The race unfolds through the Manistee portion of the forest, which was joined with the Huron National Forest in the mid-1940s and are best known for camping, fishing, hiking and boating in the summer and snowmobiling and cross-country skiing in the winter.
The Manistee forest also is famous for its Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness, a 3,450-acre stretch of ancient dunes on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Several of the dunes are estimated at 3,500 to 4,000 years old, and they’re measured at some 140 feet in height.
Runners will get to take in the beauty of the Manistee National Forest throughout most of the race as they’ll be running through its southeastern corner near Big Rapids, a city of just over 10,000 souls that lies roughly an hour’s drive from Grand Rapids.
