Our Stories

James Howell: NCNST Long Distance Hiker

James Howell

Central patch + Michigan, Mackinac Bridge, and 1000 Miles

I hiked the state of Michigan in two directions: from the Ohio border north, and from the Wisconsin border east, with the goal of arriving at the Mackinac Bridge at about the same time. So I started in Wisconsin on 8/17/2017 at 9:06 a.m. and in Ohio on 10/7/2017 10:45 a.m. The ending date was 9/4/2023 at the Mackinac Bridge.

I cannot pick just one favorite section of the North Country Trail. I loved the whole trail, woods, meadows, stream sides, hills, and yes, even the roadwalks. It’s really hard to pick one spot over another. Having lived in Michigan my whole life and spending a lot of time over the years driving around the state, I thought I had seen everything, but, walking gives you a greater perspective. Michigan is a diverse landscape, farmlands, meandering rivers, wild places, large urban areas, vast forest lands, beautiful remote beaches, numerous lakes. It is just hard to appreciate how beautiful Michigan really is until you spend 102 days over seven years hiking from one end to the other.

During most of my hiking I was hiking alone, but fortunately on a number of occasions I had company. Being able to share a trail with someone is a special treat I really enjoyed. I am not the biggest conversationalist, but just having another person to share a special place or relax with at a lunch spot made the that days hike even better.

It’s easy to choose the most challenging day: August 18, 2022, I was east of Munising, Michigan (in the UP), and I was hiking in the vicinity of the Rock River Wilderness in the Hiawatha National Forest. About 11 miles into the hike at about 1:00 p.m. I felt a pop in my left leg, and I had a hard time putting any weight on that leg. This part of the UP (like most of it) has very limited cell coverage, and I had no service. So I had no way of letting Evelyn (my wife) know what had happened. I was not scheduled to be picked up until about 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. about 5 miles further down the trail. And as luck would have it, it had started raining about 30 minutes before this, and I was getting wetter by the minute. I started walking slowly again and my leg responded to the movement, but my pace was now slow and strained. I did make it to the truck by about 5:30. Found out that my left knee was, in unconventional medical terms, a “mess.” I slapped on a brace and have hiked another 535 miles in 2022 and 2023 on this knee since the incident. My wife’s moral of this story: “never hike alone.”

My knee has reduced my mileage per day down to 8 to 10 miles, so I am not planning any long adventures until I get it sorted out. However, I do plan to help Doug Seaney in his quest to hike the whole NCNST and go where the trail leads.

Learn more about long distance hiker recognition at explorenct.info/NoCoLo/index.htm.