Mountain Biking at Glacial Hills

As summer winds down and those days at the beach become less frequent, one great way to spend your weekend days is out on some of Northern Michigan’s primo mountain-biking trails. This area is quickly becoming a cycling destination with the amazing trail networks right in our backyard, including the VASA, Muncie Lake Trails, and the Big M. Throw in one of the country’s premier races, The Iceman; the early season tune-up Mud, Sweat, and Beers; & the inaugural X100, and riders head here from all over the state to get their fix of singletrack and speed. But a recent newcomer to the mountain biking scene is currently the talk of the locals; that would be Glacial Hills, just outside the quaint village of Bellaire.

While hiking around Glacial is a great way to spend an afternoon, tearing it up on your mountain bike is why this place is quickly becoming one of the go-to spots in Northern Michigan for riding. The singletrack was cut in a way to make it flow smoothly while flying around on your bike. There aren’t any super-steep climbs or hairy descents, it’s just smooth and fast, all the way around. And while it definitely does get your heart pumping, it would be an enjoyable ride even for the novice cyclist as there isn’t anything technical out there that’ll cause you to hesitate. In fact, trying to describe how fun this place is to ride is pretty difficult, so check out the video below (that I shot with a camera strapped to my helmet) to get an idea.

Details of one of my ride’s out at Glacial are in the photo gallery below. And here’s a link to that ride on Strava.

If there was a knock on Glacial it would be that some of the new trail is being cut a little wide, so it isn’t singletrack, but it is still a blast to ride and you can actually open it up a little bit more than on the tighter stuff. Just be careful as there are often hikers out there as well as other cyclists (the trail isn’t directional, meaning you can ride either clockwise or counter-clockwise).

Even better yet is the recent addition of miles more of trails, all located on the Vandermark Road side (trail map). Rumor is that eventually there will be 20+ miles of trails. Also worth noting is that these new trails have a trailhead at Orchard Hill Road, meaning you can hop on the asphalt and after 5 minutes of pedaling, you’re in downtown Bellaire. Best way to make an epic day on the trail even better: drinking Michigan craft beer.

You can access Glacial Hills from 3 trailheads. Eckhardt and Vandermark roads both have parking lots and both of these roads are accessible from Bellaire Highway. Orchard Hill Road is on your left as you head north out of downtown Bellaire.

A ride at Glacial Hills on a crisp day during color season is an easy way to make you forget all about summer!

: So many trails, so little time

: Tight turns

: View from the saddle

: Strava course details

A Look Through Our Lens – Week of August 29, 2013

Photo descriptions (L to R):

1) Jumping for joy – Pierce Stocking Scenic Overlook 2) Last sliver of sunset – Sleeping Bear Point, Lake Michigan 3) Bales of hay – Antrim County 4) Waterdrops collecting on a rainy Monday morning – Burdickville 5) Sunset over Lake Michigan – Empire Beach 6) Beach weather is back! – Glen Haven 7) Summer weekends should be spent at the beach – Good Harbor Bay 8) Cooling down in Lake Michigan – Leelanau County 9) Moonrise on a clear summer night – Outer Space

Instagram photos this week by Kimberly Schwaiger, Brian Beckwith, and Nick Perez. See more here: http://instagram.com/northernmiswag

Swag Spottings – Paella in the Park 2013

A Look Back – Year In Review

So yeah, wow. It’s been a year already. Our 1-year anniversary approaching wasn’t even on our radar (time flies when you are old). But once we realized we were approaching the anniversary of events we had already blogged about, we started getting all nostalgic and weepy (Brian especially). So here are some outtakes from our recent bio photo shoot at Hickory Meadows, a little recap of how we got started, how we define “Northern Swag”, and what our first year means to us (& hopefully you).

The skills of new contributor Nick Nerbonne on display

Photo bomb by resident redneck reporter Melissa “Mo” Riehl

What we decided we wanted to do when we started Northern Swag was simple: share what we love about Northern Michigan with our readers; its people, places, eateries, and local happenings. And we share everything here purely out of being in love with this area. You see, we all do this in our spare time, a hobby of sorts for us. We all have real jobs, families, lives, responsibilities. But we have a passion for checking out everything this amazing area has to offer and we enjoy sharing that with all of you. And hopefully that’s rubbed off on you.

This blog went live on June 27, 2012, with two random posts (one on dune jumping, cause what’s more fun than dune jumping?! And one on pitting cherries with a stick, cause what’s more random than that?). There was a lot of work leading up to those two bits of arbitrary Northern Michigan life being shared out on the interwebs. And the large majority of that work was done by individuals that had no idea how to create a blog or website.

I’ll paraphrase an early conversation that took place in the halls of Northern Swag:

“I’m thinking of starting a blog.”

“Do you have a twitter handle?”

“No.”

“Well, you need one.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, to tweet?”

See? Clueless.

Fortunately, the end of that conversation was an offer to help from one clueless individual to another, and the excitement grew and spread. One of those people it spread to, lucky for us, was Nick, who shortly thereafter helped build out the site (you rock, Nick!), and to tell us when we broke it thereafter (IT school 101: It is always user error).

Our IT team – Nick Perez

And over the course of that year we’ve had a lot of successes and some disappointments, but ultimately we’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished here. We published 134 posts on the blog. We’ve gained almost 1,300 “likes” on Facebook and over 600 followers on Instagram, where we’ve posted over 250 photos in the past year.

Some of our favorite post series to share with you have been Twigs and Swigs (suggested combos of hikes and places to grab a drink after) and our Swag spottings (where the subject is you all in your unique Northern Michigan style). Each and every one of us has explored a new spot in Northern Michigan spurred on by this blog. We hope you have too and would love to hear your favorite parts of Northern Swag this past year!

No caption required, just start ROFL.

We have reveled while seeing Swag’s following grow over the last year and literally get giddy when we hear people checked out a new hike or restaurant after reading one of our posts. We are pretty darn lucky to live here and the excitement we all have for this area is contagious. So as long as you continue to hang out and read our posts and check out our photos, we’ll continue to push it out there onto the interwebs.

Izzy is the only sane one really.

We want to give a shoutout to all our readers (especially those that provide feedback (Thanks Mom and Dad); it’s what keeps us chugging along) and to our team of contributors (Nick 1, Nick 2, Mo, Bridge, and our child labor force; Izzy and Cora). You guys all rock.

Cheers to another year!

Kim & Brian

In-house stylist and co-founder: Brian Beckwith

Resident Animal Whisperer and other co-founder: Kim Schwaiger

Pyramid Point

When I think of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park being named the Most Beautiful Place in America, I instantly think of Pyramid Point. This hike and overlook is, to me, the epitome of what the National Lakeshore has to offer; diverse wildlife, beautiful woodlands, pristine sand dunes, and stunning overlooks high above Lake Michigan & Sleeping Bear Bay. But as a local what does this mean? It means I never go there. Because my perception is that it’s always crowded.

When I was out in Glen Arbor recently, after participating in the Solstice Run, I decided to head out to the Point for the first time in a couple years, fully expecting to deal with throngs of tourists on a Saturday in June (disclaimer: I’m not complaining about tourists because they make up 531% of our economy, but that doesn’t mean I have to hang out with them). But it turns out that 111 square miles of pristine wilderness is enough for everybody. Sure there were a few people out, but not nearly as many as I anticipated. And once we’d soaked in enough of the view from the primary look-out spot we headed down some of the other trails in the area that I’d never been on. After a short hike along the dunes we found ourselves on another lookout point with nobody else in sight. The only thing missing was our foresight to pack a picnic lunch.

So while I still like to track down the more “under the radar” spots around Northern Michigan, my fears of hiking alongside thousands of tourists have been alleviated. Sleeping Bear Dunes deserves its title and because of that it’ll be routine stop for us this summer.

Helpful tips: The hike up to Pyramid Point is heavily wooded, meaning mosquitoes – so pack bug spray. Stay on the trail, we saw plenty of poison ivy. Don’t hesitate to bring the kids – while there is a bit of walking to get to the top, the 5 kiddos we had with us, ranging in age from 3 – 11, made it no problem even with the extra adventures we did at the top.