Oct 21, 2008
North Manitou Island, the larger of the two islands, is a designated wilderness area. The only real way to reach it if you are not a serious paddler yourself, and the paddle from the mainland to the island should not be under-estimated as Lake Michigan is a serious body of water worthy of considerable respect, is via the Manitou Island Transit Ferry. Today the very full ferry made the hour long crossing on fairly smooth seas, but for some the ride was not quite smooth enough and I am sure they felt an even greater sense of joy upon reaching the dock at the old village remains, the one small bit on non-wilderness designated area, on North Manitou Island. The real trip would begin at this point, just around noon, on a glorious summer day.
We planned to stay somewhere near Swenson's Barn which is located on the northwestern shore of the island. A direct hike, across the island center and then north, to the region we wanted to visit is just a few miles. With that in mind our group would split up with the bulk of it trekking down the unmaintained trail that winds through the "potholes" to an overlook above Lake Michigan. At that point we would divide once more with one group retracing their steps and hiking to the camping area we had settled upon while the others, including myself, would take the more round-about trek walking along the beach to the same location. Even the longest trek, the around the beach version, was probably only about 8 or so miles of easy hiking. Easy and lovely.
Our campsite was, and I've stayed at several on North Manitou, superb. We had easy access to the lovely fresh waters of Lake Michigan and there was so much room that had their been others around we could have easily been spaced far enough apart so as not to notice them. If only the bugs hadn't pestered us the night would have been perfect.
Sites of Interest
The National Park Service site for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is at www.nps.gov/slbe. Information for North Manitou can be found here. I have also written about previous trips I have taken to both the mainland portion of Sleeping Bear Dunes and North Manitou Island and you can find those journals on my main website.
Photos
Additional photos can be found at A Wandering Knight. (direct link)
Music
Music came from The Podsafe Music Network by Artist Hello Dave with Michigan and from the group Falling You with their song Tribe which can be found at Magnatune.
Most of you have probably already downloaded this episode via iTunes and perhaps have noticed the wavering audio quality. That\'s entirely my fault. I think what happeend was the file got compressed and then accidentally the compressed file was re-compressed. I\'ve uploaded a new verison that should sound better if you care to download that one instead.