Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail partners are inviting the public to help celebrate the opening of the newest segment of the Heritage Trail during a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 2, at the Dune Climb of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The Dune Climb to Empire segment more than doubles the miles of trail completed, bringing the total to 9.5 miles. In addition, the newly installed donor recognition plaza will also be unveiled, which recognizes donors of $1,000 or more.
The Glen Lake Library will host a presentation by Sleeping Bear Dunes park ranger Jim Del Sasso, a 40-year veteran of the Park Service, on Thursday, June 19 at 7 p.m. “Ranger Jim” has worked in parks ranging from Denali to the Everglades, spending the last 20 years patrolling our local lakeshore. He will share stories, insights and pictures from his long career just weeks before his scheduled retirement in July. The presentation will take place at the Empire Township Hall.
Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler took a spin Thursday evening on the newly completed Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail section between the Dune Climb and Empire. It’s a beautiful, hilly ride! Along the way, he interviewed Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Deputy Superintendent Tom Ulrich and Duneswood Resort owner Debbie Rettke, about how this leg of the trail differs from the Dune Climb-to-Glen Arbor leg, what the expanded trail means for the National Park, and for local biking in general, and how folks have reacted to it so far. Check out this video.
After a particularly long and dreary, not to mention snowy, winter, Leelanau’s warmer weather—as well as the spring and summer bounty that comes with rising temperatures—is especially welcome. And there’s no better place to find seasonal food grown, canned, baked, dried and produced locally than a farmers market. Leelanau Farmers Market Association (LFMA), a nonprofit organization developed in 2000 by the Leelanau Agricultural Alliance in collaboration with Leelanau’s Michigan State University Extension, offers farmers markets five days a week in six locations within the county beginning in June: Empire, Glen Arbor, Lake Leelanau, Leland, Northport and Suttons Bay.
The Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail’s 5.5-mile expansion from the Dune Climb to Empire is complete. This urban hipster from Chicago enjoyed the trail on June 8.
Longtime Empire resident Jan Sikorski passed away early this morning after a battle with cancer. In her backyard, Mary Sharry observed that a baby fawn was born, its little ears poked up through the tall grasses where its mother knew it would be safe. Life springs eternal.
The Empire Village Council last night upheld its initiative to charge visitors who want to park at the town’s prized Lake Michigan beach this summer. Anyone parking at one of the beach’s 87 spots, who doesn’t live in Empire Village or Empire Township, will pay $1 per hour at one, centrally located machine that accepts credit cards.
The coveted prize to the winners of the Asparagus Festival 5K race wasn’t available this year, so we made the best substitution. The event is appropriately called the “Kick Your Ass-paragus Run” because it starts at the beach and in the first mile rises to peak elevation above Empire, the top of Wilco Road at the parking lot for Empire Bluffs. That’s a huff and a puff for anyone and this year we had one contestant of the 120 with a competition baby stroller, complete with baby inside. I warned her of the steepness of Wilco Road and examined, if she made it to the top, whether her three-wheeled device had brakes or not. It did so we felt she (and the baby) had a chance of making it back down without injury.
Worried about the viability of this aging community without its long-term doctor and without a prescription shop, the Glen Lake Chamber of Commerce took the proactive step in late April of circulating an email that explored whether it should go out and recruit a new, young doctor to Glen Arbor. But the response from Chamber members was resounding: there was no need—for an energetic and dynamic young doctor had just arrived in Empire.
Phase 2 of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, a 5.5-mile stretch between the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb and Empire, is close to completion. All spring, workers and heavy machinery have been clearing and flattening the path, and they began paving the trail on May 21. The National Park has set a deadline of July 1, but the Trail will likely be complete before then.