Platte River

On our last day of our Sleeping Bear camping trip, rain looked promising. We didn’t let it stop us though. We grabbed our rain jackets, rented a kayak, and paddled down the Platte River. It was crowded! I can’t imagine how busy it gets on a sunny day during peak season (near the 4th of July).  The river itself was very gentle and winding, but we got a workout trying to paddle around Loon Lake. The wind picked up because of the storm coming in, and the lake was extremely choppy. Once we got across the lake though, the paddling was easy again. At the end of the river, right before it dumped into Lake Michigan, the rental company collected the kayak and paddles.

Since it was now very gloomy outside, we didn’t want to go for another bike ride or hike, so we headed to the Point Betsie Lighthouse. The actual lighthouse itself was closed (even though it had a flag saying open), so we walked along the beach nearby. We noticed more and more people obviously looking for something on the beach, so we finally asked what was going on. Evidently, they were searching for Petoskey stones which are fossilized coral that can be found in that area of Michigan. When the stones are dry they look like a normal gray stone, but when they are wet you can see the coral pattern.

And then it rained. And poured. And rained some more. Being engineers, we built a sort of lean-to structure near our fire to keep us out of the rain yet still warm from the fire. For dinner, we wrapped potatoes in foil and threw them in the fire so we didn’t have to stand in the rain to cook anything. Those were the best baked potatoes I’ve ever eaten. Smothered in cheese and broccoli and washed down with a cold beer. We turned in early for the night since the rain wasn’t letting up and got amazing sleep for the first few hours listening to the drops falling on the tent. Then our tent started leaking. Nisheet woke me up telling me there was water on the floor. I told him to put a towel on it and go back to sleep. When I finally woke up, I realized his side of the tent was completely flooded! Oops! Definitely a memorable way to end the trip.