Leave it to Beaver... Island

At the harbor lighthouse

We. Finally. Made It!!! This was THE place on Lake Michigan that I was most excited to see and explore. Let me take a couple steps back and start from the beginning...

After each days sail we sit down and take a look at the upcoming weather and lake forecasts for the next two days. We were currently docked in Petoskey, having just arrived from a relaxing and short day sail, when we started to discuss where to 'park' for the weekend while doing some laundry. NOAA was predicting high winds and possible severe storms on Friday and Saturday, so we knew we were going to be stuck wherever we ended up on Thursday. So we had a big decision to make. We wanted to spend one full day in Petoskey, lots to do, cute town and AMAZING brewery (I love that availability of good beer has become a big factor in planning our layovers at this point in our trip!) however if we stayed here for another day it would push our trip back another couple of days. This wasn't sitting well with us because we were already a few days behind our semi schedule since we parked it a bit longer than we expected to in Sutton's Bay for Fourth of July weekend. NO regrets though. We still think that was a great decision! 

Mackinac Island was a possible destination we considered however it was a bit too far of a daysail than we wanted to do. Beaver Island ended up being the perfect place to tie our lines up for the weekend because 1) going there would still allow us to be able to move forward but on a day sail that wasn't too long for us (estimated 33 nautical miles) 2) it is a great halfway point to get to Mackinac Island and 3) Beaver Island was on the top of my must sail to/visit list since we purchased Further. Win, win for all! (Ok, not for Beards Brewing, the amazing brewery in Petoskey that we only had time for one pint because we were doing our laundry. We have been buying their beers all along our trip and they are all AMAZING! We suggest anyone else reading this should do the same!) 

Anyway back to the Beaver. I was SO excited to be 'stuck' exploring in my #1 place to visit! We set sail from Petoskey Thursday morning and got to the municipal harbor around 4:30. We learned that this harbor doesn't take reservations, it operates on a first come first serve basis. Fortunately for us there were plenty of slips available! We were warmly greeted at the dock by about 6 other cruisers, all helping us to bring the boat in and all wanting to know "where did you come from" "where's your home port" and "where are you going next". It was so nice and welcoming! After getting settled and walking Tuco, we headed to the store to stock up on provisions, wandered around town, ate dinner, relaxed, and decided to turn in early after a long day. (Sailing takes it out of you, we will discuss this more in an upcoming post).

Beaver Island Community Center

The next morning we walked to the local bakery after the first storm rolled in and got back to the boat just before the second one hit. After a wonderful homemade brunch of biscuits and gravy, over easy eggs and hash browns (we are becoming quite creative with our oven and stove) we rented some bikes and headed off to find a place to fill our propane tank for our oven and stove. Fortunately, that didn't take as long as we thought it would so we then decided to take a leisurely bike ride to the harbor lighthouse. This island is amazing because there are SO many antique boat parts that are now being used as lawn and house decorations. It was really neat riding around the streets looking at the old boilers and propellers salvaged from old and outdated boats. That evening we went to the community center to watch Central Michigan University's theatre group put on a play, Marriage is Murder, which was really neat for a local community center to house. 

Big Rock

Most roads on the island are dirt roads

Beaver Island Lighthouse

Saturday we decided to rent a car for a half day and drive around the island. Best. Decision. Ever. After a very detailed must see map tour from the woman working at the car rental place we hopped into our black Geo Tracker (yep they still exist) with no radio and headed off for our own self-guided driving tour of the island. We started off by visiting Protar's tomb and house then headed to big rock and big birch. These were not to be missed one local explained to us as they are "freaks of nature". Then we headed to Miller's Marsh to try to get a glimpse of a beaver in the wild on Beaver Island. I'm sad to report we didn't see any and we couldn't finish the walk because the path became very overgrown and there was poison ivy everywhere, shorts were not quite proper attire to trek through. We continued to head south on the island to Beaver Island Lighthouse. It isn't in use anymore but we were able to climb to the top of it which was really neat! Last we stopped by the local's favorite beach that you have to hike to across a footbridge. That was beautiful and I wish we had a little more time to relax on the beach.

That evening we made the trek up to The Lodge were we indulged in amazing cocktails and food while watching the beautiful sunset. While on our last drinks we all of a sudden found ourselves in a family reunion/40th anniversary party with a bunch of fun and amazing locals! How does this stuff happen, I don't know, but I was sad we didn't stay for another couple of drinks. We started chatting with a couple of members in the family and when they heard about our trip and Brady's career change, they were more excited than we were! They tried to buy us some drinks to stay out but we had to be responsible and go to bed at a reasonable time to get an early start on our long sail the next day. We wish we could have stayed and partied with them, it would have been memorable! Darn our semi-schedule we are on.

On a side note, if you wanna learn a bit about Beaver Island's history listen to this episode of The Dollop, where two comedians talk about crazy events in American history. (We listed to it on our way to the island. Hilarious and crazy.)