Michigan Vacation - Travel to Carp River
"I claim this campsite!"
Carp River
Climbing...
and sliding back down.On the third day of our trip, we drove from Pigeon River to the Carp River Campground in Hiawatha National Forest, which is in the southeastern part of the Upper Peninsula. In case anyone is ignorant, as I was, it's called the Upper Peninsula (UP) because it's attached to Wisconsin. Does anyone know why it's not part of Wisconsin?
On the way we stopped in Mackinac City for lunch. This city is connected to St. Ignace in the UP via the Mackinac Bridge, which is 5 miles long. It can be pretty windy through the "Straits of Mackinac" (the area where Lakes Michigan and Huron combine between the two peninsulas of MI) and often there are wind advisories and special speed limits going over the bridge. We just enjoyed the speed limit of 20 mph for trucks with trailers, as this allowed the longest view. You can see Mackinac Island from here, which we visited a few days later.
The first picture shows Sam standing on one of the large rocks lining the drive through the campground. He seemed to regard any hill or large rock as a challenge to be conquered. The second picture is of the Carp River from our campsite. I have to admit here that while this view is pretty, this was my least favorite campground. We had trouble with their reservation system (as in, I paid for the nights on the Internet, and when we got there they had no record of it), the camp host lived away from the campground, making it hard to resolve issues, and most of all, the mosquitos here gave me a shocking introduction to bugs in the UP. Basically, they're large and numerous. Or as many quotations up there said, "We don't have a single mosquito here. They're all married with large families." At first, it was so bad I thought I'd never leave the trailer. But we discovered that for all their seeming ferocity they just didn't have the killer instinct. We all designated a single outfit (with long pants and sleeves) for the campground, sprayed it and ourselves liberally with Deep Woods Off, and they became merely an annoyance instead of a threat to life. Isaac even showed me a trick I'd never used before: spray your hands with spray, then wipe it on your face. I'd never desired to have bug spray on my face before, but this was a desperate situation. Afterwards I read an author of a book on the UP ("You Don't Want to Come Here") claim that the locals are loony because of the toxic effects of Deet on the liver. Oh well.
The last two pictures are of Sam climbing and sliding down a hill, collecting pine needles along the way. I think his clothes came clean. This isn't the dirtiest picture of him that you will see!
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