I arrived at DeTour State Forest a bit after 5pm. It’s about 5 miles short of DeTour Village* on a little point sticking into Lake Huron. This is the first “forest” of this trip; the two previous camp sites have been “parks”. The two have different missions, but from a camping standpoint the main differences are: no plumbing and (lately) no staff.
So state forests tend to attract fewer old couples in RVs and families with children, and more middle-aged hunters and fishermen. Which makes it ironic that this is the first place (this trip) where I’ve had a problem with noisy neighbors. Cadillac and Petoskey were very different from each other but nicely quiet. DeTour… isn’t.
It’s mostly just one family, in the two sites next to the one I picked. I counted five vehicles and there had to be at least a dozen people, including one child and two 13ish girls. And a bunch of adults with voices that carry. I ended up unstaking and picking up my tent and carrying it to the other end of the campground, then walking the bike to my new site. There’s a baby near this site that cries from time to time (who brings a baby camping?) but that’s better than the shouting and squealing and laughing.
In addition to having no one to police noise levels, “no staff” means no reservations and no one to collect fees. They do it on the honor system: you fill out a little form and drop it with your fee into a little pillar. I didn’t have the right change. Or a pen.
I left the tent and rode into DeTour for supper. I went to the Mainsail, based on online reviews. It’s basically a bar with a menu; I had the whitefish sandwich, hoping to have something localish that way. The waitress let me borrow her pen to fill out my campsite form. I got the correct change to leave at the campsite. (And I just realized that I forgot to leave a tip. Oops.)
At one point in the planning I intended to take the ferry to Drummond Island, just across the channel, and the true easternmost point of UP Michigan. But there’s nothing super special about it, and it didn’t seem worth the trouble for just an hour or two.
I returned to the campground early enough to hike the trail here, which takes you through the various habitats if the area (e.g. shoreline, hardwood, dirt road back to the campground).
The Google itinerary for today estimated 107 miles. My odometer registered over 150. That reflects a little bit of getting lost, some side trips (I rode out to the end of one of the peninsulas into Lake Huron, only to find a “private property” sign), and going into DeTour and back. Which is part of the reason I aim for 100 miles/day.
Tomorrow is slated for 130. And that’s not counting a possible side trip into Canadia.
*Every road sign refers to the village of DeTour as a village to avoid confusing people who might think it’s referring to a “detour”.
