Camping and Walking

Well, it's been a little while since the last update. I've been pretty busy. One of the things that kept me busy for a long weekend was camping. It was a ton of fun and I wish I could do it again. The cast of characters (in case you don't see them all in the following pictures) were: My friends Anderbra, Reuben, and James; Reuben's brother Derek, and Derek's friends Brian and Ange. So here is a pictoral recollection of the major events of the weekend (before my camera's battery died). I hope it helps you relax as much as it did for me.

First, a tree along the lakeshore. This was in the city of Ludington and the picture turned out surprisingly well given that the car was going 35ish when I took it (and no, I wasn't driving!).

We drove a little further up the highway and into Ludington State Park. Reuben and Anderbra went to check in, and I took the opportunity to get a picture of the lakeshore. Those sand dunes mean we are definitely in the right place.

We checked in and drove to our parking space. We didn't have a campsite in the main area, so we went to the designated parking lot and started to unload. I believe in this picture Reuben is already regretting the fact that we have to carry all this stuff for a mile and a half.

Speaking of a mile and a half...here's what most of it looked like. We probably saw this particular stretch of sand and gravel path 8 or 10 times over the course of the weekend.

Here is Reuben and Anderbra carrying equipment to the campsite (I was carrying stuff too but I put it down to take pictures). I was half of the cooler team for about a half mile until Reuben complained that I was too short and promoted Anderbra to the job.

Anderbra, Reuben and I were the first to arrive. We made one trip with gear and then walked back to the car. James got there about an hourish later, and the four of us made another trip with more stuff. Here is James chopping firewood at our rustic site (no electricity, one water pump for all 10 sites to share).

A couple of hours later the other guys hadn't arrived yet, and we started to get worried / annoyed. Furthermore, none of us had a good cell signal so we couldn't count on the others calling us when they arrived. Finally, Reuben, James and I decided to walk back to the parking lot to get a cell signal and see what the deal was. I specifically remember Reuben saying "Now that we made the effort to go find them, I'm sure they'll be here already." He turned out to be right. Just as we started up the path, there they were coming to meet us with all of their gear. They had the tent, so we unpacked and set everything up. Here is Derek finishing up the main tent.

We had a nice relaxed night of beer, hot dogs, and s'mores. We even walked to beach and hung out there for a little while. It was only about a quarter mile away so it was no big deal. The next morning we got up and had an amazing breakfast of bacon, eggs, potatoes, and cheese cooked over the campfire. My only regret is that I didn't get a picture of it. After our stomachs settled we walked up the beach to the nearby lighthouse.

My goals of the lighthouse trip were this:

1) Nobody gets hurt or killed

2) My camera survives without falling 100 feet to its doom

3) Get some good pictures

4) Have fun

There was a beautiful view from the top. As you can imagine, I took this picture while holding onto my camera with a vice-like grip.

I got a nice picture of the dunes through a porthole on the way down the lighthouse.

Here is the lighthouse from up close with Anderbra and Ange.

Mmmm hot dogs. We had those for dinner on Saturday night. We also had some beer-battered brats that I sadly don't have a picture of but tasted amazing.

Also on the menu: Beer-battered burgers. Mmmmm.

Saturday night the Wings game was on and some people wanted to go watch it, so we drove into town and found a local bar. We also brought along our camping neighbor Nick, who was a big sports fan. The Wings won 5-0 and I won a t-shirt. It was a good night, except for my nearly empty beer glass that you can see at the bottom of the picture.

I got a nice shot of the evening's fire with James (and I think that's Nick on the right) deep in thought. I believe we made another trip to the lake that night.

Unfortunately at this point my battery died. That's ok though because not much else happened. We packed up and left the next day. Cars 1 & 2 (not Derek's group) stopped at a minigolf course on the way home. I won because of my solid mid-range putting skills (that and the hole with the water puddles that the other guys couldn't stay out of).

It was a good trip. I wish I could go again.