RICHLAND, Mich. — Shimmering shorelines and sandy feet are expected when you head to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Another expectation, is that if you walk to the bottom of the Pierce Stocking area of the dunes, you’ll have an intense climb back up.
“The first bit, you’re like okay, this isn’t that bad. Then you get to the meat of that hill, gosh it hits you all at once,” dune climber Wesley Brightmon said.
This summer, people saw something out of the ordinary at the dunes, for a typical day.
Quinn Hinesman captured it on camera.
Hinesman’s video has been viewed on TikTok more than five million times.
Watch the moment in the video version of the story:
It shows the Gull Lake Cross Country team carrying a log up Sleeping Bear Dune’s Pierce Stocking area of the scenic drive.
“It’s just something that started 26 years ago, in 1999, and it just continues through to today,” co-coach Robin Blackburn said.
The cross country team at Gull Lake spends time in northern Michigan every summer for camp.
Carrying the log up the dune is tradition, but not the most difficult part of the process, according to senior Jack Karalash. He’s spent eight years committed to the sport.
“Carrying the log to the bottom of the hill is harder than going to the actual sand dune,” Karalash said.
The team heads left at the bottom of the dune, to a wooded area. They find a log, and come up with a strategy to get it to the top, without help from their coaches.
It’s a real bonding experience, runners explained.
They called it part of training, and even said it was cool the video went viral.
But when asked if they thought they were nuts for doing it to begin with, senior Brendan Moran summed it up.
“People think it’s crazy. I just think it’s pretty normal,” Moran said.
Senior Logan Dziewicki recalled having fun with upperclassmen after his fourth trip up the dune, log in tow.
“This year, we had a lot of people. It was probably the biggest log I’ve carried up in the four years,” Dziewicki said.
It’s become a tradition as Pure Michigan as petoskey stones, fresh water beaches, and sandy dunes.
