Trailhead
Location: 45.1560166, -84.4676971
Camp 1
Location: 45.1465738, -84.4163704
Approximate position; there's a field just north of the trail. I set up the tent in the middle of a fork in a tree that had fallen.
Camp 2
Location: 45.1732034, -84.3988609
I spent my second night on a site near Hardwood Lake. In the morning there was a small patch of black hair on a log near my camp - I don't know if it was left by a bear or not, but it looked like it could have been.
Lookout Tower
Location: 45.1265934, -84.384613
Near here I heard a pack of bear-dogs (in training) that had located a bear
Town Corner Campground
Location: 45.1207796, -84.3672752
Refilled my water bottle (w/built-in purifier)
Elk & Berries
Location: 45.1641265, -84.3854713
Somewhere back here there's a series of DNR trails that aren't on the map. There's a structure set up for feeding elk in the winter in a small field, and on one trail there's a patch of rasberries and blackberries, which made a great snack.
Elk
Location: 45.1745345, -84.4022942
On the morning of Day 3, after packing up camp and hiking on, I saw three elk, with more behind them though I'm not sure how many. They emerged from the woods onto a two-track, and I was within about 30 yards from the closest one. We just stood there motionless staring at each other for about 15 minutes. Very cool!
I started on the High Country Pathway, set up a cold camp in an open field (it wasn't a designated campsite: no fire), hiked down to Town Corner Campground, refilled my water bottle, hiked up Blue Lake Road, then followed a web of two-track DNR access roads to Hardwood Lake, where I made my second camp. I hiked down the road to Forest Headquarters, then followed the Shingle Mill Pathway north around Grass Lake and south again to where I parked my truck at the lot across Sturgeon Valley Road from Pigeon Bridge Campground.
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