Brevort Lake campground is… not what I expected.
As a campground in Hiawatha National Forest (which sprawls over much of the UP) I expected a state forest campground, but administered from Washington instead of Lansing. And maybe others are like that.
But this is “Brevort Lake Recreation Area, and that evokes a whole different set of expectations. State rec areas are like state parks but without being so… special. Just a lake and some woods, conveniently located, and equipped for familes to go boating, fishing, hiking, swimming, or such.
This isn’t quite that, but it’s closer. This isn’t the totally rustic angler’s getaway I thought it would be. There are fishers here, to be sure, but they seem to have brought the family. There are RVs and pop-up trailers. Kids are riding around on bikes. There are on-site staff, including campground hosts: people who live here and presumably organize activities. There are concrete buildings with flush toilets. Sounds like a state park, right?
But it’s not. There’s no electricity at the camp sites. And there are no showers. The lack of electric service means that some people bring generators. The lack of showers… means people smell a bit, I suppose.
But overall, it looks like the National Forest Service trying to get in on what the state parks are doing. Or more precisely, a private concessionaire contracted with the NFS to manage the site. I wonder if they pay a flat fee, or if the government gets a cut?
So. Taking all this in has been how I’ve spent the last hour or so, since setting up camp and wandering about here. It doesn’t change my feelings about selecting this campground; either kind suits my needs well.
The weather forecast for tomorrow remains frustratingly vague. A generic “40% chance of rain” tells me little, and smacks of statistical analysis rather than looking at what’s actually happening in the air out there. It actually makes me appreciate the TV meteorologists who wave at the maps “behind” them, because they seem to actually care when and where that rain might fall.
