake, Spring Lake, White, Crystal Lakes, Muskegon and Grand Rapids. Any individual who owns a Butterly boat who is interested in doing the regatta is able to join. There is a Juniors (may not turn 17 on or before July 18) and an Opens category. No affiliation with a club is necessary. The Yacht Club will offer meals, door prizes, and more. Register at GlenLakeYachtClub.com.

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Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail hits roadblock on northeast expansion

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A simmering feud between Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and TART Trails, and residents of Little Traverse Lake who oppose the northeast expansion of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail is once again heating up. The popular, multi-use bicycle trail, which stretches 22 miles from Empire through the National Lakeshore to Bohemian Road, is set to expand by 4.25 miles northeast to Good Harbor Trail. Tree clearing and construction are slated to begin this fall, and the extension will open in late 2025 or 2026. But early this month the Little Traverse Lake Association released an environmental impact study the group had commissioned from Borealis Consulting, which found that Segment 9 of the Heritage Trail would require the removal of nearly 7,300 trees and trespass through sensitive wilderness, wetlands and dunes. Of the nearly 7,300 trees identified in the Borealis study, 82% are saplings or small trees with diameters of 10 inches or less. The Park has directed trail designers with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to “meander around the largest trees.” The Lake Association unsuccessfully sued the federal government in 2015 over the adequacy of the National Park’s 2009 environmental assessment.

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