Woke up a little earlier this morning to pack up the car before heading out on the trail. Over the past few days, I had not had to worry too much about hunting season and wearing orange as I walked along a lot of roadways. Today, I was going to be in many wooded areas that had potential for hunting. So, I made sure to wear orange.
My husband dropped me off at that picnic table, and I headed up the bald hill in the dark uncertain where exactly I was going. Today, I would cover Kalamazoo County in its entirety. Trail markers were sparse and the grass was covered in sparkly dew that reflected my headlamp making trail finding sketchy. As I reached the top of the hill, I heard in the distance the sound of a horn, which I eventually made out to be revelry at the nearby National Cemetery, or so I assumed. It was beautiful to stand there with my headlamp turned off and listen.
Once the morning was started right with revelry, I headed down the other side of the hill, reaching the edge of the woods as the sun was coming up, giving me just enough light to see where the trail disappeared into the dark woods. I pulled up my big girl panties and headed in, once again wondering who or what I would find in the darkness.
Over the past few days, I had been in communication with the Chief Noonday Chapter of the NCT, and had learned of an individual out on the trail raising money for suicide and attempting to do a county a day, more or less. As I wandered along during the day, I would periodically reach out to the head of the Chapter to find out where he and this gentleman would be and hopefully get to walk with him for a little bit. It ended up being the end of Kalamazoo County, where they met me, and I had the privilege of walking with this gentleman for about 6miles. He was not going to make his full hike of the counties due to having feet issues. This powered me to make sure I completed then.
At the end of Kalamazoo County, we met back up with the head of the Noonday chapter, and my walking companion left me. The chapter head was pretty certain I was going to make the entire challenge, so he gave me my completion patches and certificates at that time. I tucked them into my pack for safe keeping and continued on alone into Barry County.
It was a day of mixed media for walking, from trails to back country roads to 2 lane highway. There were lots of cranes along the way, and other birds to enjoy and worry whether they were going to poop on my head. They were very vocal and entertained me greatly. Besides live birds, there were lots of skeletons, once again making me wonder what had taken them. Eventually, I ended in a local park area, where there is a summer camp on one side with goats and cabins, abandoned at this time as it was no longer summer. It gave a nice erie completion to an erie start on the day.
The night before, I had made plans with a college friend from the class below mine to meet up for a beer. He lives in the area of where I finished for the day, and brews his own beer. So, I finished off the day with enjoying his home brews and seeing his set up. It was really nice catching up. As he needed to get prepared for work the next day, and we still needed to drive 1.5 hours to my inlaws' house, we wrapped it up and headed out, hoping to see him at Kalamazoo College's homecoming that coming weekend.
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