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Whiting Park
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Just like
in Florida – when we move – we move in short distances! This “move” was about 50 miles downstate
from Petosky – to the south shore of the east branch of Lake Charlevoix, about
5 miles from Boyne City. From our
vantage point at Whiting Memorial Park you could see the hills behind Boyne
City and directly across from us was Young’s State Park, where we’ve traveled
by boat on other adventures. Whiting
Park is an older county park that is mostly non-electric campsites and 12 that
you are able to reserve and have just electricity. The last 2 sites have only 20-amp service and were all that were
available. And - may I tell you that
you CANNOT run the air conditioning AND the microwave at the same time on only
20 amps! Site #2 was good because it was
away from the hoards of tents on the weekend but it was a long walk to the
facilities! Exercise –right?
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| Holtel at Wallon Lake |
Between Petosky and
Lake Charlevoix is Earnest Hemmingway’s favorite Walloon Lake – a beautiful
lake that is surrounded by all types of magnificent homes – some northern
rustic log mansions, some New England wealth and some were southern white
3-story plantation-esque with brightly colored hanging baskets everywhere! Some of their vivid canvas topped boat
shelters were bigger than our house! Of
course, inside these shelters were a vast array of pontoon, ski and antique
wood boats! While on the lake we had to
pause on one of the shallow sand bars that jutted out into the deep blue water
for a cooling dip. The public boat launch
is a sliver of land wedged between the historic hotel and the cottages.
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| Cooling off |
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| Boyne city |
Boyne City, with her manicured waterfront parks and marina, sits
in the eastern cove of Lake Charlevoix.
A plethora of flowers fill the planters that top the railings of the
bridge over the Boyne River where it enters Lake Charlevoix at Sunset
Park. This park is home to a rather
worrisome looking Gnome. The picture I
took of him is better than the one H took - because I am not in it! Don’t I look worried too? I wanted to take him home but H said NO –
and he is too big for my Gnome Village!
Also in Boyne City is the Boyne Boat Works, owned by the Van Dam
family. While the 2 monstrous steel buildings
next door house some of the biggest boats around, the one by the road is home
to 20-25 SUPER classic autos. There
were a 57 Chevy Nomad, a Woody, an amphibian car, old Fords, Lincolns,
Packards, MGs, a 54 Kaiser Darrin and the world’s only 77 Corvette Convertible.
It was a prototype that never made it to production! Some of these cars have even been on display at the Gilmore
Museum, downstate in Kalamazoo!
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| Aboard the Ironton Ferry |
As always, we found it necessary to traverse the fork in the lake
at the small town of Ironton via the 1883 Ironton Car Ferry and then have fish
for lunch at the water front restaurant on the other side. The price to ride the ferry is still very
reasonable but since our last visit the quality of food at the restaurant has
gone down but the price has gone way up.
The gray clouds rolled in again as we finished our lunch and headed for
the city of Charlevoix with it’s lighthouse, Mushroom houses and the always
traffic stopping bridge. As we watched
the boat traffic from the pier, the bridge once again lifted and a trio of tall
stately sailboats slid under its blue arches, while a half dozen powerboats
snuck thru also! They seemed anxious to
get in off of Lake Michigan and to their home docks before the inland lake was
covered with gray clouds also.
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| Charlevoix Library |
Since there was no wifi in Whiting Park, we located the local
library while in town and were amazed at the awesome place! One of the elementary schools had closed but
was given a second life when the library system took it over. The building looks much more like a stately
old high school than a grade school and the interior is full of dark oak and
comfortable furniture. One whole wing
of the library is dedicated to children!
The classrooms of the old school are now for different age divisions and
are all cheerfully decorated. In one
room is a wooden boat that is a puppet stage.
A rack FULL of hand puppets stands near by! Also on one wall is mounted the door from an old refrigerator –
with word magnets stuck to it for youngsters to arrange their own messages!
The town of Boyne Falls is famous for Boyne Mountain and
skiing. We’d seen the signs for the
resort many times but never entered to explore, so after a hearty breakfast at
Betty’s we wandered up into the normally winter wonderland. In the winter the Swiss style lodges and
surrounding areas are usually covered in white but now all is green and/or
floral! H’s daughter and family
frequent the mountain when the weather is cold and skiing is their top
priority! We found the indoor waterpark
and imagined our grandsons having a soaking good time on all the slides and
wave action surfing area! We even had
time that day to wander down to the small town of Wolverine to locate several
campgrounds we had been advised about.
One was praised by R&N who had just stayed there and some folks from
our home area just recently purchased the other. Both were nice but both were down several miles of washboard
gravel roads.
One more move and this
one was a bit more than 50 miles and was out in the middle of nowhere – half
way between West Branch and Tawas, near Hale.
It also has new owners and they have a long way to go to get their
property up to good standards. They
were very gracious and accommodating and allowed us to pick one of the few
spots on grass and one that was almost level.
Two vans full of young folks (plus chaperones) were tent camping behind
us, which put the ailing bathroom facilities on overload!! But they were good kids and we worked around
their morning and evening schedule!
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| Some good fishing this trip |
Rumors were that the neighboring Sage Lake was good for fishing
so off we went to find the DNR boat launch.
Sage Lake is also home to a lot of loons and they all soon made their
presence known by their unique calls that drifted over the quiet water! We had several nibbles and bites but when
that bass lit onto H’s hook and purple beetle spin – it hit and did not let
go! This largemouth bass was a keeper but
we took H’s proud picture and released the big fish back into it’s watery home,
perhaps to bite another hook, another time.
That’s
it. It’s the weekend again. It’s been almost 3 weeks since we left
home. It’s hot and it is muggy. The traffic is going to be hectic but let’s
go home. We’ve got grass to mow and
weeds to get out of the garden. There
should be tomatoes to pick! See you
next trip!
