{"id":6880,"date":"2020-07-12T23:42:27","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T23:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/?p=6880"},"modified":"2020-07-25T00:19:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T00:19:34","slug":"michigan-nct-day-12-rock-river-falls-to-valley-spur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/michigan-nct-day-12-rock-river-falls-to-valley-spur\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan NCT Day 12: Rock River Falls to Valley Spur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.22&#8243; custom_margin=&#8221;0px|0px|0px|0px&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;0px|0px|0px|0px&#8221;][et_pb_row use_custom_gutter=&#8221;on&#8221; make_equal=&#8221;on&#8221; disabled_on=&#8221;off|off|off&#8221; module_class=&#8221; et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth et_pb_row_fullwidth&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;3.25&#8243; width=&#8221;89%&#8221; width_tablet=&#8221;80%&#8221; width_phone=&#8221;&#8221; width_last_edited=&#8221;on|desktop&#8221; max_width=&#8221;89%&#8221; max_width_tablet=&#8221;80%&#8221; max_width_phone=&#8221;&#8221; max_width_last_edited=&#8221;on|desktop&#8221; module_alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;0px|0px|0px|0px&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;0px|0px|0px|0px&#8221; make_fullwidth=&#8221;on&#8221; custom_width_px=&#8221;500px&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.0.47&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;|||&#8221; custom_padding__hover=&#8221;|||&#8221;][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Content&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.9&#8243; link_option_url=&#8221; &#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; z_index_tablet=&#8221;500&#8243; box_shadow_horizontal_tablet=&#8221;0px&#8221; box_shadow_vertical_tablet=&#8221;0px&#8221; box_shadow_blur_tablet=&#8221;40px&#8221; box_shadow_spread_tablet=&#8221;0px&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6883 alignleft size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/BFDF74EE-2116-4F5D-8CEB-88B0F078993D_1_201_a-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"Heading to Valley Spur (Mich.) on North Country Trail, some hikers pause for a photo by a trail sign.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Today&#8217;s destination was Valley Spur. Since <a href=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/michigan-nct-day-11-valley-spur-to-mosquito-river\/\">yesterday<\/a> was a tough day, we all slept in this morning until 6:30. What a luxury! But once we awoke, we quickly packed up\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">and got into our own cars so we could each drop one car at the Rock River Falls trailhead. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Oh my goodness, the access road in (six miles\/9.7 km) was SO bad. It was rocky and full of potholes and water. Luckily, we had Ed&#8217;s old car, not my newer one.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Once Amy and Bruce arrived, we were off.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Heading Back East to Valley Spur<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The first six or so miles (=10 km) were on that access road that we drove in on, and then along a paved one. There were some annoying mosquitoes that caused us to don <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2OTzfx5\">bug nets<\/a>, but nothing bad at all. I&#8217;m so thankful we&#8217;ve been lucky in that regard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Soon we were in the Hiawatha National Forest. We had maybe 12 miles (19.3 km) through the forest. The terrain alternated from mildly rolling hills to a lot of tough, steep climbs. While it wasn&#8217;t hot out (temps hit the upper 60s F.\/20s C), it still felt hot at times. Luckily, there was a breeze on and off.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Strange Find on the Trail<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6884 alignright size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/E8C510C8-62AA-4D1D-879D-7941176951B0_1_201_a-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"Three hikers on North Country Trail near Valley Spur, Mich., stand by a rectangular hole in the ground with logs over it.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The one curiosity of the day was stumbling upon this weird thing in the forest. It was a perfectly circular depression in the earth with a perfect rectangle cut into the circle&#8217;s center. There were some logs across the opening. Was it a grave? Old root cellar? WHAT?! I&#8217;m asking folks on the NCT Facebook pages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">With 3.5 miles (5.6 km) left, we all felt beat and the bottoms of our feet hurt. When we were almost at the end of the trail, there was a huge muddy\/wet area to cross on logs, and then we hit a false ending \u2013 a road that we thought was the trailhead, but it was a few minutes shy of it. That was frustrating. But we made it to Valley Spur!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6885 alignleft size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/065E36C5-F894-43B3-8229-571E70564467_1_201_a-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"North Country Trail near Valley Spur, Mich., passes a tree-lined body of water.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>On the way back to our motel, the <a href=\"https:\/\/tidd.ly\/3fYIyI3\">Holiday Inn Express<\/a>, Ed and I stopped to see Wagner Falls (pretty).<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Back at our lodging, Ed did laundry while I finished up a work story. Then we had pizza with the Eckerts. It was so good! But food always tastes extra wonderful when you&#8217;re hiking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">It&#8217;s weird to be in a motel during COVID. Everyone has face masks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Snowshoe<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">MI NCT miles today: 18.1 (29.1 km)<\/span><br style=\"box-sizing: border-box;\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">MI NCT miles to date: 211.7 (340.7 km)<\/span><br style=\"box-sizing: border-box;\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Total NCT miles to date: 974.9 (1,569 km)<\/span><br style=\"box-sizing: border-box;\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Total NCT miles to go: 3,625.1 (5,834 km)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Disclosure: This entry contains affiliate links (among regular links) to products I own and like, or which I think you might like. This means that, at no extra cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s destination was Valley Spur. Since yesterday was a tough day, we all slept in this morning until 6:30. What a luxury! But once we awoke, we quickly packed up\u00a0and got into our own cars so we could each drop one car at the Rock River Falls trailhead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,15,72,2],"tags":[4170],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Michigan NCT Day 12: Rock River Falls to Valley Spur - The Thousand Miler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today&#039;s destination was Valley Spur. Since yesterday was a tough day, we all slept in this morning until 6:30. 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