Founders of the northern Michigan company M-22 “The Broneah Brothers” (a.k.a. Matt and Keegan Myers) are offering a new way to experience their favorite roadway.  The “M-22 Challenge” is a local triathlete’s dream of running up and racing down the Sleeping Bear Dunes, a bike ride through historic downtown Glen Arbor, and a paddle race in Little Glen Lake.

The Challenge invites athletes of all levels; weekenders, high school students, and even the professional triathlon competitors will all find a challenge on the course, or at least a spectacular view.The course is to be designed to take average athlete approximately two hours to complete.

The race will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 20th. Participants will meet at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Dune Climb park (Little Glen Lake Picnic Area) located on the northwest corner of Little Glen Lake on M-109 between Empire and Glen Arbor.

Beginning with the running portion, athletes will face a steep and sandy climb up the dune to the expansive view at the top. Competitors will then catch their breath in a fun run down the dune and along a groomed trail to M-109. On the road, runners will sprint back to the event site and transition area to complete the 2 mile run.

The second leg requires athletes to bike approximately 17 miles around Big and Little Glen Lake. Bike highlights include a peddle through downtown Glen Arbor, sections along the Crystal River, the famous M-22, and up Inspiration Point.

Transitioning from a bike to the water, the third and final portion of the event has participants paddling out and back into Little Glen Lake. The finish line of the event will be located in the water, guaranteed to create an exciting finish.

If watching the finish is all the “challenge” you need, make sure to be at the Little Glen Lake Picnic Area around 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 20th.

The M-22 Challenge hopes to promote the area and its native beauty and resources found here. The Challenge aims to be fun, but don’t doubt that competition (and bragging rights) will take a back seat. The M-22 company bases products and events on its driving philosophy: “M-22 is not just a road; it’s a way of life.  Its bays, beaches and bonfires, dunes and vineyards, cottages, friends and family.  It is the feeling you get when you realize there is no other place you would rather be.”

If you’d rather be racing, make sure you complete the early registration by June 18th to reserve a spot and pay the $75 race fee.

For more information, contact Event Coordinator Matt Myers, Sr. at challenge@m22online.com or 231.392.2212. Check out specifics on the course: www.m22challenge.com

On Saturday, May 30, 2009, the National Park Service (NPS) invites you to officially celebrate the relighting of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse.  Thanks to a partnership with Manitou Islands Memorial Society, Manitou Island Transit, and Electro-Optics Technology, Inc., Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore installed a replica third-order Fresnel lens in the completely refurbished lantern room of the lighthouse last fall.  Although the light was tested at that time, it was too late in the season to host a formal ceremony.

Starting at 9:00 p.m. at the Maritime Museum in Glen Haven, a National Park Service ranger will present a half-hour interpretive program about the history of the Manitou Passage, and the shipwrecks that made it necessary to install a lighthouse to guide mariners through its hazardous waters.  Following the program, Superintendent Dusty Shultz and representatives from the partner groups will provide brief remarks and recognize the numerous donors who made this project a reality.  Light refreshments will be served and, once it becomes dark enough, the light will be illuminated for everyone on shore to see and enjoy.

Lighting the South Manitou Island Lighthouse was a NPS Centennial Initiative project.  The Centennial Initiative is a 10-year program to reinvigorate America’s national parks by 2016, the hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service, and requires that all federal funds be matched with private donations.  Superintendent Shultz praised the efforts, saying, “The South Manitou Island Light project was a success because of strong partnerships and commitments from private donors.  Thanks to our generous supporters, the South Manitou light will shine on the horizon from May through October, and visitors to the island will be able to view the replica lens and lantern room and better appreciate all the work accomplished on this project.”

The replica third-order Fresnel lens was fabricated by Artworks Florida, and the lens is illuminated by a lighting source with a low-wattage bulb designed by Electro-Optics Technology, Inc. of Traverse City.  A crew of NPS maintenance personnel restored the lantern room and spiral stairway of the tower during the summer of 2008, and installed the lens and light in the fall.  The entire project cost $93,000 and was split equally between the National Park Service and private donations to the Manitou Islands Memorial Society, along with donated time and materials furnished by Electro-Optics Technology, Inc.

The Maritime Museum at Sleeping Bear Point is located on Glen Haven Road one half mile west of the Cannery in Glen Haven, an historic village located three miles west of Glen Arbor.

For more information on Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, visit the park’s website at http://www.nps.gov/slbe or call 231-326-5134.

Would you like to visit a beaver pond, listen for frogs, smell spring wildflowers, search for morels, or identify migrating birds?  Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is the place to do all that and more.  Spring is an excellent time to get outdoors and National Park Rangers are looking forward to sharing some of their favorite places in the Lakeshore with you during five “Saturdays at the Lakeshore” in May.

Every Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m., a Park Ranger will await you at the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center (VC) in Empire on M-72 to introduce a topic and then lead a car caravan a short distance to where the walk will begin.  Each week, a different topic and location in the park will be featured.  All are welcome.

May 2 - Mushrooms for Beginners: Learn how to tell a real morel from a false morel and how to identify several easy spring mushrooms.  The ranger will also explain the life of a mushroom and provide some tips on where to find your favorite variety.

May 9 - The World of Frogs: What would spring be without the sound of frogs?  They are disappearing all around the world.  Why are they still singing and what might they be trying to tell us?  Learn to identify several local varieties by sight and sound.  This is a great outdoor adventure for the whole family.

May 16 - Leave it to Beaver: Look for one of the few animals that dramatically engineer their environment and have played a major role in this region’s history.  See a dam, lodge, canals, and tunnels while learning more about beavers and their logging operations.

May 23 - A Flurry of Wild Flowers: Each spring, we are impressed with the abundance of wildflowers our hardwood forests offer!  Join a ranger to discover and marvel at this annual display of native plants as you hike through one of the best wildflower habitats in the region.

May 30 - Returning Birds: Celebrate International Migratory Bird Day by joining a ranger to welcome back several species of migratory birds.  Learn about the birds’ winter adventures in far-off lands and the distances they travel to get here.  This is a great opportunity for beginning birders.  Binoculars provided.

All ranger-led programs are free.  Participants need only purchase the park entrance pass or have an annual pass already to join in the fun.  Reservations are not required, but are suggested if you wish to bring a group.  Please call 231-326-5134, ext. 328, for details or log onto www.nps.gov/slbe.

If you gaze out toward the water from your window at The Homestead or toward the setting sun while relaxing at Otter Creek Beach, there’s a good chance you’ll see one this summer.

The stand-up paddleboard is here.  Born in ancient Polynesia, stand-up paddleboarding is said to have originated with surfing instructors who—to keep better eye on their students and incoming swells—took to standing up on their boards and using a paddle to get around.

SUP-ing is not only a fun way to surf. Since you’re standing up, gripping the board with your toes as you paddle back and forth trying to keep your balance in the chop, it’s also a new way to get a core workout like you wouldn’t believe.

Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak shop in Empire provides instruction and rentals ($35 for a half day, $49 for full day). Once you try a paddleboard and get hooked, the locals at Beach Nut Surfboards can teach you how to build one yourself at one of their regular how-to classes or with an on-line tutorial that’s currently in the works.

On Saturday, April 25, children of all ages are invited to become Junior Rangers at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on National Junior Ranger Day.  Special activities begin at 10:00 a.m. and are planned throughout the day, with a badge and swearing in ceremony at 3:00 p.m.  To earn a Junior Ranger badge and an official certificate, prospects will just need to go on one ranger-led program (morning or afternoon) and complete a few activities in the free Junior Ranger booklet that will be available at the Visitor  Center in Empire.  Adults must accompany children at all times.

“We are excited about celebrating the 3rd Annual National Junior Ranger Day,” said Lisa Myers, Chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  “All across the country, from Yosemite National Park in California to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, people of all ages will go outside to explore, learn and protect their national parks.”  At the National Lakeshore, Park Rangers will offer the following programs:

10:00 a.m.:  Dune Discovery Walk - Meet at the base of the Dune Climb on Highway 109, two miles north of Empire.

1:00 p.m.:  Beach Discovery Walk - Meet at the Cannery (large red building at the end of Highway 209) in the historic village of Glen Haven north of the Dune Climb.

3:00 p.m.:  Junior Ranger Ceremony - Meet at the Visitor Center to take the Junior Ranger oath and receive a badge and certificate.  There will be light refreshments and prizes for all.

All activities are free; participants need only display an entrance pass on their vehicle dashboard whenever and wherever they are recreating within the park boundaries.  Passes may be purchased at the Visitor Center, Platte Point parking area, and Platte River Campground ($10/vehicle, valid for seven days; or $20/vehicle, for an entire year).

For more information about the schedule or other Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore activities, please call the Visitor Center at 231-326-5134 or go to www.nps.gov/slbe.

Climbing the dunes in the summer is great, but make the ascent with a sled in hand and you’re ready for the ride of a lifetime.

At the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, the ever popular “Dune Climb” is open for the sledding season as long as the snow is here. It’s a perfect destination for your cabin-fever kids and their sleds, toboggans, saucers, tubes, or plastic garbage bags.  Send them up the hill as far as they’d like and watch them speed down with wide smiles and whoops of joy.

The Dune Climb is located on M-109 between Empire and Glen Arbor.  A park pass is required for the Dune Climb.

If you love the sun, fun, and beauty of our area beaches, now you can show it!  Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is celebrating National Public Lands Day (NPLD) on Saturday, September 27, and inviting the public to help clean up the Lakeshore’s beaches.  Bring your family, your class, your troop, your group, or just yourself, and join others in protecting our treasured coastline by collecting and tallying everything found along the beach: plastic bags, balloons, cigarettes, 6-pack holders-you name it!

National Public Lands Day is the largest volunteer hands-on activity of its kind in the country.  Held in September each year, the event brings together thousands of individual and organizational volunteers to refurbish and restore the country’s public lands.  These are the places Americans use for outdoor recreation, education, and just plain enjoyment.  They encompass national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, forests, grasslands, marine sanctuaries, lakes, and reservoirs managed by government agencies, but belonging to, and enjoyed by, all of us.  And, to celebrate National Public Lands Day, entrance to all national parks, including Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, is free on September 27^th, 2008.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes beach cleanup coincides with the International Coastal Cleanup, sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, which takes place around the world every year. Participants not only contribute to cleaner coastlines, but collect data from the debris they pick up.  That data is then compiled and analyzed by the Ocean Conservancy and locally, by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a non-profit group concerned with the future of the Great Lakes.

As a token of our appreciation, each volunteer will receive a free, one-day pass good for entrance to any federal land (national forest, national park site, wildlife refuge) before September 26, 2009. Credit for three hours of community service will also be available, if interested.

Participating in NPLD activities again this year is a group of local paddlers who kayak and canoe the lower Platte River while collecting trash along the way.  Lois Goldstein of Williamsburg, MI, has organized the spring and fall cleanups for the past four years because of her love of this spectacular Lakeshore waterway.  The paddlers start at the Platte River Picnic Area and take out at Platte Point.  They will host their clean-up the following day–Sunday, September 28.

The beach clean up on Saturday, September 27^th starts at noon and lasts until 3:00 p.m.  Park rangers and volunteers will meet at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Visitor Center, located on Highway M-72 in Empire.  Volunteers should bring water to drink, wear weather-appropriate clothes (rain or shine), sunscreen or hat, and closed-toed shoes.  Tools and other needed materials will be supplied.

For details about the Clean Up, please call Susan Sanders at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, (231) 326-5134 x507.  For more information about the park, please go to www.nps.gov/slbe.

Superintendent Dusty Shultz is pleased to introduce 2008’s September Artist-in-Residence (AIR) at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Hanna Louise Poston, a poet from Asheville, North Carolina, is living in the Lakeshore for three weeks, immersing herself in the natural wonders of the dunes, forests, beaches, and the varied cultural landscapes this national treasure provides.

Selected from 24 applicants, Hannah Louise Poston is from the North Carolina mountains, the Pennsylvania suburbs, and the Jerusalem hills. She has been studying and writing poems since childhood-the study of poetry has guided her whole adult life. She spent last year as the 2007-2008 Writer-in-Residence at St. Albans School for Boys in Washington, DC, and in October, she will live and work at MacDowell Colony, an artists’ community in New Hampshire. Hannah was previously the Thomas Wolfe Scholar in Creative Writing at UNC-Chapel Hill; a full four-year scholarship for one writer in each class. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming in several literary magazines, including Poetry Northwest, Hunger Mountain, and Measure.

On Thursday, September 25 at 2:00 p.m., Ms. Poston will present an informative program about her writing and residency. This one-hour presentation is free, open to the public, and will take place in the auditorium of the Philip Hart Visitor Center on Highway 72 in Empire. Works of art by previous Artists-in-Residence are also on display in the auditorium.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has sponsored the AIR program for over a decade, and it is open, through competition, to American writers, composers, and visual artists whose work can be influenced and enhanced by the outstanding features that are protected by the National Park Service and enjoyed by millions of visitors year after year. In exchange for the opportunity to live in the park for a short period, Artists-in-Residence donate an original piece of art to the park, interact with visitors while conducting their craft, and offer at least one public presentation of their work in a formal setting. There are only two sessions (September and October) available each year. For more details, please go visit the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore website.

Please call 231-326-5134 for more information about Ms. Poston’s presentation.

In 1926 four male and five female deer were introduced to North Manitou island with the hope that they would multiply to a number large enough for hunting.  Since then the deer population has grown significantly due to lack of predation and artificial winter feeding supported for many years by the previous island owners.  By 1981 there were an estimated 2,000 deer on the island.  The island vegetation could not sustain such a large herd, so many deer starved.  The surviving deer over browsed the island, eating all of the Yew and young Maple trees.  Through reduction of the deer herd by hunting, the vegetation has recovered to some extent.  Hunts (by permit only) have occurred annually since 1985.

Permits are now available for the 2008 North Manitou Island special deer hunt within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  The season begins with the bow hunt occurring from October 1 thru October 31.  The firearm hunt will then occur from Saturday, November 1 through Sunday, November 9 in accordance with Michigan Department of Natural Resources regulations.  There is no bag limit for the North Manitou Island hunt and the deer taken on this hunt do not count against the hunter’s mainland bag limit.  Applications are now being accepted for:

Bow Hunt       October 1-31

Firearm Season            November 1 to 9

If you think you would enjoy a late fall, wilderness hunting trip where you truly can “get away from it all,”the North Manitou Island deer hunt might be just the experience you are looking for.  With the recent changes in the hunting regulations, the firearms hunt now falls after the last Friday of October.  This year’s calendar puts the hunt a little later in the season.  The regulation changes also allow for the hunters to track and take more than one animal.

Click here for hunter success rates and statistics from 1985 to 2000.

Information about the hunts, ferry service, and island camping, as well as the permit application form, is available at the park’s web site. Applications are also available by calling Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at 231-326-5134.

What’s better than a beautiful fall Sunday, a great bike ride through incredible scenery, and all the best food the local harvest has to offer?

Grease your bike chain and reserve Sunday, September 21^st for the 25^th Annual Harvest Tour through Leelanau County. The Cherry Capital Cycling Club offers five scenic non-competitive rides as a fundraiser for the well-loved TART Trail system.

The tour through Leelanau County, known for its unique food stops along the way, attracted nearly 1,000 cyclists last fall.  Each stop at a lakefront park features a diverse menu of specialties from area merchants and restaurants. For those who pre-register, a pasta and salad meal after the ride is included.

Route options cover 12, 25, 45, 67, or 100 miles. For those looking for a less intense ride, a 12-mile route option is offered this year. Routes ramble through rolling terrain, farmland, hardwood forests, and sand dunes on low-traffic roads.

All of the routes include the Club’s favorite ride around Glen Lake. Most routes also go up Inspiration Point (a.k.a. Perspiration Point to local cyclists), for an incredible view of the surrounding lakes, dunes, and woods.  The longer rides include some challenging hills, but pay off with views of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse near Northport.

The event starts and ends at Glen Lake schools in Maple City where a pre-ride breakfast is available.

Cyclists can register for $25 (before Aug. 29), for $30 (Aug. 29-Sept. 12) or for $35 (Sept. 12-21). Families can register for $50 (before Aug. 29), for $55 (Aug. 29-Sept. 12), or $65 (Sept 12-21). Ride applications can be obtained at Brick Wheels in Traverse City or at the TART Trails office.

To honor the 25th tour, cyclists and families can enjoy a bluegrass band performance at the end of the ride.

For more information, contact the Cherry Capital Cycling Club at (231) 941-2543, TART Trails office (231) 941-4300, or e-mail info@leelanauharesttour.org.