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Showing posts with label Van Buren State Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Van Buren State Park. Show all posts

Friday, April 14, 2017

A cautionary tale...with five photos

I'm joining in with Tricky over at FAST - homesteading blog for another Five on Friday.

Since making the decision about a year and a half ago for me to stop working hubby and I made a commitment to spend more time together. He wanted to go camping and hiking and I was more than willing (well, a little apprehensive) to give it a try. Turns out I love camping and we have several trips planned this year. As for the hiking, I've always enjoyed walking. It's the one exercise I do like. Now that I'm not working on Sundays it's our day to go. We've gone on many walks, including over the winter when it was bitterly cold outside. We visited lots of lighthouses and state parks. There are so many wonderful trails in Michigan. It really is a beautiful state.

For this Five on Friday I'm sharing the second part of our walk from Sunday. You can see part one HERE if you're interested. The scenery was beautiful but the walk wasn't long so we decided to head to a park not too far away. Van Buren State Park. We've been there before, took the walk to the dog beach when we were searching for dog beaches when daughter was still here. On Sunday we decided to try another trail. This one looked like it was supposed to reach the beach. 

It did. Quite a way down. 


 We took it thinking it would meander down the dune to the lake below. 


For a while it looked that way. Until we reached a drop.


It was a steep drop down onto the beach below. Hubby being the brave one (?!) decided to go down first. He said we would be fine. We could slide on our bums downwards until we reached the beach. I gave him the camera bag and let him go first.

He slid on his bum, his legs wobbled in the shifting sand and he did a roly poly down the hill. Luckily he wasn't hurt. A couple watched from the beach. Nope. Not me. I wasn't doing that! Just my luck I'd break something. Of course I had to move somewhere. Up or down. My first thought was just taking a seat on the sand and...well, maybe something would come to me. The sand was quite squishy and shifting and it was quite a way down. I was getting rather dizzy looking down.

I decided going up would be better. I couldn't turn around and walk up. It was really steep and I could feel the sand shifting beneath my feet.  I had to do some back crawling up the hill using the straw-like grass to help me back up (my arms did not thank me for that on Monday!). I managed to get to a point where I found a sort of path through the sand dune. Husband was trying to shout at me which way to go, but I couldn't hear too well as the wind whistled around me.


This is about where I came down and believe me this was easier than where hubby came down! Luckily by this time the people on the beach had moved along obviously tired of the show we were putting on.


A lovely view when we did get down. Had to sit down on a log to give my legs a moment to stop wobbling!

It could have ended badly. We probably should have stopped at the top, admired the view and turned around. Hubby probably should have paid attention to his little handheld unit when it had the lines really close together showing a steep hill. Oh well, lesson learned!

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Sunday Walk - Glorious Day!

The morning started off quite chilly. I managed to drag myself out of the warmth of bed and get bundled up and ready by about half past nine. I know it's not early, but after years of getting up at 2.30am I can honestly say that I am no longer an early riser. Once we'd done the weekly shop we took off on a drive to a county park. It is called Scotts Mill County Park and is a pretty little place to visit with a nice trail to walk.


This area was first settled in 1836. The original mill was built not far from this one. The mill you see was built in 1870. It was in operation up until 1971 when the owner died and milling ceased. It was purchased in 1973 by Kalamazoo County Parks.


It has a really pretty view.


The nature trail isn't too far.


Can't hardly see the sign!



Through the trees we saw a cabin but we're not sure if someone lives there or not. It is in the park so probably not. We couldn't get close enough to see. 

After walking through the woods and back to the car we headed out to our second destination - Van Buren State Park. We wanted to check out the camping sites and the dog beach. We had a map of the park so marked down the sites we wouldn't mind reserving. Some looked close together and others were larger with natural tree borders marking off the site. 

There were quite a few hills up to the beach. Yikes. Sand dunes. Puff. 
 




Once up one side and down the other the view was fantastic!



There were several people on the beach. They seemed to be looking for something along the lakeshore. Of course, that made me have to google it to see what exactly they were looking for. Apparently because the lake has been so high lots of stones have been left at the lake edge and people are looking for stones and fossils. 

I had to dig in!


This is the most interesting thing I found.