Days 139/140, June 15-16, South Manitou Island, Sleeping Bear Nat’l Lakeshore

 

Lake Superior is gorgeous in the summer sunshine. She’s so massive that she experiences tides, though not lunar tides as our oceans do. Her tides come from high vs low pressures pushing water about and/or south blowing squalls pushing water down lake. As well, she has no salt. Nor sharks. 

We spent Wednesday morning hiking to Sleeping Bear Point to overlook the massive sand dunes, the lake, and her islands, then spent an hour on a scenic drive through the densely forested park to various overlooks.

By afternoon, we’d boarded a small cruise ship for transport to South Manitou Island, passing lighthouses along the way, to backpack a handful of miles to a camp site set high on a bluff over the beach, there to spend one night. 

South Manitou Island, a 90-min boat ride off shore from Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, proved to be yet another unexpected delight. An evening walk took me from one end to the other past the remains of a shipwreck and through an old-growth grove of majestic cedars. Later, we lounged in camp listening to the pounding surf as a wind came up on this extremely temperamental lake. We climbed into our oh-so-cozy hammocks just as the rain began and listened to the surf pounding the beach below and thunderstorms rolling over the island, one particular clap so loud I felt it directly on top of us.

Morning dawned clear and sunny but windy. So windy in fact that for the first time in the rangers memory, our cruise ship cancelled both calls to the island, leaving us stranded. Having brought only enough food for one day & night, we raided the “Stranded Camper Food Box” (cast off junk from past campers) but still came up short and so rationed our meals. After multiple calls to realign upcoming reservations, we hiked the rest of the island to see old defunct farms and orchards, a one-room schoolhouse, and a cemetery. The island thrived as productive farms sprang up during the 1860’s free federal land giveaway. But by 1950, commercial ships discontinued trips to the island, and the communities died. Because 150 day trippers were unable to ply their way to tour the island, and there were only about 30 others who were marooned with us, we had our run of the island and even pulled off a personal tour through the lighthouse and keeper’s home. It turned out to be a lovely quiet day of solitude on a windy sun-drenched island. I can think of many places much less ideal to be stranded. 

Three amazing things:                                                              1- From a high vantage point, the water takes on an unexpected azure blue akin to the waters of the Caribbean.  I’m more enchanted with The Great Lakes than I was prepared for.

2- The Great Lakes are to be respected and revered. Shipwrecks abound in these waters for good reason. I’m everlastingly grateful we weren’t one of them. That evening storm and those daytime winds/waves were awesomely wicked!

3- I’ve not had the exciting pleasure of being marooned on an island before. It was kinda cool!

 Good deeds: The rednecks behind us in line at the convenience store, looking for all the world like they could be homeless except they were too happy and mentally well to be so, were super excited about their orange slushies, telling us how they’re the best and how they’re addicted to them. So I stealthily paid for them when it was my turn at the til, then left quickly before they could catch us. But pulling out of the parking lot they were all smiles and enthusiastic waves to us, thrilled as clams. Ha!

But Aaron pulled the best one ever. While waiting to board the boat to South Manitou Island, a somewhat older, over weight backpacker slung his huge overpacked satchel   around to his back, knocking off two mugs for sale from the table of a merchant. Setting the bag down, he went inside with the shards, then headed towards his truck to retrieve his wallet to pay for the damages. Aaron quickly scooped in, paid for the broken mugs, and swore the shopkeeper to secrecy. Well done, Kasper! Woot, woot!