We took a short vacation last week, and headed north into Michigan for a camping trip. This was our third trip to North Manitou Island and as always, it's a neat trip. A small island in northern Lake Michigan, it's part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.
It takes about an hour to ride the ferry from Leland to the Island, and the water was very smooth on the way over. It had been cold, dreary and wet in the area for a week or so and our luck was with us so it warmed up and the sun came out the whole time we were on the island. Low 80's during the day, and mid 60's at night.
Once you're on the island, do the permit thing, listen to the orientation and fill your water bottles, you're on your own and can camp anywhere on the island you want, as long as it's 300 feet from any water and 100 feet off the trails.
We packed for comfortable camping, so brought along the cushy sleeping bags and big tent, so the half mile walk out from the village was a bit of a chore, but Jim soon found us a comfy spot on a ridge, where we were out of sight of the beach and the trails, and we set up camp and settled in. We put up the tent, strung the line from tree to tree and hung the food bags. Walked the trail to the beach and felt we were home. We both took off down the trail for an explore, and hoped to find some mushrooms to add to dinner, or blackberries. My toe had a big blister so I soon turned back to rest and read in the tent.
We had two days of good times, preparing our meals in the campsite and hiking down to the shoreline to enjoy it while watching the water, spent lots of time reading our books, skipping stones in the lake, and napping. We even carried out a bottle of wine, buried it in the sand to keep it cool and sipped it slowly out of our coffee mugs while talking over how much we loved the quiet.
We never did find any of the edible mushrooms on this trip, and the blackberries were still completely green, but we did have a good hike across the middle of the island where we saw lots of traces of the past settlers. We found some ripe thimbleberries and got to graze on those a bit while hiking, always a nice bonus.
I got an excellent shot of a monarch butterfly perched on an endangered species plant, the prickly somethingorother? Stalked that butterfly all over the beach before it settled down long enough to get a good picture. Jim found fox tracks on the beach where it had made an early morning scout along the shore looking for something to scavenge.
We waded in the lake to cool off on our second afternoon there and Jim rinsed his t-shirt off, then hung it on a piece of driftwood to dry it in about 30 minutes with that sun and breeze-and it was so very soft.
It was a good trip, away from the usual routine, and we enjoyed seeing the little town of Leland too. We were checking out the menu of a terrific looking restaurant there when we saw Celebrity chef Mario Batelli walk in. Apparently he lives nearby. Now we need to go back to have dinner at that restaurant one of these days.
As always, it's great to be home, although it seems to take us longer to catch up these days. Tomorrow we'll start planting the fall vegetables to fill up those empty holes in the garden where things are all done.
It takes about an hour to ride the ferry from Leland to the Island, and the water was very smooth on the way over. It had been cold, dreary and wet in the area for a week or so and our luck was with us so it warmed up and the sun came out the whole time we were on the island. Low 80's during the day, and mid 60's at night.
Once you're on the island, do the permit thing, listen to the orientation and fill your water bottles, you're on your own and can camp anywhere on the island you want, as long as it's 300 feet from any water and 100 feet off the trails.
We packed for comfortable camping, so brought along the cushy sleeping bags and big tent, so the half mile walk out from the village was a bit of a chore, but Jim soon found us a comfy spot on a ridge, where we were out of sight of the beach and the trails, and we set up camp and settled in. We put up the tent, strung the line from tree to tree and hung the food bags. Walked the trail to the beach and felt we were home. We both took off down the trail for an explore, and hoped to find some mushrooms to add to dinner, or blackberries. My toe had a big blister so I soon turned back to rest and read in the tent.
We had two days of good times, preparing our meals in the campsite and hiking down to the shoreline to enjoy it while watching the water, spent lots of time reading our books, skipping stones in the lake, and napping. We even carried out a bottle of wine, buried it in the sand to keep it cool and sipped it slowly out of our coffee mugs while talking over how much we loved the quiet.
We never did find any of the edible mushrooms on this trip, and the blackberries were still completely green, but we did have a good hike across the middle of the island where we saw lots of traces of the past settlers. We found some ripe thimbleberries and got to graze on those a bit while hiking, always a nice bonus.
I got an excellent shot of a monarch butterfly perched on an endangered species plant, the prickly somethingorother? Stalked that butterfly all over the beach before it settled down long enough to get a good picture. Jim found fox tracks on the beach where it had made an early morning scout along the shore looking for something to scavenge.
We waded in the lake to cool off on our second afternoon there and Jim rinsed his t-shirt off, then hung it on a piece of driftwood to dry it in about 30 minutes with that sun and breeze-and it was so very soft.
It was a good trip, away from the usual routine, and we enjoyed seeing the little town of Leland too. We were checking out the menu of a terrific looking restaurant there when we saw Celebrity chef Mario Batelli walk in. Apparently he lives nearby. Now we need to go back to have dinner at that restaurant one of these days.
As always, it's great to be home, although it seems to take us longer to catch up these days. Tomorrow we'll start planting the fall vegetables to fill up those empty holes in the garden where things are all done.
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