Manitou Island is approximately 16 miles from the shore of Michigan. It has a large circular cove which make it an excellent in all but east winds. The island is mostly uninhabited other than the park rangers and backpackers.
It has a beautiful lighthouse!
We were able to take a tour and climb to the top of yet another magnificent lighthouse.
It was 116 steps up an iron circular stairway to the top.
When you get there all you can say is WOW! You can see forever. The lake is a beautiful blue. You can see the shape of raised sand where there is a shipwreck that gets covered and uncovered by storms.
We were amazed at the number of lighthouse and lifesaving people worked here in it’s day. The house attached to the lighthouse is one of the biggest we have seen. It has approximately 9 rooms in it. Unfortunately, due to lead paint, asbestos and poor conditions people aren’t allowed to visit. I can only imagine the cost to restore it, but hope that happens someday, because the exterior of the building looks to be in pretty good shape.
We saw the visitor center and learned about the history of the island. There are many miles of trails. It is 10 miles to walk all the way around the island. There is an old growth white cedar forest that is estimated to have tree 500 years old. There is also a bluff to walk up to view a shipwreck which is still sticking out of the water. Our original plan was to hike to both of these, however a few days earlier Scott injured his foot and wasn’t able to walk the 6+ miles required to do this. Next time.
Lori and Bill from Perfect Day anchored near us. They came aboard for docktails. They are Gold Loopers and are heading south again. They are from the San Diego area but call their home port Charlevoix. He worked for the City of Temecula, CA which is where our daughter, Mallory, worked 2 summers of Internship. What a small world. I am sure we will be running into them again. It is so much fun connecting with people.
When we left the island, we drove around the south side and found the shipwreck. The lighthouse keeper told us they believe there might be one ship on top of another that already wrecked. Not sure, but interesting little tid bit.
On to Ludington. Becky and Mike from True North had reached out to us to meet with them when we stopped there to go over our Bahama experience as they plan to go there next year. We shared lots of good information, marked their charts and wrote down stops and what there was to see. They were very grateful for the information. They are the harbor hosts and very gracious people. Becky took me to the lab to get some blood drawn for my upcoming appointments and they treated us to dinner to pre-celebrate the crossing our wake completing our Great Loop Trip the next day. Stay tuned for that big news.
Thanks for reading.
Karen and Scott
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