Day: June 12, 2020

A night full or wind and rain, mostly restful.  Wind so strong that It seemed as though the tent would lift off from the ground at times!  Luckily, or skillfully, Brianna and I assembled it properly tight such that nothing helicoptered off into the night or collapsed in on us.  

We fell asleep to a mixture or storm and our neighbors watching what sounded like a kung fu movie.  First people we have seen on the trail in a few days and it turned out to be a sweet old couple in Motor home, Jeep in tow.  They come out to Timber Creek trailhead for about a week every year.  Not only is Timber Creek a trailhead for hiking, but it’s also a trailhead for jeeps to off-road.  It makes sense, we cross over four wheeler / Jeep trails every few miles.

It took a few turns of our internal ignition keys but we finally made it out of the tent and into our normal routines around 0630.  We needed to make good time today, every mile could get in meant one less mile to do tomorrow.  So naturally, we hiked the first seven miles of the day by 1100 and then took a three hour break.  We came across a sweet remote camping site @ Bowman Lake and were more than ready for a lunch break.  The tent was went from the storms so we needed to set it up for drying out… then, once it was dry, we napped for a couple hours.  Pretty sweet little afternoon.  

The day ended up with 13ish trail miles, even with the extended break.  And to clarify, trail miles are miles that count on the map, not the amount of walking we actually do in a day.  There is probably about 1/4 mile of non trail walking per actual trail mile.  These non-trail miles can be from getting lost, exploring side trails, wondering off to poop; use your imagination.

Our camp for the night was planned to be under the red pines next to a creek.  We did make it here, just had another hasty setup as a random thunderstorm popped up almost immediately after our arrival.  Dusk is coming soon and I’m excited to hear what sounds this part of the forest will be bringing our way this chillier than normal eve.  

Tomorrow is our 10 year anniversary and have plans to meet up with family at Walkup Lake Campgrounds!  Until then, happy trails!

Slugs were slimming around the outside of the tent in every direction our blurry eyes could see this morning.  I’m not sure if slugs and pine trees go together, or if was the colder temperatures, but this was our first time encountering an army of shelless snails.  

The mornings where we are dispersed camping are always a bit more chaotic than when we are at established campgrounds.  There are no tables or flat surfaces.  There are no clean places to set gear while you organize the pack unless you get it all done while still in the tent. Do you pack out the tent and then make coffee or make the coffee before packing out the tent?  Life decisions on the trail, let me tell ya what.

Today was pretty much a dead on sprint to the finish line of Walkup Lake Campground.  Penny and Shauna were due to meet us there with a buffet of trail magic food; they did not disappoint.  Brianna has two basic speeds of hiking.  Her normal pace, which is pretty fast, or the lunch/dinner shuffle, which is even more fast.  With today being a buffet shuffle, you can imagine at what quick pace that might have been.

The most notable part of today’s trail were the wetlands.  Trails led through at least five miles of nothing but wetlands.  A quarter of that five miles was wooden walking bridges and stepping logs joined together by planks on the top.  Not an easy area to Brianna shuffle on.  Even at the higher speed, I do feel like we took the time to appreciate the uniquely valuable area it is.  A sign on both ends of the wetlands is quick to remind you that: “Over half of Michigan’s wetlands have been filled or drained since 1850.  I’m guessing that made a few people a bunch of money.  I wish this made me feel like the other 50% are safe.

Brianna has not made a single wrong turn the entire time we’ve been on the trail… until today.  Instead of going straight down the path, where it was clearly marked, she takes a left down a rather steep hill.  The map said we still had a half mile left before hitting a road and doing a road walk to the campgrounds.  Nowhere on the map did this side trail even exist, and yet, Brianna unknowingly takes a wrong turn the led directly to Shauna and Penny.  Mother Daughter bond or fat girl intuition?  I’ll let you be the judge.

Shauna and Penny were able to snag one of the two best camping spots on the grounds.  There were about ten other camping spots up the hill, only two by the lake.  The spots on the hill were fine but that’s also where all the people were.  There were kids, dogs, yelling parents and generators; we couldn’t hear any of that down by the lake.  And these federal campgrounds are only $10 a night.  How did we not know about all these before now?

The day and night were more than perfect.  Penny cooked us homemade goulash, we got Shauna’s special pasta salad, and everything else we could’ve imagined.  More things than I can remember to list.  I’ll just say that there was beer and cheesecake. Just when we thought we were full, my buddy Curt shows up with a White Cloud pizza and cheese bread.  We drank by the fire late into the evening before eventually retiring to our tents.

This was a very happy anniversary.