Weekend Michigan Get-Away Continued - White Lake & Muskegon

What we love about White Lake, Michigan is the quiet peacefulness found at the marina and around town. Everyone at the White Lake Municipal Marina is very friendly and laid-back, from the check-in process to loaning out the 2 bikes available to transient boaters to use to get around town.

We've met some really nice great-loopers both times we've been there, and this time were lucky to meet a sailing couple from Oklahoma (S/V Incipient) headed to the North Channel. It was great to have the opportunity to find out some of their favorite North Channel islands as well as some tips for anchoring out there. We also found out they will be in the North Channel at the same time as us, and are excited to possibly meet up while we're there!

After spending the morning lounging around the marina and talking with the other transient boaters (5 boats in all), we decided to walk over to neighboring Montague for the Farmer's & Artisan Market. We already had the boat pretty well stocked, so we settled on an apple pie from The Garden Shed to enjoy for breakfast.

Now if you've followed our 2010 Lake Michigan Trip, you may remember that we fought tough lake conditions pretty much the entire trip. And true to that history, while there were south winds and calm lake conditions at our home port, the ride over to Muskegon to visit friends on the beach gave us 3ft rollers the entire 11 mile trip. Once we arrived though, we anchored close to shore and enjoyed a few carefree hours on the beach with friends.

 

Our Muskegon friends invited us to Dockers Fish House for dinner and to see a band they really liked, Yard Sale Underwear (seriously, that was the name of the band). We were able to dock the boat right alongside of the restaurant, and someone from Dockers ran out to help us tie up. The place was packed both with those who arrived by boat and lots of locals who seemed to be regulars. Dinner, the music and the company was great, and we are really hoping to go back again to visit this summer! We had to be lame though and leave right before dusk (about 9:30pm) so that we could find a spot in Muskegon Lake to anchor for the night.

We found a secluded spot tucked away in "Snug Harbor" along the shore of the state park. Aside from the occasional fishing boat headed back to the launch, we were the only boat in sight most of the time we were there. We had a wonderful & relaxing night looking at the stars & identifying constellations while drinking some of the Traverse City Red wine I picked up in Montague.

It was so quiet there that we slept in a bit before waking up to enjoy our apple pie and coffee and preparing to boat back to White Lake to spend the rest of Sunday. Ben says waking up in this spot was the most relaxed he has been in a long time :-) I would have to agree!

First Trailering Adventure with Seapickle II

Since getting the trailer for Seapickle, we've been anxious to try it out and get a taste for what trailering a boat our size will be like. This past weekend seemed to be the perfect weekend to take a roadtrip, and the bright and sunny Friday morning weather sure did not disappoint! Friday morning, after packing up our bags and saying goodbye to the cats, we headed to Doyne's to pick up the boat & trailer (we had already loaded it Thursday night). Thankfully our friend Barry was there, who reminded us to attach the safety strap (oops!) and helped Ben get the trailer attached to the truck. The only thing we seemed to overlook was putting down the antenna, which was a bit bent up after our trip!

Getting onto the highway (I-94 East) was a little stressful, and we quickly realized there were many more hills on the highway than we had ever noticed! The truck did very well pulling though, and aside from a few stressful merges and a pretty inconvenient detour, we made the 160 miles to the public launch ramp in Montague, Mi (home of the world's largest weathervane) in just about 4 hours. We stopped a few times along the way to check the tire pressure and hub temps, and everything seemed to be just fine.

By the time we got the boat settled into slip #23 at the White Lake Municipal Marina, walked back to the launch ramp, parked the truck in an abandoned lot (where the heck is overnight parking??), stocked up on supplies at Montague Foods and walked back to the boat, we were too tired to grill dinner so we headed over to the Harbor View Grille, which was just a couple blocks from the marina in Whitehall, and had a great view of the sunset over White Lake.

Since sunset is an hour later in Michigan than it is for us in Indiana, we still had time to make it to Pekadill's while it was still light out at 9:30pm! I went boring with the Butter Pecan in a waffle cone (delicious!), while Ben tried a caffeine-infused chocolate peanut butter ice cream that was supposed to have as much caffeine as an energy drink! (he still was tired after eating it)

We got back to the boat around 10pm, and it was STILL light out! But we were exhausted after a long day, so after making Ben pose for an impromptu photo shoot, we curled up to watch the stars come out over White Lake, and planned out what was to come for Saturday. (which will be continued in the next post)

Photos from our weekend in White Lake/Muskegon Lake

White Lake, Muskegon Trip, a set on Flickr.

We will share a blog post later this evening, but for now, here are some photos from our weekend trip to White Lake & Muskegon Lake.