This was the first hammock camping trip for both my wife and me, as well as her first backpacking trip. It was also my first time to North Manitou in about 35 years....
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Here's my wife as we disembarked on the island. You take a ferry from Leland, MI to get there. Manitou Island Transit runs the ferry service. There's some pretty interesting history between the 2 islands. Both had life-saving stations back in the 1800's and early 1900's. Both also had lighthouses, though only the one on South Manitou remains.
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Our first night's hang. We hiked south from the dock and then cut across the trail on the southern end of the island and camped in the interior. We got some decent rain overnight, but stayed high and dry. We had some wind, too, I was honestly more worried about a widow-maker than getting wet.
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On Day 2 we hiked to the west side of the Island and more toward the middle. We had good weather, highs in the 70's and sun.
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Lunch after we found a campsite on the bluff over the beach. Popular spot, so I am glad we got there early to stake a claim.
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Second night's hang. It was partly cloudy and a clear forecast, so we went tarp-less. (Wife in her hammock on right)
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One of the deer that we had come through our campsite. North Manitou was run as a hunting club for a while in the mid-20th century. As that stopped, the introduced whitetail population exploded. Controlled hunts since the late 1970's have helped keep the herd in check, and allowed the island to re-vegetate from over-grazing. The deer are very unafraid of humans.
The next day we hiked across the middle of the island and caught the ferry back to the mainland. It was a great first hammock trip and first backpacking trip with my wife. (Only took us 30 years to get around to this!)
North and South Manitou Islands are part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Both allow backpacking, but on South it is designated sites only. North it is dispersed. A great place to really get away from it all.
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