Dunes 8/21 wed

Overnight we had perfect sleeping temperatures, unless you're Tucker. For him it was too cold. The bad part was constant road noise, at our end and side of the park. And then the train and whistle blowing. The early train was at 0730. I dozed only briefly after that. Tucker came out of his tent when he heard me up. We enjoyed coffee as we packed up.

The tents needed to dry and Nate slept. So I convinced Tucker to hike the dunes to the lake. Consulting the map we saw the trails we wanted started at the other end of the park. So we sent Nate a text, and rode to the trailhead.

A map showed a 1 mile trail, and another path slightly longer could create a loop. Tucker thought that was ok, so we got started, before he could rethink it. Within a quater mile he was less happy with his life choices. The sand was deep and hills steep enough to resist climbing. Walking wasn't easy, but we finally reached the shore of Lake Michigan. We took photos, walked the beach and started back on the second path.

The return path was over the dune mountain. Thankfully it was shaded by trees, and far easier to walk over than loose sand. Until we reached a very steep sand drop. First we checked the map, because we didn't want to climb it. Then we started down. Passing a couple on their climb up. As hard as ours decent was, they had it far worse. Almost to the bottom we found an abandoned snow board. Obviously I tried to surf the sand. Probably just as obviously I wasn't very successful at it. Soon after Tucker was happy to have reached the lot where we parked our bikes.

Before returning to the sleeping Nate around 1100 we utilized the pavement to clean our chains. As the sand in camp wouldn't hold a bike up on it's center stand.

Nate packed. Tucker and I folded up our now nearly dry tents. Then we set off for Ontario. Many hours later we crossed over a toll bridge, then customs and started up the east side of Lake Huron. Our first campground attempt failed, after a long phone call. While on hold we found Pinery Provincial Park in the iOverlander app. Up the coast further we found it, before closing time.

Pinery is a large park on the shore of Lake Huron. We rode a long way inside it to reach site 1030. After tent setup we walked to the beach. Couldn't be to far off, because we could hear the surf crashing. Tucker had flashbacks, because it too was a dune death march. But sunset was beautiful. And everyone enjoyed collecting beach rocks until after sunset. Then the return death march to camp .

Nate and I found the showers, and enjoyed a long overdue cleaning. Stop your giggling, we didnt shower together.

Looks like another beautiful night for sleeping. At least for most of us.