NCT Hike Day 2: French Farm Lake to Pines Campground, Wilderness State Park

This was supposed to be about an 8.75 miles long day. Nope. The hike along French Faarm Lake was nice. Not so nice that I stopped to take photos. Maybe I should have. My excuse was the sun was too much in the picture blowing it out. I enjoyed the hiking and by early afternoon I was well into Wilderness State Park. I was also sleepy. The last couple nights I had not slept well and I was feeling it. I found a spot on the trail, stepped off, put my pack down, and closed my eyes for a sort of power-nap for 25 minutes. Had I gone 100-200 feet farther I would have found an actual campsite that would have been ideal for the nap (just alittle southeast of mile MI-559.5 on the Avenza map).

good morning from French Farm Lake. My campsite may not be official but it was a nice site with easy access to water.

--August 15 2019 at 06:55:56. Mackinaw City, MI, United States

French Farm Lake did not look like much last night but with the morning light it looks a bit better.

--August 15 2019 at 06:58:29. Mackinaw City, MI, United States

My rest did seem to help. My eyes weren’t closing of their own volition anymore. I went on through the forests of Wilderness State Park. I found the Mount Nebo Trail and eventually the NCT veers off to the west (Red Pines Trail) and I took that. I figured that I would be able to arrange a campsite at Goose Pond. Boy was I wrong.

It is a huge campground. It is one of many. The camp host was nowhere to be found. I thought I could call someone but that did not work. A couple asked what I was looking for and the gentleman offered to drive me down to the registration office, a good mile and a half away (I think). Hurray. Of course I had already spent time wandering about trying to figure things out. It must have been almost 17:00 when I got my permit and began the trudge along the road to Pines campgorund. Which, you guessed it, I did not find right off. It was pushing 19:00 when I popped out from a pathway into campsite 247 and found two younger fellow enjoying a fire and a beer. They asked what I was doing and I told them searching for campsite 242. Just a couple sites to your left. They had stories and they wanted to hear what I was doing backpacking, something not often seen on the NCT around here, so instead of going to my camp and setting up and cooking dinner I sat down with them and drank 2 Founders Mosaic Promise beers while we talked for a good hour. By the time I got to my caampsite, set up, and found important places like the bathroom I was not at all interested in cooking dinner. I have lots of snacks..

I certainly added at least 2 miles to my day. I was tired. I was annoyed with the campsite issues (probably my fault). But meeting Eric and Mark certainly made up for a lot of woe. But I was not going to explore - even go across the road to the so close by Lake Michigan. I went to sleep around 22:00.

Distance: supposed to be 8.75 miles but was likely over 11.
Weather: Buggy at times, warm and sunny.