North Manitou Island

Did a little backpacking last week with Nick on North Manitou Island.  The island, and its aptly named brother, South Manitou Island, are located in the northeastern end of Lake Michigan.  I've been to both islands several times, with South Manitou being one of the first places I ever backpacked.

The islands are technically a part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which seems to be better known for its mainland attractions.  I prefer the islands.  Anyway, access to North Manitou is via ferry, and once on the island, you're generally free to roam and camp as you please.  Some photos:

A smaller dune area on the southwest side. North Manitou Island is relatively small for a backpacking destination, but does offer about 30 miles of trail hiking and 20 miles of shoreline hiking. We generally stayed close to the lake on this trip and explored the vast majority of the island's perimeter.

Crescent Dock ruins on an overcast morning.  North Manitou Island was settled to an extent over a hundred some years ago, with evidence of such scattered throughout the area. Besides various dock remnants, there are abandoned houses, orchards, a random barn, and even a cemetery.

A surprisingly well-preserved crawfish exoskeleton. The remains of a molt? Or maybe not. Either way, it was the honorary third member of our group at the second campsite.

Northeast side sunrise. I was up and about for a bit that morning due to a nearby crow that sounded like it was cawing directly into my ear.  Took this photo after shooing the thing away.

Keeping an eye on the angry looking clouds. We were a bit concerned, considering we left our rain gear at home, but thankfully all we got was a little drizzle and a lot of wind.

On a foredune near the Old Stormer Dock ruins on the southeast side.  Despite the earlier threatening weather, it cleared up nicely by the end of the day, allowing for some solid beach time.

North Manitou Island + backpacking = good times.

Getting Ready

So I've spent the last two weeks getting ready to go backpacking up at Pictured Rocks with Nickbot. It's pretty much guaranteed to be a good time. There isn't much planning involved since the park consists of essentially one long trail running along the lakeshore, but obviously I still do my routine gear check/maintenance (which is pretty fun). This time, among other things, I've patched up my old Therm-a-rest (the one I didn't lose down the Colorado River), repaired my aging two-man tent, re-ironed the DWR on my rain paints, loaded campsite coordinates on my GPS, and polished my titanium spoons. I'm excited.


Scan of a 35mm taken with an OM-4. Me, a North Manitou Island beach, around 2006? I guess I was feeling nostalgic that year since I used film, although I have since misplaced the original negative and given away the camera. Ah well.

Another Day...

...another scan:


Standard shot from the Manitou Islands, 7+ years ago? Just used an old Olympus 35mm p&s, and I later developed the film in a homemade changing bag. That really means I duct taped dishwashing gloves onto a garbage bag, turned off the lights in my room, and started pouring chemicals on shit.

I'm off work today because today is Lincoln's birthday, which is a holiday around here. That's cool but today is also Charles Darwin's birthday, so I'm just going to pretend that's the real reason why I have the day off. Go evolution, go.

Some of Me

There really aren't many pictures of me here, so I decided to try to dig a couple up but realized I don't have many of myself taken with my own camera (for obvious reasons). These are ones that Mike took of me from a couple hiking trips from way back in the day. Check them out.


From South Manitou Island, went with Mike and Mark. On one of our days here, we dropped our packs and took a day hike across the island, through a forest of gigantic cedar trees, up and over some vast dunes, and culminating in a lengthy and hurried hike along the beach back to our campsite. Shortly after this photo was taken, I realized I misplaced my favorite headlamp. Since I'm an idiot, I decided to backtrack solo with only a little Maglite. After an hour or so of randomly shining the Maglite around in the dark (the sun had set long ago by now), I somehow found it, completely soaked from the ebbing waves. I started hauling ass back. Our camp was hidden in the forest right off the beach, and since I was exhausted, hungry, and shivering, everything looked pretty much the same. But with some more luck, I somehow figured out where the camp was, made myself dinner, and happily passed out in my tent clutching my headlamp.


This is from one of the hikes I already talked about in a previous post. Great vistas, lots of solitude, and interesting terrain. Despite being one of my less extreme hikes, it was one of my favorites.


Interesting terrain. Half the hike was elevated above the lake by about 50-100 feet, providing lots of opportunities to really soak in the view. The weather took a turn for the worse towards the end of the hike, and you can see the moisture really starting to roll in here, totally washing out the sky. On this hike, Mike and I got lost trying to find our next campsite. Basically, someone (that wasn't me) took way too long do anything, eventually forcing us to hike in the dark and miss a trailhead. Usually I'd just say fuck it and find a place to setup and wait until morning, but this park had designated campsites - no open backcountry camping. Ended up going in circles, but slowly did the math and made it safely to our spot.

Crapping in the Woods is a Survival Skill

Cathy is now the proud owner of a brand spankin new mountain bike. It's a badass matte black Trek, but tactfully and appropriately accented with a bright pink bottle cage. Hot stuff. A photo is likely forthcoming. I think after a few test laps down by the river walk, we'll go log in a couple miles on the Illinois Prairie Path...

Along the same line and more relevant to the post title, with the better weather finally kicking in, I've been thinking a lot about where to go hiking. I've got a short jaunt in Lassen booked at the end of the summer with my brother which should be great fun. In the meantime, I'm throwing around ideas for hitting the AT again, or maybe spending a week in the Porkies (which I've been meaning to go to for years now) up in Michigan. Either way, it is shaping up to be another solo outing and I can't wait.

Well, so far I'm leaning towards Michigan since I've done most of the AT... so here are some old pictures from my various times in the Michigan woods. They were all taken with my trusty p&s Pentax, which I think I dropped in a river on one of these trips.


Standard sunset. When hiking, it's ritualistic to watch the sunset. It's also ritualistic to take a picture of the sunset. But really, when is it not?


Fresh wild blueberries, picked right off the shrub. A nice little bonus while out on the trail, since I'm usually restricted to eating freeze-dried Chili Mac and chalky protein bars. We sorted our harvest by quality, with the best ones towards the top.


Mike, enjoying a view of Lake Superior. We had matching shoes on this hike. We went to a local store literally hours before the hike and bought the last two pairs of what seemed like acceptable hiking shoes. Same shoe, same size, different colors. As a general rule, it's a bad idea to wear brand new shoes on a hike, and this was no exception. They were terrible shoes, and promptly disintegrated after 50 miles of moderate hiking. I'm still not sure why I didn't just wear the ones I brought with me.


Grass. Is that another sunset going on in the background? Is it?


Yep, it is. Check out how the color changed once it hit the horizon. Watched it. Took a picture of it. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. I have more pictures of sunsets than I know what to do with, and although the pictures get boring, watching it never does.