Sleeping Bear Dunes, MI

Second year a buddy of mine and I have come up here for a paddle to North Manitou Island. We arrived late tThursday night and camped at Dill Day Campground. We had a nice spot right by the toilets and a 7:30 AM wake-up call by the ranger to go register for our campsite. We slept in, and then went down the the bay to get loaded up. We didn't get on the water until about 3:00. There was a good wind (earlier in the day there had been a small watercraft advisory), unfortunately we were going more into the wind than with it. It was a tiring 4 hour paddle to get to the island and we just made it before dark. My buddy tried out his new sail which made the going a little easier for him. It's a pretty nice little piece of hardware he got from New Zealand We set up camp on the southside of the island behind a nice sand dune. We had some nice scooby snacks that made the night interesting. We woke up to the beating sun and the buzzing flies. We didn't do much but lay around and swim a bit. I did take a brief hike out into the woods around our camp. We got up the next morning and the lake was much calmer. It only took us about 3 hours to paddle back to the mainland. I definately need to get a rudder for my boat before my next trip to any of the Great Lakes.