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.
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