By Anna Johns
The Lake Michigan coastline is one of Michigan’s most treasured places. Every year visitors walk a portion of its shore and take in the beautiful sites. But how many can say they have hiked the 473 miles from the Indiana border to Mackinaw City?
West Michigan native and Grand Rapids Christian graduate Jacob Penning can make that claim. With friend and former WKTV intern Micah Rynders, he produced the documentary “The Middle Coast” to share his story. That documentary, “The Middle Coast,” premieres Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. on WKTV Channel 25 with re-air dates Sept. 9 at 1 a.m. and Sept. 11 at 10 a.m.
On July 9, 2018, Penning started at the Indiana border and headed north on his hike which spanned four weeks. With no trail, he embarked on a solo hike along the Michigan lakeshore documenting every step of the way. The hike was rough and Penning needed to rely on the help of Michigan residents to complete his journey.
“In the summer of 2017, I hiked the Colorado trail, an 484-mile walk across the width of the state,” Penning wrote in an email to WKTV. He is currently traveling through Montana. “Looking at a map of the coast of Michigan, and measuring the distance from the boarder of Indiana to the bridge, I found it was almost exactly the same distance as my hike in Colorado. Having already walked that far before, and seeing how follow-able the coast was with constant access to water and many cities to resupply food, I knew that it could be done.”
During his journey, he spent his nights resting at campsites and friends’ homes. Along the way, there was no shortage of familiar faces from catching his old teacher at the beach to finding his former neighbors at a campground.
“There was not an ugly place along the entire coastline,” Penning wrote. “Every part of the coast is uniquely beautiful.”
Penning made sure to take his time hiking the coast so he could stop at some of the state parks and cities along the way. From taking a jeep ride over the Silver Lake Sand Dunes to exploring Traverse City, he had his fair share of adventures.
“Muskegon State Park surprised me with its beautiful dunes and forests,” he said. “Crossing most every river channel was done by hitchhiking boats to get a ride across, this happened without fail every time that I needed it, usually from the first boat that passed by.”
The challenge was the actual hike, Penning said. Hiking 20-plus miles day after day is taxing on the mind and body and requires perseverance and determination when the end seems so far away, he said.
“I don’t think he ever actually felt negatively about the journey, nor do I think he ever really felt alone,” Rynders said. “I think he looks back on the whole journey with awe and excitement so much more than he thinks anything negative about any of it.”
The entire production was filmed predominately on a GoPro with close up shots done on a Sony mirror-less camera, as well as drone footage shot by Rynders. When all was done, they had hours of footage. The goal was to submit the film to the Banff Mountain Film Festival, the world’s largest mountain film festival, and to do that they needed to cut the footage down to 20 minutes. This took an excessive amount of time, however, in the end they believe the finished product exceeded their expectations, Rynders said. They will know in October if the film made it as a finalist.
In a few weeks, Penning said he will be moving to Ethiopia to produce music and spread the gospel in the capital of Addis Ababa for the next year. Penning and Rynders also are “dreaming” about their next project, so “more adventures are on the horizon,” according to Penning.
