This isn't the post that I had planned on writing today. A while ago I was invited to participate in an initiative here on Hive. One huge problem... I was in the middle of a series of posts at the time and I didn't want to ruin that flow. I told myself I would come back and write the post for that initiative in a couple of weeks. Well, here I am a couple of weeks later and I can't remember what the post was supposed to be about. On top of that, I can't find the mention, reply, or invite anywhere...
Instead, you get this post about my recent camping trip to North Higgins Lake State Park. Higgins Lake is one of the larger inland lakes in the state of Michigan. Still pretty small compared to the Great Lakes, but it is a popular site to visit for year-round sports enthusiasts.
I feel like sometimes Higgins Lake is overshadowed by the larger Houghton Lake just to the south. Houghton Lake is kind of a "resort town" where as there are really only residential areas and small communities around Higgins Lake.
Higgins Lake is big enough that it has two state parks. We have never stayed at South Higgins Lake State Park. From the pictures we have seen it looks a bit too crowded and there are far more sites which usually means less peace and quiet.
North Higgins Lake has become a yearly visit for us. Usually we come in September so our friends kids can participate in the harvest festival. There are two sections (East and West) to the campground and by this time of year they usually have the East side shut down. Everyone camps in the West side and the kids can trick or treat as well as do other activities. They have hay rides and at night a haunted hay ride through the East side of the campground.
Unfortunately, due to Covid, the harvest festival was cancelled this year so we decided to come in October. The campground was still pretty packed. I have a feeling a lot of families are more mobile right now given many of them are working from home and their kids are doing remote learning. As long as you have a good Internet connection, you can do that from anywhere.
If you look at the pictures, you can see why Fall is one of my favorite times to go camping. The colors on the trees are stunning and the air has that crisp chill that makes you want to have a fire going all day. We still do fires in the Summer when we camp, but it just isn't the same sitting around a fire when it is 90 degrees vs. when it is 50 degrees out.
North Higgins Lake State Park is pretty decently wooded which is another thing we really enjoy about it. There were some marks on the trees, so I have a feeling they are going to be cutting some down over the next year. Most likely due to invasive species that have made their way into many of the forests and parks in the state.
This tree in the center was my absolute favorite and is my entry for #treetuesday. My phone didn't capture the colors too great, but it was literally neon green when the sun was shining on it. It was beautiful in contrast to the blue sky and the oranges, reds, and yellows of the other trees around it.
Jovi was all-together indifferent about the beautiful fall colors...
Finally, I am going to leave you with a shot that I always like to take while I am camping. I lay in my lounge chair and I look up and try to get a shot with some trees and the sky in it.
This was our last camping trip for the year and we had to cut it a couple hours short because of some technical difficulties. It was about 9 PM on Saturday night and we realized something was wrong with the electrical system in the trailer. We had been running off battery power the whole weekend and now our battery was dead.
I think something is wrong with the AC to DC converter in the trailer, and without that working we had no water (the pump runs on DC) and no heat (the blower runs on DC too). Given that it was supposed to get down into the 40's at night and we had an hour before "quiet hours" started, we decided to pack up and come home at 9:45 PM vs. 8:00 AM the next morning.
We pulled into our driveway at 11:00 PM at night and it felt amazing to sleep in our big king bed!
These minor difficulties with the trailer were just the icing on the cake for what turned out to be a very short and different camping season for us due to Covid-19.
Hopefully next year goes much better for all of us on all fronts!
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