We have now moved from St. Ignace to Traverse City so we can visit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. On Saturday evening we were scheduled to take a shoreline cruise to view the lakeshore from the water perspective. We drove the 50 miles to the harbor only to have the cruise cancelled. Apparently the water was a little too rough that evening. We had noticed on the drive down that the water looked a little rough in some of the areas. We were doing a little sight seeing on the trip there so had left very early in the afternoon to get there. Once there they told us to wait around about 30 minutes while they were waiting to hear back from the captain who was already out on the water. As soon as he called back into the office they would be able to let us know. About 20 minutes later they called to say it was cancelled.
We are now scheduled for an all day trip on Monday, depending on the weather. On this trip they take us out to one of the islands that is part of the national lakeshore. We have to pack all our own food and water as they do not have services on the island.
Since our trip was cancelled on Saturday we decided to visit the mainland part of the national lakeshore. It was a pleasant drive but not as interesting as other places we have visited. The lakeshore of course includes a climb you can do of a big dune (110 foot tall), there is a scenic drive through a forested area with overlooks over the water, there are historic farms to visit, lots of trails to walk or bike and a historic village to visit.
Covered bridge on scenic drive
Scenic drive
Overlook from scenic drive
Dunes
We passed on the dune climb, Bruce still has vivid members of the last dune hike we took a few years ago where he claims I forced him on a 50 mile march through the blazing hot white sand dunes along Pensacola Beach. It wasn’t 50 miles but it was blazing hot and it is surprisingly hard to walk on those sand dunes.
We did see a beautiful barn I would not mind owning.
Beautiful barn
Sunday we just stayed around the RV and worked on our reservations for when we get to Glacier National Park later this year.
On Monday morning we got up to cloudy skies but decided to go ahead and head for the harbor in case it cleared up. We had already made sandwiches the night before so we loaded them in a small ice chest that fits in Bruce’s backpack, loaded water bottles, cameras, hiking sticks and snacks we were taking that did not need to be iced. We decided to wear shorts but put on our wind/rain suits as it was very cool out and we would be on the boat for awhile. By the time we got to the harbor it had cleared up and we got good seats on the top of the ferry so we could enjoy the view. Of course the seats were a little uncomfortable and it was very windy on the trip over but worth it to be able to have the clear view.
Harbor
We spent about one hour on the ferry then arrived at South Manitou Island with the other day trippers and a several groups that were camping for a few days. We passed a decommissioned light house on the way to the island, it was covered with a colony of Cormorants.
Decommissioned light house
Decommissioned Light house
As you get to the island you can see a lighthouse and some of the buildings. They have guided tours of the light house.
Light house on island
Light house on the island
Ferry
Once on the island we had to shed the wind/rain suits as it was too warm for them. We each had our own backpacks so we just loaded the extra clothes in the backpacks. First stop was finding the outhouses or long drops as they are called in some areas. After a quick clean up with hand sanitizer we had a bite to eat then set off on one of the tours. You can either walk the trails or take a ride on a trailer behind a Kubota ATV. The little trailer was surprisingly comfortable, we decided Jerry and Georgiana need to make one like it for riding people around at the farm. It actually had a ramp at the back so you could push or pull in a wheelchair.
Trailer used on tour
We opted for the ride and glad we did as the buildings at sites we went to were locked and if we had not had the guide with us we could not have gone in to see them. Our first stop was at an old cedar grove. Some of the trees are supposed to be 400 years old. Once you got off the trailer you had to walk a trail and eventually you came to a boardwalk to follow through the cedar grove. Lots of hemlock, trillium and poison ivy. Per the guide the hemlock is candy for deer and since there are no deer allowed on this island, it grows all over. the trillium had already bloomed but the guide showed us pictures he had taken earlier in the year so we could see the blooms.
Cedar stump
Old knotty cedar trunk
On the boardwalk
Trillium
The walk on the trail involved climbing over some trees that had fallen across the trail and had not been cleared. They were too low to the ground to crawl under and they extended to far off either side of the trail that you could not walk around them. You were left with no option but to climb over them and if you weren’t at least six feet tall you did not have long enough legs to step over them as they were also very big around. For most folks this meant sitting on the tree and scooting to the other other side. We all made it there in one piece but some one slipped when coming back and landed on his knees. It seems it was my fault as I had wandered off to far ahead of him and he could not get his left leg up over the tree and lost his balance. No injuries other than his dignity.
On our second stop we took a hike out to an overlook for a ship wreck. It was a Liberian freighter named Francisco Morazan that sank in 1960. The freighter was already having problems when it go to this area and then it hit another sunken ship and put a big hole in the hull. The captain was able to get the freighter close to the island and grounded it so everyone could be rescued and eventually much of the freight was salvaged. A lot of the cargo washed ashore and was taken by the residents that were living on the island at that time, much of it was cans of Blue Star Tuna. While everyone was saved from the wreck, many years later a teenager drown when he and a friend swam out to the wreck and he hit his head on something.
The wreck has become a home to a colony of hundreds of Cormorants and according to our guide they smell like something has died. He said depending on which way the wind is blowing you can smell them up on the cliff where we were standing.
Ship wreck
close up of ship wreck
From the wreck we made it back to visitor area where we dropped off part of the people and picked up 3 new folks that wanted to just go on the last part of the tour. The last part was to visit some of the old homesteads and the old school. We visited the school first then went to the homesteads.
Old school
The guide gave us a lot of history about the island before it became part of the national lake shore. Many of the residents were glad to go as they were struggling to survive on the island as what few jobs that had been available had gone away as the economy changed. Some of the families fought having their land taken over and it was very sad to hear how unfairly they were treated by some of the park staff that was taking over. We visited two of the old homes while the guide gave us the history of the families and the issues with the island being taken over by the park service.
We toured the inside of one of the old homesteads. Learned many of the houses that had been on the island all looked similar as they were bought as house packages from Sears when they used to sell them a long time ago. The one we looked inside had the sort of circular staircase like my grandparents in Pennsylvania. One still had the remains of a very large barn. There were lots of apple trees that loaded with apples but they were not very big apples. The park service keeps the land mowed around the buildings which is good thing as otherwise you would be eaten alive by the mosquitoes. They had not mowed by the school house in awhile and the mosquitoes were swarming.
Stair case
Old home
View of small barn and back walnut tree
Remains of old barn
There is also a North Manitou Island and the ferry goes there also. This island was once owned primarily by one very rich man. He brought 13 deer onto the island and was charging a bunch of money to hunters to allow them to come out and hunt. He eventually abandoned the plans and the remaining deer were left on the island. Those few deers have now turned into thousands of deer and they have over run the island, per our guide they eat so much that they have eaten everything up to 6 foot high off the ground. There are so many that they have run out of food supplies and they find the old barns on the island full of dead deer when park staff returns in the spring. As a result they have opened the island for hunting in the fall to help control the population.
Our trailer load of fellow travelers was an interesting group. The first part of the trip was me explaining about my camera vest. I do not like having a camera hang around my neck and do not want to carry it in my hands so years ago I found a camera vest made by Cotton Carrier. The camera is attached to the vest with a leash and then the bottom of the camera slides into a slot on the vest. When you want to use it you turn the camera to the side and side it out of the slot and it is loose where you can use it. The leash is still attached so if you drop the camera it will only fall about 1 1/2 feet. I have another one where the camera is mounted on a slot down by your hip but I like the vest version best. Anyway some of the lades were very fasinated with the vest and one took several pictures of it and how it worked. She thought her husband would love one of them.
There was one couple with a very young child, maybe 2, and a grandmother traveling with them. When we were on the trails the boy would be walking sometimes and would spend most of his time trying to make sure no one stepped on any of the millipedes on the trails, there was a lot of millipedes.
There were two ladies that had already been on the island for a couple of days and they were camping with their families, one was from Wisconsin and one from Michigan. I did not get the impression they knew each other previously but had formed a friendship while camping. Their husbands had elected to hike that day with their kids so the ladies were riding with us. The Michigan lady was wearing a knee brace and using a walking stick as she had the same problem as Heather has with one of her knees where it is bone on bone with no cartilage. We discussed the knee and I told her about Heather’s treatment with the chicken fat injections which her doctor has not yet offered as an option. They were both very friendly and we got to here all about their activities with scouts, both are scout leaders. Learned all about camping when you don’t have a clean water supply.
The last two on the trailer were two other ladies that were there together to go on their very first camping trip. They did not own camping equipment and had rented all the equipment for $400 for 7 days from a company in Colorado that will rent you the equipment. They were asked why they had decided to do this trip and one said that she had heard about the island from a friend of her daughters and it sounded so interesting she wanted to visit. The other lady lives on a farm some place in New York and rarely gets a vacation. She and her husband get one short trip a year and it is a major effort as they have to have someone come in to take care of all their animals while they are gone. They both said they would like to have their husbands along but since they couldn’t make it, they decided to come anyway. Apparently you can get the top of the line backpacking camping gear from this company. The farm lady precooked most of their meals and then used her dehydrator to reduce them down for packing for the trip. We also learned her husband is real tight with the money but agreed to the rental of equipment as cheaper than buying all the things they would need as they may never go again. Depending on the success of this trip they might do another trip next year.
All four ladies were real friendly and when they found out what we were doing they had loads of suggestions of places to go. They were surprised we had already been retired for 7 years. Not sure how to take the surprise, did we look really old or did they assume we retired at 65 and thought we looked good for our age.