West Michigan Camino: Day 1 – Cadillac to Le Roy

First things first. If you haven’t seen “The Way” yet, it is now streaming on Amazon. Watch it, and we can be friends again. It will cost you $6, but our friendship is worth it.

For fun, and for training, I tried to put together my own mini-Camino here in Michigan. There are plenty of great trails all over the state, but I don’t like to camp, so I needed to find something that is fairly long, but has lodging every 12-18 miles. That’s pretty tricky in rural Michigan.

I settled on the White Pine trail that runs north/south between Cadillac and Grand Rapids. The trail is about 100 miles long (160km), but with the extra walking to lodging and food, it may be over 120 miles (190km) before I’m done.

Today, I walked the first of six stages. I covered 20.5 miles (33km) and took over 45,000 steps. The walk was very flat, but even so, my feet are pretty tired.

Bill, I signed up to this blog to hear about great hikes in exotic locales. Are you really going to make me read about walking to Grand Rapids?

Yep. Looks that way.

When will you be going back to France and Spain, so I can read about something a little more interesting?

My sisters and I arrive in Paris on September 5. We’ll spend a few days site-seeing, then we’ll start our pilgrimage in southern France on September 8. Until then, you get to read about beautiful rural Michigan. Deal with it.

Have you and your sisters been training for the Camino?

Yep. I’m really proud of them. I put together a training program that started in January. They initially walked just a few miles a week. They’re now regularly walking over 30 miles a week and have each completed a couple of long walks of 14 miles. They’re getting really excited since we leave in 4 weeks.

I’ll be walking southward along the trail marked in red. I live in Ann Arbor which is about a 200 mile (320km) drive from the start of the trail. Thanks to Mark Haskins for driving me to Cadillac. That was a big help.

The trail started on a park next to Lake Cadillac (photo above). Lake Cadillac is one of the hundreds of beautiful inland lakes in northern Michigan.
Mark clicked this photo as I got started. I’m carrying all the gear I’ll be taking to Europe, plus a few extra things like my laptop. (I brought my laptop since most evenings, I’ll be in some out of the way places with little to do.)
Most of the trail is paved and goes through forests, though periodically it goes near farmlands. It crosses country roads every few miles, and it crossed under a highway once.
This area of Michigan gets about 70 inches of snow each winter. Camino by snowmobile sounds fun. Not an option in Northern Spain, unfortunately.
Rather than walking through quaint European villages, this walk will take me to some very small midwestern towns. Here is the town of Tustin, Michigan. Population 253.
I’m staying at a little farm B&B outside of Le Roy. They only have one guest room, but it’s very comfortable. Unfortunately, it’s about 3 miles off trail, so it took some work to get here. There was no other lodging available in the area.

19 thoughts on “West Michigan Camino: Day 1 – Cadillac to Le Roy”

  1. I think it’s great that you are starting us out in Michigan. That’s a beautiful picture of the trail in the woods.
    I can’t wait to meet your sisters and hear about their journeys as well.
    Looking forward to this!
    Cheers

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  2. Bill, my friend Joanne is doing some part of the Camino this fall. Bravely by herself!

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      1. Will do.

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        Catherine LillyChange Strategist || Executive Coach || ConsultantPresident, Trillium Strategy Group, LLC734-717-6302 (cell)

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  3. Off u go! Good luck. I love these posts, even if I don’t comment every day. Wishing you good weather and an absence of angry bees.

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  4. Hi Bill. I’ve been jonesing for daily updates on your travels. Michigan is beautiful. Enjoy.

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  5. Uncle Bill! Excited to hear you made your way over to our neck of the woods! I’ve biked portions of the White Pine Trail so it’s nice to have some personal reference to your latest adventure (I’ll get to France eventually). Whatever you do, stop in Rockford and get a dam dog-they don’t disappoint!

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  6. How fun! My mom often walks that trail so look for a woman walking four Corgis as you get closer to Grand Rapids! (yes, I know, four Corgis…I wish I was kidding)

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  8. You are semi local….we could have done this with you. So glad you didn’t feel like cutting your legs off with the saws in that room. Happy Trails.

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  10. I think I need to do the CBA on the $6. Is. It. Worth. It? I’ll check to see if they have it at the public library.

    Enjoy your walk. I hope you can retrain that old carcass to its former walking glory.

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  11. So fun to be watching you again, and super exciting for your sisters. I SO very much want to be your friend, and the last time you talked about “The Way” it said it was not available in my location. What? But this time I could rent it so prepare to put me back on your friend list VERY soon!

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  12. After following you all along The Way and the Mini-Michigan Way, I finally just watched The Way. It was everything you promised.

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