Shoreline Walk of Art Sculpture Gallery

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

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys 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/

Years ago, I visited the Michigan Legacy Art Park at Crystal Mountain in northern Michigan. 

Recently, I learned there was another art park in Elk Rapids. And this one is on the shoreline of East Grand Traverse Bay.

This 15-acre park has looping trails along the shoreline and is dotted with 35 sculptures.

Check out the photos:

With the rising lake levels, one of the sculptures, "Becca Triumphs" by Ann Gildner of Cheboygan, has had the base eroded away by waves. It is now tethered to a tree to keep it from being swept away.

So far, "Becca Triumphs" holds a place on the edge of the water. It remains to be seen if Becca will ultimately triumph without being relocated inland a bit.

Tales from the BOOK TOUR...part 9

The book tour took me to NW Michigan and then across the lake to Wisconsin in July.

I had the great pleasure of being hosted by the 'Book & a Dinner' book club on the shores of Hess Lake. What a great group of women, and the food was all Lake Michigan-themed!!

Thank you to Cindy and her great group of friends for the fantastic discussion, many laughs, and delicious, Michigan-themed dinner!!

Excerpt now live at ONTOLOGICA

A short excerpt from A 1,000 MILE WALK ON THE BEACH is in the online journal

Ontologica: Journal of Art and Thought

http://www.warriorpoetgroup.com/Ontologica/

Click on the cool artwork to download a free PDF of the journal. My piece begins on page 82.

Thanks to the great editors at Ontologica!

Revisiting the Lake Trek: Segment 6

This segment spanned the 147 miles between Suttons Bay and Mackinaw City, Michigan. It included both the Grand Traverse and Little Traverse Bays, and Fisherman's Island State Park and Wilderness State Park.

I reached the half way point of the trek on this segment, reaching 500 miles within sight of the Mighty Mac Bridge.

Some of the most interesting geology was on this segment in Antrim County where there is an enormous deposit of shale. I was joined along part of this county by Gerry and her two fun dogs, Miss Sadie and the Cowboy.

Then, my college friend, Rick, joined me for a few hours along Little Traverse Bay.

Near Cross Village, I saw the biggest collection of zebra mussel shells tossed up on the beach and bleached almost completely white by the sun.

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

Walk with me:

Segment 6, Day 3 Elk Rapids->Eastport 15 miles

High of 65 degrees










I had some company along on part of this day.
Gerry Sell and her dogs, Miss Sadie and Cowboy, walked along part of the way. Gerry is from this area (and author of the blog TorchLakeViews.Wordpress.com) and she wanted to share her part of the lakeshore with me. We had a wonderful walk together and we talked about the flora and fauna we came across.

The shoreline had marshy patches along the way, mini estuaries for frogs (a mass of tadpoles in photo to left) and other lake life. Mallards and pintails along with geese and swans were trailed by their newly hatched broods.

My walk this day ended by Sonny's Torch Lake Market on 31 near the shores of Torch Lake (below).

Segment 6, Day 2 Traverse City->Elk Rapids 17 miles

High of 57

I walked through Traverse City along the bottom of the bay, then headed north up the East Traverse Bay. The shoreline here was anchored by large rocks, and below those was muck, not sandy. This kept me on the road for another day, but 31 stayed along the bay most of the way to Elk Rapids.

The rain had moved off, and I enjoyed walking the countryside and seeing all the tiny cherries on the trees. When I finally got to Elk Rapids, I noticed a man suspended on the water tower. He was power washing the dirt and grime off of the surface. Quite a job!