Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

It was a mild and sunny day today. Rare for mid-December, so I headed to some of my favorite places along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

My first stop was the DH Day Farm to photograph the iconic barns there.

DH Day Farm

Then, I drove to Pyramid Point to hike the trail there: 

There are people standing on that far-off dune

On the way home, I stopped to photograph this wild turkey. She was unflappable.

And a little video of the lake today:

The Sleeping Bear

One of the questions people ask when they hear that I walked all the way around Lake Michigan is:

What was your favorite part?

While it's difficult to choose only one, I did fall in love with one stretch of Lake Michigan all over again: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.




This park preserves 35 miles of lakeshore and the two large islands just offshore.

This is a place I return to in my mind...and I'll get back there soon to explore this national treasure.

The North and South Manitou Islands are just offshore.

The barns below are also part of the park.

Revisiting the Lake Trek: Segment 8

This segment spanned the 155 miles Escanaba, Michigan, south to the city of Green Bay, then across the Door Peninsula to Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

This was the seccond longest segment of the Lake Trek in both days (9) and miles (155).

I walked this segment alone, but was shadowed by my friend Vickie around the city of Green Bay.

I camped the first few days of this segment as I made my way south along Green Bay. I had some of the warmest days of the trek along this stretch. After reaching the city of Green Bay I made my way across the base of the Door Peninsula over two days. Part of the time I was on the 'rails to trails' hiking trail called the Devil's River Trail.

After hiking for days along shallow Green Bay then across land for two more days while crossing the lovely Door Peninsula, I was ecstatic to finally get back to the expansive Lake Michigan.

The longest day of the Lake Trek was on the last day of this segment from Denmark, Wisconsin to the lakefront in Manitowoc. It was a hike of 25 miles in one day. Whew!

Note: You may want to press the 'play' button, then pause it and let it completely load before resuming play. This will allow it to play smoothly.

You can find all videos from the Lake Trek on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/lniewenhuis