Childhood Nightmare Revisited

Continuing south along the coast of the Great Lake Michigan, we come to a small town called Ludington. I've only know of Ludington as the place where you end up if you are taking the ferry as a short cut across the lake if you don't want to travel through Chicago. In my research, I found that there was so much more. I kept hearing about how Ludington State Park was the crown jewel of the  Michigan state park system. Over and over again, from many different sources, this state park was the place to be. Since I am so very, very suggestible, here I am.

It was coming up on the weekend and since I am so very averse to making reservations, there was no room at the inn for us. I found Mason County Park, a really nice county park, about five minutes away that had full hookups and was cheaper than the state park. Score!!!!

As you enter the campground there is a sign that says SLOW DOWN.  You then go around a curve and there is this sign.  It cracked me up.

Miko and I drove up to the state park. We had to drive about four miles north of the town along the lake. It felt like I was at the ocean. There were high sandy dunes between the road and the lake. I did a drive thru of the campground here and I am so glad they did not let me in. It was a zoo – no space between the campers and everybody parked every which way. The camping gods were looking out for me.

I was a little tired so I thought I would take a short little hike around Lost Lake. After we got started though, I decided I could stretch it out a bit and do the Island Trail. The island trail wanders along the shore of Hamlin Lake and hops between little islands via a boardwalk. It seemed like a much more interesting trail even though it was twice as long.

As we tool along, we meet a couple of fellow hikers who tell me the Ridge Trail was pretty incredible and lo and behold – the Island Trail meets up with the Ridge Trail. Ok, why not. I start to second guess myself when I look to my left and see this giant hill. I say to myself – I hope that is not where the Ridge Trail is. Turns out, to do the Ridge Trail, I had to climb and climb and climb that Ridge. Since the Ridge Trail goes along the top of an old sand dune (old sand dunes have trees and grasses growing on them), the ground was all sand. Walking up hill in sand is hard because for every step you take, you slid backwards a bit. It was lovely up on top though and I even got to see the Big Sable lighthouse off in the distance. Now I don't have to walk the four mile round trip across a sand desert to see that. Check that off the list – yeah, I know, I'm cheating in the sight seeing department.

Big Sable Lighthouse

Ludington also has the Amber Elk farm. This was serious elk farming. The owner sells his elk to shooting camps and also for meat, but he is really into bloodlines. You hop onto an open air wagon that is pulled by a big tractor and they take you out into the elk pens. Before we left, the guide told us that it was rutting season and if you haven't talked to your children about the birds and bees, you had better do a quick crash course. He also warned us that if a bull elk started swinging his horns around, sit down, hold on cause we are vacating the premises tout suite.

We visited with Frankie and his cows. He was the prize elk on the farm. He has blue eyes, hence the name. He was all about his girls, while the girls were all about coming to the wagon so we could feed them grain. Their coat was very stiff – almost like a wire brush.  These are some big animals - maybe about 8-900 pounds.

Frankie doing his best to impress the ladies

They did not take us into this paddock

"This is a rank bull - it is way too dangerous to go in with him" - look at the evil eye he is giving us

These are bulls in waiting - once the antlers lose their velvet, they saw the antlers off - they say there is no pain

This is Frankie's son - he is two years old.  He is in with a bunch of young cows.  He doesn't really know what he is doing yet, but he will next year.  I think he is sort of cute.

Onward to the nightmare part of the story.  When I was in middle school, I saw a picture in a book of a sea lamprey.  It gave me nightmares and has haunted me for years.  They attach themselves to fish and suck the blood right out of them - vampires of the sea.  Ludington State Park had an aquarium with sea lampreys.  They are even worse in real life than in that old book I read.  You can quit reading now or you can chose to look at the next pictures.