Sunday, August 22, 2010

August 21, 2010. South Manitou Island

This day started with breakfast on the boat, and while I did not exactly throw the baby out with the bathtub, I inadvertently threw the sink protector overboard. Toby volunteered to go in after it, and was successful. Toby, Liza and I went ashore in the dinghy, newly named Dvoika (this means two in Russian). We left Dvoika on the beach and left Bill and Erika on Troika and set out for a short hike.
We walked past the ranger station and took a look at the lighthouse, active from 1871 until 1958. Toby went for a swim while Liza sketched the lighthouse.


When we saw that the Dunes trail was only 3.2 miles we decided to take that trail and then walk back to the harbor along the lake shore.


By the time we got to the Dunes we were plenty tired. All of my water was gone but the kids still had some.... we came down to the shore and saw nothing but water--no land visible in any direction, not what we expected. I thought we should go to the right to get back to our boat, so we set out walking--it was nearing 2 PM by then and we were getting hungry!

We walked and we walked and we walked. We stopped to rest a few times; the kids went swimming, and Liza sketched the shore of North Manitou Island, which was the first land form we saw from our beach. At nearly 5 PM, when we had been in sight of our boat for about a half hour, Bill called to us from the trail. He had been searching for us for about 2 hours by then... he had energy bars for us and accompanied us on the rest of our walkabout. He and Liza and Toby got into Dvoika and paddled out to Troika and then Liza paddled back to get me.
We found out later that we walked 10 miles! We all had blisters on our feet, and I had bruises on the bottom of my feet... we did not intend to hike 10 miles in our sandals! This is what we learned: Never hike without a map. Never hike without snacks, even if you think you won't need them. Have a plan and stick to it. Bill added "never hike with Grandma" but I thought that was a bit harsh.... Once again I was impressed with Toby and Liza. We are surely glad she is as adventuresome and happy as she is!
We all went to bed early, but the wind was howling out of the north and the boat was rocking fiercely so we pulled up the anchor and moved the boat a mile to be in calmer water.
Life is an adventure; that's for sure!

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