North Manitou Island hiking date

I realized I never wrote much about my recent hiking date with my Hubby.

Well, we just... hiked. It was really hot and humid, and we did a lot of bushwhacking and a lot of sweating and some swimming in Lake Michigan to "get clean" and cool off. It was a really nice time, though. We needed some "us" time pretty badly. Thanks to my mom for watching the boys for us.

Here are a few photos. Just a random glimpse into the 4 days, 3 nights we were there.

This is not a random shot of woods. THIS, my friends, is what my husband calls a trail. It WAS a trail... in the 40s. If you look closely, you can see him up ahead, through the trees. He loves to seek out old, overgrown trails out there. We've found some pretty neat stuff doing that.



Some neat old trucks from the logging days, left to rust in peace in the woods near the Stormer camp





Beautiful Lake Michigan views abound while hiking on the island, from up on the cliff to down on the beach





The sunsets on the west wide are nothing short of spectacular





Lake Manitou, a little inland lake on the island



The ruins left behind where the Carlsons once had a place



This is the same Carlson family line that still has a fish shop in Leland's Fishtown



I don't think I've ever been to North Manitou and NOT seen a Petoskey stone



I always find a lot of different-colored beach glass too



This awesome lake view is from a super sacred secret spot on the west side beach



We always end the last day of hiking by climbing to a high point on the island and hiking through the treetops along what we call the Manitou Escarpment. This is the site of an old survey marker from the 1800s.





There are a lot of abandoned houses falling to ruins in the village area of the island. People used to live here. Not anymore.



A neat shot looking in through the window of one of the old houses.



Seagull frenzy on the beach near the ranger station



We had rough seas going back to the mainland, and shared the boat with a bunch of campers from a camp called Tamarack. I have never seen so many seasick people in my life. Hubby and I were inside the boat, but we vacated our seats when a pukefest began. We opted to head out to the bow, where we found more seasick kids sprawled everywhere, moaning and looking green. Not exactly a pleasant way to end the hiking trip. We couldn't wait to get off the boat. The funny thing is, it wasn't THAT bad! We've come back from Manitou on MUCH worse swells. I think their seasickness, for the most part, was "contagious" and mainly mental.



Anyway, that's that. A nice date with my Hubby followed by a little hotel stay with our kiddies at the Ramada in Grayling. That hotel is getting kind of run down, which is sad, because they have a great one-foot kiddie pool and an indoor playground in addition to a deep pool, hot tub, and games. It seems to get a little worse every time we go, which is too bad.









Oh well! We still managed to have fun!