Camping with Dad

We finally pulled it off! I have been trying to go camping with my dad for most of September, and either the weather did not cooperate or we had other plans. But last weekend the weather forecast looked good and we were both available.

So the camper went on the hitch and away we went! The plan was to go up to Port Crescent State Park at the tip of the "thumb," were he and my mom went many times before selling their motorhome a few years ago.

We got up there in good time Friday night and, after some eye-balling of different campsites, picked one out near the lake, relaxed with a little beer, and hit the hay.

Saturday greeted us with hardly a cloud in the sky and remained that way all day. I made some of my low-gluten pancakes (while I don't have celiac disease, my innards don't tolerate very much wheat/gluten), which seemed to go over pretty well with my dad, and we set out for the day. As an aside, if you're interested in trying to reduce or eliminate gluten and want some ideas, send me a message and I will be happy to discuss some of my solutions.

Off to our adventures for the day! We first went to the day use area of Port Crescent.

We stopped in to take a look at Lake Huron, where there are some nice boardwalks along the beach. The water was as calm as it ever gets on a Great Lake. It would have made for good canoeing, but we didn't have a canoe. And with miles of great of hiking in front of us, we were not really searching for ways to entertain ourselves.

 There are some nice trails through a sandy, dry hardwood forest of primarily white, black, and red oaks.

The trees were fairly widely spaced out, allowing quite a bit of sunlight to filter down. The oaks here were just starting to show fall colors, but the maples and aspens in other areas were getting quite brilliant.

 A nice, bright yellow aspen can bee seen standing to the right in the background of this sandy clearing.

We stopped back in at the campground to grill hotdogs over the fire, and realized we had forgotten ketchup or any other condiments. With a little creative thinking we sliced up tomatoes and put some salsa on the 'dogs. They made good enough toppings we really didn't even miss the "normal" toppings.

After lunch we headed out again. We were looking for The Huron County Nature Center & Wilderness Arboretum. My mom and dad had been there a few years ago, and Grace and I stopped in the parking lot while on a bike ride last year. The only problem on this day was that neither one of us knew the name or the location. The rangers at Sleeper State Park were helpful and able to help us find our way. The Huron Arb is a little wetter than the day use area at Port Crescent, more of a mesic hardwood forest. In the back area it it even wet enough for a boardwalk, with the forest being more lowland hardwoods.

On down the trail I saw a garder snake in the underbrush. We tried to catch it, and soon realized that there were two garder snakes, and we were each chasing a different one. My dad caught the one he was chasing, but the other one got away.

We also walked out on the breakwater piers at Caseville and Port Austin. A wedding was just finishing up at the pier in Port Austin, complete with bridesmaid gowns and tuxedos.

Dinner time! If you know the two of us, you know we like to eat. The menu for Saturday night consisted of a flat iron steak, potatoes, and corn on the cob; all cooked on the fire.

 Cooking also gave us some time to relax around the fire, and enjoy a little beer while watching the fire.

After dinner we took a walk around the campground. It initially seemed surprisingly busy for this time of year, but we realized that almost everyone was down by the lake, where we set up, and the rest of the campground was not very full.

Port Crescent has a great beach for watching the sunset, and we made it there just in time to see the sun dip below the horizon.

It was a nice night for a campfire, with the sky an interesting mix of stars, full moon, and fast-moving clouds. We sat around the fire until 11:00 and then called it a night.

Sunday greeted us with some clouds a wind, but the temperature was not bad. We decided to pack up and work our way down the east side of the thumb. The first stop was Eagle Point. The first picture in this post was taken at the Eagle Point parking lot. Grace and I put our canoe in here last fall and paddled to Turnip Rock. It was quite a long way to carry the canoe out to the water last year, and this year the lake level is down another foot or so. You can just see the water on the horizon. I am guessing it is 0.3~0.4 miles from the parking lot.

From where the water starts, there is a long, rocky point that goes out another 0.3~0.4 miles. The water stays very shallow until just past that point, where the waves break on the drop off.

To give perspective, I turned around and took a picture in towards shore from the same place.

I don't have much to add to this picture, other than I like how it turned out.

From there we went through Grindstone City, which, not surprisingly, was named after the industry that started the town. There are quite a few large grindstones throughout town for decoration. And despite what the linked article says about it being a ghost town, there seems to be quite a few people living in there.

A short drive down the road is the Pointe Aux Barques lighthouse. There was wait of 20-30 minutes to go up in the lighthouse, so we just looked at the museum, walked down to the water, and moved on.

Our last stop of the day was at Four Mile Park. It initially looked like simply a roadside pull off with a nice view of Lake Huron from on a bluff.

As we were pulling out we saw some stairs leading down to the lake, but we didn't stop since we were already moving.

The next stop was in my driveway. Overall we had a great weekend, and could not have asked for the weather to be much better.