We are going up to Grayling, Oscoda and Tawas MI for the weekend. We hope to check out some new boondocking spots and drive by several rustic state campgrounds and see what they have to offer.
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Hey Spott... have a good weekend in da North Country. Watch out for the pilgrimage of hunters and watch out even more for their prey!!!! Almost nailed one with the bike last night. They're everywhere!!!!
JOHN
if id have known id come up for a cold one! if you get near by old orchard park check it out, its pretty nice. drive through and look around. my site will be 93 next season. swing by if your ever around. have fun and be safe!
Friday night we stayed at Van Etten Lake State Park (Rustic only) Very cold even though the temperature was 36 degrees, Lots of wind coming off the lake and lake Huron is only a few miles away.
Saturday we went into Tawas to look at a couple of things and saw a small truck with a small TC and a very large boat on the back, it didn’t even occur to me to take a picture but I wish I had.
We than went back to Oscoda and stopped at the Oscoda Beach Park so Spot could have a romp in the water.
We headed west on East River Rd to Ambrose lake SP (ok that is where we were trying to go). On the way we stopped at a Rustic SP on Pine Crest Trail, very nice camp the sites are a couple of hundred yards apart from each other and everything is over looking the Au Sable River.
To register for these sites it said we would have to go to the lumberjack memorial, we didn’t know where that was and weren’t going to stay here tonight anyway so off we went. At some point several miles away we passed the entrance to the Lumberjack Memorial so we went in and said Hi.
We than stopped in at Old Orchard Park, it is also on the Au Sable River, we looked for JoeJeeps camp site but got confused with the color coding of the site numbers (I confuse easily) we didn’t see a map for the sites anywhere.
We than checked out the Rollway SP, it was rustic but sites were within spitting distance of each other.
On the road again, as Willie Nelson would say, Our GPS said to take Rose City Rd
To Stoney Ridge Rd
Than onto Houghton Creek Trail, and this is the trail, the trees appear to only get trimmed by passing vehicles, it got very low and narrow. We loved it.
When the GPS told us to turn left to enter the camp there was nothing but trees, no road, no trail, no path, I’m not even sure we could have walked through there. We kept driving and came out onto a State paved Road, we agreed to turn around and go back into the woods for the night. As we were going back in a jeep and a truck was coming out, since I was closest to any kind of pull off, I backed up a hundred yards or so. We stopped and talked for a bit and they made a recommendation for a couple of sites up ahead that have been cleared big enough for our rig. This next photo is our drive way and we tucked in to the left so to be out of sight.
We went for a nice long hike down some two tracks to see what there was to see, lots and lots of trees.
It gets dark here between 5 and 5:30 so we headed back for dinner, I typed on the computer while Kim read and Spot took a nap. We watched the movie “Four rooms” hardly worth it, and went to bed early.
At 1:39am I realized I was awake and that the furnace had just kicked on, so it must be time to determine it cycle times.
It’s 33 degrees outside and the thermostat set on 70, basement stays 43.
I watched for 3 cycles and they were all 8 minutes on and 18 minutes off.
This morning at 11am it’s up to a whopping 34 degrees.
We spent Sunday walking the trails and had a fire that evening, Spot got a bit cold so he got wrapped in a blanket before the fire even took off.
By the time the fire got going he was inside snoozing.
Monday morning and it’s time to head home, but I’m not ready to just yet so we cruse down more of these great forest roads and would you believe at the end of a dead end we find Ambrose Lake Campground. (GPS was off just a few miles)
Here’s another great stretch of road
At one point we find our selves at the top of this hill and the road was washed out (without the camper I would have tried it)
We backed out and took another small road until it came to this clear-cut site.
On our way out we met a grader head on but he pulled off and let us by (no photo, I know thank goodness)
Than it was off to the highway and head home, unfortunately we were not unscathed. The camper and the truck now have official battle scars (Hopefully most will buff out) and you’ll see I the following photo the TV antenna took one for the team. I always thought that style antenna was bad for forests.
Great pics and writeup! Thanks Spott, looks like you had a great time! This really shows the abilities of a TC, imagine having a 40' DP and trying that..........
Spott wrote: We are going up to Grayling, Oscoda and Tawas MI for the weekend. We hope to check out some new boondocking spots and drive by several rustic state campgrounds and see what they have to offer.
Everywhere will be packed with deer hunters. One of my favorite spots is Harrisville Harbor. There sould be room, since the fishing has peaked. There should be room by Foote Dam for the same reason. There are plenty of places to park, but restaurant seats may have a wait. US23 has seen a building boom in the last decade. Be careful driving. Besides drinking hunters, the deer are stirred up (notice the greasy spots where the treeline is near the road) and seem to cross the road on the curves. Don't get in a hurry. You won't gain 5 minutes on anyone trying to pass on 23. Be safe; run with your light on, allow plenty of following distance and keep a cool head. Someone always forgets and messes things up for the folks around them
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