Jeana
From WildWiki
North Manitou Island Backpacking
Introduction
We will be traveling to Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the nearby North Manitou Island. The first few days of the trip will be spent camping at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. While at the park we will have opportunities for day hikes, dune climbing, and swimming. Next we will take an hour-long ferry ride to North Manitou Island, where we will backpack using Leave No Trace ethics. Participants in this trip will not need any backpacking experience, but they should have a good attitude and an eagerness to learn not only backcountry skills, but also local flora and fauna.
Dates
This trip will be an informal trip for some friends and myself and will occur sometime in May and will probably last about a week and a half. I will later adapt it for the summer of 2007 for the summer camp where I work.
Expectations
As a trip among friends, this expedition is not intended to be much more than a fun adventure. There won’t be a formal leader, though I will probably have had the most experience and will be in charge of most logistics and planning. Participants will work together to choose food, road music, and will help pick trails and campsites. Because most participants won’t have much experience, we will only hike about five miles a day and spend most of our time in camp. We will use this time to hone our backcountry cooking skills, read aloud to each other, and appreciate nature in a casual manner.
If this trip is later used for campers it will be more educational, with components about leadership, teamwork, wilderness skills and some natural history. The leaders will be expected to have wilderness experience and appropriate first aid and emergency training.
