Sleeping Bear Dunes Wilderness Area -- 2008
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This would be my third time to North Manitou Island, part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. On this visit I took a number of friends and tried to realize the experience of my previous visits. After reaching the island on the ferry, we headed west through the central east-west trail. Once we reached the westerly north-south trail we headed south. At the end of the trail, when turns east, we instead hiked along the beach for another 1-2 miles until we reached Donner Point. This was one of the more beautiful sections on the island. There was a spectacular beach, with strong waves crashing at the point. There was a nice high ledge to setup our tents to overlook the lake. A magnificent campsite.
On the second day, we traveled east along the southern shore, having to go around a bird sanctuary at Dimmicks Point. Then we went north along the shore, eventually regaining the eastern trail and the eastern beaches. We laid on the lakeshore eating cheese and crackers while drinking wine most of the afternoon into the evening. We had a small fire on the beach, but the mosquitos were still annoying. The last day, we had breakfast and hiked north to North Manitou and took the ferry back to Leland.