Trip advice from a recent South Manitou Expedition -- Fortune Bay Expeditionary Team Campfire

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Subject:

Trip advice from a recent South Manitou Expedition

Author:
Gubment

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Date Posted: 18:55:40 07/20/04 Tue
In reply to: Recondo 's message, "Re: North Manitou Island Hike" on 11:50:23 07/19/04 Mon

When I went over to S. Manitou, I heard all the same warnings about reserving a spot on the ferry ahead of time. When I got there I got the feeling that if you held up $25 there was *no* way they would tell you to put your money away and go home.

Whatever you do, ignore everything you are going to hear about getting on the boat early and be sure you are the LAST one on the ferry. That way your pack is put on TOP of the 5' pile of backpacks, not at the bottom of the 5' pile of backpacks.

BTW, the best seat on the ferry is in the front, right at the nose of the boat. If there is wind, go from the nose to the side downwind to avoid the inevitable crashing waves. If you can�t find a good rail spot, just pretend you�re going to puke. You�ll be amazed how fast things clear out.

If you survived night two on the St. Marys trip, you'll survive the mosquitoes. But they are still pretty nasty. FAR worse are the chipmunks. BE SURE to hang your food well away from a tree trunk. And unlike me, don't let people hijack your food hang and dangle their bags successively 1' closer to the tree trunk so the little f'ers can eventually hop from the tree to bag to bag to YOUR bag. The squirrels are REALLY bad, at least on S Manitou.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, get an idea of which (group?) campsite you want ahead of time. When the boat lands at the island, IMMEDIATELY have one group member take the permit and RUN to your desired campsite to claim it. If a boyscout is trying to beat you trip him. Have the rest of the group take care of your bag. There are some really good camp sites, and some really bad campsites (read: buggy). He who hesitates loses. At S Manitou there was an orientation meeting to warn you not to burn down the island. If they pull this stunt you may have to be sneaky when you make a run for the campsite.

And if you're talking about the same restaurant for breakfast as I'm thinking of, they have the best & biggest omelets I have ever seen for not that much money. Thumbs up on that plan.

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: Trip advice from a recent South Manitou Expedition	Recondo	20:25:26 07/20/04 Tue