what better way to celebrate your one year wedding anniversary than to hike 14 miles and summit a high peak?
we started from the st hubert's parking area at the ausable club at 8:45, signed in at the amr gate and began walking the lake road. i hate to say it, but there is little interest to this road after the first time you walk it. we arrived at the dam around 10:00 and were glad to start hiking an actual trail. taking the trail beside rainbow falls up, we reached the summit around noon. it was windy and quite cold up top but offered a fine view of the great range.
15 minutes later, with frozen fingers and full bellies we began the descent to ausable lake via the scenic trail. this is a steeper trail and added almost a mile to the trip. there were many lookout points perched on the cliffside scramble down offering views to the southeast that weren't available from the summit. the final portion of the scenic trail that follows the lakeshore was a rugged crawl over glacial erratics. it took us nearly three hours to descend from the summit back to the dam.
the mind-numbing walk of the lake road followed and we were back at the car by 4:45, making it an even 8 hour day.
(more photos here.)
Looks like a bit of a chilly hike. But still I think it's a sweet way to celebrate a first year anniversary. Congratulations!
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