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Liz Seger: NCNST Long Distance Hiker

Liz “Swisscake” Seger

Central patch + 1000 Miles and Michigan

Michigan, 1163+ miles in section hikes, started 9/14/20, finished 9/21/2022.

Have you ever hiked with a frog riding on your compass? Have you ever been in a stretch of woods so infested with lunaria caterpillars that the ground is slick with their poop and the leaves are turned to lace? Have you ever stood in a ravine in a thunderstorm alongside a friendly doe, getting to know each other while you wait for the lightning to stop, or startled a sleeping fawn in a privy? Have you ever come face to face with an equally surprised black bear on the other side of the berry hedge, or startled a blue racer into shaking her fake rattle at you?  Have you seen red and purple mushrooms that look like they’re from a video game, or iridescent purple fungus that looks like coral, or the mysterious devil’s tooth fungus, hard as bone, oozing red gel at the base of a conifer? Have you stood atop a high rollway where the lumber that built (and rebuilt, and rebuilt) Chicago was dropped to the muddy, winding Manistee River and carried away? Have you walked by North America’s only ski-flying hill? Have you walked along Lake Superior on rocks the size of grapefruits while an elk comes thundering by? All of this can be yours without leaving the state of Michigan, and the only thing it will cost you is the price of the gear and food on your back.

From September 2020 to September 2022, I walked more than 1163 miles across Michigan on the North Country Trail, covering every mile from Ohio to Wisconsin. It turns out Michigan has plenty of breathtaking miles in the most unexpected places, from dusty road walks along southern farmland to grueling and beautiful slogs through remote places like the McCormick Wilderness, which can only be reached—and understood—on foot.

My first hike on the NCT was, I confess, a pandemic-driven plan B. It was 2020, and my 23-year-old son and I had been planning a big hike out west since the summer before. Our plan to hike a 150-mile stretch of the Continental Divide Trail through the Bob Marshall wilderness in Montana was foiled when COVID infection rates spiked around Jackson Hole and Yellowstone. We decided to explore options closer to home. Where could we hike that would be fun and challenging, reachable by car from Ann Arbor, and wouldn’t have too many people, even when in towns for resupply? While most state and federal campgrounds were closed, dispersed camping in national forests was still permitted. Was there a trail within driving distance with enough continuous passage through public land to make this work?

I opened a hiking app, and the North Country Trail / Iron Belle Trail caught my eye. Suddenly this “plan B” felt more like a long-deferred plan A. Wanting solitude and as much wilderness as we could manage, and having about a week to spend, we chose the 130-mile Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore section, from the north end of Mackinac Bridge to the Mouth of the Two Hearted River on Lake Superior. When we met up with my husband at the mouth of the Two Hearted River, we were pleasantly exhausted, nearly out of food, and ready for a weekend of R&R in Grand Marais, but nevertheless I yearned to keep walking—I had caught the NCT bug.

As I prepare to hike the 3100-mile Continental Divide Trail this year as a continuous thru hike, I’m grateful for the practical lessons I learned on the NCT about how to keep myself safe, uninjured, and properly fueled and hydrated while pursuing long-mile days on a tight schedule. While I had previously spent plenty of time in remote Canadian wilderness, it was on the NCT that I dialed in my kit and routines.

Whatever bit of the Michigan NCT you’re up for, whether a day hike by a waterfall or a mega trek from Kalkaska to the bridge, I hope you give it a shot. Your brain and your soul will thank you, and even if you’ve lived in Michigan all your life, I promise that you, too, will be surprised in a thousand ways.

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