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Sibyl Smith and Kevin Stewart: NCNST Long Distance Hikers

Sibyl Smith + Kevin Stewart

Central patch + Michigan, Mackinac Bridge, and 1000 Miles

My sister Sibyl and I recently completed our goal of hiking the entire length of the North Country Trail in Michigan. This seven-year adventure began when Sibyl retired to White Cloud, Michigan, and adopted a section of the trail near her home. She got me on more and more hikes when I would visit, and things progressed from there. After the hikes on the Manistee River, and the Manistee National Forest in general, I was hooked.

We attended the NCTA’s 2019 Celebration in Bellaire, Michigan, and the stories we heard inspired us to keep going and get serious about the goal!

We finished the ‘Mitten’ in the Summer of 2021, and the Upper Peninsula in September of 2024. We section hiked 1-2 weeks per season using two cars and a base camp located as close to the middle of the designated miles as possible.

In all honesty, second to the beauty and pure nature we experienced, I would say that the planning and preparation for the hikes became a labor of love. Sibyl was amazing at finding great base camps. We stayed at State Parks (even a cabin a couple times), State Forest Campgrounds (CGs), National Forest CGs, a municipal CG in Marquette, a private CG (Way Back CG) near Jonesville, and even a VIRBO once when Dennis (my brother-in law) and their dog Loki hung out with us after our hikes! 

Planning dinners and our pack lunches was fun too. We always seemed to find a nice spot on the trail to stop for lunch, and enjoyed a hearty dinner back at camp.

We found the trail in the UP to be much more rugged with overgrowth, blowdowns and other obstacles, requiring us to be increasingly alert and focused to remain on course. The Avenza map app on our phones became an important asset. Also, we learned that May was not an ideal time to hike in the UP (bugs, heat, humidity). For example, in 2022 we had planned to hike about 90 miles over six hiking days. However, when it took us 13 hours to hike through the Silver Lake Basin and McCormack Wilderness (only about 18 miles), and I got sick, we had to trim it down to about 65 miles. For the dreaded long roadwalks, we found that they were more tolerable in winter and/or with a good audiobook to listen to.

The whole odyssey has been a wonderful sibling bonding experience. We complemented each other’s strengths and weaknesses, staying positive and motivated to finish. We have so many incredible memories from the trail; many waterfalls, a breathtaking sunrise on Lookout Mountain near Old Victoria, seeing a moose (on that 18-mile hike), so many views and vistas that I was often overwhelmed and humbled by God’s creation. I will never forget the time on a remote, wooded section of trail with stratified rocks on the sides. We had stopped for lunch to take in the interesting surroundings. We got to witness a large shelf of rock, with trees growing out of it, just break off and crash to the ground! We were far enough away to not be harmed, and it didn’t block the trail, but wow it was loud and startling and very cool to see nature in action.

Our final week of hikes included the Mackinac Bridge Walk on Labor Day, followed by four days of hiking through the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and a 15-mile stretch from the Grand Sable Visitor center to the east. This hike ended up being a perfect microcosm of the entire state! We hiked on and along the bluffs of Lake Superior shoreline again. Fern and maple seedlings lined the trail. We had rocks and roots, lots of ups and downs, stairs, and fields of grasses. We had creeks and rivers, reminding us of when we had to ford some cold streams. Bridges and boardwalks of course, a bit of road walk (to remind us of the work still to be done to get more miles off road). And Grand Marais, to remind us of the many interesting towns, and cities that the trail goes through. And a beautiful waterfall to take us back to so many that we hiked by and to.

Sibyl and I would like to thank the several NCTA Chapters that gave us suggestions and feedback when we had questions regarding our plans, and answering our emails as we finalized our hikes. Most importantly, huge kudos to the many, many trail adopters that work to maintain the trail! This organization is truly blessed to have so many dedicated supporters.

Hike It. Build It. Love It.

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