NCT Hike 100 Challenge with Kona - 2022
The NCT HIke 100 Challenge is an annual challenge to hike 100 miles on the North Country Trail. The challenge allows pets as participants, therefore I thought Kona and I would try to achieve this goal in 2022. Below are some of my thoughts and experiences from spending a countless hours and miles on the NCT in Michigan.
About the NCT
The North Country Trail is one of the United State’s national scenic trails. It is the longest trail spanning 4,800 miles from North Dakota to Vermont. Michigan sits both at the center of the trail, as well as, the headquarters for the NCT Association (NCTA). The NCT runs along the upper center of the Upper Peninsula and in the western half of the Lower Peninsula.
Why do this challenge this year?
I have known about this challenge for over 3 years now and have thought about giving it a try since I first read about it. There are some logistical challenges to make this happen for me, given the closest trailhead on the NCT is about 2 hours from my house. With that being said, I’ve always wanted to get closer to the beauty of my own state and long trails that run through it. Last year, I joined the NCTA to learn more about what it takes to maintain and improve a national scenic trail. That has been an eye opening experience and brought me closer to the volunteer work, donations, and labor required to build beautiful recreation opportunities for our communities.
Our family had a vacation planned in Marquette around Labor Day, and being so close to the NCT, I started to build some miles. I’ve always enjoyed hiking with Kona and Fall/Winter is her hiking season. She loves the colder weather. After thinking about the logistics and time commitment, I decided this year was finally the year we would make it happen!
Where
One of the things I really wanted to do by accomplishing this challenge was see various parts of the NCT in Michigan. The NCT covers many states, but over 1,000 miles are in our backyard, so I wanted to hike exclusively in Michigan. The goal was not to make it as easy as possible (although honestly there’s nothing easy about 100 miles). With that in mind, I really believe we accomplished that goal. Below are some of the closest towns we hiked in throughout the year:
Brethren
Mesick
Newaygo
White Cloud
Elmira
Petoskey
Marquette
Baldwin
L’Anse
Harbor Springs
A special thanks goes out to the Marquette Area, Peter Wolfe, and Spirit of the Woods Chapters for guidance and assistance throughout the year. Planning hiking in all these different parts of the state, took time and research, and each of these chapters assisted me in some way throughout the year. It was a big part of the experience to me, to see how connected the trail maintenance community is and how much knowledge and kindness they have to share.
Hiking with Kona
I’ll admit, hiking with a dog made this a lot more difficult, but it certainly was worth it. Kona is an energetic chocolate lab, but she’s the first dog I’ve ever had and I learned a lot throughout the year about how to hike with dogs. I watched her carefully as we increased miles and terrain. We eventually got into a rhythm where we could hike 10 miles throughout the day, especially if we broke it up into smaller chunks. Our routine would normally be to hike early, break, hike again, then rest at camp until nighttime. She did a great job with this challenge and was even more excited than I was to be on the trail.
Disadvantages of the Challenge
I normally avoid road walking and out-and-back style hiking if at all possible. Thankfully, I was able to minimize road walking as part of this challenge, however there were still sections that required some. That is mostly on me, as I could have done more research to have better avoided these scenarios, however even in some of the best sections of the NCT, I found unexpected road walking necessary. Additionally, out-and-back style hikes tend to become draining when hiking many days at a time. To have 50% of the hike be scenery you've already passed can certainly be a test. Fortunately, Kona usually would get excited and motivated at the turnaround, so we usually both agreed we could speed up on the way back and close out the section quicker than the first half. Without a LOT of added logistical help, this is a cost of doing this challenge.
Key Takeaways
Don’t let my disadvantages dilute the sense of accomplishment and excitement I’ve felt throughout this year hiking on the NCT. This has overall been an incredibly rewarding experience. I feel much more connected to my state, our beautiful long trail, and hiking with my dog. One of the main reasons I wanted to do this was to take the time to appreciate the beauty we have right here, and this challenge absolutely accomplished that goal. I highly recommend others step foot on the NCT and follow the blue blazes someday, you might just end up doing the Hike 100 challenge yourself!
