Inspiring: The Outdoor Lifestyle

Live it up! Emmet County is a four-season community, so get outside and get inspired by … golfing, morel mushroom hunting, biking, in-line skating, hiking, beaches, swimming, boating, snorkeling, kayaking and canoeing, camping, skydiving, parasailing, festival-going, food tastings, art fairs, outdoor concerts, autumn color tours, hunting and fishing, farmers markets, pumpkin patches and corn mazes, downhill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, hockey, tubing, sledding, ice sailing.

The Espositos

After talking with Michael and Debbie Esposito, you can’t help but wonder: Is this family ever indoors?

Soccer, sailing, skiing, biking, running —the Harbor Springs couple and their daughters, Tia, 13, and Elena, 11, are fresh-air focused.

“This is a great place to raise kids,” Michael said. “There’s an almost unlimited amount of activities here as long as you are willing to get up and get outside.”

Michael and Debbie moved to Harbor in 1994 initially for Michael’s job. He was running a boat yard in Chicago when the two started looking for a place smaller and more family-oriented. He responded to an ad for manager of Irish Boat Shop and landed the job.

Debbie, an accountant, might have balked a little at the coziness of Harbor Springs, but that was 16 years ago. Today, she’s immersed in the community she calls home. In 2003 she started a local chapter of the national Girls on the Run program; now, 117 girls across eight regional groups learn as much about character development as they do about healthy lifestyles and activities.

Debbie, a college-level soccer player, also serves as administrator of Harbor Soccer, a travel league of 70+ kids, while Michael volunteers to tend to the three local soccer fields and became a U.S. Soccer referee. “I have no soccer background, so I figured I could either go play golf or be involved with my family. I chose my family, and I enjoy doing it,” said Michael.

Among their obligations, the family believes in supporting community endeavors as well. Since he works on or near the water every day, Michael is a board member of the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, a local organization dedicated to protecting the waters so integral to Northern Michigan.

It all fits into the lifestyle of this family-on-the-run.

“Where else can you be five miles from ski resorts and three miles from the lake?” said Debbie. “To be able to live in a place that has both is so rare. The kids can do anything here, they get the chance to try everything.”

And that even includes hunting. Last year, Tia expressed interest in learning how, and since neither Michael nor Debbie hunts she and dad enrolled in a hunter-safety class. Some family friends took them duck hunting, and the rule was she had to eat whatever she shot.

“She wants to go again, which totally amazes me,” said Debbie. “But it’s an opportunity she’s had that she might not have anywhere else.” 

We have it all

All it takes to enjoy the outdoors here is a little imagination, but there are certain features that regularly lure people to Northern Michigan: Our lakes and rivers, golf courses, ski resorts and nonmotorized trails in particular.

If golf’s your game, Emmet County’s your tee box. At least a dozen public and private courses in Emmet County provide opportunities for the day-duffer to the PGA-bound and everyone in between. The vistas from most of the courses are unparalleled, with sweeping scenes of Little Traverse Bay, rolling hillsides and spectacular home sites gracing many area courses.

Here’s a challenge: Try to find a more scenic, paved bike path than the Little Traverse Wheelway, anywhere in the country. This 30-mile route is ideal for biking, inline skating, walking and running and travels from Charlevoix into Harbor Springs. Most of it skirts Little Traverse Bay, passing over wetlands, along woods and through the most charming communities of Charlevoix, Bay Harbor, Petoskey and Harbor Springs. Also, a portion of the U.S.’s North Country Trail passes through Emmet County’s northern section, perfect for mountain biking, running, snow-shoeing and more.
 
Boating, swimming, fishing and water-sports are favorite pastimes during the celebrated summer season. And the options for all of the above are innumerable, from a pontoon trip or waterskiing adventure across inland lakes such as Walloon to casting a line into quiet Wycamp Lake northeast of Cross Village. Larks Lake, Crooked and Pickerel lakes are among the most popular around for a day on the water. The famed Inland Waterway also begins in Crooked Lake, flowing northeasterly for 38 miles through Alanson and slicing through lush, scenic landscape and past quaint cottages. Petoskey State Park is located on the shore of Little Traverse Bay, leading out into greater Lake Michigan and points beyond.

The rivers of the area offer more outdoor recreational outlets, from excellent fishing in the Maple River to trolling for trout in the Carp River, which empties into Cecil Bay.

When winter arrives in its snowy glory, the local ski resorts fire up their snow guns and add to Mother Nature’s offerings to ensure a long, fun winter. Boyne Highlands and Nub’s Nob, both located in Harbor Springs, are routinely voted among the top resorts in the Midwest and together they draw thousands of skiers, snowboarders and winter sports enthusiasts to their dozens of beginner, intermediate and expert runs and their colossal half-pipes and boarding parks.
 
While nature provides a playground up north, it also provides a bounty. Farm markets throughout the region sell the freshest produce around, and residents eagerly await their offerings each spring through fall. A number of organic and community supported agriculture (CSA) operations have also taken root in Emmet County.

Earth-caching—discovering the north’s natural wonders

Georg Schluender, a Harbor Springs native, was recently named the director of eco-tourism for the Northeast Michigan Council of Governments, though his interest is in promoting eco-tourism for the north region overall.

Schluender pointed out some highlights of the more than 200 “earth caches” in Emmet County:

Petoskey State Park has three glacial zones that span 450 million years in the earth’s formation. The Petoskey stone is a result of that glacial movement.

The crucifix at the bottom of Little Traverse Bay, a quarter-mile off shore. The cross draws divers in the warmer months, and ice-viewing opportunities are offered in the winter, when a hole is cut and the crucifix is lighted for public viewing. The white-marble crucifix was placed in the bay in August 1962 by the Wyandotte-based Superior Marine Divers Club to honor a fellow diver who drowned in Torch Lake. Since then, it has come to honor all those who’ve lost their lives at sea.

Tunnel of Trees along M-119.

The 256 bird species that migrate through Northern Michigan.

For more info on Schluender’s business, Michigan Outdoor Silent Sport Training, or his eco-tourism role, reach him at (231) 676-2560; to learn more about earth caching, visit www.earthcache.org.

Emmet County Guide 2010 » Inspiring: The Outdoor Lifestyle