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August 21-25, 2002 |
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| Wednesday morning I left for the D.H. Day campground hoping to get a good campsite. I arrived during overcast conditions around 11 am. I thought that I would have a good chance of getting one of the site on the lake, but they were all taken. I opted for a nice wooded site right in the middle. I set up the tent and did a little hiking around the area. The ranger told me there was a small chance of rain that day, but the clouds were telling me something different. Finally, around 1 pm it started to rain. So, I drove into Glen Arbor (which is only 2-3 miles) and had lunch at a restaurant. I read the paper and watched tv. This is truely hard core camping. An hour or so later I drove back to the tent in the rain and did a little reading and napping. My friends had just told me that they would be unable to make it until Thursday, which was fine, it was raining anyway. Around 7 pm it really started to storm. The trees were swaying and cracking, not to mention the torential downpour. I decided to drive to Traverse City to see a movie. Upon my return around midnight, the camp area was wet, but my tent was dry. I went to sleep rather quickly with the sounds of the waves hitting shore. |
| Thursday morning I woke up, made some breakfast, and took a walk to the lake. It was still overcast, but it did not look like rain. Around 11 am my two friends showed up. We set up one other tent, then we took a walk around the area. We relaxed for a bit, then drove into town for a bite to eat. After dinner, we drove through the Pierce Stocking Drive hoping for a good sunset. Although it was covered in the clouds, it was still a good sight to see. It was funny to watch the people who decided to go down to the water at the overlook, it was 300 feet down. Now they had to come back up. We went back to camp, had a small fire, then went to bed. |
| The next morning we got up and packed our things and got ready to drive to Leland. We unpacked our things, bought our boat ticket (we actually had reservations) and got on the boat. We sat inside because it was a little chilly on the overcast day. The boat was very full, but they did a good job of getting us on and off. It took about an hour and a half to get to the South Manitou island (it seemed like the boat only did 10 mph). Upon arriving at the island, we met with the ranger and told him where we were going and set off. It was now noon and the sun started to peak through the clouds. |
| We hiked on the trail the cuts right through the center of the island. We were heading towards the western shore. The trail meandered through some thick woods and some open grass lands for quite a while. It was very nice, and not too hot. We made a couple of stops to put our backpacks down and get a drink of water. We eventually came to the area where we thought our smaller trail was. (The main trail is marked very well, but the smaller side trails are not marked very well). After some searching and backtracking we found the smaller trail only to find it overgrown with poison ivy. We opted to take an alternate route. We came upon Swanson's barn and then hiked through the field to the lake. Finally. We found a nice campsite 300 of feet from the water and set up our tent. It was now 5 pm and we were fairly exhausted. After a quick meal and some water we sat on our bluff area and chilled and bonded. We had to make several trips to the lake to get water through our filter, so we just took turns. We played cards for a bit, then went to bed. |
| The next morning was Saturday and we had planned on doing some more hiking, but we were tired and we were on vacation. Instead we hung out for a while and played cards. I actually bet our future kids on a card game and I had the first born of each of my friends before they won them back. (I thought child support would have been an issue). We grabbed a bite to eat and hiked up the shoreline a mile in each direction. The views were great. The weather was mild and slightly overcast. The sun did not come out until late in the day, then two of us decided to go swimming. The water was cold, but it was refreshing. He chilled out later that night and played some more cards. |
| Saturday it was clear for a while and the full moon lit up most of the valley we were camped in. It was truely a great site. We went to bed (although the moon acted like a night light). Sunday morning we woke up early because we were told to be at the boat dock at 10 am. We did not want to miss the boat. The alarms went off around 5 am and we packed up our gear in the low light of the early morning hours (It seems to always take longer than you plan). We hiked out and got our pant wet on the dew on the grass, but we put our shorts on after we made it to the main trail. The hike back to the boat dock was uneventful, and we made great time. We got to the boat dock and waited over an hour for the boat to arrive. When the boat arrived we hopped on for the hour and a half ride back to Leland. We arrived around 1 pm, then stopped at Big Boy in Traverse City before heading home. The island was great, but it was a lot of work to get there. |
