Michigan

June 1-9, 2023

Michigan was a particularly fun trip as we combined camping with visiting friends. We enjoyed being on the road in the van for a few days and staying at friends’ houses. On the way to Michigan, we stayed at the Big Rail Brewing Company in Grove City, PA, our first Harvest Host stay. The brewery was outside and had live music. It was fun being able to drink a few beers, enjoy the festive atmosphere, and then return to the van and for the night.

The next day when we emptied our tanks at a rest stop in Ohio, we realized that the extension for our gray and black tanks had fallen off, and that the lid for our Fantastic Fan had broken. After some searching, we found the necessary parts at different Camping Worlds in the area, allowing us to fix both issues during the trip.

Reconnecting with friends in Ann Arbor and the Lansing area was great. We also ate at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in the area (El Azteco), took a driving tour around East Lansing, and drove by our old house.

Our ultimate destination was Traverse City, where we met a friend who we were going to be camping with at Traverse City State Park, a campground we highly recommend. The bathrooms and showers were clean and convenient, and the campground was quiet, other than an occasional airplane taking off or landing at the nearby airport. Being right across from Grand Traverse Bay and having a bike trail directly behind the campground gave us lots of opportunities to walk and bike the area, including a 20-mile bike ride along the TART trail and Leelenau Trail, with a stop in Traverse City where we walked along Front Street (sampling lot of cherry items at Cherry Republic).

One highlight of the trip was visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes where we hiked to Lake Michigan. While the weather in Ann Arbor was in the high 80s/low 90s, the weather in Traverse City was a wonderful low 70s during the day and 40s-50s at night. The hike to Lake Michigan was 4-5 miles which we did barefoot because it was mostly sand. The lake was freezing cold (around 48 degrees). Later, we drove through some scenic areas and climbed Pyramid Point for a great view of Lake Michigan and the Manitou Islands.

Being surrounded by water meant finding a way to kayak which we did on the Platte River. We rented kayaks from Riverside Canoe’s. The river was beautiful – clear, calm water. After about 2 hours of kayaking, we drove to Frankfurt and had ice cream. Then we drove to Empire – stopping along the way to see some views of Lake Michigan.

Before leaving Traverse City, we headed over to the Boardman Lake Loop Trail. After the 4-mile walk, we drove back to Ann Arbor to our friends there.  We ate at the Detroit Filling Station and then walked around University of Michigan campus, where Top of the Park was going on.

On the way back home, we stayed at another Harvest Host at Lamar Lighthouse Camp in Mill Hall, PA. There was a small fair going on in the adjacent park so we went over and had some French fries. Then we walked up a road to the Northeast Fishery Center in Lamar. As we were walking on path, and it was dusk, we decided to turn around because it seemed likely that there were bears in the woods. As we were walking out, a woman passed us and said she had seen a bear with two cubs the day before.

On the trip home, we needed to dump the tanks so we stopped at Spruce Run State Park in Union County, NJ. We paid $20 to dump which seemed high, but the park was a scenic last stop before heading home.