Back to Tony's Camping Page
It's become all too common for me. I'm maxed out from study and work. I'm a computer programmer / analyst, working overtime while working a few hours at a second job (programming of course), plus going to grad school (computer science), and actively doing my part to help with four kids while my wife is in nursing school.
The end of the semester means getting out to a campground. I don't want to see a CRT, nor touch a keyboard. That's why I've ended up camping in April the last three years.
This semester was bad. I was a little behind on finishing my project when my prof changes his mind on the final. Instead of an in-class final, it's a take-home.
Two weeks of heck, finishing the project and the final. April 23rd comes, I'm typing furiously. In mid-day, we leave and go close on our refinance mortgage. I come back, click clack some more, the kids want to know if I'm done, I'm snapping at them, my word processor dies, I lose a page or so -- argh! I type the page over, I decide it's done. I drive to the university, drop off my project and final about 5PM, about 30 minutes to spare before the deadline and come home. Eat dinner, start packing. We leave the house maybe about 8pm.
Who is we? We is myself, Tony Wesley, 39 years old, and my twin sons, Tom and Tony Wesley, 7 years old. We're going camping and fishing.
The weather is cold for camping. I head north on I-75 while the mercury heads south through the 40s. We listen to the Red Wings on WJR on the way up. Tight game 1st period, 2nd started tight when Winnepeg tied it, but the Wings got going and blow them out. I drive 220 miles to get to Greyling about midnight. We spend the night at the Cedar Motel. I watch the last couple minutes of the game on TV in the motel room. The Wings are definitely going to win the Stanley Cup this year.
Wednesday morning. A light dusting of snow is on the ground. We drive from Greyling to Interlochen State Park. On the drive, we see horses, sheep, cows, and bison. We get to the park, which has over 500 camp sites. We're the only campers there.
I set up camp while the boys ride their new bikes. After I'm set up, they get back and we take a short trail in the park. They ride and I walk as we go over to Green Lake and back. The weather is a little chilly but sunny.
We drive to the Lake Michigan shore at the Platte River outlet. We go down to the shoreline "to see what we could see." We walked up the shore towards one of the big dunes. Later, I found out that this was Empire Bluffs but I didn't know that at the time.
There was snow in the shade of the trees. In places, the sand had drifted over the snow. The sun was still shining bright but the breeze off the lake was cool. Along the way, we saw the remains of a deer in the trees, one who didn't make it through the harsh winter.
The boys wanted to walk up to the dune. We went up the shore perhaps three miles. The dune was further away than we thought. I walked a couple hundred yards further than the boys, who were playing in the sand. When I returned, I found that Tony had gotten his feet and pants wet. I had extra sweaters but not socks. I bundle him up with the extract sweater but he was still cold. He had a bit of a rough time going back. We walked inland a little bit to get out of the cold lake breeze.
The lake and sky were extremely blue. I didn't see any vessels out on the lake. There were steelhead fisherman working the outlet of the river. I talked to some of them. Nobody had caught one.
Along the drive back to camp, we saw wild turkeys on the side of the road at least three times. We saw deer grazing, a group of seven. We stopped and and watched them for a while. Soon saw two more, then three more.
That night was cold and rainy but we were fine. We have good sleeping bags and an electric heater in the tent. Critters came in camp that night, raccoons. They opened the cooler, took two pieces of chicken, and closed the cooler.
Thursday morning. It had rained all night and was still drizzling in the morn. After some breakfast of oatmeal, we drove into the Interlochen music camp. Bigger place than I imagined.
Drove to Empire and went to the Sleeping Bear visitor center. Nice exhibits and a 15-minutes slide show that was excellent. We had the place to ourself. We went into town and had lunch at Joe's Friendly Tavern (recommended by the 'net). Big old fashioned hamburgers. Good ones, too.
We drove north, to the dune climb. On the way, we tried to take the Pierre Stocking scenic drive but it was closed. At the visitor's center, they told us it was opening on Friday. I guess they didn't lie. We got to the dune climb, overlooking Glen Lake. By now, the rain had stopped although the sky was still gray.
It's magnicicant, very scenic. There are two ridges with Glen Lake between them. Coming out of the valley, there is a huge sand dune. We climbed the dune. From the top, the view is spectacular.
The rain had stopped and the boys wanted to go on, following the trail that led further into the dune. So we took the trail. The trail goes up one dune ridge and down it and up another. It seemed to go forever. Each time we crossed a ridge,we thought we'd see Lake Michigan. I talked to them about how they were doing. I explained that we had the winds at our backs and would have to return into the wind, making it harder. They boys wanted to press on and so we did. It started drizzling just a little and we decided to turn back soon if we didn't reach the lake. By now, we could smell the lake and hear the gulls. Then we could hear the waves. Finally we reached the water.
I touched it. The water was cold! The waves were crashing on the beach. Grey clouds scudded along and I thought of the men whose ships had been lost on this water. Not too far from here, the Carl Bradley, only hours away from finishing the shipping season, broke up. I thought of what I've read of the tremendous storm of 1940. Today was nothing compared to those storms, yet I would not want to be on that cold choppy water today.
We turned back, heading into the drizzle. It had been getting a little worse and we were going into the wind. We followed our tracks in the sand. I'm not sure how long it it had been since someone had walked the trail. More than a day I guessed, since ours were the only distinct tracks.
As we headed back, the wind continued to increase and the rain came harder. Tom had his parka with the hood up. I put an adult-sized rain jacket on Tony. We were getting pretty wet. I noticed a sign post that showed we had a mile to go to get back to the trail head. Tony was lagging and Tom was getting a little ahead. I was walking with Tony, holding his hand, and offering encouragement. After a while, I started walking in front of him, to act as his wind break.
At first, Tom would wait up for us and rest a bit, then start walking when we caught up to him. Later, he just kept walking. He was getting farther ahead. After he crested a ridge, I wouldn't see him until Tony and I crossed the ridge. I was worried about him getting off the trail. The weather continued to deteriorate, the rain turning to sleet. Due to the rain, I had taken my glasses off. I would wipe them and put them on, but due to the heavy precipitation, my glasses were useless, With my glasses off, I have poor vision, worse than 20-400 in both eyes.
I don't want to make it sound too bad. The trail was fairly easy to follow. I was however, increasingly worried about Tom taking a "short cut" and going off the trail when he was out of my sight. The temperature was in the upper 30's, it was windy and sleeting. Even though we were dressed warm, I was concerned about hypothermia. Finally, I crossed one ridge and Tom was not in sight, having already rounded a sand hill ahead. In order to make up time, I picked up Tony and ran the rest of the way.
Like heck I did. I tried, but running on sand while carrying an extra 55 pounds of kid and a few more pounds of gear while wearing wet cloths was too much for me. After a very short while we slowed to a walk, but that was still faster than Tony's walking pace. A while further, with Tom back in sight, I put Tony down and he was able to pick the pace a little, having rested.
Soon, we were at the top of the dune looking down on our van. The kids wanted to run and roll down the hill. I knew they were going to make an absolute mess of themselves in the wet sand, but they had earned it. I let them and they did. When we got to the van, I brushed them off as best as I could before getting into the van.
We headed north, to the old Coast Guard station. However, it was still closed for the season. It's still raining. I offer the boys a chance to walk around the station but they say no.
We head north, up the Lelanau peninsula. The town of Leland appears and there is a sign pointing to the town museum and library. I turn the van that way. The museum is closed but the library is open. We spend about an hour there leafing through some picture books of Michigan and the Sleeping Bear Dunes and then it's back on the road. We just wanted to get out of the van for a while and dry off for a bit.
On our right, Lake Leland is still partially iced over. It's been a long cold winter. I thought about driving up to the tip of the Lelanau peninsula but the visibility was poor and we were tired of the drive. I turned east to the shore of Grand Traverse Bay and from there, headed south to Traverse City.
In TC, we ate dinner at Cousin Jenny's, another recommendation from the net. It was late in the day and the selection of pasties was not great but we still enjoyed them.
Back to the campground. The rain let up and we had a couple hours of sunshine and tolerably warm weather. The boys and I played an energetic game of soccer.
Friday. Morning was cold. I got out of the tent and started heating up water for coffee and oatmeal. I bent over and a mule kicked me in the lower back, on the right side. At least that's what it felt like. I could barely stand up and it was intolerable to turn my head to the right.
I don't know if that was from the soccer game or carrying Tony during the dune climb. Or sleeping in a tent in below-freezing weather. Whatever the cause, it hurt. I took lots of ibuprofen and we got through breakfast.
We went into town and from there, to the Denos museum at Northern Michigan University. There is a kids area with lots of neat hands-on stuff. I highly recommend it. There were lots of interactive exhibits.
Afterwards, we drove up Mission peninsula. The scenery is awesome. It was clear, although very windy and cold, near the freezing point. At the the lighthouse at the tip, the kids didn't get out of the van. I did, for about 30 seconds. Brrr!
My back was killing me, making it very tough to drive. We drove back to the campground. It warmed up some and the wind thankfully died. The weather got a little better. I laid down for a while while the kids played at the playground, rode their bikes, and read.
Towards evening, we head into Empire, back to Joe's Friendly Tavern and have dinner while watching the Red Wings on TV. Winnepeg gives the Wings a tough time.
Saturday, the weather is finally decent. In the low 40's at least, sunny and not much wind. Great weather for a trail!
After breakfast, I load up the bikes and we head to Lost Lake Nature Pathway, a 5.5 mile loop. I found it very scenic, the stark contrast of the bare trees with the evergreens. Along the way, another dead deer provides more evidence that it has been a rough winter. There is still plenty of snow in the shady areas.
The trails starts near Lake Dubonnet. This lake was either created by or expand by a man-made dam. Back in the trail, about mid-point, we find the small lake that givs the trails its name, Lost Lake. We enjoy it very much, not being in constant battle with the weather.
After that, we head out to the Pierre Stocking drive that we couldn't take before. I can't begin to do justice to the incredible views of sand and water. I begin to appreciate the size of the great lakes when, standing over 400 feet above lake level, I can't see across the narrow width of Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. It's not limited visibility, the Earth curves too much to see across.
If you go there, get out and walk around. Don't just drive through. Stop and look. There are dramatic changes in the habitat in just short distances.
We come back and try our hand at fishing at Lake Dubonnet. No luck. We talk to some of the locals and no one is getting a bite anywhere. The low pressure system has put the fish into hiding. At least we got the fishing poles out! "Trout fishing" is the official excuse for going camping in April.
Sunday, we drive home, but stop near Clare. We take a 2.5 mile hike along the Green Pine Lake Pathway. The weather is great! It's sunny, nearly 50 and we are happy campers.
Looking back, there's lots that I left out, but perhaps more detail would just obscure the mood. It was tough, it was fun, and we all want to do it again.
Any comments or questions are welcome, via electronic mail.
Tony Wesley, tony@tonywesley.com
Last Updated: May 11, 2000