Ludington State Park 2016

Ludington State Park 2016

This year’s family camping trip was in Ludington State park in Michigan. My cousin camps there a lot but couldn’t get a reservation in time last year, so we went to Interlochen State park last year. We passed some cool racing boats on the highway on the way to Ludington but didn’t get any really good pics. The campsite was sandy and one side was a hill but we made it work. It was interesting to see dream catchers and a cross with Jesus on the trees.

Critters:

There were a lot of stories related to critters on this year’s family camping trip. There are many sections of the campgrounds that supposedly have problems with an army of raccoons. Fortunately we had no problem with raccoons. We could hear them fighting at the dumpster in the middle of the night but they never came to the tent. BTW, I’ve heard that they know how to unzip a tent, if you leave the zipper at the bottom. Ana loves camping in Michigan because we don’t have chipmunks where we live. I’m not sure why she is more excited about chipmunks compared to squirrels and rabbits. Yesterday I posted a picture of her inside the tent, waiting for Mr. Chipmunk to dare to go through the tent vestibule again. Another morning, I thought she was waiting to pounce on a chipmunk outside the tent but I couldn’t see one. When I opened the tent door, she pounced on something and then immediately starting moving her head side-to-side, mouthing the air as if to get some bad taste out of her mouth. I saw a little toad sitting there and guess he didn’t taste good. At least it wasn’t some deadly frog/toad from the Amazon.

More excitement from critters came from one of the few spots where dogs are allowed to swim. My cousin, his girlfriend, and my sister kayaked to the swimming spot (shown in the photo album) while my wife and parents hiked with me and Ana to the spot. It’s a very short hike with only modest climbs. We had to take turns swimming with Ana a few times because she isn’t good when other dogs are around, especially when she has toys. My wife borrowed my cousin’s kayak to take a quick spin. My stepmom had never kayaked before and decided to give it a go. While she missed the landing and ended up sort of in the bushes, I noticed something swimming towards us, rather quickly. In case you didn’t know, Michigan does have a native water snake species. They are essentially harmless but I still don’t want to swim with them. So there was a bit of panic but it swam away and stayed away.

I saw a redheaded woodpecker a few times but was only able to get one photo.

The mosquitoes and deer flies weren’t too bad, certainly not as bad as hiking near Stanley, ID with Gnotic Pasta. However, three of us got bit by what I think are chiggers. At first my cousin’s girlfriend thought that we got bit by sand fleas. If you Google sand flea bites, it looks like our legs. However, to the best of my knowledge, Michigan doesn’t have sand fleas. Michigan certainly has chiggers and I’m glad that Ana didn’t get chiggers. I wouldn’t wish chigger bites on my enemy, well maybe just my worst enemy. The itching lasts for 1-2 weeks. I happened to have prescription triamcinolone acetonide ointment in the medicine cabinet and it works wonders. Calamine lotion appears to work as well. My cousin’s girlfriend bought some just before we left the camp to get some relief.

Battery:

More excitement came on the penultimate day. While others had driven into to town, we opted to stay on the camp grounds. I think Ludington isn’t as dog friendly as Traverse City. So on the penultimate day, the rear hatch on my car stopped working. It’s motor driven and apparently opening and closing the rear hatch along with locking and unlocking the car multiple times per day for nearly 4 days without driving the car will run the battery down. When I bought my VW Touareg I remember the salesman told me that the battery was in a funny place. So I thought it was in the boot. However, I had forced the hatch closed and with no power, you can’t manually open it from outside. So, we emptied the trunk (I had just organized it in preparation for going into town). My sister crawled in but couldn’t figure out the emergency latch. So I crawled in and released the hatch. Now that the boot is open we looked for the batter but it wasn’t there. We looked at the owner’s manual again, and it didn’t say where the battery was but at least it said it was in the engine compartment. So while looking for the battery, my cousin’s girlfriend found a picture on the Internet using her phone that at least pointed to where it should be. We never found the battery but the photo helped me find the red plastic cover for the electrical connection to the positive terminal. So we were able to eventually jump start my car. After driving around town for a bit, it was fine and has been fine since.

Activities:

I spent most of the time swimming with Ana. We did hike to the Big Sable Point lighthouse but picked a bad time. The ‘trail’ to the lighthouse is crushed gravel with sand from the dunes blown in. There isn’t much shade along the way and we decided to go in the afternoon when it was around 85 °F/29 °C and pretty humid. We did remember to bring plenty of water. I cut an empty plastic bottle so that Ana could drink from it. Riding a bike up to the lighthouse or walking along the beach would have been better. No dogs are allowed at the beaches along Lake Michigan between the state park and the lighthouse. I suppose no one would say anything if we did walk with Ana along the lake front but we didn’t feel like being ‘that guy’. Next year we’ll go kayaking with the rest of the family. I should have more use of my bad wrist by next year. We spent one evening listening to a free folk music concert in the amphitheater in the park. It was actually pretty good and we were able to bring Ana without a fuss.

Food:

As we did last year, we packed foil dinners for three nights. The first night was tilapia with lemon, butter and either fresh tarragon or dill (from the farmer’s market in Kalamazoo). I made couscous with my Primus ETA lite camping stove. The second night we had chicken thighs with mojito lime seasoning, again wrapped in foil, cooked on the coals. I made couscous again. The third night, we had hobo dinners, which is ground beef, Veg-all canned vegetables and cream of mushroom soup. We had zucchini from my sister’s garden and summer squash from the farmer’s market sliced and covered with olive oil and tarragon in foil. It made a pretty good side dish. We had sausages and hot dogs the last two nights with sweet corn on the cob from the local farmer’s market. We forgot the corn we bought at the Kalamazoo farmer’s market. We actually forgot quite a few things even though I had a list on my phone. Next year, I’m printing out the list. For coffee and tea in the mornings, I bought a 1L pot for my stove which made it much quicker to boil water for everyone. Next year I’m going to try campfire pizza.

New Equipment:

As I mentioned, we forgot many things. I forgot my new my new ALPS Mountaineering Firelight 130 Flashlight that worked so well backpacking in Idaho. So I bought a ~$25 Field and Stream flashlight with ~150 lumens in Kalamazoo on the way to Ludington. There was a Field and Stream headlamp for about $15 (on sale) which turned out to be a good buy. We bought camping rocking chairs from REI (on sale for nearly half off). They were a hit but one of them cracked, so I’m going to exchange it. We can use the rocking chairs on our balcony, which we don’t utilize enough. The hammock from Costco was also a hit. It was very relaxing and I plan to set it up in the backyard occasionally. Actually, I could go for a nap in the hammock right now.

The rain held off most of the time, often going around Ludington. We did get rain the night before we left and more the morning we were going to leave (packing wet tents sucks). Both my old REI tent and my sister’s new 5-person Coleman tent did well in the rain. I can hopefully squeeze in one more camping trip with Christian Wietholt before it gets too cold.

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