Halloween in Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area

On October 31, 2008 me and 3 of my friends ventured into the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness area. There is not much information on the web about this Michigan gem. It is the only designated wilderness area in the Lower Peninsula. It is located between Manistee and Luddington Michigan on Lake Michigan.

We arrived at the trail head late Friday evening. We had to detour because the road to the trail head had a bridge out. Once we arrived, we paid the $5 parking fee for the weekend, and headed into the darkness.

Night backpacking is always exciting. It was even more exciting this time because it was Halloween. Also, the trails are not well marked here since Nordhouse Dunes is a wilderness area. We eventually ended up along the shore, and the view was spectacular! There was not a cloud in the sky and the stars were out in full force. We could see a lone lake freighter in the distance also. While hiking to the beach we scared up a porcupine. I had never seen one in the wild and once it saw us, it lumbered off in the opposite direction. We eventually found a nice place to camp near the timberline around 9pm. By this time we were starving and made some dinner. After dinner out came the box wine!! A good time was had by all around the campfire.

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful November day. We decided to look for a better site, as in the daylight our previous night's site did not look very good. However, just on the other side of a ridge from our first night's camp we found the perfect site. So, we packed up camp and moved to the new site. After breakfast, which was had close to 10am, we decided to explore. We walked the beach for a few hours discovering all kinds of "pirate treasure." Pirate treasure is anything washed up on the beach that is interesting. We found countless fishing lures, a frisbee, tennis balls and even a flag from a commercial fishing net. One of my friends decided to strip down to his skivvies and take a swim in Lake Michigan! We returned to camp and made a light lunch.

After lunch 3 of us, Brett wanted to stay in camp and "be one with nature", decided to hike more of the trails. What awaited us to discover was breathtaking. The view of Lake Michigan from the high bluffs was amazing. We followed a ridge trail that gave us a bird's eye view of the tornado swath. Apparently a tornado went through the area in June 2008. The DNR denies it was a tornado. Everyone I talked to who knows the area says it was a tornado. Anyway, this area was spectacular too. The force that created this destruction is definitely something to respect. In some ways I wish I could have been there to see it and in other ways I am glad I was not there!!

After dinner we got a nice campfire going and busted out the box wine again. Much fun was had around the campfire that night. In the morning the four of us packed up camp and polished off a bottle of blackberry schnapps to get the day started. We dropped our packs near the dune area to further explore this area before leaving. We managed to take the rest of our box wine with us on this little expedition. Some awesome dune jumping and swimming in Lake Michigan was conducted after the wine took affect. We also found a dead fox well preserved but half buried in the sand. Brett decided to dig him out. We wanted to take the fox home and keep it. Instead, he gave it a burial at sea. Dead foxes can really fly through the air!

We had a great time in the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness area. There are about 10 miles of hiking trails. Some of the trails are closed due to the tornado destruction. This is a great area to base camp like we did. If you love to beach walk, this is the place. Nordhouse Dunes is now on my list of favorite places to backpack in Michigan!