The past weekend Michiana Overlanders Facebook group I’m a part of, was invited by the Michiana Jeep Club for a weekend trip to the Manistee NF area. I have driven through the area before but have never taken the time to explore.

My daughter, Camryn and I, took our time getting to the campground on Friday. Along the way we drove through many small towns along the Lake Michigan coast. We saw the beautiful downtown of Holland, the swing bridge in Grand Haven pasted through Muskegon and found some trails in the Manistee NF. We were looking for potential campsites and just general exploring the forest. From there we heading on up route 37 to Coolwater Campground

Two of us from Michiana Overlanders made the trip north. Bryan, his family and my daughter and I, shared a campsite at Coolwater Campground. The campground was nice and well maintained. There is a hiking trail that leads to the river and ponds for kayaking or fishing. On this trail there is also some nice overlooks of the river.

Saturday morning we left the campground and headed to Dublin General Store located in Dublin, Michigan. There they have a huge selection of jerky, along with a hardware / grocery store. Camryn and I decided against the alligator or the rabbit and just stick to the “Original”. I can see why the place is known for their jerky. It was delicious.

After many of the Jeeps filled their tanks we hit the trails. We found our way to Hodenpyl Dam. We drive the trails south west along the Manistee River stopping for lunch at Government Landing. Government landing has a boat ramp along with a few campsites at the edge of the Manistee river.

After chatting with the members of the Jeep club we mounted up and continued down the trails. We were headed to a couple of small waterfalls. After a couple of missed turns we finally found the trail head for the short hike to the water falls. The falls were small but pretty. It is always nice to hear water falling. It has to be one of the best sounds nature has to offer.

After some time of driving the trails we ended up at a BP gas station in Mesick. A few of the Jeeps topped off with gas. Camryn and I elected to get some ice cream, since we had plenty of gas. We then headed north east of Mesick to the Pere Marquette State Forest. There we followed the two track trail though the woods catching occasional views of the Manistee river. There were a couple of logs that needed cleared from the trail. With the help from the other Jeeps we made short work of it and we were quickly proceeding down the trail. It was starting to get later in the day, and some of the Jeeps peeled off and headed back to camp. We were leading the group down the trail and made the decision to head back towards camp. Camryn was navigating, so I had her find us a route back to camp. We arrived back at camp about 7:00 after being on the trail for nearly 10 hours and going for nearly 144 miles

We made ourselves some supper consisting of “Fugi Pies” This is what we call using the pie irons and making “pizza pockets”. We layer in cheese, sauce and pepperoni on a couple of slices of buttered bread in a cast iron sandwich maker to make a wonderful supper.

Afterwards we walked down to the Michiana Jeep Club group camp site and talked about the days trails. It seemed to be a good day by all.

Sunday morning we slept in til mid morning. With the temperatures in the mid 40’s at night it made for great sleeping weather. We proceeded to pack up the roof top tent, have a little for breakfast and head for home.

We pulled out of the campsite about 10:30am. We stopped at an Orvis Flyfishing shop. I didn’t realize how popular fishing is around Baldwin. The Pere Marquette River is very good trout fishery. Camryn and I proceeded to head south avoiding interstates. We explored more trails. We winched a log out of the way. Found some dead end trails and had to turn around. We stopped at Walkup Lake Campground NF campground for lunch. It was a nice quiet place with a few campers still there. We were sure to mark the location Gaia GPS for a possible future site to camp.

Camryn and I had a good trip. We met some very nice families and saw more of God’s beautiful country. I know for certain that will be spending more time in the Baldwin / Caddallic area in the future. From camping, to off roading, from fishing, to hiking, there is a host of things to do in the area.