Backpacking the NCT/MRT

DAY ONE

We did this short trip in Mid-April. The night/morning was freezing but we had the right gear for it so we went for it. We parked our car the Red Bridge River Access Parking Lot. The trail starts just across the street and the actual trailhead is approximately 0.7 miles north. We did the loop backwards as recommended by friends and other blogs. The North County Trail (the dashed green trail line on the map to the right) is what we started on. You hike up above the river so the views aren’t as exciting as they are on the Manistee River Trail side. So we started with the boring so we could end with the more beautiful.

We took the NCT north approximately 9 miles where we stopped and took a food and rest break before finding camp for the night. The trail was pretty easy in the beginning, mostly flat with some rolling hills and the footing was prime - ground was cold and dry. The sun was shining the whole time as well and that was SO nice! By the time we hit mile 10ish we were crossing the bridge that would cross us over the river to the Manistee River Trail (the solid red trail line on the map to the right). We hike another 2ish miles until we found the perfect campsite for the night overlooking the river + the sunset.

We spent the afternoon collecting some firewood, setting up camp and cooking some dinner over the fire. Watching the sunset from this spot was amazing! We brought some dehydrated meals along with us and we enjoyed Mountain House Adventure Meals - Chili Mac with Beef. That has been one of our favorite backpacking meals to this day.

DAY TWO

We awoke to frost all over the ground and tent. It was a frigid morning. We had a hard time getting a fire started due to the frost all over any wood we had collected. We got our jet boil rolling to heat up some water for coffee + tea. We then enjoyed another dehydrated meal for breakfast. We tried Patagonia Provisions Organic Breakfast Grain - we like the creamy banana flavor the best. This is still one of our favorite dehydrated breakfast meals to this day as well. Once we got our camp all packed back up into our packs, we started on the last trek through the woods.

The Manistee River Trail side of the loop was much more scenic. The trail was winding with the river the whole way back to the car. There were a few points where we actually were hiking right by the river where we used our Sawyer Products Mini Water Filtration System to refill our water bottles since we were close to running out. Our total hike needed to finish the loop on day two was approximately 8.5/9 miles. We were glad we used day two for the short hike. After sleeping on a tiny sleep mat in the cold after hiking 12ish miles, we were pretty sore that morning. We finished the hike and went out to eat for a big burger and a beer.

We have outlined our favorite backpacking essentials here along with all our favorite backpacking meals!