Join Endurance Evolution on Sunday, Oct. 6, for a scenic marathon and half marathon in the heart of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Both races start and finish in Empire. The out-and-back marathon course will take runners by the Dune Climb, past Little Glen Lake, and through Glen Arbor, north to Dunn’s Farm Road, with breathtaking views of the Manitou Islands along the way. At the peak of fall color season, this tree-lined course will awe both runners and spectators.
Kathleen Stocking will give a 30-minute lecture about African-American pioneers on Glen Lake at the Empire Museum at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 2. Please spread the word among friends, neighbors, and while waiting in the grocery line.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Superintendent Dusty Shultz announced that the National Park Service proposes to restore, as much as practicable, the hydrological connection between the Mill Pond and Little Glen Lake. To do so, the National Lakeshore will prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) which will describe and analyze alternatives for this hydrological connection.
Jim Dorsey is the living grandson of 1850s pioneer John Dorsey. He and his wife Velma, and daughter and son-in-law, Christine and Duane Shugart, still live on the old home place on the south shore of Little Glen Lake. Where the farm and its sheep and cows used to be, is now a well-kept summer trailer park with a view of the dunes in the distance. Jim Dorsey says the Indians helped his grandfather locate this place, pervaded even now by an unusual peace and beauty.
The pristine water quality of Big and Little Glen Lakes along with the protected shorelines, natural hillsides, turquoise water, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore being the largest riparian on the lake, it is hard to find a more unique and beautiful lake in the country. Furthermore, this national treasure should be protected so as to keep it in a natural and pristine condition, now and for future generations.
Leelanau writer Kathleen Stocking reflects on her father, Pierce Stocking, who passed away the day after selling his vast tracts of land near Glen Arbor to the federal government. That land is now part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
“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.
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.
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.
Glen Arbor residents might recognize John Farah. The dentist from Ann Arbor owns a condominium at the Homestead Resort and likes to jog a 15-mile route around Big Glen Lake during his summer visits up north. On Monday in Boston, Farah was maintaining a solid pace, despite nagging small injuries that had interrupted his training cycle of late. He was hoping to finish the marathon at 4 hours and 15 minutes, and then greet his wife Jackie and her daughter Erin at the finish line. The plan was to take a train to Erin’s apartment so Farah could shower and change, and then head to Logan Airport for a flight back to Detroit.