7/16/2021
I got up early and was excited to cook once again! After making my hearty breakfast I decided to kayak the lake our campground sat on. Lincoln lake. I went as far out as I dared, being a rather large and heavily earthy lake; I didn't want to paddle too far, so I let myself float with the current while I drank my coffee and read a book.
Next I walked around the town. Now camping, I am not a shopper. Who am I trying to fool? I hate shopping all together. Food and accessories. I’m not a materialistic gal. I guess that’s one thing that separates me from most women. I spend so much money on gas, Ice and firewood, when it comes to leisure spending it’s extremely hard too. Same with going out to eat. I have to drag myself and the tooth and nail to go out and enjoy food. Harder when I know I make damn good food myself. You think being on vacation it would be easier to go out to eat, but it’s not. Not a shopper or out to eater.
When rating Ludington for it’s scenery, it is top notch. You can drive a few miles to the state park, and park off the side of the road to climb a dune and get into the beach before even reaching the state beach. Or on the other side of the road, climb the endless sea of dunes. The amount of lakes, dunes, and hikes are endless and absolutely beyond its beauty. I have yet to find a town to surpass its supreme outdoor activities. Everywhere you turn there is something fun and worthwhile.
When rating the town of Ludington, as far as shopping I would give it a low 2. There are not many shops, and there is almost really just one road of shops and they all have the same things. I don’t need another tourist shirt in my closet. I don’t need another shot glass, keychain, stickers or nicknacks. I don’t really need anything at all. This purchase has to benefit me as a camper and out in my daily life. Either that it has to be cool enough and resonate with me in someway for me to buy and that can be hard to come by. I’ll go into every shop and not buy one thing.
When rating food in Ludington, we’ll I can’t say much because I’ve only been to one restaurant and that was a year or so ago at House of Flavors. I do hear that Keepers Fish Shack is good. But I don’t ever really travel for food so rating a town for food is something I can’t really do.
I kayaked the little Au sable River that leads right out into Lake Michigan. I wanted to kayak Hamlin lake, but getting to the boat dock was impossible and it wasn’t until my hike where I saw kayakers parking and dragging their Yaks to the beach through the grass. So Lake Hamlin and Au sable River are separated by a beautiful damn. A ton of people float in tubes down the River and if the current is okay, the rangers will let you stay and float into the big lake. Otherwise they make you get out and walk back to your vehicle. Being a kayaker I parked at the beach and walked through the sandy land and climbed a couple dunes and walked into Lake Michigan. Such a beautiful spot to be. But first, how I got into the River. Right after the dam there’s a spot where a trail leads from the parking lot to there. It’s not a long walk, but it’s not a short one either. It’s all pathed and trees along the sides. Not much for dragging the kayak. So I carried my yak. It took me only a few minutes but my yak is heavy and I had to make two trips. One for the yak and the other for my stuff.
Afterwards I took the trail along Lost Lake.
The trail was partial woods and partial walking along the water lines of Hamlin Lake. An outstanding beauty and full of life. It is definitely a place to visit. The trail has so much more going on than I had time for. I am just glad to got to see what I could and hike what I could hike.
By the end of the day I was ready for my new adventure but part of me just wanted to hike more dunes. But it was time to go onto my next adventure. Days like these make me wish I had a trail bike, exploring at a more at a faster rate. I think it would work well with my go, go, go attitude.
One of the things I bought on Amazon, my solar charger. I used one full charge and then it just stopped working. The lights kept flashing on and it wouldn't shut off. And well, what I thought was going to be useful tool turned out to be a waste.
