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