Kayaking Ludington State Park

Today dawned bright and clear and cool--it was 55 degrees in the RV when I got up.  I was tempted to turn on the heat but decided to just layer up instead.  After breakfast we headed back to the state park for some kayaking, first in Lost Lake, then in the Big Sable River below the dam.  Despite the busy-ness of the weekend, the lake was almost deserted except for a few fishermen.  We paddled about the lake for a while, enjoying the breeze and the perfect temperatures.

Back at the boat launch, it was getting quite a bit busier. The campground takes a bit to wake up but eventually gets there.  We made up a lunch and then put the kayaks in the river below the dam and paddled towards Lake Michigan.

Again, a leisurely paddle, relatively quiet.  There were a few people on the beach by Lake Michigan but still surprisingly un-busy for being shortly after noon on a Sunday.  We sat in the kayaks and ate our lunches, enjoying the sound of the surf of Lake Michigan and watching a large family of ducks try to stay together in the waves and when disturbed by boys playing in the water.

We took a walk along the beach and one of life’s difficult questions started nagging my mind.  There has been a significant die-off of alewives this year and as we stepped over thousands of their little carcasses, I began to wonder: why do all the alewives that are right along the water’s edge face south? The fish all die pointing in the same direction.  Why?

We paddled back upstream to the dam, put the kayaks back on the RV, and headed out.  By this time, the parking lot was full, the beach was full, and as we drove by the river over the bridge, we could see that our place where we left the kayaks to go on our beach walk was full.  An early start definitely means less crowds.

Turning north again, we headed towards Noordhouse Dunes, hoping to disperse camp somewhere along a forest road.  Deb read a couple guides that suggested Green Road.  Some sections of this road were accessible by RV, others, not so much.  We took the suggested section of the road and arrived here at our dispersed campsite with a lot of daylight to spare.  This is a great camp site, lots of room, and some good trees at the right distance to hang a hammock.

We took a walk down the road a little farther and noticed that it narrowed considerably and the vegetation hung lower over the road soon after our campsite.  Our RV probably wouldn’t have made it much farther, so we picked a good spot.  In case we ever want to come here again, the GPS coordinates are 44* 6’ 16” N, 86* 24’ 3” W.

I’m sure if we would have come here on a Friday or a Saturday, there would be nothing available.  Here is one of the advantages of not being tied to a W-2 job: we can come on a Sunday night or a weekday when everyone else is working their W-2 jobs and have our pick of the campsites.

We made dinner of chicken salad and grilled peppers, with a few cherries that Jill had given us yesterday thrown in the salad.  We may be camping, but we generally eat like kings.  For dessert, we had cheesecake with chocolate ganache and a few strawberries left over from Abigail’s birthday party.

We took our bikes to the beach access and walked along this beach for a while.  Here, another of life’s vexing questions came up:  Can those who own dogs read?  A large sign sits at the entrance to the beach access steps which says Dogs prohibited in swim area.  As we got down to the swim area, we could see that nearly everyone down there had a dog, sometimes more than one.  I know that dogs can’t read but it seems like many owners can’t either.

After a walk on the beach, we returned to the bikes, took a detour through the campground just to see how busy it was and who was there, and returned to the RV for the evening.