So thankful. So filled with joy. We slept through the wind storm in as safe a spot as there could be, the Vista Cruiser. The AC in the trailer didn’t work so Brianna slept on the bed with her head near the open window and I put my sleeping mat on the floor next to the open door. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that we woke up to home brewed coffee, scrambled eggs with sausage and buttered toast. We swapped more stories for about an hour over a standing kitchen breakfast before packing up and hitting the road again. I can’t say enough about the generosity of strangers, friends that we haven’t yet met.
Our plan for the day was to try and beat the weather, make it to the Sulak campground by around 6pm. As per usual, things did not go according to plan. Thunder started rolling over the hillsides around noon. We stopped to rain gear up and then beat foot as fast as would could off of the ridge line we found ourselves on. The trail met up with an old dirt road with a small clearing just before the big rain and lightning started. We dropped packs and threw up the tent quick as we could and took shelter. Lightning & thunder were about 12-15 seconds apart so we felt fairly safe just riding it out for a bit. We didn’t have enough data to get weather info for ourselves but Mel was texting Brianna Radar updates, our “eyes in the sky”. Pretty much everywhere in Michigan was getting rocked, and hard. We were lucky, again.
The forced weather break made for an excellent excuse to eat some lunch and siesta, so we did both.
After breaking shelter and hiking for another few miles, we came across a little campground called Timber Creek Trailhead. I hadn’t realized it before, but it was a proper campground with drinking water and vault toilets. Sulak campgrounds, our intended destination was still about three miles away… but why leave a good thing once you’ve found it? More rain was due in the evening and we had perfect campsites to choose from and hardened bathroom structures if shit got hairy during the storm. If there is one thing we have learned on this trip it’s not to pass up a great thing at a great time. So we paid the $10 fee at the little drop box and made camp.
Side note on the drinking water: I wish there was a video of me hand pumping that thing with one hand and trying to catch the water with a bottle in the other hand. I was wet and probably looked silly. The water was cold, delicious and worth it.
The rain is starting to pour, the wind beginning to whip; we are home.