Big Ol' Bug Smacker

We are camping this weekend at Gladwin City Park and Campground. When we pulled into the park we found only 3 available sites. The first spot was barely big enough to pitch a pup tent on.  Luckily enough the other two sites were actually quite large when compared to the others at this park. There is an upper and lower section. The upper is less level. The sites offer water and electric. The electrical service is only 20 amps.

After we setup camp, we headed over to the Riverwalk Grill which is located inside of the Riverwalk Place.   We were seated at a table overlooking the Riverwalk.  The grounds are nicely landscaped and from our seat we could watch people floating down the Cedar River. For dinner we enjoyed a couple of very good sandwiches. My wife had the “Philly Roast Beef Sandwich” and I enjoyed the “Riverwalk Reuben”.  Both came with homemade chips. This is a very good place to grab a bite to eat while in Gladwin.

The park has partnered with Gladwin Boat Rental which offers canoe, kayak and tubing right from the park. The Cedar River flows right through the campground. The river is fairly shallow and only about 20 feet wide. The current is quite swift.

We did not bring our kayaks this trip. The Cedar River looks like a nice ride. We will be returning sometime soon to give it a try.

I’ll Tell You Where You Can Go!

Tim R. Enright

Have we finally gotten to the point where we are letting computers tell us all where we can go? I do have to admit that when it comes to mapping out a RV road trip, there isn’t a handier gadget than a GPS device. Gone are the days of laying maps out on the hood of our cars and stopping at gas stations for directions only to forget if the guy at the station told us to turn right or left at the red house with the little white picket fence in the front yard.

The GPS device has changed the way we travel. You may, however, want to take the machine’s advice with a grain of salt. They have been known to outright lie. We once ended up on a small winding dirt road towing our 5th wheel through the hills of Vermont because the GPS told us it was the way to go. I think these little map-in-a-box devices get some sort of thrill getting us to drive down roads that we would otherwise never go down on our own.

My wife and I usually map out our trip in advance using a software program like Microsoft Streets and Trips. This allows us to map out where we travel on each leg of our journey and how long we will be staying at each site. From this we can create a traveling timeline of places. The software also gives us an idea of the fuel costs, road construction and times of the day we may be traveling though large towns with heavy traffic.

As we are traveling we put the points we are heading to into our GPS unit. The GPS shows us turn by turn how to get to our destination. We can also find gas, food and rest stops along the way. With our unit we can also find campground information. This allows us to pull over for the night when we find an unscheduled area where we would like to stay.

Love ‘em or leave ‘em, GPS is here to stay. I could never go back to unfolding a street map again. I certainly don’t know anyone who can fold those maps back up the way they were when they were purchased anyway.

Article Courtesy of : www.BugSmacker.com : Copyright © 2010

Good thing we decided to stop at Outdoor Adventures on the way home from the State Park because the traffic on I-75 was literally stopped. We tried to get gas just before the exit onto the expressway only to find the station had none. When we got to the ramp we noticed that the traffic was horrible. We found a way around it and made our way to the park.

Even though the expressway was like a parking lot, it is good to see people camping again. The last few years here in Michigan have been quite slow.

Two years ago I canoed down Thunder Bay River for the first time, so I was excited to return and give it a try with my kayak. We started out at the Thunder Bay Canoe & Kayak Livery in Atlanta, Michigan. This time around we arrived with 11 other people. The group consisted of Jason, Becky, Gary, Ted, Dani, Ashley, Sam, Jerry, Ellen, Terri and I. In all we had 7 kayaks and 2 canoes.

The Thunder Bay River was quite narrow and shallow in most spots along the way. Because we launched from a livery, the river was clear of any obstacles. It was the 4^th of July weekend so the river was quite busy. I was even attacked by a couple of water cannons thanks to my brother-in-law, Jerry.

The last half hour or so of our trip the river became extremely shallow and rocky. We arrived at the Eichorn Bridge about 3 hours later. This area only has road side parking.

We kayaked the Black River from Clark Bridge to Crocket Bridge near Atlanta, Michigan. At Clark Bridge there is off road parking for a few vehicles. There were four of us that went; Jerry, Ted, Gary and myself.

For the most part the river was somewhat slow and about 15 to 20 feet wide. There were just a few rocks and stumps along the way. Three trees totally blocked the river. Two of them we could get over with a bit of extra speed but that left us with one portage due to the size of the obstacle.

As we floated down the river we spotted an eagle soaring above us and saw raccoons along the river bank. We followed a dozen baby wood ducks and their mother down the river for over an hour. They finally got tired of our company and ducked into a low hanging tree until we passed by them. The ducklings were unable to fly yet so they just flapped their wings as they ran across the surface of the water for as long as we could hear them until they finally disappeared in the opposite direction.

It took us about 3 1/2 hours to reach Crocket Bridge. At the bridge there is plenty of off road parking spots. After loading the vehicles we headed north on S Black River Road then east on Milligan Road to get back to M33.

This is our 5^th year now coming to Clear Lake State Park for our annual 4^th of July camping trip. I counted 22 people for our cookout. That was a few more than we had last year. As usual the food was excellent. There was BBQ Chicken, BBQ Ribs, Venison, and plenty of salads.

Chuck and Rande made an encore appearance as the Host Campers. It was nice to see them back again this year at Clear Lake. They didn’t think they were going to be allowed to return to the same park again two years in a row.

We had to relocate a bit from our usual campsite. The one we normally reserved had already been taken. The spot we ended up with was just about as nice. It was large and had room for a couple of tents as well.

The big story this year was the power problem. Clear Lake State Park has a real problem with the power when they get near capacity. We shared our electrical post with three other RVs. Out of the four outlets only two are 30 amps, the other two are 20 amps.

This year unlike the last year or two, they were filled to the max. We had 5 RVs and 4 tents in our group alone. The power for our group went out several times during the day and night. Every time it went out we had to hike down to Chuck’s site so that he could flag a park ranger down and have the power reset.

Another problem this year was the weather. When we arrived on Wednesday the temperature got down to 50 degrees that night. By the time the weekend rolled around the heat had climbed to the mid 90’s with high humidity. With heat like that you really need to be able to run your AC in the RV.

One Ranger came by and informed us that we were going to need to turn off our air-conditioning. He also stated that if we continued to run the AC in our RVs that he would not restore the power next time it went off.

Before we left, I spoke with a Park Ranger by the name of Greg Kinser. He informed me that this has been a problem for quite some time. Greg said that Clear Lake State Park is an older park and was never designed to support today’s modern RVs. He informed me that the larger rigs demand more power and overload the circuits in the park.

 I find this somewhat hard to believe since the power always went out at the main, not the electrical post. You would think that if your rig were to demand to much current that it would cause only your breaker to blow. Not take out everyone else. This means that there simply was not enough power for the outlets throughout the park.

Greg stated that he hoped the new Recreation Passport which will take effect on Oct. 1, 2010 will help offset the revenue loss the Parks have been realizing the past few years. The Recreation Passport will be available to Michigan residents for $10 per registered vehicle, or $5 per registered motorcycle. This will replace the resident state park and boating access site stickers. Vehicles registered outside the State of Michigan will still be required to display a Michigan State park permit.

Our son, Jason and daughter-in-law, Becky called us today and invited us to join them to go kayaking down the Shiawassee River.

We launched from the Ditch Road Bridge near Parshallburg, MI. The water was not very fast with one spot of very mild rapids. A few spots were shallow enough to get hung up on. There are very few obstacles to maneuver around. It was a very relaxing ride down the river. It took us about 2 1/2 hours. We exited the river at the boat launch in Showboat Park located in Chesaning, Michigan.