Sleeping Bear Dune Wilderness Area -- 2002
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I’ve been to North Manitou Island, part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore three times. The first time was in June 2002, when I suggested going there to celebrate my friend's upcoming wedding.
We arrived in North Manitou on the ferry from Leland. Seeing the large number of people get off the boat, we quickly wanted to get ahead of the mob and reach the west side of the island. Taking the first trail west led us to Lake Manitou, in the center of the island. Due to the island being formed by sand, this interior lake is crystal clear. I took a quick dip in the warm water of the shallow lake. Circumnavigating the lake on the north side, we had to bushwack through the woods to reach the north-south trail to the west of the lake. Once we reached the trail, we traveled south. After an hour or two, we were near the west side of the island. The windward side is quite beautiful. Very nice sand beaches with quiet waves from the lake lapping on the shore. We camped on the west shore the first night.
The next day we continued south and then headed toward the east side beaches through a west-east trail on the far south of the island. The leeward side of the island has very little wind, but very tranquil water. This lack of wind led to a lot of fly and mosquito activity. By dusk it was so active, we had to retreat to our tent for the night. The next day, we hiked north back to North Manitou and caught the ferry back to Leland.