It’s official: I just made the first nonrefundable commitment to the big ride for 2013.
The first night of my trip up to Isle Royale is going to be at Ludington State Park, chosen mostly for its proximity to the port that the S.S. Badger departs for Wisconsin. It’s also a really popular lakeshore park, which gets booked up in the summer. As I was finalizing my budget, and checking to see how much each night’s camping would cost, I discovered that there were only two sites still available for the night I intended to stay there. That date is in July. And it’s February.
So I reserved one of them. I haven’t officially received approval to take the time off from work, but that’s a pretty safe gamble… and at worst I’m only out 35 bucks.
When I stayed at Ludington four years ago, I got a no-electricity tent-only site, but all of those were already taken for the night I want this year. There were just these two. I know I didn’t make my reservations earlier in the year back in 2009, because I didn’t even have the scooter yet in February.
The two remaining sites were decent options for my purposes; the reason these particular ones weren’t reserved yet was probably because they’re small (one was limited to two tents, no RVs). But they were each reserved the night before and after. I think the park does have some sites that are not reservable, which are available on a first-come basis. But I’ll be arriving late in the afternoon, so I can’t take my chances with that.
So $35 down… just another $1000ish (mostly lodging, food, and a couple ferries) to go.