Pictured Rocks Lakeshore Hike 26'

For our most recent adventure, Lionel was no longer able to sit back and let Daddy do most of the work. This time, we laced up our hiking boots and headed to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to tackle roughly 65 miles of the North Country Trail through the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore National Park.

When planning our adventures, I always want them to be challenging, but also fun. I generally shoot for about a 70% enjoyment to 30% “What have I gotten us into?” ratio. That seems to be the sweet spot for keeping us happy, slightly uncomfortable, and most importantly, coming home wanting to do it again.

I may have gotten a little ambitious with this one.

The pain and suffering ratio was definitely higher than usual. But with a little more suffering came some much better stories, a pretty impressive accomplishment, and a few moments that we will probably laugh about for years. Click the links below to read about our training, planning, and the adventure we had out on the trail.