Cherry Republic and Friends of Sleeping Bear report the first annual Sleepy Bear Twilight Ride, at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 11, to support maintenance of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail. All funds raised will go toward trail operations, which include keeping the trail clear for riders during the spring, summer and fall, and grooming in the winter for cross-country skiing. Annual maintenance of the trail costs about $1,000 per mile.
The second annual Dune Dash to benefit the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail will be held on Saturday, Aug. 17 at 9 a.m. The 4-mile run/walk starts and finishes at the base of the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb and follows the flat, paved segment of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail to Glen Haven and back.
The Glen Arbor Fourth of July parade, which next Thursday will celebrate half a century of annual patriotic celebrations, has come a long way since fire trucks were wrapped in primitive, spray-painted bedsheets. This year’s parade leaves Glen Haven at noon and typically arrives in Glen Arbor around 12:30. Spectators are encouraged to stake out a spot by mid-morning, as this event attracts hordes of people.
Trail enthusiasts are invited to a Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail Open House on Saturday, March 2 from 10 a.m.-noon along the trail in Glen Haven. Please stop by while you are out skiing or snowshoeing to enjoy complimentary homemade cookies and sample hot chocolate from Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate.
Most of us in Glen Arbor head for the fireplace, a hot pot of soup, or Art’s Tavern, when the temperature dips below 30 degrees and a brisk breeze blows off Lake Michigan. But not intrepid photo-videographer Keenan May. Before heading back to San Francisco, the local dude drove down M-109 to Glen Haven, walked down the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail with his surfboard in tow, then pushed into Sleeping Bear Bay to catch a few December waves.
Michigan Secretary of State representatives will offer new citizens the opportunity to register to vote after a naturalization ceremony overlooking Lake Michigan in Glen Arbor on Friday, Aug. 24, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson announced yesterday.
After several years of limited piping plover nesting activity in the Glen Haven area of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (National Lakeshore), four pairs of the federally endangered shorebird have made that beach their home for the summer. This easily accessible location provides visitors an excellent opportunity to view a rare bird in its natural habitat, as well as have questions answered by National Park Service employees and volunteers who will be on site throughout the nesting season.
This summer, the National Park Service (NPS) unveiled its options for the Historic Landscape Management Plan of the Port Oneida Rural Historic District. Some four miles east of Glen Arbor, the shoreline settlement was founded as a logging community, with subsistence (family) farming and fishing, in the early 1860s by immigrant pioneers from Prussia and Hanover (now parts of modern Germany), and lived in continuously until the 1970s. It is defined as a “historic vernacular landscape … that has evolved through use by ordinary people” over a “period of significance of 1870-1945,” in the Plan’s Executive Summary, and it is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Glen Arbor’s celebration of Uncle Sam’s 235th birthday kicks off with a 4 p.m. performance of patriotic music by the Northport Community Band on Saturday, July 2, at the Glen Arbor Athletic Club.
The venerable Duneswood resort, snuggled up against the towering majesty of the old Dune Climb on M-109, has taken on a new shine, as second-generation owner Debbie Rettke renovates and rejuvenates in time for high summer season.