Blue Goose ~ Day 1

June 1 ~ Holland, Michigan to Warren Dunes SP, Michigan

I  left Holland on a beautiful sunny June morning after a lengthy last stop at my storage unit to drop off a last load and throw a bunch of moth balls over the contents and on the floor. It's pretty jumbled but then I occasionally see other people grubbing about in their units and mine seems more organized. Some of my once-organized boxes have a bizarre and unrelated assortment of stuff which will mean delayed frustration in the future.

I drove south to Warren Dunes State Park and first spent several hours at the north end - accessed by Floral Lane. I was in search of a Prairie Warbler so headed over the Blue Jay Trail which goes  through magnificent hardwoods and then up heart-pounding dunes to the blue lake.

Once on top of the dunes, though, I started back down and did the first of my daily Hour Sit...a sit in which I do not read or answer my phone or fidget. I found the perfect spot under a Silver Maple and American Basswood tree which are two of the most common Michigan trees. There was a light cooling breeze and only a very occasional insect.  I wondered if I could possibly bear just sitting for an hour, especially as not much was happening. The only birds I saw were a Towhee and two glimpses of birds flying through the woods. And almost no birds were singing or chipping. It's nesting season and they are tending to that with the annual noisy avian hormonal thing winding down.

Three women walked by, separately, one with her dog. The wind shushed through the leaves and the only other sound was the distant but heavy traffic on I94.

Warren Dunes is a long linear park along Lake Michigan with dunes, dune blow-outs (where the Prairie Warbler nests), forests and swampy areas.

The sitting quietly was surprisingly OK...and when I finally checked the time, I only had 6:47 minutes left.

I hiked down to the Yellow Birch Trail which is wildly productive for birding in the spring, seeing almost nothing. I did hear more birds down here, but the trees reached to heaven and that's where many of them were. Better birders would have identified some (or all) by their vocalizations.  Still, it was a peaceful and pleasant walk in habitat.

I had a piece of cheese and some frozen blueberries and took photos of a grand old Tuliptree next to the parking lot and chatted with Adam who calls me often. His initial sentence was about the Beatles in Germany.

At the park headquarters, I asked if I could drive through the campgrounds to check out if I wanted to stay there or not. Of course, the sweet young girl told me, but drive at 5 mph and watch for kids. There were two options: Semi-Modern and Modern. The Semi had many empty spots but was more isolated and only a couple other campers...one a man with his belly hanging over his belt. The Modern campground had about 100 spots, had either 50 amp power or less than 50 amps ($25 and $27 respectively) and was 5% full this early in the year. I decided to stay. It was beautiful under the tall trees, and it was either that or a parking lot. I will probably not camp much though because it is relatively expensive...relative in view of the fact that I will have to find sleeping places 300+ nights of this year, and $25-$45 will be prohibitive. Finding sleeping places.....one subtext of this adventure.

I picked out spot #88 and paid my $26.

OK...now the tent which I got out and finally had to figure out by going on the Internet via iPhone. I am not quick-witted about putting things together. Richard and I took 15-20 minutes figuring out my little Jet Boil stove which some of you would assemble in 5 minutes. My sleeping cot was as comfortable as a bed. It is the Comfort Cot from REI and is bulky but did fit in the tent. It has adjustable legs for uneven ground or for conversion into a chaise lounge position. I have had a $5 Coleman sleeping bag from Ditto for years and that worked well too.

For some reason, when I parked and opened the door, I thought I would be in mosquito nirvana, but they didn't materialize except about one/hour and I sat and read Hiroshima (John Hersey) for a couple of hours, covertly watching the man across the way who was apparently alone also but had an RV. He quietly set up a Weber grill and made his dinner. There was also another single man just down the road in a huge RV whom I saw sitting and smoking in a camp chair both last night and early the next morning. His campsite even had it's own sanitation station and he was hooked up and locked in place with blocks by his wheels on a concrete pad. The ultimate RV-er. His license plates were Arizona.

I got my little stove working. One pushes an ignition / spark switch while turning on the canister of propane fuel. The first try I heard the hissing but wasn't sure it was not just escaping fuel, which it was. There are a dozen warnings about using anything like this, so I am careful, excessively so. I turned off the gas and kept trying the ignition switch but it didn't seem to be sparking like it did when we tried it last week at Townsend. But then, after a couple more tried, it worked. I was out in the open so figured I was relatively safe.

For 18 months I have had some freeze-dried meals by Mountain Valley. One boils water, adds it to a pouch, stirs, zip-locks the pouch shut, waits about 10 minutes and then eats out of the pouch if one doesn't want to get dishes dirty, which I don't. It was a tasty Pasta Primavera and I ate more than half of the 2.5 servings in the pouch. And had some white chocolate for dessert. The campgrounds don't allow alcohol, and I didn't have any wine with me. So I imagine people discretely drink and the park personnel then CAN kick them out if they become obnoxious. What I cannot imagine is that no one drinks in our drinking society.

I walked about as the dusk gathered and then climbed in my tent, sleeping in my clothes, just taking off my bra. I was already grubby with dirty fingernails, although I had brushed my teeth and washed hands in the shower / restroom building, which was about an 8 (on a scaled of 1 to 10, with 10 being exquisitely clean.) I showered there the next morning and was horrified to discover my very muddy tennis shoes made a mess of the tiled shower room floor which was basically an open area with a drain. I had no way to clean it up, no container to flush it away.

The night was warm. There were predictions for light rain so I had attached the rain fly. It may have sprinkled slightly, or maybe not. The wind blew though most of the night. I woke up a couple of times and laid there listening to muted traffic and generally feeling safe and comfortable, but still a bit vulnerable, thinking about those who camp in bear country, or having fleeting thoughts of insane psycho killers. I would hear scribbling and scratching of the night creatures.

At one point I had to pee even though I purposefully didn't drink after 4 pm, so popped a squat as Natasha says, in the dark on the edge of the campsite. I could have walked to the showers / toilets but peeing outside has never bothered me.