Manistee National Forest with Michiana Jeep Club

The past weekend Michiana Overlanders Facebook group I’m a part of, was invited by the Michiana Jeep Club for a weekend trip to the Manistee NF area. I have driven through the area before but have never taken the time to explore.

My daughter, Camryn and I, took our time getting to the campground on Friday. Along the way we drove through many small towns along the Lake Michigan coast. We saw the beautiful downtown of Holland, the swing bridge in Grand Haven pasted through Muskegon and found some trails in the Manistee NF. We were looking for potential campsites and just general exploring the forest. From there we heading on up route 37 to Coolwater Campground

Trails in Manistee NF

Two of us from Michiana Overlanders made the trip north. Bryan, his family and my daughter and I, shared a campsite at Coolwater Campground. The campground was nice and well maintained. There is a hiking trail that leads to the river and ponds for kayaking or fishing. On this trail there is also some nice overlooks of the river.

Saturday morning we left the campground and headed to Dublin General Store located in Dublin, Michigan. There they have a huge selection of jerky, along with a hardware / grocery store. Camryn and I decided against the alligator or the rabbit and just stick to the “Original”. I can see why the place is known for their jerky. It was delicious.

Storefront of Dublin General Store

Photo from https://www.dublinstore.com

After many of the Jeeps filled their tanks we hit the trails. We found our way to Hodenpyl Dam. We drive the trails south west along the Manistee River stopping for lunch at Government Landing. Government landing has a boat ramp along with a few campsites at the edge of the Manistee river.

After chatting with the members of the Jeep club we mounted up and continued down the trails. We were headed to a couple of small waterfalls. After a couple of missed turns we finally found the trail head for the short hike to the water falls. The falls were small but pretty. It is always nice to hear water falling. It has to be one of the best sounds nature has to offer.

After some time of driving the trails we ended up at a BP gas station in Mesick. A few of the Jeeps topped off with gas. Camryn and I elected to get some ice cream, since we had plenty of gas. We then headed north east of Mesick to the Pere Marquette State Forest. There we followed the two track trail though the woods catching occasional views of the Manistee river. There were a couple of logs that needed cleared from the trail. With the help from the other Jeeps we made short work of it and we were quickly proceeding down the trail. It was starting to get later in the day, and some of the Jeeps peeled off and headed back to camp. We were leading the group down the trail and made the decision to head back towards camp. Camryn was navigating, so I had her find us a route back to camp. We arrived back at camp about 7:00 after being on the trail for nearly 10 hours and going for nearly 144 miles

We made ourselves some supper consisting of “Fugi Pies” This is what we call using the pie irons and making “pizza pockets”. We layer in cheese, sauce and pepperoni on a couple of slices of buttered bread in a cast iron sandwich maker to make a wonderful supper.

Afterwards we walked down to the Michiana Jeep Club group camp site and talked about the days trails. It seemed to be a good day by all.

Sunday morning we slept in til mid morning. With the temperatures in the mid 40’s at night it made for great sleeping weather. We proceeded to pack up the roof top tent, have a little for breakfast and head for home.

We pulled out of the campsite about 10:30am. We stopped at an Orvis Flyfishing shop. I didn’t realize how popular fishing is around Baldwin. The Pere Marquette River is very good trout fishery. Camryn and I proceeded to head south avoiding interstates. We explored more trails. We winched a log out of the way. Found some dead end trails and had to turn around. We stopped at Walkup Lake Campground NF campground for lunch. It was a nice quiet place with a few campers still there. We were sure to mark the location Gaia GPS for a possible future site to camp.

Camryn and I had a good trip. We met some very nice families and saw more of God’s beautiful country. I know for certain that will be spending more time in the Baldwin / Caddallic area in the future. From camping, to off roading, from fishing, to hiking, there is a host of things to do in the area.

Memorial Day Weekend Trip

Something I’ve always wanted to do is to drive completely around Lake Michigan. I don’t know why just thought it would be neat to do. So I asked my wife, Nicole if she wanted to take an overloading trip around Lake Michigan. She agreed as long as we could go to a quilt shop in Wisconsin. We also decided to take our dog Baily. She is a Pit bull / Mountain Cur mix. She is just over a year old.

After checking what the hours of the quilt shop were, I decided to leave on Thursday night and visit the quilt shop on Friday. The quilt shop she wanted to go to is called Primitive Gatherings. My wife tells me they also hold some quilting retreats there.

So we headed out of the home base about 16:00 on Thursday evening. Bailey thinks she is my navigator. We arrived at Kettle Moraine State Forest - Pike Lake Unit for a single night stay. We arrived at dark, made some quick tacos with some precooked chicken then crawled into the tent. Friday morning we ate a quick breakfast of a cheese danish, healthy I know, then headed to Primitive Gatherings, a quilt shop located in Larsen, Wisconsin. It was a quaint little shop in a beautiful building.

From there we headed north and east through Green Bay, stopping for fuel and lunch then proceeded to Hiawatha NF. We were searching for a campsite for the night and stumbled upon Little Bay De Noc Campground. We set up camp at a beautiful site campsite on Little Bay De Doc of Lake Michigan. We made some dinner and watched an amazing sunset.

Saturday morning we woke up to a cold 37 degrees. It did warm up quickly as I made breakfast burritos. We had camp broke down about 9:30 and was on the road. We had a plan to head to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Munising, Michigan. It was about a 75 min drive to get there. We purchased a national park pass and proceeded to hike to Munising Falls. The falls were nice and it was nice to stretch our legs from the driving. We also checked out Sand Point. I walked into the water and I think my feet were numb in about 15 seconds. Lake Superior is very cold. Bailey wasn’t too keen on it either

We then headed to Miners Castle. We had a quick sandwich and some fruit then took the short hike to the Miners Castle Overlook. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a very pretty place. The water looks amazing and it is so blue. The rock formations along the lake were beautiful. We didn’t hike very much as many areas are closed to dogs on the trails. I have spoke with others that have been there and they have said the boat tours and kayak tours provide great views of the shore but since we had our K-9 Bailey we elected not to do the boat tours.

We were hoping to dispersed camp along Lake Superior for the night. As we were driving east along we were searching for a place to camp. We check a few spots in Hiawatha NF and many places were closed or didn’t allow camping. The places in the forest we did consider were so infested with mosquitoes, that we would have to stake the Jeep down to keep from being carried away. The mosquitos were huge and hungry. Bailey’s belly was bumps all over her where she was battling the little buzzards. Instead, Nicole found Straits State Park, in St. Ignace had a cancelation We were about 45 mins away and would head there for the night.

The park was full, as to be expected on a holiday weekend. Straits State Park is a great park to have spectacular views of the Mackinaw Bridge. We had “Fugi Pies” for dinner. Fugi pies are simply “pies” made in the sandwich makers or pie irons. For this evening we made our with bread, pizza sauce, pepperoni, sausage, and mozzarella cheese. After dinner I spent some time down on the beach gazing at the huge bridge. It really is a site to see.

We had a lazy day on Sunday waking up. We weren’t in any real hurry since we had no where to go. Those really are the best trips when God sets the schedule. I knew I wanted to get some fudge before leaving town. We packed up camp and crossed the “Big Mack” and pulled off on an exit in Mackinaw City. We browsed through one of the many shops, purchased fudge and started the drive south. I also wanted to drive through Wolverine. My grandparents spent many days camping there in the spring when they would hunt for morels. I spend a long weekend camping with them when I was kid and wanted to see if I could find where we camped and some of the paths we took when I hunted with them. I remembered some of the details my grandfather told be to find “Weber Lake Campground”. It was reminiscent to think back spending the weekend camping with my grand parents.

From the Weber Lake Campground we drove back roads and trails in the direction of Traverse City. I have never been through Traverse City and wanted to see it. Traverse City has as gorgeous down town. Those involved in the night life scene it looks to be pretty active with all the bars, pubs, and restaurants. We kept heading south. We stopped for lunch and knowing it was Memorial Day weekend and the way the bugs were we weren’t to keep on dispersed camping in the NF. We considered that if we did camp we would just throw up the tent and crawl in the tent to avoid the mosquitoes, midges, and black flies. That wouldn’t be very fun to just sit in the tent. We made the call to just drive it on home.

Overall it was a good trip. We logged 1250 miles, we saw a lot go God’s beautiful country, we had some very good meals and I checked another item off the bucket list.