It's been a long time since we've been on a family vacation. A long long time. So, I decided it would be fun (during a spell of 70-80 degree weather) to go camping, rustic camping, without electricity or running water.
I copied the directions incorrectly from my email, so we drove past our exit and ended up back tracking. It worked out in our favor though, because we found a roadside firewood stand as we were winding back through the woods.
When we arrived, everyone unloaded and we used disinfecting wipes on every surface! While there was no electricity, they did have solar powered lights, which was a pleasant surprise.
Once everyone was settled in, we started reading Little House in the Big Woods the first book in the Little House on the Prairie series. We read about half the book during our stay! We were all huddled around the propane stove, because it was cold!
We had all eaten a dinner of sandwiches during the one hour drive, so none of us were particularly hungry upon arrival.
Outside, Billy set up a nice fire in the firepit and got a table covered in anticipation of rain on Saturday.
The marshmallows were quickly pulled out for roasting.
The big girls are learning about the sun, moon, and stars, and Emily was excited to spy the waxing moon.
Snuggled up by the fire.
The cabin had warmed up surprisingly well while we were outside. The night was tough for the adults. I instructed everyone to bring extra blankets (picturing a cold night) but we were actually too warm. The beds were so hard, the old wooden floor might have had more give. And poor Billy, without his cpap, was very noisily snoring every time he managed to succumb to sleep. We cracked the windows near our beds, and moved on top of the extra blankets, but whenever Billy managed sleep, I woke up to the noise.
My children did not seem to be bothered by any of those things, and were up early the next morning. With the looming rain, I trudged out of bed, so that we could hike the nearby trail.
Billy was so poorly rested, he opted to stay a the cabin and nap. When Alice was given the opportunity to not hike, she also stayed behind.
Before searching out the trail, we explored the area in between our cabin and the water pump/picnic/sign in area.
Since this massive park is full of horse trails, there were many built in horse mounting areas and poles to tie them.
Grace found a heart shaped rock for her collection before we even got to the trail.
The trail we took is an equine/hiking trail. The sign said that it was about 2 miles, but there were no markers along the way, and the map was very unhelpful. At the bottom it displayed the "you are here" marker, which was nowhere to be found on the map?!
We stopped and took pictures and looked at everything.
Horse prints!
The forest was definitely in transition mode. With all leaves everywhere, this could just as easily be fall as spring.
Nifty umbrella trees. These were all along our path!
Earthworm.
Grace with her heart rock collection.
William found a stone shaped like a car.
Getting a closer look.
About half way through, everyone was tired. Emily changed the purpose of her hat to be a bag for her rainbow rock collection.
We saw a very cool hallow tree with a built in door, skylight and window!
All four took turns checking it out.
From this point on, it was a very long walk. They were tired, I ended up carrying all the rock collections, and the rain caught up with us.
It was not a heavy rain, but the kids kept asking if we were lost. Since there were only 2 options that we encountered (that both lead to a paved road) I knew that we were still on the right path, but could not give them a time estimate. As we rounded a corner (only about 20 minutes before I told them we would turn around and go back) we saw the back end of our car! We had made it!
Emily and Grace were both anxious to wash their rock collections, but they had to pump their own water.
Billy was awake when we returned, and apparently Alice missed us. Billy got the grill going, to cook up all of our food, just in case the rain came too strong to cook later in the day. The kids cleaned up their bunks and snacked while we waited for grilled food.
Emily's rainbow rock collection. We spent a long time trying to unearth the large one in the center. It was much bigger than we could tell from the surface. And sadly, it turned out not even to be the most vibrant green in her collection.
It lightly rained for the remainder of the afternoon, but never a downpour, so Billy was still able to cook out.
The restroom facilities. It wasn't the worst outhouse I've used. It was spacious and maintenance did a better job than most of clearing out cobwebs. There were skylights in the day, but you had to bring your own illumination at night. Since the weather was still on the cool side, the smell was kept at bay. I don't think I'd want to use it in the middle of summer though.
Cooking up the last of the marshmallows.
Log tea party. = )
They will not be sharing a chair much longer!
Not long after this, the rain subsided, and facing another night on the indescribably hard bed, we took a vote. Who wanted to stay and who wanted to go home early.
So, at 730 on Saturday, we packed up camp and returned home. Grace was the only one who voted to stay, so she was excused from general packing, and only responsible for her own personal belongings. Alice was ridiculously helpful and we were packed up within an hour.
At home this is the reality of 7 people on a single night campout:
If we return, which it was not so awful that we couldn't, we would have to bring extra padding for our beds and find a way to power Billy's cpap. In fact, I do hope we return, because we would have a much better idea of what to bring and what to expect!
later days
Edited 7/18/2023: This post is now a part of my project: 78 State Parks! #70a
Tahquamenon Falls #15
Muskegon State Park #50*
Grand Haven State Park #53
*this post marks the start of the project, and as such, has information about what I hope to accomplish!
