Trip around Lake Michigan

We started a trip around the lake Monday, Aug 16th, with the RV and the Envoy in tow, with a kayak on top of the car and bicycles hanging off the back. Monday and Tuesday nights we were across the street from the Warren Dunes, near Sawyer, MI. I was last at Warren Dunes in the 70s with a hang gliding tour. I don't think I made it off the ground. Anyway, Warren Dunes is very nice. Clean, deep beaches with soft sand and miles of it to walk and just 3 hours from home. We found a secluded spot on Tuesday and spent all day there.
Wednesday AM we traveled north to Manistee, MI and Orchard Beach SP. The stairs down to the beach were steep and long. The beach wasn't nearly as deep, but the sand was soft and the water warm. Wednesday was very windy and I got to fly my new steerable kite. I learned to control it and flew it several times successfully. Thursday was an even nicer day, less wind, sunny, 7x degrees and absolutely wonderful. We walked a ways up the beach to a spot where we only had one person walk by all day. Heavenly.
Friday we drove another 3-4 hours north to Mackinaw City, crossed the Mackinaw bridge and camped at St. Ignace, across from Mackinac Island. We're going to the island today.

Oh no, Bambi is lost

I was kayaking in Whitefish Dunes State Park, Door County, WI on Memorial Day, 2010. I had paddled along the Lake Michigan coast a couple miles and decided to stop and rest. It had turned sunny and I was lying down, taking a snooze. I heard what I thought was a cat meowing. When it happened several times and not far away, I opened my eyes and there was Bambi staring at me about 15 feet away. Startled, I said “Bambi!” He/she kept crying and walking around through the rocks, gradually getting closer and closer to me. He was very skinny and couldn’t have been more than a couple days old. He was obviously lost from his mother and didn’t know enough to be afraid of me. When he got close enough, I reached out my hand for him to smell. That startled him and he turned and ran back to where he started. He then squatted down like he was peeing. He peed for quite awhile! Then all of a sudden he dropped to the ground and made a snorting sound. I thought he had dropped dead. Then I heard it again, but this time it was from the woods. I looked up to see Bambi’s mother, jumping around and snorting at me. Her snort must have also been a message to Bambi to lay down and stay still. She apparently wasn’t going to come to Bambi’s rescue with me there, so I picked up and walked back to my boat. I had a camera with me, but the batteries had gone dead. I thought I’d try to get one more shot out of the camera, so I walked back and took 2 pictures. Bambi was still lying in the same place, so his mother was still too shy to rescue him even though I had walked out of sight to the boat. So, I gathered my stuff and took off with the boat so Momma could rescue Bambi.

Tim Detwiler