Monthly Archives: November 2018

Road Trip!

Posted on by

The snow and wind stopped sometime during the night and I woke up (late – nearly 8:00!) to bright sunshine and crisp temperatures outside. Have not gotten above 25 today, but the lack of wind has made things much more hospitable than they were yesterday. My weather app tells me that tomorrow will also be sunny and that the thermometer will reach to nearly 40, which will feel like shorts weather after the last few days.

As planned, the fire had nearly gone out by the time I woke up, so I made some coffee and then shoveled a bunch of ash out of the stove, which I deposited into the trash can designed for such stuff outside. Feeling the housekeeping bug, I then proceeded to do some furniture rearrangement – moved my table and wood pile, pushed some chairs out of the way, redesigned the way that I hang my sink, set up a better coat rack, then swept out the entire cabin and the front porch.

After doing so, I brought in two loads of wood and completely filled my inside wood rack. Note to self: do that BEFORE sweeping the floor next time.

Took stock of my food for a bit next. Down to 6 beers, no chips left. Sure, I have other foodstuffs, but let’s be serious here. I was taking stock of the important food. Having determined that I was running low on the vitals, I determined to drive in to Cheboygan and restock. This turned out to be somewhat of a hassle, as my car has been sitting idle since last Friday and was covered in 3 inches of snow and ice. I brushed off most of the loose snow (did I mention that, yes, I have a snow brush and scraper in my car?), then remembered that I needed to add a quart of oil to the thing. Managed to get the hood open, but could not loosen the oil cap until I got a couple of logs from the woodshed and banged on it for a while. Got the oil put in, then climbed in and cranked her up to warm up the windows before scraping off the ice.

For a horrible moment, I thought the car wasn’t going to start, but it caught after a couple of attempts (this car has never sat out for a week in sub-freezing temperatures) and warmed up everything nicely. Drove to the Marathon station in town (about 5 miles) and filled up with gasoline, then picked up a 12-pack of brew, a couple bags of chips, a gas station sandwich – which I had for lunch, along with a pack of three-pepper sauce that I found in my brain – and a big bottle of Gatorade. Needed that last not so much for the drink, but because my current pee bottle needs to hold more, if you know what I mean.

Arriving back at the cabin, I shoveled some more ash out of the stove, then put in a couple of new logs, started listening to a podcast, and promptly fell asleep. I’ve been dozing on and off for most of the day since, and – now 4:20 in the afternoon – the sun is on the way down. I plan to hit the sack fairly early tonight (sleeping is what I do best on my solitary vacations), and maybe take a walk tomorrow, in between naps.

The picture for this post is of one of the two lighthouses that I have guarding the east-west channel alongside of which I’m camped. This one is right offshore to the west – it gives its name to the Lighthouse Cabin – and there’s another about a mile or two down to the east. I haven’t taken any pictures of them this year, but there are some BIG ships heading past every day, and the sounds of them chugging along and sounding their horns, along with the sounds of the horns from the lighthouses at night, is pretty amazing.

Cold Snap

Posted on by

I woke up early this morning, and quickly discovered – on my way to the latrine – that it had gotten markedly colder than it was yesterday. The temperature itself wasn’t terrible, having only dropped a few degrees into the mid-twenties, but the wind was back with a vengeance. Not sure what the wind chill actually is (I used to have a chart for that), but I’ll just say that it has been COLD all day.

That being the case, I’ve spent most of the day inside the cabin, reading, snoozing, and listening to podcasts. I did bundle up and take a walk this afternoon – explored some of the Duncan Bay side of the point, and got in a bit more than 2 miles of exercise. Was forced to wear a gaiter than Cy gave me several years ago or my face would have frozen off; and I had on a tee, flannel shirt, windbreaker, gloves, and flannel-lined pants to keep the rest of me warm.

Today was pasta day at the old cabin. Made some ravioli on the wood stove for brunch and had some dehydrated spaghetti and meat sauce about an hour ago. Both were pretty good, but I’ll give the nod to the spaghetti. Mountain House makes some good dehydrated food.

It has also been snowing off-and-on for most of the day, although I got a couple hours of sunny clear skies during and just after my walk. No accumulation to speak of, but the sidewalk that I so carefully shoveled could probably use another scraping. That won’t happen today, as it’s already dark.

For some reason, the picture that I keep trying to attach to this post (a shot of my cabin kitchen) won’t upload, and my email doesn’t seem to be updating, either. That being the case, this post might not publish – but I’m going to click the “Publish” button now anyway.

Monday in the Woods

Posted on by

I’m not sure what I said that I was going to do yesterday, but I’m fairly confident that I didn’t do it. I spent nearly the entire day in my cabin listening to podcasts and/or watching a couple of movies. I’d hoped to be able to watch the Falcons game, but my YouTube TV apparently doesn’t get live feeds in this area (one more reason that I’ll continue to experiment with that on a month-to-month basis).

As it turned out, the Falcons got crushed by a terrible Cleveland team, so I didn’t miss much.

I did get a nap in for an hour or so late-morning. Also brought in another load of wood (my third since Friday) and made some very good beef stew. Did that last on my old Coleman stove, which was the first time that I’ve used it at all since arriving here. My wood stove has done an admirable job of heating my water AND my food for the last few days. I stocked up on Coleman fuel for this trip, but it seems to me that I’m going to use very little of it. What I did not stock up on was lantern fuel – and since it’s pretty much pitch black in the cabin by 5:30 at night, that may have been an oversight. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve got a couple of tent lamps, at least one (I think two) head lamps, and a couple of flashlights, so I should be okay. If not, I don’t mind going to sleep when it gets dark.

Should you be wondering why I have so many flashlights and head lamps, it’s because I brought my “brain” on the trip. It’s the little bag that sits on top of my backpack, and I’ve said on many camping/hiking trips that, if necessary, I could live out of my brain for a week. It contains a lot of the ultra-light stuff that I’ve collected in the last 20 years while striving for the ultimate light pack, and usually has a couple of light sources, fire sources, spare food (oatmeal, cliff bars, coffee), water purifiers, various drugs and ointments, a spare knife, and lots of other things that may come in handy in an emergency. My brain only weighs about a pound, but it’s definitely a worthwhile weight for overnight hikes.

I did some snow shoveling this morning. Cleared the sidewalk between the cabin and the outhouse, and also cleared a path between the cabin and the wood shed. Salted everything, and that should take care of any slippery spots for the next day or two. It has continued to snow since yesterday afternoon, but it’s not sticking, so I don’t foresee any problems with actually driving out of here at the end of the week.

I did rouse myself out of the cabin stupor for about an hour late yesterday afternoon and took a rather brisk walk on the beach for about a mile (and another mile in the woods). My plan for today is to make a long loop on the various trails – head to Cheboygan point on an interior trail, circle back and head east on the beach all the way down to Poe Reef cabin, then head south through the woods to the campground, west on the other side of it, then back north through the cedar swamp to my cabin. I’m not positive about the distance, but I think it will be around 10 miles.

Or maybe I’ll just sleep, eat, and watch videos.

I meant to point out earlier that the picture at the top of this post is, I believe, one of loons that were hanging out in my little cove yesterday. There were 6 of them in total. Lots of water birds here. In addition to the (I think) loons, there is a flock of about 20 swans, at least two eagles, ducks, and lots of seagulls.

Later. My 10-mile walk ended up being a little over 6 miles. That’s fine, because my back, quads, and feet really didn’t want to go any further. Between the sand on the beach and the snow, walking was tough!

So that was a couple of hours this afternoon, since which time I’ve made a dehydrated turkey casserole (quite good), listened to a podcast, and played in the wind a bit. The wind has picked back up dramatically, and it has gotten quite cold on the beach. Since the sun is going down in the next hour or so (it’s already pretty dark), I think I’m probably in for the evening.

Loving that wood stove….

Lazy Sunday

Posted on by

It is a dreary morning here on the shore of Lake Huron. It’s been snowing for a few hours now, and that shows no signs of stopping. Not a heavy snow, but enough to fill in my footprints after 20 minutes or so.

The wind completely died away sometime after midnight last night, and the most immediate result of that is that it has become uncomfortably warm inside the cabin. I’ve got two windows and the front door open and I’m still sweating through my tee shirt. Maybe I’ll take a dip in the lake. Ha!

It was wonderfully cold outside last night. Sounds strange, I know, but there is something about a northern cold that I really like. I know that I complained a few months ago that it had been relentlessly cold in Georgia last winter – and I meant that – but I guess because of the humidity the cold in Michigan or Vermont or Canada just feels different, and I like it. There was also a break in the cloud cover last night and I was able to catch a look at the night sky away from city lights. Beautiful.

I’ve been listening to podcasts this morning, but will probably take a walk in a little while. Might also shovel the sidewalk (I didn’t get to that yesterday), and will definitely bring in another load of wood. It’s warm in here now, but I know how fast this cabin will reach the twenties if I let the fire die.

Other than the walk, the wood, and the shoveling, I have no plans for today. Might be a day for reading or napping.

Snow Day!

Posted on by

I woke up this morning to a beautiful Lake Huron sunrise, strong winds, and a couple of inches of the white stuff. As I sit here at the table in my cabin, listening to a Furman football game, I’m looking out at something I’m pretty sure that I’ve never seen before: snow in the foreground and the lake, with huge white caps, in the back. The wood stove in the cabin is doing an amazing job – I’m in my underwear and have cracked a window, both to cool things down a little bit and to let me hear the wind, which is constant and incredibly soothing. I played my wind game for about an hour earlier this morning, which I haven’t been able to do for several years.

Wind game: try to find a spot outside that allows me to simultaneously be in and out of the wind. I invented it as a small child in Shoreham – the perfect spot was behind the berry bush between the roots of the Elm tree in the front yard. The best spot I found today was in a Cedar Grove near the beach.

Took two fairly long walks today. The first one took me to Cheboygan Point, about a mile from here. I wandered around there for a while, then walked east on the beach back past my cabin to the edge of the park. Came back to the cabin for a lunch of chicken and dumplings, then opted to walk over to the campsite on the southern edge of the park rather than take a nap.

I’d just arrived back at the cabin after that trek when one of the rangers showed up to give me some rock salt and – you called it, Dad! – a snow shovel. I shoveled off the front of the cabin, where I have my “settin’ outside” chair, before coming back in to listen to the game. Later today, I might get enough energy to shovel off the walkway that leads to the latrine.

A bit about the cabins here at Cheboygan State Park: there are three of them, all available year-round, and all basically the same. I stayed in the Poe Reef cabin last year. This time, I’m at 14-Foot Shoals, which is about a mile further off the main road than Poe. A quarter-mile further along is Lighthouse Cabin. 14-Foot Shoals has a “porch” of sorts, which is missing in the other two cabins. It’s just a little 3-foot overhang across the front of the cabin, but it’s a great place to sit outside without being completely exposed to the elements.

Other than that, the cabins are all pretty much the same. They’re square buildings – I’d guess about 20 feet per side – with a single room under a peaked roof. Each wall has at least one window (2 on the lake-facing wall), and there is a small counter in one of the lakeside corners. Each building also has a wood stove, 4 sets of bunk beds, a table with two benches, and a number of wooden chairs. Hooks in the rafters provide a good place to hang a lantern (there is no electricity). Each cabin also has two out-buildings: a vault toilet and a large woodshed. Water is available from a hand pump outside (kind of yellow this year, but seems to taste alright), and there are two picnic tables and two firepits – one set at the forest side of the cabin and the other on the beach.

I’m sure that, during the summer, the beaches here get crowded. In late October/early November, however, I’ve had the place pretty much to myself. Yes, there are people staying in the other two cabins, but they are distant enough to not exist, basically. Solitude is what I like, and this place has it.

A Home in the Woods

Posted on by

I have arrived at Cheboygan State Park in Michigan.

Actually, I arrived at just after 2 this afternoon, and it is now about 3:30. In the 90 minutes between, I unloaded my car of about a week’s worth of supplies, stocked the cabin with firewood (there’s plenty more in the wood shed), put on my boots, walked on the beach, and have drunk exactly one beer (more will be consumed, I predict).

It was snowing when I left Perrysburg, OH, this morning, and it’s threatening to do the same here in Cheboygan before the day is over, but right now it’s just overcast and a little chilly (about 36 degrees, according to the cabins thermometer). In the cabin itself, I’m guessing that it’s in the 50s, but I did get a fire started (forgot to mention that), and I expect that it’ll be up closer to 70 before too much longer).

The week in Perrysburg went pretty well. We had some network trouble on Sunday night, but got that cleared up on Monday, got all of the workstations set up, and were able to leave the office by about 6:30. Tuesday-Thursday went smoothly. Not too many people had trouble, so it was mainly a case of making sure printers worked okay, explaining how multiple monitors have to be configured, easy stuff. There was a system-wide outage on Wednesday morning, which was not cool at all, but nothing we could do about it. My mind was in Michigan anyway.

The plan for the rest of the day is to get the temperature up in the cabin, drink a bit of beer and bourbon, heat up some water for a sponge bath in the morning, maybe take a walk, watch a movie (I brought six of them on my phone), and sleep like a dead man. Between the breeze in the woods and the sound of the surf, about 100 feet from where I’m sitting, that last should be no problem at all.