Pogwatigue Perambulations: Grand Mere State Park

Pogwatigue Perambulations

Pogwatigue: A Pottawatomie word meaning 'running water.' Early settlers chose this word as the original name for my hometown, Niles, Michigan.

Perambulation: roam, stroll, inspection of an area on foot.

My intent for this blog is to catalog my various local, regional, national, and perhaps someday international explorations. Originally, I found the blog a good vehicle to publish Google maps on the internet and all my initial posts have such a map embedded, but I don't limit myself to that genre. Almost all the posts will have a personal, geographic element. For the title, I chose Pogwatigue due to its ties to my roots roots and perambulations as a fancy, alliterative word to describe the content.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Grand Mere State Park

My bike is in the shop, so yesterday I substituted a hike in a nearby state park, Grand Mere, for long ride. The park is located right along Lake Michigan. It has a number of tall dunes, but it's most unique feature is a string of ancient lakes on backside (i.e away from the lake) of these dunes.

I parked on the north end of the dunes and climbed the first trail up a dune that I could find. This track led me into a woodland and eventually to some lakeside dunes. I walked a little more than a half-mile down the beach before probing back in to the dunes. After another long-segment through the woodlands, I came to a dune I recognized climbing as a kid. I was already half-way to the top, but still ended up quite winded when I reached the top.

Full Screen Version

From here, I decided it was time to head back to the car. To make things a little more interesting, I opted to rely solely on my innate sense of direction rather than my GPS. I ended hiking some extra distance and a unnecessary dune-climb, but soon enough found myself on a recognizable path which took me back to the car.