Pure Michigan...North Manitou Island

Sometimes you just need to get away and connect with each other and God's creation.  I don't think there is a better place to do that than at North Manitou Island.  After work on Friday we threw our camping stuff in the back of the car, made last minute stops for supplies (and some Qdoba...no vacation is complete without a stop to the Q first!) and were off to Cadillac!  

We spent the night at a "nice" place...employees smoking at the front door, woman singing karaoke by herself in an empty bar, Ramen Noodles in our bed and a shower that barely trickled water! We woke up to rain showers, but were hopeful that they would end before we got to the boat.  We arrived on time at the docks, quickly packed our backpacks and were off to the island!  We got to ride on the top of the boat and see the great views of the island, and meet an interesting girl who was doing a fruit and nut week long solo camp experience.  

Upon arriving at the island we were given instructions by the rangers and were off to find our perfect spot.  We had an idea of where we were headed due to some guidance from the rangers, but we were swayed by hikers we passed along the way and pressed on to the "perfect" spot.

After hiking for 5 miles we were starving and stopped for a quick lunch...bagels with peanut butter and bananas (note: bananas are not a good backpacking food!).  During lunch conversation it was discovered that I forgot to pack the pasta dinner!  We had an "intense fellowship moment", but then realized it wasn't worth discussing because it wasn't going to bring us pasta.  So we rationed our snacks throughout the trip and made it work!

After 3 more miles and an exhausted feeling setting in we headed to Johnson's Place and found an awesome spot nestled in the woods with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. The chipmunks are some sneaky little critters so we had to keep all of our food and bathroom supplies high up in the trees so they wouldn't get to it.

North Manitou Island does not permit fires so that didn't leave many options for night time activities.  So we set up our sheet on the beach and spent the night reading, watching the sun set and entertaining ourselves with the self-timer on the camera!

We spent Sunday afternoon exploring the island, enjoying the beach and swimming in crisp Lake Michigan.   People used to live on the island back in the late 1800's, but found that the land was too sandy for farming so were forced to leave. We found an old barn which allowed us to imagine what life on the island was like for the families.  It seemed a bit like "Little House on the Prairie".  There were a ton of snakes on the island so exploring was a little scary for me!

It was crucial that we were on the boat on Monday morning otherwise we would be stranded on the island until Wednesday...we definitely did not have enough food to be there that long!  So, we sacrificed our primo spot and headed a little closer to the docks.  It was only a 5 mile hike to where we wanted to camp, but after a couple of miles it was apparent we had pushed ourselves too far the day before.  We pushed through the pain and mosquitoes and made it to the east side of the island where we camped under a few trees close to the beach.  

It was a beautiful night with a great dinner, marshmallows and hot chocolate.  When we headed to bed, though, the swarms of mosquitoes threatened to ruin our evening!  We quickly got ready for bed, jumped in the tent, killed whatever mosquitoes managed to get in and fell asleep to the buzzing of mosquitoes outside of the tent. We apparently put our tent on top of a mosquito nest!

We woke up on Monday morning to rain!  It is never much fun packing up wet stuff, but knowing we had dry stuff waiting in our car made it a little better.  We hiked along the beach to the docks where we were 2 hours early!  We weren't sure if our phone was picking up Minnesota time or Michigan time...we are never early for anything so it was a nice change!  Who was there when we got there?!?  The fruit and nut solo girl.  She had already ate all of her food, she didn't bring bug spray, a bathing suit or anything to do so she was calling it quits!

The boat ride back was eventful...huge waves, motion sickness and a hungry stomach!  I was sure grateful to make it back to land!  We found a diner and ate some good lunch, which was much needed.  The rest of the ride home was full of stops to get all of the food we had craved for the past few days...ice cream, candy, pop and popcorn!