Manistee River Trail Backpacking Trip

Not going to make excuses, it's been quite a while since we posted last on the blog.  Hoping summer will be better, as we will be doing lots of fun things and I won't be as busy with school.
Most recently Jennie and I spent our Memorial Day weekend off the grid.  So glad that Jennie was up for going backpacking with me out in beautiful northern Michigan.
We left for our trip on Saturday morning and arrived around noon.  We had trouble finding a trailhead where we could park our car overnight.  After a delayed start we were on the trail, or so we thought.  After going a half mile down the trail I noticed that I left the self registered parking envelop with payment in my pocket.  I dropped my pack, jogged back a half mile to the parking lot to drop off the payment when I noticed that we were actually taking the wrong trail.  It was one of those blessings in disguise.  I jogged back down the wrong trail to get Jennie and my pack and then we head back to the actual Marilla trail head.  After two miles under my boots, it was time to start the actual hike.
Marilla trailhead took us to the North Country Trail.  After two miles on the North Country Trail we made it to "Little Mackinac," a suspension bridge that took us across the Manistee River to hike the Manistee River Trail.  We hiked about a total of 7 miles that day before we needed to find a place to set up camp.
Day two was about 10 miles of hiking.  We worked our way down the river to see some of the trail we hadn't seen yet.  Then, we turned and headed back up stream to get to some nice sites we had seen the other day.  Our second night was spent next to a small waterfall and couldn't have been more relaxing if we had wanted it to be.
After a good nights rest, we decided we would wake up a bit earlier to pack up and hit the trail early and get back to our car.  Day two was about 4 more miles.  It might have been the hardest four.  Our bodies were getting sore and tired.  In all, we covered just over 20 miles.  We felt pretty accomplished and hope to do some more trips like it in the future.
Enjoy some of the shots!

 View from high ridge of Marilla Trail

 North Country Trail

 Getting ready to cross Manistee River on "Little Mackinac"

 First evening campfire on the banks of the river.  Fire pit was a car wheel I found on the banks of the river.

 One of many great views from up above the Manistee

 Enjoying a trail side rest

 First night's camp (hangin in the trees hammock style)

 This was my favorite section of the river

 Day one, taking a quick break

 Day one campsite on the hillside

 First view of the river after getting off the North Country Trail

 Waterfall that we camped near on our 2nd night

 Blue skies all weekend!

 2nd night's camp site by the falls

 Happy hikers

My best memory... trailside break on our long Sunday hike.

Getting ready to cross the suspension bridge on our trek back to the car