Manitou Island Day 1

We loved our backpacking trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore last summer (except for the awful mosquitoes), so we decided to do another backpacking trip this summer!  We had to wait til the last week of August due to Chris' many trips to Brazil this summer, but we made it happen.

We decided upon South Manitou Island as a bit of a compromise...Chris really wants to go backpacking at Isle Royale, but I don't think we're ready for a 10 hr drive + 4 hr rough boat ride to a remote island in the middle of Lake Superior.  I know I'm not ready!  So we looked at South Manitou Island and North Manitou Island, which are part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  South Manitou is smaller, and not quite as rustic as North Manitou - it has a few camp sites, although no water or bathrooms.  We thought it would be a good starter island for backpacking, and we were right!

We took the ferry from Leland to South Manitou on the morning of Aug. 27th.  It took over an hour to get there, it was a slooowww ferry.  We started with an early lunch near the dock.  It is touristy near the dock, with a lighthouse etc, b/c the island is popular with day trippers.  The island used to be populated, so there are a few buildings on the island, which are all national park buildings now.

After lunch, we started hiking to our first campground site, at the north end of the island.  We didn't see anyone all day!

While we were setting up camp, Jessi started playing with millipedes.  The island is crawling with them - they're everywhere!  So cute and fun!

An adorable millipede

The girls inside their tent, testing out sleeping arrangements

Our home for the night!  See Lake Michigan behind us?

It wasn't terribly warm, but the sun was out, the wind was calm, and the lake was calling the girls!

Jess couldn't stop playing with millipedes.  See one crawling up her leg??

Filtering our water for dinner.  See North Manitou Island in the background?  It was a gorgeous view.

Swans came by for a visit

Chris is the only one who went under!

Meg found an awesome rock!

She reallllly wished she could keep it, but knew she couldn't b/c it's a national park.  We have three Junior Park Rangers who know the rules of the park!

Millipede trails and highways were ALL over the beach!

Rock hunters

Dinner. I think it was mashed potatoes, stove top, soup, and canned chicken

Throwing rocks

Filtering water for breakfast

Millipede on the move

We decided to walk around the corner of the island to watch the sunset

Best seats in the house!

It wasn't as spectacular as the previous night's sunset, but it was still gorgeous.

See the moon?

Meg found an injured monarch butterfly.  She placed him/her on a milkweed plant for the night.  We saw tons of monarchs on the island.  Did they come from Wisconsin???

We played cards in our tent, and then went to bed.  We all had a good night's sleep, it was soooo quiet compared with campground camping!  There were a total of three people camping on the north end of the island with us, and we rarely saw them.