Mackinac Bridge Labor Day Walk 2025

This is a true Pure Michigan Classic. After having lived in Michigan for 19 years we decided it was time for us to join the tradition and take part in the Mackinac Bridge Walk. It's one of those things that's such a big deal, in particular for the bridge to be shut to traffic for 5 1/2 hours, that you see road signs reminding residents about it for months on end in all corners of the state, even hundreds of miles away.

For us this became a matter of fortuitous timing. My son Seth and I were already planning to travel up to Marquette in the U.P. to run a marathon on Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and it became obvious that while up north on Labor Day one needs to hit the bridge and so we did. The walk itself is free and open to all and we saw on our day people of all ages from young to old, and of all abilities. There were babies in wagons and elderly in wheelchairs. There was a strong sense of community and American spirit and all of that made for a wonderful event.

The Grand Teton, Grand Teton National Park, WY

The Grand Teton, Picture below taken Wednesday, August 20, 2025

The Grand Teton has been on my bucket list for some time after completing the Colorado 14ers 10 years ago with the summit of Capitol Peak. I was looking for something challenging that could incorporate my route finding skills from the 14ers and my rock climbing skills from my years of technical climbing. This created a bit of a conundrum with the Grand Teton because with any technical climb, you need a partner with equal or better skills than you to help belay. After asking around for some time if anyone was interested in joining me, and turning down several who had no idea about the technical nature of what I was seeking, I asked a caving expert from our church, Grace Lutheran in Little Rock, if he had any interest in the Grand Teton. He had already completed a guided hike of Mount Rainier many years ago and continues caving to this day. Shaun Baker quickly got back with me and said, "Yes, that sounds like fun!" He said he had the technical skill but had never done a high alpine climb before and so this started to interest him. Both of our talents started to mesh well as most of my experience was in high alpine environments with route finding capability and his with technical rigging. You need both to climb the Grand Teton.

Makapu'u Point Trail

My family and I found our way here at the tail end of a 10-day Hawaiian trip that included a 7-day Inter-Island Hawaiian Cruise. On our last day we disembarked our ship at 8am and had until 9pm when our flights left. We decided upon a tour of the east side of Oahu which included lunch in Kaneohe and then a drive down the coast past the beautiful Waimanalo Beach culminating at Makapu'u Point.

Pu'u Hinahina Trail

.Waimea Canyon State Park is one of the geological highlights of Kauai, and that's saying something on an island full of great sights. Many call the Canyon the "Grand Canyon of Hawaii" and it is a title well deserved. I would compare some of its better overlooks to that of Zion National Park, no joke.

While I wish we had time for a more full hike in the canyon we decided to at least do a little something during our visit. From the Pu'u Hinahina Parking Area there is trailhead signage for the Canyon Trail. I honestly thought we were starting onto the Canyon Trail but other trail sites suggest that's not what we did. Rather we were on a Pu'u Hinahina connector trail that heads to the lookout and the actual Canyon Trail. Either way, we made the nice hike down to a cliff overlook and enjoyed the sights. The trail started flat and then eventually began a steep and very rooted descent. It then began to climb again and this confused me. I thought we were still heading north and it felt like we were climbing back up to the Canyon Road where we started. In actuality, we had descended down to the Halemanu Stream bed and the ascent was coming back up the other side to the overlook. The jungle forest was so thick it was truly hard to keep bearings. We encountered a steady stream of hikers along the trail. The overlook had a guard rail as it very dramatically was on a cliff with a deadly dropoff. The trail was entirely in the trees until we reached the overlook.

1974 Lava Flow (Hawaii Volcanoes)

There was no trail here, but there was plenty to explore. As we drove the Chain of Craters Road through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park we saw the parking and the signs for Luamanu Crater. What we found even more interesting than the crater was the 1974 Lava Flow. It was easily walkable and gave plenty of room for adult and kid alike to explore this unique landscape. If time had allowed we would have been able to go much further. We wondered if this flow came from the Keanakako'l Crater which the maps suggest. It would be reasonable to conclude all of these flows and craters connect back to the Kilauea Volcano.