Let's Go Exploring

Growing up, my favorite comic strip to read was Calvin and Hobbes. My brother and I had a big ol' book of the strips, and we would spend hours and hours reading and laughing. Probably the piece that rang most true to me about the comic was when Calvin and Hobbes were off in the woods exploring. We had a few acres of woods behind our house, and I loved to go and find new places in those woods. All grown up and I still love to go exploring. I like taking the long way home. Sometimes, I intentionally get lost and then try to find my way back. As a photographer, I've found many great places off the beaten path to photograph.

The comic strip below pretty much sums it up.

Over Labor Day Weekend, a group of friends and I had a short backpacking trip planned to South Manitou Island. We didn't have to meet until Friday up in Leland. Instead of getting up early to make the drive on Friday morning, my close friend Jamin and I decided to give ourselves extra time and leave Thursday night. There were a lot of places that I've been meaning to stop and check out, so I figured this was the perfect chance. We had no schedule and no real plan. If we wanted to stop, we stopped. If we wanted to turn, we turned. It was great.

So I got out work a little before noon on Thursday, headed home to finish packing, and then picked up Jamin at his house. Right from the get go we set off on a less than direct route. We wandered through cornfields for a while and somehow ended in Coopersville. After we made it to M-46, I decided to head back to the main road of US-31.

The first place that I wanted to stop and check out was Manistee. I've driven through the town a couple of times, but I'd never been through the downtown or seen the lighthouse there. So we drove through town, stopped at a park on Lake Michigan, and walked down the pier. Oh yeah, we also stopped and got a quick bite to eat at an A&W.

Always exciting when you can climb something.

After our short jaunt in Manistee, we loaded back in the car and headed north on M-22

A little ways down the road, we saw a sign for a scenic overlook, the Arcadia Bluffs Overlook. So we decided to pull off and stop. I'm really glad we did. There were some great views. We spent like five or ten minutes soaking it all in.

After that quick pit stop, we kept heading north along M-22 till we got to the town of Frankfurt. We checked out the beach, pier, and lighthouse. I was really impressed by the small town. It looked like a great place to take a summer vacation.

After we were done at the lighthouse, we went to a local bar and grill, the Villa Marine Bar, to get dinner. I had a great pub burger. Jamin had steak and shrimp. With full stomachs we headed down the road again to yet another lighthouse, Point Betsie.

With our last lighthouse behind us, we made our way to the Platte River Campground. By the time we got there, it was starting to get dark. So we quickly set up before the night closed in on us. Once we were all set up, we decided to go for a quick hike in the dark with our headlamps. We only went a little ways down to the river, but it was still fun.

In the middle of the night, we woke to the sound of rain pelting against our tent. In the morning, we laid there for a bit hoping for it to stop. The rain slowed a bit, so we quickly packed up. We wanted to do some hiking that morning and were determined to not let the rain stop us. We were recommended a trail by one of the rangers, so we headed down the road to find it. Just a short bit up the road, we found what we were looking for. We parked our car and went down the Treat Farm Trail in the pouring rain. Even with a rain jacket and gore-tex boots, I still got pretty wet. My pants were soaked. Down the trail, the woods opened up to an old barn and farmhouse. We ducked under the porch of the farmhouse to shake off the water and just watch the rain.

After getting rained on, we were hungry for breakfast. We had some eggs, bacon, and pancakes at Joe's in Empire. After that, we started to make our way to the town of Leland, where we would meet up with our group and catch the ferry to South Manitou.

We weren't in Leland long when our friends arrived. We checked in with the ferry service, but had some time to kill before the ferry would leave. We used that time to check out the historic fish town in Leland.

I had a great time exploring, and the weekend was just beginning.

But more on that to come.