Events

Join the Spirit of the Woods Chapter June hike in honor of the American Hiking Society’s Trails Day on Saturday, June 6, 2026.

The hike will start at 9am.

In honor of National Trails Day, we are going to do a different style of hike. We are adding an educational component by hiking on the NCT and then taking a spur trail to the Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary and meeting with a Forest Service botanist who will show us the Loda Lake grounds and interesting plants.

The trailhead location is approximately five miles north of the town of White Cloud in Newaygo County. At Loda Lake, a Forest Service naturalist will meet us at 10:45 am and talk about the plants that are in the different habitats in the sanctuary. This is a very special opportunity; the Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary is the ONLY wildflower sanctuary within the National Forest System in the United States, featuring over 400 species of wildflowers across diverse habitats. Its self-guided nature trail and focus on native plants and pollinators set it apart from other wildflower sanctuaries.

We will meet at 8:45 am at the trailhead where the North Country Trail crosses Six Mile Road. This is just west of the Loda Lake Sanctuary by road.

ArcGIS map milepost 336.5 (Note the blue line to the north denoting the Birch Grove Trail which is the spur trail to Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary.)
Google Maps (Note: Felch Road becomes Six Mile Road west of Loda Lake)

There is a large grassy area to park, but please carpool and please don’t be late as we will hike about 2.75 miles to the Sanctuary. The Forest Service botanist will show us the sanctuary and plants there. This will be an hour to an hour and a half.

We will carpool participants back to the trailhead after the naturalist presentation. The NCT miles that can be counted for the Hike 100 Challenge will be 1.75 miles.

We will finish the day with a potluck at the cottage of Pete Bennett and Julie Davey near the county line between Lake and Newaygo counties, south of Baldwin MI. We will hand out maps and the location of their cottage at the hike start. They will make hamburgers and brats, please bring potluck accompaniments.

We will also have a short Spirit of the Woods chapter meeting during the potluck which will be our annual meeting. We don’t have any elections this year so we will update you on the chapter’s projects and news.

Please RSVP to Loren Bach by email at spw@northcountrytrail.org,or text or call her at (231) 510-1983.

If you would like a longer hike, Joan Young will be leading approximately an eight-mile loop hike that morning, finishing at Loda Lake in time for the meeting with the Forest Service representative. To accomplish this, the meeting time will be early (probably 7:30am) and the hike will be at a faster pace. 3.25 miles of this loop will count towards the Hike 100 Challenge.

Joan will be camping in a Forest Service campground nearby the night before the hike. If you are interested in the longer hike and/or camping, please contact Joan by email at jhyshark@gmail.com or text (231) 757-2205 for details. You won’t need to backpack as the plan is to park cars at Loda Lake and hike the loop from there. You will need a Recreation Fee Pass to park at Loda Lake.

Please note: If you drive directly to Loda Lake instead of hiking to it, it is a Recreation Enhancement Site and a $5.00 per day fee is required, or you can purchase a weekly or annual pass. For more information about recreation annual passes visit the U.S.Forest Service Interagency Annual Pass web page.