RJ's digs

Spent Friday night at Potawatomi State Park. The goal for the evening was to go thru our gear & make sure we had all we needed, drink enough to get good and drunk, and Amos had the goal to try a eat a 7# can of Bush's beans. He gave it a hell of a try, but the quarter pounder, double cheese burger and fries that he ate a couple hrs before took its toll, he was only able to eat about 1/2 the can. We got up Saturday morning to make the drive up to Newport. There we caught the ferry over to Washington Island, parked the trucks and hopped onto the ferry to Rock Island.

We had backpack site E, which was a great site. I didn't get a chance to check out A&B, but I thought it was better than C&D. Shortly after we got there Amos had to get rid of the 4# of beans he ate the night before, and made a mad dash to the field shitter that was there. He came back proclaiming it to be the nicest field shitter in the state. After visiting it myself later that evening, I had to agree.

Saturday was great, we had decent weather during the day but had to endure a storm of epic proportions late in the night. I woke up the first time with the hammock swaying, the tarp flapping, and rain running down the sides. After a short time it ended, so I snuggled down in the hammock to get some more sleep. About 5:30am I woke up to a hurricane. The wind was seriously crazy (heard later it was 60-70mph). My hammock was on the side of the campsite, right near the cliff - about 5 feet away was a 10 ft drop to the rocky beach. The wind was coming off the east, blowing up the cliff and under my tarp. There were times when the lighting lit up the campsite and you could hear the thunder and feel the concussion all at the same instant. About all I could do was peek out under the tarp to see which one of my friends caught a couple thousand volts in the forehead. The tarp was flapping so hard I put my shoes on, grabbed onto my sleeping gear, and waited for the gust that was going to blow my tarp away. I figured when that happened I was going to run over to the nearest tent/tarp that was still standing and huddle next to the guy there, whether I was welcome or not. Fortunately, everything held together and outside of a little damp gear I made it thru the night. Kelly & Doug came by a while later as they were making the rounds to see how everyone fared in the storm. Outside of Steve's tent leaking a bit, we were all fine.

Steve, Doug P and Kelly left on Monday. Doug C, Amos and I stuck around until Tuesday. There was another storm Monday night, so we spent most of the afternoon trying to rig up some tarps under the tree's where we had placed the picnic table. The rain lasted several hours, but then cleared up enough that we spent another nice night on Rock Island.  Of course, by the time it cleared up we were drunk enough that it really didn't matter if it was raining or not.

Tuesday morning we packed up and started the 1.2 mile hike out. The morning was pretty windy, but we didn't give it much thought. As we got back to the docks, the park ranger stopped by to inform us that the ferry had made a run earlier that morning,and wasn't planning on making another due to the size of the waves. Looking across the bay we noticed just how big the waves were, and how strong the wind was on the west side of the island. The ranger kindly called the guy who runs the ferry and asked about plans for another ferry run, the response was "Maybe later, 1pm - if he can". Yikes... we all had to get back home. Well, Doug and Amos did, I had the rest of the week off.

We hung around the docks, checking out the buildings and the furniture in them. About 1 we finally saw the ferry coming across the lake - man it was crazy. One minute you'd see nothing but the white railing, the next instant you'd see a large portion of the black bottom and then waves crashing up around the prow. The captain had to take the boat on a wide tact to account for the wind and waves, so we got to watch them for a while.. we knew the ride was going to be an interesting one. They docked and a couple of campers got off - the ferry wasn't bringing any day visitors over because he knew that was this was the last run of the day.

The ride back was like a roller coaster, put that ride down at Six flags and people would travel thousands of miles to ride it. I swear the prow was swinging up and down 15+ feet as we rode up and down the waves. The 3 of us, the only riders on the ferry back, held on for our lives near the back of the boat and entrusted our lives to the captain. Fortuantely he was up to the task and got us back to Washington Island safe and sound. Once we docked Doug asked the captain how that ranked on a scale of 1-10 for the worst he's ever had the ferry out in, he answered "7 1/2 or 8". Yeehaa!  At the docks there were several campers waiting go over to Rock island, the captain informed them he was done for the day.  I still wonder what they did for the night trapped there at the docks.. probably just pitched their tents on the shore and waited until morning I guess.

Afer spending 4 days eating dehydrated camp food, we were ready for a some burgers. There's a roadside resturant named The Albatross on Washington island where we stopped for lunch. Some how the 3 of us were able to ring up a $45 food bill, and managed to eat every last crumb of it. We did get some odd looks from people as they watched 3 dirty, smelly guys devour food like a pack of starving jackals. The albatross is a "must stop" place if you're on Washington Island - get the Alby burger. We did have to listen to a couple pre-teen girls singing along to "Mmmm Bop" and "The Macarana" that they played on the jukebox, but it was a worthwhile stop nonetheless.

Backpack site #1. Decent site, hike in wasn't bad.

Yosemite National park in California kicks ass. I was there a perfect time of the year, the tourist business was pretty slow so I didn't have to fight the crowds much at all. Camped out Fri & Sat night at Camp #4, that was pretty cool. Woke up on Sat at 6am to 30 degree weather and a dusting of snow on my tent - and headed out to Mariposa grove - the largest Sequoia grove in Yosemite. Walked around the grove for about 2 hrs all by myself, not another person to be seen. Finally bumped into someone when I was heading out and they were coming in. Sunday morning I woke up early and followed a trail up the cliff face. Stood and watched a 8pt mule deer for a bit, then I continued my climb. 1200 ft up and 3.5 miles of trails later, I sat down and watched the sun come up over the mountains. And again, I had the trails to myself. Talk about peacefull ... damn, it was great. I *WILL* go back there one of these years and spend a week or so walking the High Sierra trails and sleeping at the camps.

Nice park, the 2 waterfalls are pretty damn cool. Rained Saturday night, with the weatherman reporting 75 mph winds and 3" hail (we never saw either of them). Kelly and Doug P. left in the afternoon before the storm hit, Steve, Doug C and I stuck it out. Once the storm passed, it was a great evening. Doug's warwagon blew a tire on the hike back to the backpack site. Warning to those who go there, the hike back in is fairly agressive - lots of up and down on the trails.

We had AWSOME weather for mid-march, daytime got into the mid 60's. Melting snow made for a muddy campground, but with some creative engineering to channel the water away, it soon became usuable. Didn't do any hiking around, basically we sat around & drank, played some cards and Risk, and foraged for wood.

Decent camp ground. Amos was not right - no one person should ever eat a 3 lb can of baked beans, its not human. And since that wasn't enough, he found room to squeese in 2 brats too.. pretty impressive eating out of a guys who is maybe 140 lbs soaking wet. First time I've slept on the ground next to the fire pit.. during the night it got pretty cold so there was no worrying about bugs. Would of been fine if one of the other lazy asses would of woke up during the night and helped me keep the fire going...

Kids camping trip.
3rd camping trip of the year, and guess what - it rained the last night we were there.

Our first "Couples Camping" trip. Good lord, we ate like kings. Can you say "LP powered turkey deepfryer"? Steaks on the grill? Bacon and eggs for breakfast? First camping trip that I gained weight on. Nice park, lots of trees - though some of the campsites are pretty close together. Most of the bathrooms are pit toilets, though if you look around they have a nice shower and flush toilets. The lake was nice, lots of people using it. I recomment bringing your own wood along though, the only place we could find wood didn't have split wood, only tree bark cutoffs - which makes for a pretty crappy fire.
Rained the last night we were there (again), otherwise the weather was very nice.

The backpack campsites are all along lake Michigan, though most of them require you to walk a ways through the weeds to get there. We got lucky and happend to reserve the best backpack site they had. There is a maintenance vehicle trail that runs back to the backpack sites, so we were able to use "war wagons" to get our gear (and beer) back to the campsite. Doug P. was INSANELY stocked up with food - who in the hell needs 10 cans of sardines in their backpack?!?! Doug breaks out his latest creation - a backpack Risk board. Pretty damned impressive I must say. He used canvas to draw a map, then used paints to color in the countries. We must of played 12 games through the weekend.
Rained the last night we were there, otherwise the weather was very nice.

My weather forcasting talent is displayed in all it's glory .. "The storm won't hit us, it'll blow by to the north"... "Holy SHIT! Batten down the hatches!!" And the ticks.. damn, combined we must of pulled off 2 dozen of the damn things.

Our first "kids camping" trip.

Jason is the first person I've ever known to pass out while he was standing up taking a piss. Needless to say we left him sleeping in the weeds.. where he woke up early the next morning covered with dew. Doug wakes up so hung over, when he crawled out of the tent his eyes were rolling around in his head like a gecko lizards do.

Second leg of our canoe ride through the flowage. Saw lots of wildlife, including several eagles, deer, a chimpmunk that was not afraid of people at all, and some very large animal running thru the swamp that we were unable to identify.

Rained all 3 days we were canoing. Still had fun though. Portaging across the road, the trail was blocked by a guy fishing and his doberman. So we made Kelly go see if it was ok to walk by, we figured he was smalll enough the dog wouldn't waste his time eating him.

Hotter than hell, the bugs were insane. Even so, it's awsome camping - seriously. If you're into backpacking, the Porkies are the best place to go within a 10 hour drive. We *will* get back there one day, now that we know how to backpack and have some decent backpacking gear.