Get Your Grayling On

Grayling, Michigan is my adopted home, and I’ve now spent enough time in the city that it’s starting to feel like Muskegon – I know the roads, I know the businesses, I won’t get lost in the woods, and I know every tenth person by name.

That being said, my comfort has made me complacent. I’ve now resolved to go on one new, interesting adventure each trip. Here is a list of my favorites. If you know any other Grayling gems, let me know via Twitter @TimChilcote –

• Spikes Keg ‘o’ Nails: Friday night fish fry, Spike’s burger, and Snake Nuts
• Hartwick Pines: Quiet trails, chapel, lumbering museum, and the Monarch
• Gates: Top-rated fly shop and dining on the river
• Old AuSable Fly Shop: The standard
• Hultgren Sausages: Meat is good
• Hanson Hills: Biking, hiking, skiing, and view of the city
• Fish Hatchery: Feed the fish, catch the fish
• Dawson and Steven’s: Old style soda shop and Coca-Cola museum
• Goodales: Best donuts EVER
• Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon: World’s toughest spectator sport (article forthcoming)
• Borcher’s Canoe Livery: Because you have to start somewhere
• Grayling Restaurant: So good it doesn’t even need a website - Lumberjack breakfast plus terrible coffee equals hangover heaven
• Climb on the American Legion Tank: I mean, it’s a tank… and you climb on it
• Guard Camp: Great wedding receptions, fantastic explosions

Note: I don’t do the Speak Easy or the Old Barn, and boy do I miss the Blooming Grape.