North and South Manitou Islands

These pictures are from a Kodac film back in 1994 of a trip I took with my long-time high school buddy Paul Imm. The Manitou Islands are part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. North Manitou Island is the largest of the two islands, at around 22,346 square miles of wilderness. South Manitou is much smaller at 8,277 square miles.

This is Swanson's Barn on North Manitou Island's far West side. It is over a 5-mile hike from the Village Dock. All buildings on the islands have been purchased by the Park Service and left to deteriorate naturally by Mother Nature. 

We camped near this barn, and I remember hearing the sound of the waves at night.

I'm picking wild blueberries. We were hiking along, and Paul asked me, "Do you smell what I smell?" I said, "If you are smelling blueberries, then yes, I am!"

10 miles of Lake Michigan beach, all to ourselves. Once we left the Village Dock and began our hike to Lake Manitou and the island's Western side, we only saw two other people for the entire week.

We were keeping journals, and I was writing something. I don't have that journal today; it would be interesting to know what I wrote in that journal. I was on the beach of South Manitou Crescent Bay. 

We were bushwhacking through the woods and treed this raccoon. 

We did visit the grove of old-growth white cedars, estimated to be 500 years old. I remember Paul being on one side and I on the opposite side, and we couldn't touch our fingers as we hugged one of the ancient cedars.

A glimpse of Lake Manitou. We camped near the lake on our first night and did some fishing. We caught pan fish and had them for one of our dinners.

This must have been taken while on the ferry going or coming back from the island. I remember hearing a freighter's foghorn as it passed South Manitou Island on a foggy morning. I couldn't see the ship, but only hear the horn through the fog. 

There was a visible shipwreck offshore of South Manitou Island, and Paul, with an inflatable raft he brought with him, swam the 300 yards to get a closer look at the Francisco Morazan. 

Very early in our marriage, Kelly discovered she had an adventurous husband who loved to explore. Even though it has never been her cup of tea, she has always given me the freedom to travel, camp, and hike. In this picture, Paul Imm and I are returning from one of the islands. Kelly and her grandma Louis Kline stayed at a bed & breakfast in Leland the night before she was to pick me up at the dock.