Happy Feet

Site Notes…

This hike will take you along some of the more desolate stretches of shoreline in Muskegon State Park, as well as into the forest on one of the many trails heading up from the shoreline. Take your shoes off and splash in the lake… you will truly have happy feet!

This box is located in Muskegon State Park. A Michigan State Parks vehicle pass is required for entry and can be purchased at the park. Please check the park web site for dates and hours of operation.

Getting There…

Follow Memorial Drive west toward Muskegon State Park. Where Memorial Drive ends at Lake Michigan, turn left toward the park entrance. Park in the first beach parking area past the guard station.

Clues…

While visiting some friends in Muskegon, Kali spent an afternoon walking the beach and exploring trails at Muskegon State Park. She remembered a trail where she had walked a few years earlier, and recalled a broken tree she had found artistically interesting. Not having her camera with her at the time, she had marked a tree at the trailhead, hoping to return another time.

She parked her car in the first beach parking area at the park and set off north along the water’s edge. If she remembered correctly, the trail was about a mile up the beach. It was a sunny summer day, the water sparkled in the sunlight and gentle waves lapped at the sandy beach. She removed her shoes and splashed through the edge of the warm water, her feet happy.

After a bit she reached an area of rocks along the beach. The water was deeper here so she decided to hop from rock to rock rather than walk around them in the water. About halfway she stopped to sit and admire the view, watching a sailboat lazily cruising the shoreline, carefree and graceful. Grateful she had her camera, she took several pictures to show her friends back in Denver, where they had no beaches, and somehow managed to live without them.

Reaching the other side of the pile of rocks, the beach opened back up and a few sunbathers relaxed here on this secluded section of beach. Past here the road turned away from the beach and the tree line began. A large sand-faced hill basked in the mid-day sunshine, dotted with tell-tale footprints of adventurous weekend climbers. The dune gave way to gently sloped sand hills covered with beach grass. Up ahead she spotted the two sprawling, though diminutive, young pin oaks perched on the sandy slope, she had remembered as landmarks indicating her trail up into the woods. Her eyes moved just a bit further up the beach, looking for a family of young sassafras trees, congregated on the hillside, as if sitting in theater seats, waiting for evening’s sunset show.

And there, nestled between the pin oaks and the sassafras, at the northern corner of a sand-faced hill, a sandy path led up into the forest. Confident this was the trail she had taken before, she climbed the hill and at the top, located the sprawling beech tree where she had carved her name in 1999. She rested her camera for a moment in the low crook of the tree branches, while she brushed the sand off her feet and put her shoes back on before heading along the trail into the trees. She playfully swung herself down the hill on the low-hanging maple branches, the screech of hawks overhead.

Up the trail, as she passed by a large sand hill with a stump at the bottom, things began to look vaguely familiar, although she didn’t remember there being so many downed trees across the path the last time she was here. Looks like this part of the forest took on the wrath of a Lake Michigan storm since then. The trail got quite narrow and twisted around several large pine trees. Ahead on the right, she found the hollow knot of a dead beech tree rather interesting and stopped to take a picture. Just ahead of this, a large tree trunk lay on the ground at a 45 degree angle to the right edge of the trail, wedged between two trees, 1 living, 1 dead.

As the trail widened and went down a small hill, along the right side of the trail, she spotted the familiar grouping of 4 pine trees growing side to side, and noticed that 1 of the trees was now dead and had broken off about 15 ft. from the ground, although not the double-trunked one that had amused her, appearing to hug itself.She looked over her right shoulder, and there it was — the sculpturous tree trunk she had remembered, pointing toward the sky like a rifle rested on a soldier’s shoulder. The trunk had rotted since she last remembered, it’s hollow belly now filled with leaves and other forest treasures.

Block House

Site Notes…

The Block House, which sits high up on a hill in Muskegon State Park was erected as a scenic overlook, and provides magnificent views of Muskegon Lake, Lake Michigan and the surrounding area.

This box is located in Muskegon State Park. A Michigan State Parks vehicle pass is required for entry and can be purchased at the park. Please check the park web site for dates and hours of operation.

Getting There…

Follow Memorial Drive west toward Muskegon State Park. Where Memorial Drive ends at Lake Michigan, turn right and follow Scenic Drive approximately 1 mile to the Block House, which will be on your right. Parking areas are available either just before or after the Block House.

Clues…

At either end of the fence behind the block house, there is a trail. Take the narrow trail nearest the U.S. Lakes Survey marker. The trail immediately descends down a steep hill and brings you into a cradle where another trail crosses perpendicularly. Take the trail to your left, which continues steeply down and meets a lighted ski trail at the bottom.

At this intersection, go the way of the descending light posts and continue to post #403. Take the faint trail that heads off into the forest to your right. About 100 paces down the trail, watch for a sassafras that crooks toward the trail from the left. A short distance past this, immediately to the the left of the trail, locate a fungus covered dead oak, followed by a double (living) oak. Continue 16 paces to a small pine growing in the center of the path, after which you will come upon 6 good sized trees lying across the path within close proximity of one another.

After stepping over the last of these trees, watch the right side of the trail for a gnarly old tree that is broken off about 9 ft. from the ground, with the broken part lying on the ground parallel to the path. Approximately 40 paces ahead, young beech saplings will shade your way from the left. Immediately past this point, a fallen tree lies across the path, 3 ft. above the ground. The root end of this fallen tree is wedged between 2 standing oaks.

Stand with your back to the oak trees and the trail, straddling the downed tree. At a bearing of 30 degrees, you will see an area containing the debris of several fallen trees. Don’t let the chaotic pile of limbs stump you as you search in hollow hiding places for the box.

Snug Harbor

Site Notes…

Snug Harbor is located on Muskegon Lake and is a favorite picnic, fishing and boating spot for the residents of Muskegon. There are some great hiking trails here, as well as a protected bayou area teeming with fish. When the lake gets rough, boaters often take refuge here during the storm, thus the name… Snug Harbor.

This box is located in Muskegon State Park. A Michigan State Parks vehicle pass is required for entry and can be purchased at the park. Please check the park web site for dates and hours of operation.

Getting There…

Follow Memorial Drive west toward Muskegon State Park. About a mile before Memorial Drive ends at Lake Michigan, you will come to a large Muskegon State Park sign on the right side of the road. The entrance to Snug Harbor is across from this. Enter the park and go to your right toward the picnic shelter.

Clues…

Locate the trailhead at the far end of the parking area loop. Follow trail A/B to the left. You will pass through a pristine section of woods — the moist air and marshy ground provide the perfect growing conditions for ferns, which are abundant on the bayou side of the trail, looking almost like a tropical paradise (unless you are there in the winter, in which case there is nothing tropical about Michigan). In the early morning, it is eerily still, except for the song of birds punctuating the silence, carrying through the trees in the cool, misty air. You will also notice a scattering of mushrooms in the loamy soil along the trail — don’t pick them as many are poisonous!

At the junction, go the way that conjures images of a horn-headed man eating blackberry pie with a pitchfork. You will soon reach a clearing where the harbor is visible to the left of the trail — watch for heron, loons and ducks in the densely vegetated bog. Continue on the main trail up a hill, part of which has been washed out and is bound by tree roots. Watch your step! Once you have reached the top of the hill, look off to your left and through the trees you will see the rounded area of the bayou referred to as “Devil’s Kitchen.” The name refers to the way in which the early morning mist tends to rise and swirl above the water here, like Satan is stirring his caldron.

When you reach an intersection of trails, continue on the path toward South Camp. A short distance later, the path splits — take either path. 30 paces after the paths meet again, a fallen tree trunk encroaches into the path from your left. Follow the point of its finger into the forest and proceed 45 paces off the right of the trail to a trio of oaks standing within a square yard of one another. Stand in the center of this group of trees and take a bearing of 275 degrees. Walk 60 paces in this direction to a massive beech tree bearing the initials MR and MK (it may be difficult to walk straight there due to the many fallen trees). From this tree, proceed 30 paces at 30 degrees and find the box down low in a hollow tree trunk.