My little sister and I are preparing for a larger backpacking trip and wanted to have a little practice round before going! We love the Ludington area, have stayed at the state park, and hiked to Big Sable before. Here’s our experience at Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness, where we went, what we saw, and what we did!
Nürnberg trailhead leading you to two trails
We started at the Nurnberg Trailhead and hiked the Nordhouse Dunes Trail which is about a 1.7 mile point-to-point trail. It’s a decently hilly trail and wide enough to hike side by side. You start in the forest and hike out to Lake Michigan and the rolling sandy dunes. When choosing our camping spot, it’s free roam camping, however you must be 400ft away from Lake Michigan. This prevented us from being able to camp right on the dunes however we found a spot right in the forest with a nice view of the lake.
Lookout spot just near our campsite
Looking for a camping spot after our hike
We immediately set up camp when we found our spot since it was a little late in the day. I loved my new two-person backpacking tent from REI. It kept us dry through rain and thunderstorms and it was decently roomy, fitting the two of us and our packs.
After setting up camp and unloading some things, we were hot and sweaty so a swim in Lake Michigan was a must. It’s super sandy and shallow in this area, the only downside was the biting flies. We heard this was an issue before we went and man people were NOT kidding. They’re pretty terrible on the beach area. However when we got back to our campsite they were non-existent, the mosquitoes were still present though.
When we got back from our swim we were ready to cook dinner. I also knew we had a good chance of thunderstorms over night and in the next day, however I still love checking the weather and staying very up to date and prepared. The service is SUPER spotty (I have Verizon) I either had no service at all, or limited LTE (4G), and was often bouncing off of Wisconsin cell towers because the time zone on my phone kept changing.
To my surprise I checked the weather at 7:45 PM and at 8:00 PM there was an 80% chance of thunderstorms. And what I had originally been seeing was that the storms were supposed to be scattered thunderstorms with variable winds, now it was saying gusty winds and strong thunderstorms over the next few hours. I freaked out. We hadn’t made dinner yet, this was my sisters first ever backpacking trip, and I wasn’t even sure if this tent would hold up (it did, thank you REI). We rushed to cook dinner over my new backpacking stove, another new favorite. We made chicken and dumplings from Mountain House, a perfect meal for my extremely picky eater sister. And then ran into the tent. The winds picked up, dark (and I mean DARK) clouds over the lake rolled in. And then rolled right past us.
Thankful for self-timers, sunsets, and the best sister I could ask for
We were stunned. It looked like a bad storm, and it literally blew right over us! We spent the rest of the evening playing Yahtzee and eating freeze dried ice cream (delish). Then we had another little surprise; a gorgeous sunset over the lake. With all the clouds I didn’t think we would be able to see a thing! But the clouds broke just over the horizon yielding a bright sun and a rainbow colored sky. One of my favorite moments of this trip was sitting in the tent, watching the sunset, while listening to one of our absolute favorite songs, Barcelona by George Ezra.
Eating some breakfast in the tent while it rains
After the sun was officially set, around 10pm it started to get dark quickly. No rain or thunderstorms were predicted until the early morning tomorrow so nothing to worry through the night. We unfortunately had some noisy campers near us but a huge thanks to my sister for giving me some headphones with my sensitive hearing.
Packed up and ready to hike back out
The next morning, thunderstorms hit around 5AM, just as dawn was beginning to break, and continued for the next couple hours, following with just rain. I ate a delicious breakfast of hash browns, bacon, peppers, and onions that didn’t require a camp stove! My picky eater sister enjoyed a cliff bar and energy waffle. We laid around for a bit trying to wait out the rain which ceased around 11ish letting us pack up and out.
She survived her first backpacking trip!
This was an adventure filled trip that I’ll never forget and I can’t wait for our other trips in the future!
Comment down below or on instagram your favorite places in Michigan to backpack, and any tips and tricks while backpacking because I still have lots to learn!