Manitou Day One

Apologies for taking so long to post this!! Life has gotten crazy since we've been back! In between Ann Arbor Summerfest, buying our house and raising a well balanced puppy, I've barely had a chance to think!

So let me tell you a bit about Manitou Island...

Day One
We drove from Ann Arbor up to Glen Arbor and camped out in the car. Not on purpose, we just left too late and didn't feel like checking into a hotel for a couple hours.
Much to the dismay of Camp Dog, we couldn't bring him to the island with us. (Although, I will say, we definitely saw some puppies on that island!) 


Taking off was a bit of a trip. 50-some degrees, swarms of stoneflies everywhere and our gear was soaked from the downpour we slept through overnight. But we were determined! (Although, if I'm being completely honest, we both had a moment where we looked at each other and mutually thought about a nice warm hotel and some tourist shopping in Traverse City for the weekend...)
We prepared our trusty steeds for a rough ride on the waters.
It should be noted that our kayaks are NOT sea kayaks. And before you pummel me with "OMG!"s and "You are crazy and could have been lost at sea!"s... we survived just fine. In fact, I am convinced it was the way to go.

Moving on- as we started across, it was exhilarating! The freedom of backpacking with the nautical bliss that only kayaking can bring.
Suddenly, in the middle of Lake Michigan, just as we were getting into the stride... the skies opened up. In the middle of the rain, our destination started to get hazy. Until suddenly, the clouds moved in and it disappeared entirely.
I'll admit, I started to panic. We're in the middle of the lake who's fatal shipwrecks mimics that of the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by nothing but water. Luckily, Bobby was prepared with his compass and directions (I was about to whip out my cell phone's gps!). We talked about it for a minute and decided to skip North Manitou and head for South. It was closer, we were exhausted and hypothermia was starting to set in (no joke).

Finally, after four hours of open water, we banked on the east side of South Manitou Island. Shivering and tired, we changed out of our wet clothes as fast as we could and chowed down some granola bars and water.


After setting up camp on a bluff about 300 feet from the water, I quickly whipped us up a yummy dinner of chicken fajitas. Packaged chicken breasts, taco seasoning, red and green bell peppers, onion in a tortilla wrap with queso dip... it was beyond delicious!


We explored the island for a bit and decided to make it an early night. Wrapping ourselves in our Cats Meow sleeping bags, we played a few hands of Yahtzee before passing out until morning...