The forecast had promised sunny, humid, and eighties.  When the rain started coming down hard at 3am and didn’t stop, I knew our plans to whitewater raft on the Wolf were going to have to be delayed.  We woke to mid-sixties and fog.  Between the wind blowing the rain off the leaves and a few sprinkles we decided a quick breakfast of cereal would be beneficial.  Scott and I went for a quick brainstorming walk while the kids played on their tablets in the car.

We decided to save the Wolf River whitewater trip for another time.  I suggested a family hike before we headed on the road for four hours.  The hike was only about a half hour and we lost a lot of weight, feeding the mosquitoes that is.

The kids did a great job.  They each separately had their moment when they realized their bodies were actually doing work and instead of actually moaning and complaining they made fun of whine-a-lo sightings that have happened in the past.  Usually on every hike we have at least one, if not both, kids lose it for about ten minutes, ten minutes into the hike. Thankfully the moments are brief, and the longer we are on our trips and the more hiking we do the better it gets.  Last year we got the kids to hike up to a waterfall over 5.4 miles.  At six and eight that wasn’t too bad.  If the hikes get too long or hot Scott always takes out the secret strategy – potty talk. No potty talk was needed on this hike.

Hidden behind my smile is the thought, “Just keep moving so the mosquitoes don’t eat me please.”

After our hike we headed back to the tent to clean up, it took us twenty minutes to clean up the sleeping bags, mats, and bag the tent.  We left Boulder Lake at 11:30 to head to Copper Harbor. We crossed into Michigan at about 1pm.

We stopped for another healthy meal at McDonald’s.  The van finally came to a stop at 5:45 in Copper Harbor, Michigan, which actually means we are now in the eastern time zone and we are now an hour later.

Fort Wilkins, Copper Harbor

We attended a presentation form a MI Tech University Professor on archaeology of Fort Wilkins.  We learned the pit toilets used to be used as the garbage dump as well.  Excavating the old privies proved to be very useful for the restoration of the Fort.

The kids loved the fort being within biking distance of our campground.  Fort Wilkins State Park ranks as one of our top favorites of all times.  We have been to a lot of parks so that is saying a lot.