North Manitou Island, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Backpacking, August 2016.
My buddy Baz and I took a weekend backpacking trip to North Manitou Island in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in August 2016. North Manitou is managed as a wilderness outside of the village and village campground. Backpackers can camp anywhere on the island as long as you are 300 feet from any stream, lakeshore, structure or other campers. We hiked the outer loop with the exception of working our way in to see Lake Manitou.
The island was beautiful and really exceeded my expectations. I had a great time and would totally love to go back again in the future and visit the more remote areas of the island.
As we hiked out of the village we saw this sign. I always feel excited to walk into wilderness and this day was no exception.
Within minutes of entering the wilderness, we saw a buck in velvet. We saw him several times over the next mile as he crossed the trail and would move away from us.
I think Baz took the shot above. I loved the way it turned out with the green tunnel.
We spent like ten minutes trying to get a shot of this spider! It was challenging to get the distance from the lens, the light and everything just right to get it in focus. It was a cool spider even though the web was face level across the trail.
We ended up setting up camp for the first night near Johnson’s Place. We absolutely loved this spot. The only thing missing was a campfire (fires are not allowed outside of the three common fire rings in the Village Campground.)
We set up our tents. We were way up above Lake Michigan and had a great view from the camp site of the lake. Later that night, we were standing around near our tents about 10PM chatting and I heard a noise off to my left. I said to Baz, “Did you hear that?” I was thinking it was my imagination. Then I saw what I thought was motion in the dark in the same direction. The hairs on my neck stood up as I switched on my headlamp to spotlight a big doe. She wasn’t bothered by us at all and continued to wander through our camp on her way to wherever she was going.
This is my Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 tent. It rained a lot during this trip, so I was appreciative of being able to stay dry in the tent. This tent has been all over Michigan this year.
This was the beach near our camp. The water was so, so warm.
Swenson’s Barn was cool. We hung out here and had a conversation with some fellow adventurers while we had a snack.
The old cars at Stormer Camp were very cool to see.
This was from the beach near the Village Campground.
I took a photo of this old trash on the island near the village campground because I thought it was interesting to date this trash to the 80s when glass bottles had styrofoam type labels around them. I remember these from my childhood.
This old plow was on the path between the campground and the beach (if you go the long way, at least.) The island is littered with random artifacts like this.
For the second night, we set up camp at the Village Campground. We walked from Johnson Place around to Lake Manitou, around the edge of the lake and back out looking for a good spot for our tents. The thing is that good flat spots were hard to find on the island (at least good spots that were not already taken). So, we took the easy route and headed for the campground. We actually liked this little campground a lot. The sites were reasonably private and separated nicely with vegetation. The campground also had an outhouse and potable water available nearby in the village.
This is the beach near the village campground at dusk.
This is the path back to the Village.
These are cottages in the village.
Looking through a window into one of the old cottages.
This is taken from the dock looking back at the island.
That’s the boat to collect us from the island. The boat ride was fine, but it was my least favorite part of the trip. On the ride over, we sat on top of the boat. I would advise that you only sit up top if its not looking rainy. On the way back, it was warmer and we sat inside the boat. The ride is about an hour each way or longer if your cruise also involves heading to South Manitou to pick up or drop off day trippers.
Rocky’s Recommendations:
1. Order your boat tickets early. Make sure you have a reservation to be sure you can actually get to the island on your planned dates.
2. When you board the boat, your pack may be literally tossed on a huge pile of backpacks. If you use a water bladder and that bladder is full when you board and your pack ends up on the bottom of the pile, you may end up with a burst bladder and wet gear. This happened to at least one camper on our boat ride. There is a water fountain at the visitor center that you can use during the regular season to fill your water resvoir.
3. It’s challenging to find good spots for tents on the island. You’re competing with everyone that arrived with you on the boat (and everyone else already on the island) for the best/easiest to find spots. So, you may want to plan your preferred campsites before you arrive and make haste to your preferred site to increase your chance of camping somewhere cool. We lucked out with the Johnson Place site. Many other cool sites were already occupied by tents by the time we arrived. If you’re a hammock camper, you’ll have an easier time finding good camp spots, I think.
4. Lake Manitou is very cool. I thought that it was worth the trip to see it. We walked in via the path to Fiskes (on the map). We did not find great camp sites other than a couple that were already occupied. (Maybe we didn’t look in the right spots, but we walked from Fiskes southward without finding any ideal spots.)
5. Fires are not allowed on the island except in the three communal fire rings in the Village Campground. If you need a campfire to enjoy your trip, just stay at the campground.
6. The only outhouses on the island are in the Village and the Campground. Be prepared to dig a cathole elsewhere on the island.
7. If you find yourself stuck on the island longer than expected, there is a food box in the visitor center with food left behind by previous hikers. This may be useful information if you find yourself stranded during inclement weather when the boat is unable to make the trip.
Resources:
1. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Page:
https://www.nps.gov/slbe/index.htm
2. North Manitou Island Page:
https://www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/northmanitouisland.htm
3. North Manitou Brochure and Map
https://www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/upload/nmi_brochure.pdf
4. Get your boat tickets to get you to the Island at Manitou Island Transit
http://manitoutransit.com/
