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Cottage Book Shop hosts three authors

Award-wining Michigan brothers, Jack and Dave Dempsey, have teamed up to write Ink Trails, a literary trip around the state of well-known and sometimes obscure authors introducing the breath of their works accomplishments. Sharing their discoveries and how the Michigan landscape helped shape their writing leads to a greater appreciation. Benzie authors Bruce Catton and Gwen Frostic and Glenn Ruggles of Antrim County are included along with Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Arthur Miller, Robert Traver, James Oliver Curwood and Jane Kenyon. The Dempseys will visit the Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor on Saturday, June 15 at 2 p.m. to share their journey and findings. Other books by Dave include William. G. Millikan, Waters of Michigan, Great Lakes for Sale and by Jack, Michigan and the Civil War.

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Olympian Jeff Smoke reclaims trophy at M-22 Challenge

“This year, I focused on being faster on the bike, and it paid off,” said Jeff Smoke, who won this year’s M-22 Challenge after relinquishing the gold medal last year to Denny Paull. Smoke, 35 of Buchanan, Mich., who kayaked on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team, won the popular Leelanau County triathlon in 2011. On June 8, Smoke regained his victor’s stride, and broke the course record with a time of 1:11:23.

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M-22 Challenge Turns Five

The annual M-22 Challenge will lurch out of the starting gates at the Little Glen Lake Picnic Area on M-109 for the fifth time on Saturday, June 8, at 9 a.m. This unique and popular “up north” triathlon will feature a record 900 athletes this year — running 2.5 miles including a sprint up the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb, biking 17 miles around the Glen Lakes, and paddling 2.5 miles in Little Glen Lake. Athletes will include Keri Pawielski, who will compete for her fifth consecutive M-22 Challenge trophy, and Denny Paull, who has twice won the overall mens division once again.

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Glen Arbor Art Association announces 2013 Manitou Music Festival lineup

The Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) has announced this year’s Manitou Music Festival lineup of musicians. The highlight will be this year’s Dune CLimb concert, on Sunday, July 14, featuring the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra.

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Glen Arbor Art Association features Jim Jacoby

Photographer Jim Jacoby of Livonia, begins his artist-in-residency with the Glen Arbor Art Association June 2. Jacoby will focus on the region’s special natural features — from the dunes in pre-dawn and dusk hours to other ecosystems off the beaten path.

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Fill ‘er up, work your core, launch the boat, taste delicious chocolate

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What services are imperative for a small town like Glen Arbor? How about a grocery store, a hardware store, a gas station and an active Chamber of Commerce. Check three of four for Jeff and Georgia Gietzen, the Grand Rapids transplants who acquired Northwoods Hardware three years ago (and became sole owners in 2011), who have also become Chamber leaders, and this spring bought the gas station just north of town. Northwoods Filling Station now boasts vintage 1950s signage, sells gasoline and quick bites, and most importantly stays open 7 days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. That’s a big improvement over having to drive to Empire or Maple City for petrol.

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Misleading Bike Signage

This sign at the eastern edge of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, as it approaches Glen Arbor, misleads bikers (and everyone else) into thinking they should turn right to access downtown Glen Arbor and its restaurants, shops and galleries. In fact, to reach Glen Arbor, folks should turn left and proceed 0.3 miles on Forest Haven Drive, and then turn right on M-109 (West Harbor Highway) for 0.1 miles. See the Google Map below.

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Federal sequestration wrecking ball hits Sleeping Bear

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National Park week, which begins April 20, is typically an opportunity for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to strut its stuff and demonstrate its value to the local community a month before the summer tourism season opens with Memorial Day weekend. During this year’s National Park week, the Lakeshore will hold a water testing demonstration on Esch Road Beach, a swearing-in ceremony for junior rangers, a showing of the film Chasing Ice at the Empire Visitor Center and a star gazing party on Platte Point Beach.

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Trillium Carpet

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The cold winter weather of 2013 that lingered well into May has delayed the emergence of our beloved trillium, prolonging their bloom time into June. The large flowered trillium (trillium grandiflorum) has a single, stout stem arising from a deeply buried bulb, three leaves and three big white petals. A Michigan Protected Flower, trillium are fragile and should not be picked, as this kills the entire plant. Besides, they lack fragrance and wilt quickly. In an emergency situation people can eat the leaves and bulb. White-tailed deer also eat trillium, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources predicts that between habitat destruction by humans and grazing by deer, trillium could disappear in the next 30 years. So enjoy the trillium today, and do what you can to ensure their survival for your great grandchildren.

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Center Gallery features “North”

If there’s a theme to painter Jamie Miller’s work, it’s “the itch for northern Michigan”. The scratch for this Ada, Mich., artist’s itch is his aptly-titled exhibition “North,” which opens May 24 at Glen Arbor’s Center Gallery on Lake Street across from Cherry Republic.

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