Three days at Yankee Springs

After the long day before, I wanted a day of rest and relaxation. The area I am in is beautiful and quite remote. I am currently at the Deep Woods Campground which is a rustic campground at Yankee Springs.

As rustic as it is, it has all that I need to be content. Water, fire and a fishing pier, how bad could it be? I spent most of Tuesday April 20th, fishing, hiking the local trails and keeping the campfire going. It certainly is a lot easier to explore without carrying 50 lbs. of gear on your back.

The camp at Deep Lake is the starting point for several mountain bike trails. They had a mountain biking event the week before. One of the local folks told me more than 1000 people showed up for the event.

On Wednesday I decided to camp at the Gun Lake Campground. I would pass a small store called Mike's Place and I would resupply there. There was also a restaurant near the campground and I was ready for a real meal. Perhaps most importantly there was showers at this location.

I started around 11:00 a.m. since I only had 8 miles to go. The store was right where it was supposed to be and I resupplied. Shortly there after I reached the campground and sure enough there was electricity at the site. I plugged in my netbook and phone and went exploring.

The lake is beautiful and I knew I would get some attempt at fishing in. On the negative side the water was not turned on at the sites and the shower buildings were not yet open for the season. The only place to get water was a quarter of a mile from my campsite.

The charge for the campground was $4.00 more than Deep Lake and without the water and showers even less convenient. The next morning I packed up camp and hooked up with the NCT. I had planned on staying at the Sharp's Campground near the trail but they were not opening until next week. Back to Deep Lake Campground for the night.

The date is now Thursday April 22nd and I was having a great trek through the woods. One particularly picturesque region is the area around Hall Lake. It is a stunning area.

The trail eventually merged onto Deep Lake Road. It smelled particularly good in this area. Just like a campfire whose pleasant aroma goes on for miles. On occasion I would notice a little wisp of smoke as I travelled.

I crossed the path which would take me back to the campground I had spent two of the three previous days at. I had explored this area enough to be familiar with it. I had about 2 miles to go to reach camp. Easy day.

I turned a corner in the trail and could not believe my eyes. The entire area was burned unrecognizably. Twisted smoking stumps, old trees ready to fall as their stumps were being eaten by fire and all of the small foliage gone. Tons of last years leaves were also obliterated.

The air temperature was probably about 10 degrees warmer than it was just moments ago. It appeared that the fire was about burned out so I continued forward into the desolation. There was a considerable amount of smoke and ash in the air but not so much that I could not breathe normally.

After about a mile further in I looked ahead and right in the middle of all of this burned out mess was the fishing pier for the Deep Lake Campground. I worked my way to the pier as small flames and smoke continued to mark my path.

Than just as suddenly as it started the burn was over. I could see my camping area and off I went. There were many vehicles of all descriptions is the same area that was designated for the bike path staging area. The burned out area that I had walked through was part of a controlled burn designed to prevent out of control fires and to give enough clear area for new vegetation to get a foot hold. My hat is off to the skill that these fire fighters showed during this controlled burn.

I believe that Michigan has some of the finest DNR and other related agencies in the country. What I have encountered is highly trained professionals in all areas protecting our valuable natural resources.

For all of the radical environmentalists, your time has passed. The hunters, outdoors men and our government are now doing a fantastic job. God bless them.