Gonna take a sentimental journey

Over the 4th of July, Jesse and I chose to sneak away from our sets of parents for a few days and go hiking and camping for a few days. We spent our time in Huron National Forest in the northeastern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan.

We hiked a lovely loop in the Hoist Lakes Trail System, starting at the trailhead off F32 and traveling northeast on the trail. We got a late start, having had breakfast with my parents at our cabin in West Branch. We took a nice break at the other trailhead about 8 miles later, and ran into the Forest Service guy who was checking the parking lot there. Word to the wise: the signs at the trailheads say that there is water on the trail, but they took the wells out a while ago. We decontaminate water with bleach (one drop per liter) and filter solid bits with a bandana so it wasnt a problem. 

I was ready to stop at the lake 2.5 miles in from the second trailhead. There was a gorgeous campsite at the northwest corner of the southern lake, just past a 

Iittle bridge that traversed the stream connecting the upper and lower lakes. But there were a few different groups of people at the lake already, and we still had hours of sunlight, so Jesse suggested we go further, maybe to 'no name' lake, and camp there. There weren't designated campsites on no name, but we are pretty good stealth campers, so we thought we'd give it a shot.

No name lake was a mosquito-filled cesspit. Some respite from the heat, but we weren't sleeping there. The lake was nicely sized, but had bog-like growths reducing it to half its size. Great for fishing, I suspect. But we couldnt get water there, and we would need more before morning, so we continued on. 

We hiked a little over 14 miles to Byron lake. Boy was it worth it! Only about 1.5 miles from the trailhead from which we had started hours earlier (talk about the long way around, eh?), since the trailhead was on the lesser used road, nobody was there. But the lake was pristine. There was a big fire pit and some fishing line/hooks from someone else who must frequent the spot, but we had the lake to ourselves. 

We jumped in to cool off and rinse 14 miles of hiking off of us, then made camp right on the beach. Check out our campsite!

                In the next entry, I'll describe to you our brilliant day hike along the Michigan shore to shore trail near here. There was a touch of epic...