Manistee NF Labor Day Trip Report

[adrstout]

Part I

Late last December I had planned a winter camping trip to the Manistee National Forest in the lower peninsula of Michigan. The day I was going to leave, they got hit with 3" of ice from a nasty storm and it wasn't much better in Indiana where I live. I like winter camping but multiple inches of ice is too much for me so I cancelled the trip. I then tried again several months later....and cancelled that trip as well due to getting a new job/moving/general life stuff. Well, I FINALLY MADE IT!

I have been in bad need of getting the hell out of Dodge recently so, on somewhat short notice, I decided to make this trip over the long Labor Day weekend. A friend of mine (Alex) decided to come along in his FJ Cruiser. His FJC is mostly stock but has 32s and a snorkel (I'm missing some other stuff). This would also be the first decent trip for my F-150 I bought a few months back which has since received 33s, a level kit, and RCI skids. I've had the one-fiddy camping twice overnight and it made one trip to the Badlands Offroad Park in Attica, IN (where it received some body damage). But, it hasn't been on anything very far from home so this was a bit of test (spoiler alert: it passed). I took off at about 6am on Saturday from Indianapolis heading north. Boring highway drive through central and northern IN made it hard to wake up At least the sunrise was nice.



I made it to the southern edge of the Manistee around 11am and stopped by Meijer to grab a few groceries. Don't EVER do that on a Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Then I gassed up and began to follow the route I had slapped together using google maps/satellite view. I wasn't going far from town though because I was still waiting on Alex who was a few hours behind me.

Immediately, I ran into a road closure and had to adjust my plan (this ended up happening A LOT). I took a side route and ended up on some designated ORV trails. I did not know this at the time. I recommend you get a Michigan DNR ORV sticker in advance if you head to the Manistee. It is hard to decipher the usage of various trails especially if you are unfamiliar with the area so the sticker should keep you legal most anywhere. The roads and trails don't look much different a lot of the time. I did not intend to break any rules, but I did (I think?). I'm probably lucky I didn't get a ticket for it. I'm a big fan of Tread Lightly and respecting access and all that so I feel bad. I also think perhaps we don't need 97 overlapping agencies (exaggeration...) making a road network into a confusing, bureaucratic nightmare. But that's another conversation for another day…



Most of the trails and two tracks have the surface like you see above - soft sand. I never really had to air down but it was bone dry this weekend and the sand packs down pretty hard. In the rain it might be a different story. I've been super happy with these Cooper ATPs since I put them on. I was happy with the AT3s I had on my old Tacoma too. You could say I'm a Cooper AT fan these days :truck:



My cockpit:



I got off the trail and ate some lunch. Did a bit more exploring and then headed back to town to meet Alex. He grabbed some gas and then we headed back out. Running around the Manistee is a good mix of terrain. A lot of narrow single lane and two tracks mixed with graded gravel and occasional pavement stretches.



TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[adrstout]

PART II

We drove pretty much all day and ran some really cool trails at night. One led down to a creek that was definitely not passable and then another that took us through a path that would require quite a bit of clearing which was more work than I was willing to put in at 11p. I think Alex was more willing than I was at that point. Either way, we headed back and set up camp a little after midnight. I had been up since 5:45a so I was exhausted! I wish I would have had my SLR and a tripod to get good exposures of the night wheeling but my point & shoot at least gathered the jist of it. We had a couple beers and some late dinner and fell asleep. Alex brought his propane fire ring. I’m going to have to get one of those!





Alex slept in his hammock and that was the first time he had used it while camping. I slept in my trusty Coleman pop up tent. It has a few relatively minor flaws but if you are looking for a tent that sets up super quick on a budget, this thing is pretty great for about $70. We slept in a bit the next day and took our time with breakfast and packing up.



After breakfast we hit a few trails on the way out of the forest heading north. We found a nice spot on top of a grassy hill for lunch, and a neat little sand pit to play in for a little bit.

 

[adrstout]

Part III

Alex in the sand pit:



After lunch we hit a highway stretch into Ludington, MI. Ludington is right on the shore of Lake Michigan and is a really quaint town. Lots of restaurants, bars, stores, and wonderful beach. We spent some time walking out to the lighthouse. We actually came back through this town on our way home and stopped at a really cool brewery called Jamesport Brewing Co. I recommend their Dunkelweizen.




After checking out the lighthouse, we began our trip further north into the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area. There are some organized campgrounds and fee areas with playgrounds, etc. if you have kids or that is your thing (the fee area does put you really close to the water). We decided to head back and hit up some dispersed camping. There are tons of sandy single lane roads and trails that crisscross in this area. We found a number of really cool sites. We also took some time that evening after setting up camp to hike a ways to the shoreline of Lake Michigan. It was well worth it and we had just about perfect timing with the sunset.

 

[adrstout]

Part IV

The next morning after breakfast we ran some more trails through the Nordhouse Dunes area. We came across some really good ones. Alex was much faster and more agile through the tight turns in his FJ than I was in my F-150 (obviously!). At one point we spent about 5 minutes trying to get my truck through three trees and I had less than an inch on one side and maybe 3 inches on the other. The below picture doesn’t do it justice but there is a video that really shows how tight it is. Around noon we headed back to Ludington and hit up that brewery I was talking about. After a great meal and a beer or two we began the ~6 hour trek back to IN.

Final Notes:
*You will get pinstripes here.
*Local firewood is plentiful and dirt cheap.
*Get a ORV sticker in advance.
*Your map is going to suck really bad. Be prepared to be flexible and reroute if you have a planned course.

 

[MidwestOverlanders]

Good stuff man, good stuff.

 

[dar395]

Wish I'd knew you were coming! We spent the week end in the same area just off the Wilderness Trail I think you missed the great Dunes camping area, if you ended up at the beach area on blacktop you were a mile off, going back south from the blacktop you can park on the road side and hike back 1,3 miles on the perfect beach front with camping on the beach which is out of this world. Coming back out of the park over Quarter line Rd there is a great Rock bar (we always leave the townie's behind) where there was about 30 of us if ya come back ask first.

I think you may have missed the 3 rivers in the area, we would have taken you over to Scottsville dropped you with Kayak's so ya could see the real forest. IM me with your address and I'll drop you some local maps for the next time.




Us




U?

You missed playing in the sand! We'd took ya to Silver Lake and made ya do the dunes! Not the sand box, real climbing just to see if the truck had some balls, always a great place to play. Hope you enjoyed as it's a great place!

 

[adrstout]

Wish I'd knew you were coming! We spent the week end in the same area just off the Wilderness Trail I think you missed the great Dunes camping area, if you ended up at the beach area on blacktop you were a mile off, going back south from the blacktop you can park on the road side and hike back 1,3 miles on the perfect beach front with camping on the beach which is out of this world. Coming back out of the park over Quarter line Rd there is a great Rock bar (we always leave the townie's behind) where there was about 30 of us if ya come back ask first.

I think you may have missed the 3 rivers in the area, we would have taken you over to Scottsville dropped you with Kayak's so ya could see the real forest. IM me with your address and I'll drop you some local maps for the next time.


View attachment 365150View attachment 365153

Us


View attachment 365155

U?

You missed playing in the sand! We'd took ya to Silver Lake and made ya do the dunes! Not the sand box, real climbing just to see if the truck had some balls, always a great place to play. Hope you enjoyed as it's a great place!

Yeah, we put this together with minimal planning and short notice but it sounds like you have some good information on the area and I'd love to go back so I'll shoot you a PM. I've been to Silver Lake before. It is a cool place but wasn't on the agenda this time. I would like to get the truck there though!

Thanks!

 

[adrstout]

If anyone is interested, here was our route:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ctw4HEmz1IK3l7TyPlvyVrtgUY8&usp=sharing

 

[Drift]

Good write up. I definitely had a good time. Came out with more pinstripes than I was expecting, but had fun checking out all those trails. Thanks for inviting me to come along.

 

[Rattler]

Hey! Stay in Indiana! j/k. Nice to see you found some nice places up here.