The GG was hankering to head up to the Yooperland this weekend and stomp the park with our North Country Trail buddies. At this time of year, I am heavy into saving up vacation time for the year. Unused time does not carry over and even with my newly increased vacay hours, I budget very carefully and since I’d’ve had to take a day off to go with him, I opted out. But… In the end, the weather forecast looked nasty enough “up north” that he bagged the trip. Not sure if the nastiness ever materialized but we took advantage of the currently balmy temps down here to head over to Hillsdale and hike on the Baw Beese section of the NCT. We got up EARLY and here we are passing a truck on the I94 18-Wheel Slogway.

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We arrived at our parking place about one minute before sunrise (8:05 in Hillsdale, 8:04 on the Planet Ann Arbor). This NCT marker is a bit the worse for wear but, as this portion of the trail is on an old railroad grade, it’s not that easy to get lost. The Lakeshore and Michigan Southern Railway, according to my fb/high school friend and self-proclaimed train geek Matt. This section is very different from the ones we frequently hike in the yooperland but it is beautiful in its own way.

The GG spotted this fella in Osseo. Not sure what’s up with the missing pane of glass but Osseo is an interesting little town, notable for a pair of tragic fireworks factory explosions in the late 1990s.

This “elevated walkway” has seen better days.

Not sure if you can tell from the pic but if you look between the railroad ties, the ground is quite a way down.

At this point we had returned from Osseo and were walking along the shores of Baw Beese Lake. The sun deigned to make a rather weak appearance and, as I was taking this photooo, we were talking to one of the very few other hikers we encountered.

The GG is always spotting, well, Stuff To Be Investigated, for lack of a more colorful term. As we were walking *to* Osseo, he totally missed an artifact right in the middle of the trail (but I did not [wink]). He *did* notice it on the trip *back* from Osseo and proclaimed that it was the top of a spray can. One of these days when we are walking somewhere, I think I will make it a point to photograph him inspecting various objects and fixtures. I don’t know what the artifact below is but he dredged it out of the woods and perched it on a branch a number of yards down the trail.

We walked off the trail maybe 15 minutes before noon and part of our plan was to find a nice pub for lunch. I had actually researched pubs in Hillsdale before our excursion and had found a potential candidate. As we drove by it, I could tell the GG was NOT enthused. We weren’t particularly optimistic that we would find another place but we drove up the next street and there was the Hunt Club of Hillsdale. It turned out to be perfect! We sat at the bar and had wonderful food (half sandwich and a cup of soup) and our waitress was my new best friend by the time we left. Hillsdale is not often on our “beat” but the next time we head over in that direction, we’ll return to the Hunt Club. Check out that tin ceiling!

Of course we used our “devices” while we were eating lunch. What were you thinking? This person has three screens. Yer fav-o-rite blahgger only had her trusty iPhone. The device that fits in her pocket.

The county courthouse is a dominant feature of downtown Hillsdale and I think it is cool so I had to get a pic.

After this, we did a bit of a reconnaissance mission to find entrances/parking for the NCT south of Osseo and then we skedaddled for home. Great day and I am over 30K steps at this point. The jury is out on exactly how many miles we hiked but it was somewhere near 11.5 or 12.

Hope your day was as good as ours. Love, KW.

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