Lower Peninsula Michigan: Prologue, June 2022 | |
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Come and listen to a story ‘bout a man named Jed
Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed
Then one day he was shooting at some food
And up from the ground comes a bubbling crude
Well the first thing you know old Jed’s a millionaire
Kin folk said Jed move away from there
Said Michigan’s LP is the place you oughtta be
So we loaded up the RV and drove to the LP
--Legend of Jed Clampett - slightly revisited
Just before we left for our trip to the northern tip of Michigan’s lower peninsula we came across this piece of junk art. I thought it was a perfect kick-off photo for our trip.
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My sister and brother-in-law, Diane and Heinrich, from Germany, are coming to Wisconsin for a two-month visit starting in July. It is our intention to sneak in a short exploratory venture before they come. I had never been to Upper Lower Michigan. I like saying that. Upper Lower Michigan is not to be confused with the UP, or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is a separate body of land. We spent the Fall of 2020 exploring the UP and loved it.
For the sake of brevity, I’ll call the area below the UP, the Lower Peninsula or LP. Hooked together, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron drape over the entire LP of Michigan. I love the maritime feel of Door County in Wisconsin, and I have been told that the Traverse City area of the northern LP is similar. It seemed like the perfect time to scoot over to see what the northern LP is all about.
To prepare for the trip, I booked most of our campsites online. We are trying something new on this trip. Last year we joined the Harvest Host (HH) organization. As members, we can stay for free at craft wineries, breweries, some organic farms, and even a local museum here and there. Of course, you are expected to buy a product or two sold at each establishment that you stay at. I thought a bottle of wine or a couple of craft beers would be worth it. However, we never used it because it doesn’t fit our style of “hub-and-spoke” camping. We like to base camp for few days in an interesting area and take daily trips in all different directions to explore. HH has a one day limit and the hosts kind of expect you to schmooze with them.
Recently, HH teamed up with Boondockers Welcome (BW). BW hosts are private home owners that have a little extra space that an RV can fit in. They allow you stay at their place for up to five days. It is free and often it is pure boondocking - no hookups. Some BW hosts can throw you an extension cord and as long as you don’t run an air conditioner all day, you can offer $5 or $10 for the effort.
So, even though we didn’t use our HH membership last year, we re-upped for another year to give BW a try. This will be our maiden voyage utilizing BW.
BW has an intuitive online booking system. Each host posts the days on a calendar that they would be willing to host boondockers. Campers just request the days that they would like to stay. If the hosts accepts your request, you are sent a confirmation.
We have confirmed stays with three different BW hosts in the northern LP for a total of six days. I tried to book a couple more BW places, however they never approved or disapproved. My requests stayed in a "pending" limbo. After a while, I cancelled my requests and looked elsewhere.
There are lots of tiny towns and villages in the northern LP and just about everyone has a town campground. I found a City RV Park in Central Lake and reserved 6 days. Central Lake is smack dab in the middle of the Traverse City territory that we want to explore. The location is perfect. The price, at $27 with electricity, was a tad high, but there were showers, a boat landing, a dump station, and water - the whole nine yards.
I found a couple more spots here and there to fill the gaps in our calendar. As usual for summer, weekdays were easier to reserve than weekends. At present, I have just one 3-day stretch to find. I will worry about that later.
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Our supper the night before leaving on our trip. When we were at a restaurant in San Pancho, Mexico, we ordered a plate of wood-fired veggies. It was so yummy that I had to recreate the dish. Here is my attempt. We have a Traeger pellet grill. One of the settings is smoke. It does produce a fog bank of smoke that meats love to absorb, but would veggies absorb the flavoring? Seems they do! | |
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Veggies used: carrots, corn on the cob, baby red potatoes, orange and yellow peppers, wild asparagus (from the side of our road), big chunks of roma tomatoes, baby portobello mushrooms, and large green onion bulbs.
I semi-steamed the veggies to partially soften them (not the tomatoes or portobellos). Then I inserted them into a large baggie with olive oil, melted butter, a little smoked paprika, and a whack of other grilling spices, and let it all marinate for a couple of hours. After marinating, I put them on the grill and let them smoke for a good 30 minutes. Finally, I kicked the grill up to high and let them bake until the veggie's edges began to brown.
So, did it work? You bet it did. The veggies almost tasted as good as steak. It was crazy good. A great sendoff for our trip. I am seriously thinking about buying a portable pellet grill to take with us on our trips. The only downside is the time it takes to prepare.
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St. Germain: Saturday and Sunday, June 4 & 5, 2022
As a prelude to our trip, on Saturday afternoon we drove up to St. Germain. Diane and Heinrich have a summer place in a peaceful heavily-wooded subdivision about a mile from St. Germain, Wisconsin. We opened up the place and got it semi-ready for when they arrive in July. My other sister, Donna, also has a cottage in the area. Donna, her husband, John, her two daughters, Kack and Mo, and her granddaughter, KK, were up there. I also have a couple of snow-bird friends, Jeff and Teri, that live on a lake near Minocqua, Wisconsin, in the summer. Jeff and Teri have a winter house in Bucerias, Mexico. Jeff is a musician, and he plays in both Bucerias and Minocqua. I occasionally join in.
So, our trip kick-off turned into a giant visit-fest. The weather was marginal so we probably would not have gotten a lot of hiking, biking, or boating in anyway. We are leaving all of that to the actual trip.
Oh yeah, like lemmings jumping off a cliff, we went to see Top Gun at the Vilas Theater in Eagle River. The story line was predictable, and Tom Cruise made sure he was the center attraction. However, the cinematography was sheer eye candy and worth the experience. The Vilas Theater was a pleasant surprise. The ticket price, at $6, was reasonable. The popcorn sizes, ranging from tub, to huge tub, to bathtub, were cheap, starting at $2. And they sold wine and beer, also at reasonable prices. NICE!!
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We set up camp in the driveway of my sister's place in St. Germain. | |
My sister, Donna, nursing her sprained wrist. | |
KK driving the golf cart to the beach. | |
Don't worry - no animals were harmed in taking this photo. During our visit at Jeff and Teri's cottage, this turtle just wandered up to the front porch. One of their five cats came over for a sniff. We quickly took the turtle to the beach area and he promptly slid into the water and swam away. | |
Eagle River is a typical north-woods tourist town - two fudge shops, a gourmet popcorn shop, souvenir and trinket shops, two outfitters, etc. One of Eagle River's two original theaters, the Vilas, is still operating (sorry, no photo of the historic Vilas Theater - what was I thinking?). We saw Top Gun at the Vilas. | |
I am a sucker for junk art. | |
If this fish post doesn't scream north-woods I wouldn't know what would. | |
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Little Bay de Noc: Monday, June 6, 2022
OK, back to the actual trip starting on Monday, June 6. The Northern LP area is about 350 miles from St. Germain. We decided to break that up into a two-day drive. Today, we drove the first 150 miles to Little Bay de Noc National Campground. Despite its name, Little Bay de Noc is a large Lake Michigan bay. Our campground is across the bay from Escanaba, Michigan, separated by a good 10 miles of water.
The entire drive was cold, and either rainy or sprinkly. As long as the weather sucked, we didn’t feel the need to race to the campsite. We stopped off at Escanaba’s Library to take advantage of the library’s blazing WiFi for a couple of hours.
On the way out of town, we stopped off at Grandma’s Pasty Shop. We enjoyed their beef, rutabaga, and carrot pasties the last time we visited Escanaba. Since Grandma was on our way out of town, we stopped to indulge once more. They were great.
The sun was starting to peek out when we finally reached our campsite. We didn’t bother unhitching as the plan is to take off at first light in the morning. We have another 200 miles to travel tomorrow.
The campground is quite large and we were able to invest 4.25 miles of hiking before settling in for the night.
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Grandma's pasty with a small cup of gravy. | |
Our campsite at Little Bay de Noc National Campground was waiting for us. The normal rate was $22 with no hookups. With our senior pass, it was $11, but they tack on another $8 to reserve online. Many campgrounds do this and it kind of burns me. They make a campground reservation-only, then charge you to reserve. And they have the audacity to call it a “convenience” charge. It’s a “no choice, pal” charge. | |
National campgrounds usually have tons of room. | |
The roads and trails in the park are heavily wooded. | |
Below are scenes from the trail. | |
Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum. | | | | |
