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Michigan
Creek to |
We eat a
hurried breakfast, pack up, and are on our way by about
We
start out by doing our first beach walking of the trip.
It’s low tide and out on the rock shelves we see the old rusted
out boiler from the wreck of the
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Walking the beach. |
Michigan's old boiler.
Walking the beginning of the cribs. |
The cribs from above on the inland trail.
The rock shelves make for fast and easy, but slippery, walking. Beside me, Sean slips and does a face plant, the full weight of his pack grinding him into the rock. We all look on in horror. He didn’t even manage to get his hands out to break the fall, so I in my mind I begin to imagine the sight of a horribly broken nose. Luckily though he’s fine, so we haul him up and I secretly award him a 9.8 for the graceful form of his plunge.
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A very wet Mike and Eria check out a giant over-turned stump and a waterfall. Will the sun ever break through? |
![]() Boardwalks like this cover much of the inland portion of the trail. At the crossing of the
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We move on
and find some other hikers who are trying to dry out with a fire,
sheltered under a large cliff overhang that has been carved into the rock
by the ocean’s waves at high tide. They tell us about some unfortunate
souls who had decided to set up camp last night in a nearby dry creek bed
- yes, that’s right - and woke to find themselves and their gear
floating towards the ocean in the middle of the night when the creek
suddenly flooded! It’s kind of funny and maybe sort of gratifying to
hear that there are others finding this rougher than we are.
We stop at the wreck of an old fishing vessel near Billy Goat Creek. While eating lunch and gazing skyward, we notice a small crack in the heavily overcast sky. To our utter amazement, within 20 minutes we get our first glimpse of the sun and our dampened, downtrodden emotions instantly skyrocket! Now we’re in the mood to explore a little bit, so we climb up on the deck of the wreck and notice a log pole with a crude hoop, fashioned from an old buoy, strapped to the top of it. Unbelievably, further investigation of the wreck results in the discovery of a very weathered basketball, perhaps brought in by the trail patrol - so a game of 3 on 3 breaks out! Amazing!
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Our basketball court on an old wreck.
The rough coast from the inland trail. |
![]() I look over the maps and tide tables. |
After soaking up some sun, we push on using the inland forest trail once again, but soon we have another problem. Mike’s knee starts acting up, probably from walking on the beach with all of its uneven footing. After a couple kilometers, it really doesn’t look good. We’re trying to hurry to make a tide crossing, but I don’t want his condition to worsen. I get him to remove his pack, lightening his load by dividing up some his gear for the rest of the team to take. We hurry onward, but find ourselves back at the beach with only 30 minutes before high tide. It’s not enough - we still have to do a couple kilometers before it comes in or we’ll find ourselves trapped against the towering cliffs with no way to escape! I recheck the tide tables once more; there is a moment of panic as we realize there is no decent place to camp here either.
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Then Marlin hits on a brilliant idea. He suggests we just break for a couple hours, relax, and then push our way across the beach as the tide goes back out; We should still make it to camp by dark! It’s funny that sometimes the simple solutions are so hard to find when the pressure is on. That’s what teamwork is all about. The break turns out to be just what everyone needs. We lay all our gear out to dry, wash up, and soak up some more sun! At the mouth of the creek, an absolutely huge anchor is washed up onto the rocks. I can’t imagine the strength of the waves needed to push it there.
As
the late afternoon fog rolls in, it creates an appropriately eerie setting
as we continue on along the beach, passing by the site of the
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![]() Can you see the large anchor in the rocks?
More coast... |
We
arrive at our campsite at the mouth of the Meanwhile in the background just upstream, our first adventure for tomorrow lies waiting for us - a cable car crossing of the Klanawa. PS. I did get the fire going - my way!
Travis does some reconnaissance. |
Camp, Day 2
The cable car to cross the Klanawa awaits in the distance. |
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Which restaurant in Vietnam serves the rice pancake reported to ‘put lead in your pencil’? Find the answer to this plus many more intriguing questions in Rice Crust from the Bottom of the Pot: A Journey Across South East Asia |
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Although in creating this site I have tried to make the information as accurate as possible, it is not meant to be a guide, and I accept no responsibility for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by anyone using the information.
Backpacking the West Coast Trail © 2005 Parry Loeffler |