Maybe it’s true—the third time is a charm. Though my first two M22 Challenges—the first in 2011, my second in ’13—were fantastic experiences, this year’s event proved especially rewarding. Not just because I made it to the podium—a first in my seven years of racing!—but because I felt so strong throughout this 22-mile run-bike-paddle race. Is there anything better than a race where everything just clicks?
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.
Jeff Smoke, 35 of Buchanan, Mich., is not a newcomer to the M-22 Challenge, the podium or paddle triathlons. Smoke kayaked on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team and took first place at the 2011 and 2013 M-22 Challenge. In past years Smoke has dominated the paddle portion of the race and this is where he would win the event. However, in 2014 he picked up his cycling pace, which proved to make the ultimate difference for him, as Denny Paull was only one second off Smoke’s paddle time. Paull, the 2010 and 2012 winner, came into the transition area from the run well ahead of Smoke, but lost valuable time to Smoke on the bike portion of the race. Paull finished second overall.
Chicago artist Liz Wall conducts a painting demonstration on July 1 at 1 p.m. as part of her exhibition “Leelanau Lake Effect” at Center Gallery, 6023 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor. Wall works in both oil and pastel paint. She’ll demonstrate her technique and talk about process and painting in Leelanau County. For more information call 231-334-3179.
Introducing Kurt Schultz, Glen Arbor Township new safety officer. Schultz has long been interested in transportation matters. Until his retirement in 2012, he wrote technical manuals for M1 Abrams battle tanks and Stryker Vehicles, armored fighting vehicles built for the U.S. Army by General Dynamics Land Systems in Sterling Heights where he was employed for 16 years.
Endurance Evolution’s third annual Glen Arbor Solstice Half Marathon & 5k takes place on Saturday, June 21 at 7 a.m. The event is a scenic half marathon and a 5k run/walk race in Glen Arbor. The half marathon will take runners around Big Glen Lake in a clockwise loop, starting and finishing in downtown Glen Arbor.
The Glen Arbor Art Association announced the cast for its June 17-19 Readers’ Theater production of the movie/radio play Casablanca. All the performers and staging assistants are locals from Leelanau County.
Local restaurateurs and Northern Michigan breweries will show off their best as Glen Arbor kicks off the summer season with the annual BBQ & Brew summer celebration on Saturday, June 21, from 2 until 8 p.m. BBQ & Brew is a fundraiser for the Glen Lake Chamber of Commerce. This year’s celebration will be held under the tent at the northwest corner of Western Avenue and Lake Street, and feature an adjacent dining tent to sit, relax and enjoy great music.
Miller Hill resident Michael Collier writes that on Wednesday, June 11, he spotted and photographed a black bear at his bird feeder. “This shy fellow happened to find our bird feeder, eventually destroying it obtaining the seeds,” writes Collier. “He/she snapped the pole off near the ground while leaning against it, then ran off like a bullet down the hill when I opened the outside door and stomped on the deck.”
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.