Segment 1, Day 5 Michigan City, IN>Union Pier, MI 17 miles

High of 41 degrees.

Janet Smith, owner of the Feallock House Bed & Breakfast in the historic section of Michigan City not only makes a fabulous upside down pineapple french toast, she also invited community leaders to meet me over breakfast. In the group shot are Pat and Roger Potratz (he's the President of the Main Street Association), then Naomi and Neil Kienitz (he's a wonderful local artist and she works as a medical




transcriptionist), then Janet Smith is on the right (and again in
the shot with her cinnamon bread).

While I was having breakfast with these wonderful people, Janet was on the phone to the Mayor's office and then to the local paper. The Mayor had a meeting that morning, so she called Richard Murphy, a City Councilman. He and Deborah Sederberg, reporter from the News-Dispatch, met us at the beach to send me off on the last day of this segment of the Lake Trek.

Heaven help us if Janet Smith ever decides to use her powers for evil instead of good! Michigan City should be proud to have her and her wonderful B&B (where I got the best night's sleep of the trek so far) in their town.

The beach between Michigan City to New Buffalo is gorgeous. Part of
the reason it is so pristine is that Mary (in photo with black bag) always takes a trash bag along with her when she walks the stretch of beach by her home there. She loves the lake, too, and we talked about the Lake Trek a bit. She asked me if I ever got lonely on the trek and I said, "No, I have the lake." She smiled and nodded.

I met some wonderful people along the way and look forward to many more experiences along the Lake Trek. The next segment is next week, from Union Pier to South Haven and I'll walk it with my son, Ben.

Segment 1, Day 4 Portage, IN>Michigan City, IN 18 miles

High of 43 degrees.

This day I saw the last of the big industry along the lake. I had one steel mill and the massive Port of Indiana
to skirt, then I shot out to
the lake at Dune Acres where I met Harold (in photo to the right). He retired from working at Midland Steel after 35 years. He worked in the coal house slitting steel. Here they would take large rolls of steel and slit it down to smaller rolls for companies like Whirlpool or the car companies. He's now retired, but works part time in the Dune Acres community as a grounds and maintenance guy. He was checking out the flooding (yes, that's the playground underwater behind him).

I finally got out to the lake, all bundled up for the cold and windy day. There are still occasional chunks of ice on the beach, but they are covered with sand.










After walking the beach for about 5 miles, I drew near to Michigan City (in photo to right). After a total of 18 miles of trekking in the progressively colder day and with the last couple of miles on the shoulder of US12 and through Michigan City neighborhoods, I limped up to the Feallock House Bed & Breakfast. There the owner, Janet Smith, greeted me with a level of hospitality and excitement about the Lake Trek that I hadn't yet experienced.

More about this in Day 5!

Segment 1, Day 3 East Chicago, IN>Portage, IN 15 miles

High of 57 degrees.

Since I knew I'd have to catch a ride to get onto the other side of the highways from my hotel, I walked the beach as far as I could before catching a taxi. This first photo is Jeorse Park which butted up against the hotel/casino property and stretched to the distant steel mill and railroad yard.

After walking the beach and back, I caught a taxi into the center of nearby Gary.







The best thing about Gary is this massive sculptural tribute to the steel industry there.

After hustling through the center of the town, I trekked out US 12/20 for about six tough miles to get to a road that would finally shoot me back out to the lake.

It was all steel land I had to skirt here. And even from a mile or two away, I could hear the thrumming of that industry. I cannot imagine working within the walls of those steel mills. When the mill was built in Gary, it was the largest steel mill in the world.

It was torturous to visit so many bookstores along the way and not be able to buy any books (since I'd have to carry them on my back the rest of the way). I did give in, though, at 57th Street Books and purchased a collection of short stories by Stuart Dybek. He writes stories
set in Chicago, so it was good reading them while I was passing through that region. By the time I got to Gary, I had finished the book and it was extra weight on my back. Thankfully, I came across a 'Books for Charity' drop box along US12 (of all places) and could donate this book so it had a life after me. I hope Mr. Dybek approves.

Shortly after heading north again toward the lake, I entered the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore area. I made my way up to Marquette Beach. I could not stop smiling when I saw the first stretch of sand.

This wide stretch of beach is bookended by steel mills. It is odd to look out at the miles of lake stretching from the shore, then to glance left or right to see the billowing smoke from the mills.


It is an area with a strange mixture of nature's beauty and man's attempt to conquer, control, tame and use that very nature for his own purposes.

Segment 1, Day 2 Hyde Park>East Chicago, IN 12 miles

High of 71 degrees!

This day began in Jackson Park. This park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed New York's Central Park). This park was also the site of the 1893 World Exposition. The first two photos are from this grand (though in need of some care) park. The first is in the Japanese garden, a beautiful spot to watch the sunrise. The second are the first flowers in bloom along my Trek. If anyone knows the name of this flower, please post a comment. It's been driving me crazy! OKAY: My mom came through with the flower ID. She writes: "The flower is called the Snowdrop ( Galanthus) a native of Turkey and Eastern Europe. It is one of the first harbingers of spring and is in the amaryllis family. Mom" Thanks, Mom!

The Lakefront Trail kind of dies on the southside, so then I walked along major roads until I came upon the next park or other lake access. I went through Rainbow Park (which was deserted except for me), and then skirted the former site of the U.S. Steel South Works Plant. The plant operated from the mid 1800s to the 1990s before shutting down completely. The plant has since been scrubbed from the land (except for a lone power plant). It is now a fenced off scrubby plot of hundreds of acres. There is a trash-heaped berm of dirt blocking the street view of the site and I would have had to climb the fence to get a photo. This was not the sort of neighborhood to go shooting photos anyway, so I didn't do more than pick my way through the rubble of a neighborhood left behind when the mill and all the jobs left. The grand church pictured here stands in the middle of this devastated place.

I cut a few blocks inland to try to find some breakfast, and came across a delightful Mexican bakery on Commercial Avenue called Marzeya. The lobby area of the bakery is filled with glass cases stuffed with delightful pasteries (see photo). You merely pick up an aluminum tray and a pair of tongs and help yourself from the cases. Everything is made on site and fifty pound sacks of flour are stacked behind the counter.

From this point until I stopped for the night, I'd be passing through Calumet Park, then crossing into Indiana, then walking through a lot of industry only broken up by Whiting, IN.


The day warmed up (as they said it would) and it was rather hot when I passed through the BP refinery (formerly Standard Oil, then Amoco), one of the largest in the world. It isn't the most pedestrian-friendly walk (as you might imagine--actually it's probably even worse than you can imagine). I hustled through there. BP security tailed me at one point, but then lost interest. I then crossed over the drawbridge on the Indiana Harbor Canal and into the area between East Chicago and Gary.

As I got closer and closer to my hotel (the Ameristar which is situated on Lake Michigan), I realized that I could not approach it on foot. This was after crossing two on/off ramps to the layers of highway. You had to get ON, then OFF the highway in order to get to the hotel that was less than a half mile away. I started to backtrack to a bar I had passed to call a cab to take me there, when a man just getting off his shift at the mill pulled over and gave me a lift in his yellow Jeep. The day was so lovely that he had peeled back the soft top of the Jeep and it was great to feel the air rushing through the vehicle. The gentleman's name was Dwayne and he'd just returned from a trip to Hawaii. So, for that short ride through industrial horrorscape, we talked about the beaches of the islands so far removed from where we were.


I'm still thankful for Dwayne and his yellow Jeep with the top rolled back.

Segment 1, Day 1 Chicago>Hyde Park 10 miles

High of 64 degrees, sunny. The Trek began on Navy Pier which stretches over a half mile out into Lake Michigan. I got out there just as the sun was rising.

Chicago has preserved its lakefront for its people. There are pathways and parks stretching uninterrupted from downtown all the way to Hyde Park. I strolled along the paved Lakefront Trail through Burnham Park all the way to where I'd stay my first night.

The day was warm, but there were still chunks of floating ice and some ice on the rocks along the way.

First three days done

Over the last three days, I've trekked from Navy Pier in Chicago to Portage, IN.

Today I'm off to Michigan City, then on Friday I'll trek to New Buffalo, MI.

I'll blog much more when I'm back home. I've seen so much already, and have so much to share.

In Chicago for the Beginning

I arrived by train to Chicago around noon today. It is a gorgeous, sunny day, and more of the same is in the forecast. I walked to Barbara's Bookstore on Roosevelt from Union station. At Barbara's, I met Gail, the manager and we chatted about the Trek and the books she stocked about the Great Lakes.

From there I walked to the Art Institute of Chicago to catch the Edvard Munch exhibit. It was pretty crowded, but the exhibit was quite good.

After checking in at my hotel, I took a cab to the independent bookstore that is furthest away from the lake (of all that I will visit on the Trek): Quimby's in Wicker Park. Quimby's is a fun, radical bookstore which stocks a lot of out-of-the-mainstream books and mags and other stuff. It is a haven for the graphic novel and writing with an edge. They stock some of my favorites: everything published by McSweeny's, Sara Vowell, and David Sedaris. Quimby's probably isn't the place you'd find my Lake Trek book, but that's cool because Quimby's is cool and is keeping a very independent vibe alive in Wicker Park.

I'm going out to dinner soon, then will try to get some sleep tonight before beginning the trek tomorrow. I'm so excited, though, I feel like running down the lakeshore right now.

Forever Open, Clear, and Free

One week from today, I'll begin the Lake Trek. This first segment stretches 70 miles from Chicago, Illinois to New Buffalo, Michigan. This is the most diverse segment of the trek, traversing three states with portions ranging from the extremes of a major metropolitan city (Chicago), to major tracts of industry (including the defunct U.S. Steel's South Works facility and the recently expanded Amoco refinery installations), to the miles of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Chicago is my favorite big city. Part of the reason is that it is on Lake Michigan, but it is even more appealing because the city has preserved its relationship with the lake. Twenty-four miles of Chicago's thirty miles of shoreline has been preserved for parks, beaches, museums, and other public spaces. In addition to this, Chicago has recently reclaimed even more land for public use. The grand, art-filled Millennium Park (pictured above) is largely land that used to be a train yard. And this park transitions into Grant Park which stretches to the lake.

Lois Wille wrote a fantastic book about the history of Chicago called Forever Open, Clear, and Free. She chronicles the struggle to preserve the lake front for the people of the city. The fourth section in Blair Kamin's book, Why Architecture Matters, contains his essays on the lake front. He critiques the current situation and calls for a more cohesive plan (and more money) to unify, improve, and protect Chicago's relationship with the lake.

Industry has been part of the lake for a long time. The Amoco facility has been there for over 100 years. The steel plants even longer. We may not like these stretches of industry, but as long as we drive cars made of steel and fuel them with gasoline, we will need them. It is important that the relationship between industry and the lake is is symbiotic and not detrimental to the lake. Tens of millions of people get their drinking water from Lake Michigan, many more enjoy the shoreline or waters every year.

It will be strange to step out of the industry-scape onto the dunes of the over twenty miles of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. This stretch of park was set aside in 1966 and is an area of great biodiversity. Two years ago, I climbed Mount Baldy (over 100 feet high) with my brother, Phil. It may not sound like it's that high, but it's incredibly steep and for every five steps up, you slide back four. When we got to the top, I looked at Phil. He was a very strange shade of intense red and he was gasping. He looked at me and said, "Did you bring me here to DIE?" We laugh about it now. Well, actually, I laughed about it then!

I will try to post to the blog whenever possible along the trek and I'll be taking many notes for my book, A 1,000 Mile Walk on the Beach. Thanks for following this blog, and don't forget to click on the hat in the side bar to sign up for more updates. I'll also give away a hat or t-shirt at the end of each segment to someone who has signed up.

The Trek Draws Near

I was out at The Lake again today. I admit it: as The Trek draws near, I'm drawn even more strongly to the lake.

I was out at South Haven and Saugatuck in West Michigan. I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Black River Books in South Haven. This is one of my favorite used bookstores. Dick and Pam Haferman (in the picture to the right) LOVE books. They've been collecting them (actually, amassing would be a better word) for many years and finally opened their store in 2007.

I always buy a stack of books there and have to leave behind another stack of books that I would like to give a new home, too. They have a great eye for books and
stock many vintage sets that I'd love to move into my office.

(They also have two affable labradoodles in the store--Dewey and Booker--who are as friendly as their owners.)

The ice is beginning to break up. You can hear it groan and snap when you're near.

Only 13 days until the Trek begins!