I <3 Camping! - part 1

Last weekend I was at Sleeping Bear Dunes (Friday night) and North Manitou Island (Saturday night) in Michigan,my first camping trip under an American sky. I was accompanied by my good friend Hirak and his soon-to-be better-half, Sumedha. We had actually planned this trip so that it would be a sort of reunioun with our old school buddy Urvish, whom neither of us had met in ages. But as it turned out Urvish had to drop out at the last moment due to some official matters.
Anyway, we decided to go ahead with the trip anyway and we left Ann Arbor on Friday afternoon and reached The Platte Lake camping ground around 8 pm in the evening. We actually had planned to reach by 7 o'clock so we could do some last minutes shopping (items we had missed getting from Ann Arbor) and also catch the sunset but that was postponed since we were quite hungry and wanted to pitch the tent before it was completely dark. We managed to do that and then prepared the fire to roast some corn. The camping spot we got was not the greatest one since it was right opposite the toilets and some noisy campers thought the best way to spend a night under the sky was to chat loudly. We tried to get some rest but weren't completely successful.
Anyway the next day (Sat.)morning we had to make it to the ship that takes you to the island and so we woke up early and decided to take a walk to the nearest dunes and shoot a few pictures. After that we packed up and left for Leland (I think its also known as 'Fishtown') to catch our ship/ferry to North Manitou. On the way there we stopped by at Empire, another small village to buy the stuff we had missed. (This was all thanks to the exact directions given by the lady ranger at the ranger station).
We reached Leland and decided to repack some of the stuff into the haversacks since we were going to come back only the next day. After getting everything organized we were ready for the ride across Michigan Lake to North Manitou Island - a special attraction for camping enthusiasts which offers unlimited trails for hiking, crystal clear lakeshores and plenty of wilderness. The ride across was quite enjoyable, except for the chilly winds which we could not brave for too long and had to retire to the lower deck.

We reached the island around 12.40 pm and were first given a briefing by the ranger there about the rules we had to keep in mind while camping. The rules were simple :
1. No camping within 200 feet from the trail.
2. No camping within 300 feet from the shore.
3. If you have to go for a call of nature make sure you dig a hole 6-8 inches deep and cover it with sand.
4. Watch out for the poison ivy!!

It seems that the island had poison ivy plants growing in random places and since there was no medical aid on the island accept the first aid kit at the ranger station everyone had to watch out for them.

Tags: camping, sleeping bear dunes, michigan, leland