Animals – Domestic and Wild: October 25-27, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Setting Off, on an Icy Day
I woke at 6 am and Patty Hopper was already up preparing breakfast. Daryl was in the kitchen, too. Before we ate breakfast Daryl said a prayer wishing me a safe journey. Coffee, pancakes and bacon soon disappeared and it was time to leave. Patty gave me a hug and we said our goodbyes.
Outside Daryl's car was icy and the door to the back seat was stuck. Daryl managed to get it open and I put my pack inside.
As we drove back to the Strongs Tavern Daryl talked about his work maintaining the local roads and also mentioned he had seen a cougar in the area.
By 7 am I shook Daryl's hand and set off down the road. The rain from the day before had frozen and the side of the road was slick with ice. I walked on the gravel at the edge of the road to avoid slipping.
Although the day was cold there was no wind and it was bright.
A Call Home
By 9 am I came to a spot with a track into the woods. Beneath some yellow leaved maples I set my pack down and took off my gloves. I phoned my father-in-law Johann and wished him a happy 88th birthday.
My wife Monica and son James were with Johann and I talked to them, too. They were about to have a birthday dinner and seemed in good spirits. After finding out the news from home I said goodbye and put my gloves back on.
The sun rose and the ice on the road began to melt. By around 11 I came to a small collection of houses at a crossroads.
There was a large trailer parked outside one of the buildings and I set my pack down on it. I ate a peanut butter sandwich and an apple that Patty had given me and drank some water.
I set the timer on my camera and took a photo of me drinking by the trailer.
As the day passed clouds came in and rain began to fall. Newberry was my destination and the plan was that a nurse from Northwoods Hospice called Debbie Griggs would pick me up at around 5 pm.
By 5 I had reached the outskirts of Newberry. Rain was falling, my feet were wet in my shoes and I was starting to get cold.
Meeting Up with Debbie Griggs and her “Mad” Dog
A smart little van pulled to the side of the road and Debbie Griggs climbed out. She had a big smile on her face.“Am I glad to see you!” I smiled and shook Debbie's hand. In no time we had stowed the pack in the van and Debbie drove me to her house in Newberry.
Debbie had two young daughters: Megan and Madison. Debbie also had a mad dog called Max and two cats that were bothered by Max. Max was a cross between a chihuahua and miniature poodle. He was chocolate brown and barked like crazy when I arrived. He got used to me, but seemed to have a three-second memory, in that he would notice me again and start barking. As I sat at the dining room table he came up to me and I petted him and thought I'd calmed him down, but over the next two nights he still barked every now and again.
Debbie had planned to make us some pasta, but her cooker had stopped working. She nipped next door to a neighbor and had them cook up the food.
More Wild Animals
A friend of Debbie's called Kristie and he daughter Maysa came over too. Kristie worked for the Department of Natural Resources. Her job was to check on the number of animals in the area and monitor the level of hunting and determine quotas for the number of animals that could be killed. As part of her job she put radio collars on wolves and also had to check out cougar sightings in the area too. There had been a number of sightings, but most of them were hoaxes. There was one cougar sighting that appeared to be real, but the owners of the land did not want the DNR to come to check the sighting out. It was an interesting evening.
Debbie also told me about her work. She worked as a home health nurse, but also took care of hospice patients. The rural community that she covered meant a lot of driving and that she had to ensure that she had all the medical equipment she needed before setting off. With her two young daughters, Debbie now worked part time and had also switched to a supervisory role, rather than being on call.
Plans Set for Future Hospice Visits
The plan was that I would stay a second night with Debbie and that she would pick me up from the town of Seney. This was good, as after Seney it was about 28 miles to Shingleton with nothing but swamp.
Kristie and Maysa left at around 10 pm. I got a shower and emptied out my pack to let it dry.
I was glad that I had made connections with the Northwoods Hospice, through Lynn McGregor, who was based in Manistique. After crossing the Seney Stretch I would meet up with Nancy Dwyer from Northwoods Hospice, who was based in Munising. I also had to make connections with the hospices in Marquette, Escanaba and then out to Iron River and Ironwood in Michigan. As I made ready to go to sleep I hoped the hospice connections would continue to work out.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Debbie Griggs was wonderful. She had got me some lemon flavored water with minerals and vitamins. She also had granola bars and made me a peanut butter sandwich to take with me. After a breakfast of cereal, juice and toast, we all piled into Debbie's van and Megan and Madison were dropped off at school by about 8 am. I was then dropped back on the outskirts of Newberry and Debbie could go to work.
The day started well. I walked about three miles to get into Newberry and to the McDonalds. There I bought an egg McMuffin, juice and coffee. I then used the place as my office and made calls to Marquette and Escanaba. In Marquette I would stay with a lady called Becky Shauver and in Escanaba I made contact with a lady called Amy Wilson. It was all looking good.
I Walked On
Trees and rolling hills led out of town. On a hill near the town of McMilan there was what looked like a deer, but it was either a decoy or a practice target for hunting, as it stood motionless.
Back in 1988 I had camped in woods near Newberry and awoken to gunshots and hunters turning up with dogs. I had eaten a pasty for breakfast at a place called the Bear Den Diner and then a second pasty for lunch at a place called the Poor Boy Restaurant in McMilan. The Bear Den was still there, although now it was more of a store and gas station than a diner. I took a photo outside, but didn't go in.
Sadness at Seeing the Changes in 20 Years
At McMilan the Poor Boy Restaurant was still there, but it had a closed sign on it. It was a bit sad, I had hoped that things would be the same after 20 years, but most of the people I had met and the places had gone or changed. The world had moved on.
As if to back up this melancholy feeling the weather turned grey, then rainy. I opened the bottle of lemon flavored water that Debbie had given me and it exploded. She had put it in her freezer, which normally only worked like a fridge, but the water had frozen. It was under pressure and when I opened it it sprayed out. Fortunately I only lost some of the water. I chugged back the water that wasn't frozen and it was good.
Donations for Hospice
As the weather worsened a woman called Lori, who had run the hospice in Sault Sainte Marie, stopped to talk to me and give a donation for hospice. A short while later a Northwoods Hospice nurse called Vicky Chisholm stopped to offer me a ride. I told her not to tempt me.
As she drove off I ate some peanut M and M's a trudged on through the rain. A third woman stopped to talk to me. She was an inspector of hospices called Susan Nothen. We talked for a while and she took my Web site address.
Beyond McMilan the country became wilder. Swampy, with stunted pines and yellow needled larch trees it looked desolate in the dull grey light and steady drizzle of rain. I listened to music from the Flight of the Conchords to cheer myself up.
By 6:30 I reached Seney. A bar, a gas station and a motel were the highlights of the small town. I phoned Debbie and told her I would be inside the gas station. As I was talking to Debbie a pickup truck pulled up next to me and stopped there belching fumes from its exhaust. I put my phone away and walked out of the cloud of smoke and into the gas station.
Inside there were two women behind the counter and two men who were kitted out like hunters or woodsmen, with camouflage clothes. One of the guys asked where I'd walked from and I told them about my journey and trying to help hospice. It turned out that one of the men had a son who had just died from cancer and who had been helped by hospice. He gave a donation for hospice. I handed one of my cards to the woman behind the counter and then bought more peanut M&Ms and York Peppermint Patties.
Debbie pulled up outside the gas station as I was joking with the guys inside about them shooting me as they started hunting. Fortunately the rifle hunting season didn't start until November 15th.
Megan and Madison were in the car and we all drove back to Newberry. As Debbie's cooker was still broken she cooked up hamburgers on a barbecue. For dessert I gave Megan and Madison the York Peppermint Patties.
I phoned Nancy Dwyer and arranged to meet her about 5 pm, hopefully close to Shingleton. That meant I had about 28 miles of swamp to look forward to. On my second night at Debbie's I petted Max and thought I'd won him over, but as I made ready to go into the room where I was sleeping he still barked. He was one crazy dog.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
After breakfast and dropping Megan and Madison at school, Debbie took me to the Northwoods Office and took a photo of me next to the Northwoods sign. The photo and information about me would be sent to the local newspaper.
Debbie drove me back to Seney. We shook hands and said goodbye and I was sad to see her go. Ahead lay the Seney Stretch.
The morning started misty, but cleared. I took a photo of a pile of logs by a railway siding. The railway and Route 28 crossed the Seney Stretch, but apart from that it was just a set of creeks and grey pines and larch trees. A few miles in there was a very nice wayside park, which hadn't been there back in 1988.
At the wayside park people would drive up and walk their dogs. There was a heated restroom, which was very clean, but a load of flies had taken up residence inside and buzzed around. On the windows there were lots of peppered moths. I sat on a bench outside the restroom and ate my peanut butter sandwich and M and M's.
Once my early lunch was done I headed off.
The Seney Stretch—Easier This Time Around
Walsh Creek was not far off. When I came through here before I thought Walsh was a town and had
planned on getting food and water there. A slimy green creek was what I had found. Back then I had to walk 28 miles with just a small lump of cheese and a half a pint of water to drink on a day when it was in the 80's and there were flies and mosquitoes everywhere. After that experience the second crossing of the Seney Stretch was wonderful. It was in the 50's temperature wise and there was no rain. I listened to music on my CD player and watched the swamp land pass by.
Spooky CD Antics
What was strange, though, was that my CD player cut out three times. Each time the music would stop, then a minute or two later start up again at the same point. It was spooky, as if time stood still for several minutes. That was the only place on the walk when the music had cut out like that.
In the middle of the Seney Stretch I also found a CD of Bachman Turner Overdrive. Sadly, though, it wouldn't work.
By around 5 pm I reached a place called Star Creek. There were stones in my shoes and I stood on one leg by the guard rail to the creek. A crescent moon hung in the sky above the sign for Star Creek and the light was beginning to fade.
A Wolf!
As I stood there on one leg I glanced over to the rail track and was amazed. A grey wolf, with bushy tail and bushy chest of fur, was padding down the tracks. It was about 30 feet away and coming closer. I stood still, as it approached. I think it was a female. It looked over at me, I looked at it, then it padded off down the tracks.
It was brilliant. That was the first time I had seen a wolf in the wild. I had a big smile in my face, as I put my shoe back on and set off down the road.
The Falling Rock Lodge
As the light began to fade a car pulled over just after Prairie Creek and Nancy Dwyer picked me up.
Nancy was quite a character. As well as being a nurse with Northwoods Home Health Agency in Munising, she owned a cafe and bookstore, called the Falling Rock Cafe. She also ran a bed and breakfast, by a lake near Munising. I was glad to be plucked off the road and taken to the Falling Rock Lodge. Nancy's husband Geoff worked as a lecturer in a college during the week and only came home at weekends. Nancy had a young dog called Coco for company. Coco was only a few months old and tried to chew my belt and shoes.
Nancy's family were of Italian ancestry and she had cooked up some wonderful pasta. After dinner I retired to the separate bed and breakfast part of the house. Nancy had set out a basket of muffins, bagels and some cereal for the morning. It was good.
The next day I only had to walk about 14 miles to get into Munising. There I would visit the Northwoods Office and talk to a family member of a lady who was being helped by hospice. In the evening there would be the chance to talk to people down at the Falling Rock Cafe.
Donate in Honor of Colin Skinner
Return to Colin's Homepage
