North Manitou Island - Day 2

I don't wear a watch when I'm out in the woods, so I'm not sure when we all woke up, but the sun was already shining brightly and it was starting to get hot. We had covered more distance yesterday than I had planned, so we had an option to cross the island and camp on the east side a day early.

After breakfast we headed out to find The Old Grade trail which runs north and south on the west side of the island. Once located we turned southward toward Swenson's Barn. We easily found the trail to the Barn, took off our packs, and followed the short trail to the barn. The trail breaks out of the woods into a clearing with a great view of the barn.

As we approached the barn we found several short berry bushes near the barn, but their fruit wasn't ripe yet. We took several pictures and explored the area before heading back to our packs.

Once we had our packs back on we continued south on the trail until it meets the Centerline Trail, which bisects the island, where we turned left at the sign post and headed to the east side of the island. I wanted to see if we could find Tamarack Lake, so we kept an eye out for trails leading to the lake but were unsuccessful in finding any, as far as I know the trails to the lake aren't marked. The NPS officer at registration said that it was hard to find, and most likely had an extremely low water level. Another item on my list of things to find next time.

Once on the east side of the island there is a trail that continues past the intersection with the main trail and leads to a lesser used trail that runs parrallel to Lake Michigan. Just north of this intersection, and east of the secondary trail we found an ideal spot for a campsite. We double checked to make sure it was legal and then set up camp. This site was so nice that we kept it as our campsite for the remaining two nights of our trip.

Once camp was set up we went down to the beach for a swim. The cold water was refreshing, however the bottom was rocky as opposed to the sandy bottom we had experieced on the west side. Once we cooled off we filtered water and returned to camp for lunch. Intending to read for a while, Chrissy and I went to our tent and laid down only to fall asleep for a well earned nap.

After waking we went down to the beach to enjoy the view. We met up with Mac and Renee for dinner and conversation. I had stowed a flask of Leelanau Celler's Great Lakes Red in my pack in honor of Renee's birthday. We poured the wine in our cups, toasted Renee on her repeated 20th birthday and watched the sky change as the sunset.

After sunset we made our way to our tents and quickly fell asleep. Sadly, only one day left on the Island.

Estimated mileage for today: 4 1/2 miles.

Hike to Day 3

More Pictures From The Trip

North Manitou Island - Day 1

The plan was for Mac and Renee to arrive at my house at 4:00 am, put their gear in my car and head north to Leland, MI to board the ferry and head to the Island to start our adventure. My phone rang at 4:01 and I rolled over to answer it. "Where are you?" Mac asked, "I'm at home, where are you?" was my not quite awake response. "I'm sitting in your driveway..." damn it, I forgot to turn on my alarm clock. "Give us 20 minutes and we'll be ready". Well this is a great start to the day. Chrissy and I got up, showered, and were ready in less than 20 minutes. We weighed our packs in the driveway, stuffed them in my car, turned on the GPS, and pointed the car north. The much anticipated trip was here, and the wheels were rolling.

We made it just north of Manistee before we got hungry. Hubbell's Restaurant and Bait Shop was the next local restaurant we came to so we stopped. It looks like an old house converted into a restaurant. The sign made us all laugh, but the food was good, and the service was good.

After breakfast we resumed our trek north. Once in Leland we ran into a little traffic trying to off load our gear near the boat dock. They were doing construction on the parking lot across from the dock and the less than helpful construction workers were clogging traffic. I jumped out to get our tickets and Chrissy moved the car to unload our gear. Once I had the tickets in hand I jumped in the passenger seat and Chrissy drove to the parking area. This would be the last time any of us remember seeing the car key, but more on that later.

We took the shuttle back to the dock and met up with Mac and Renee. A last minute group photo before boarding the boat and we were all set to go. We found seats on the upper deck of the boat for the ride over. We could see the Island from the dock so there was a stir of excitement in the group as we waited for departure.

The trip to the island was uneventful. Once at the island we quickly unloaded the boat and walked to the ranger station to register. We waited for an eternity for the National Parks Ranger to come out to give his briefing speech about ticks, fires, leaving no trace, and poison ivy. After his speech we filled our water bottles and headed north on the path that takes you near the Village campground. We stayed on the outermost trail and took a snack break near Paul Maleski Place. I was finally able to start relaxing, I was on the island and we had a couple miles under our belts.

Outermost Trail heading North From the Village

We reshouldered our packs and starting hiking again. I was a little disappointed when we crossed the pole bridge, it was just a bridge over a swampy area of the trail. Further research upon returning home indicates that there used to be a pole bridge in this location, now it's a much simpler bridge covering the outlet of the large swampy area to the south of the bridge.

Swamp near  the "Pole Bridge"

A short distance past the bridge we came to the Stormer Camp and all of the beautiful old trucks! This was a shock to me because for some reason I had thought this was on the southern half of the island and we wouldn't get to see it on this trip. We stopped for lunch after taking several pictures of the trucks.

Old Trucks at Stormer Camp

After lunch we continued on the trail. The trail was well maintained, and began to rise along an old rail bed as we headed west. Just after the trail starts to turn south there are two large stones on the south side of the trail, near there is a unmarked trail that heads north to the Pot Holes, which were to be our destination for the day. The trail goes from a single track, unmaintained trail, to a narrow trail similar to a game trail, to bush whacking. We eventually made it to the potholes, but they weren't what I was expecting. There was no place to camp in the area we were in, and the rocky dunes I had had seen in pictures were actually densely wooded steep hills. We continued along the ridgeline until we found a place that we could decend to the lake shore. I wouldn't recommend bushwacking in the area, it was rough and slow going.

The Potholes, but not as I expected them.

We exited the dense forest and were treated to an amazing view from the bluff above the beach. We made quick work of getting down to the shoreline and cooling our feet in the water. However, this presented a new problem. You can't camp within 300 feet of the high water mark of Lake Michigan, so we hiked south to find a good place to set up camp.

 Along the way we saw several deer an coyote tracks, but never saw any animals.

Where the deer and coyote play.

We eventually made it to the lower dunes near the Crescent dock on the west side of the island and set up camp the appropriate distance away from trail and water. After we set up camp, we filtered water, made dinner and went swimming in the chilly water. Chrissy got some great sunset shots before we all climbed in our tents for the evening.

Our post trip estimatation puts today's mileage at around 9 miles, about 4 more than we'd planned on.

Hike to Day 2

More Pictures From The Trip

North Manitou Island - Planning/Itinerary

When I was in high school my family used to take annual trips to the Leelanau, MI area to go skiing.  We stayed in a cabin within walking distance of Lake Michigan.  Our view from the beach included both North and South Manitou Islands, places that I thought would be great to explore.  Years later I did some research on the islands and figured a trip to the Island was a little out of my league at the time, so it got placed on the back burner for a while with the rest of my outdoor adventures.

Fast forward 20 years and the topic of backpacking on the island comes up again.  A friend's wife had bought him some backpacking equipment for his birthday. Planning for the trip got serious in the fall of 2011.  We had no idea how it was going to work out, but sitting by the campfire at deer camp commitments were made to make the trip to North Manitou Island happen during the summer of 2012.

I started doing some research again, this time made easier by better resources available on the Internet, and we started making plans.  I studied several maps of the Island, as well as trip reports from other backpackers.  I stumbled across a trip report written by a guy that had spent 14 nights on the island in a hammock.  I  also found a guy whose family used to own a cabin on the island in his youth when the Island was a private hunting preserve.

Excitement was building!

We settled on a 4 day trip at the end of June, we guessed the weather would be good, and everybody involved was able to schedule time away from work. This trip was going to be Mac, his wife Renee, Chrissy, and I.

Tentative Itinerary

Day 1
Leave home early and drive to Leeland to board the ferry to the Island. Arrive on the Island, complete our arrival briefing by the National Parks Service, hike toward the North West corner of the Island near the Pot Holes.  Find a suitable camp site for the night.

Day 2
Explore the west side of the Island, moving camp somewhere south. I wanted to find Tamarak Lake.  Planned points of interest include Swenson's Barn and Fredrickson's Place.

Day 3
Move camp to the east side of the Island.  One of my college professors told me about a hill covered in strawberries near the school house, I thought it would be great to have some fresh strawberries while out on the Island with breakfast. 

Day 4
Hike back to the boat dock for the ferry ride back to the main land.  Have lunch at the Village Shanty Cheese Shop which I heard had amazing sandwiches, and then drive back home.

Our main goal for this trip was to get away from people to some relaxing peace and quiet.  We wanted to explore the north half of the Island and leave the south side for another trip.  What I really wanted was to see the stars without any light pollution from the main land, I've only been able to experience that once on a sailing trip on Lake Superior and couldn't wait to do it again.

Hike to Day 1