Cabin, June 2021

After the Covid19 lock down and everything that entailed, I finally had a chance to return to the Cabin, so I embraced it. I had a graduation party in MI about a week before I was going to head to Port Austin for the fourth of July. It did not make sense to drive back to Cleveland, so, what better is there to do in the intervening week than head to the Cabin? June, even late June is not the best time to go. The bugs, in particular the flies, can be bad. Regardless, I decided to head up for a few days.

The trip ran from 27 June to 02 July. It did not go as planned. Even so, it was great to get back.

Sunday, 27 June

Shot of Krupnik in the woodshed. The Cabin. The old, dead tree on the way to the outhouse has finally fallen.

I drove up on Sunday, not over night as has become so common. It was warm and was going to be warm for much of the trip, but the Cabin looked good and I was happy to arrive. I got the place opened and set up as usual. The Cabin had been used since the previous snowmobile trip so it was in good shape. After my usual shot of Krupnik I settled in for what I was expecting to be a relaxing trip.

You will notice that the flag pole is down. The whole area is under a conservation easement, so no new structures can be built. It turns out a flag pole counts as something you cannot do! This required us getting flag pole taken down. It remains to be seen what we will do about it long term.

The Lost Days

And then it hit. Starting late Sunday/early Monday I started to not feel so well. Eating was pointless and I had to make frequent trips to the outhouse. On top of this, it was a warm day. I ended up spending pretty much the whole day in my hammock sleeping fitfully (in between the trips to the outhouse). It seems that, after over a year of lock down, the first time getting together with people some stomach sickness went around. For me it lasted through Tuesday, another day largely spent in the hammock. By the end of Tuesday I could start to keep some food down.

Wednesday, 30 June

State of the woodshed. State of the woodshed. State of the woodshed after cleaning it out. State of the woodshed after cleaning it out. Chipmunk outside the Cabin. Canopy set up outside the Cabin.

By Wednesday I was mostly feeling better and could eat. I did not want to push it too hard though, so I stuck around camp. One of the tasks I frequently do is to clean out the woodshed. This involves cycling all the wood to the outer walls and cleaning out all the debris. As can be seen, we do not have too much wood in stock. This is something that will need to be addressed.

Thursday, 01 July

View of McCloud Grade. View of Harvey creek. Bridge over Harvey creek along the "big loop".

Finally I was feeling good enough to take advantage of being at the Cabin. I went out for a hike! I decided to hike the "big loop", a now fairly standard hike for me. It was good to get out and do something after being knocked out for so long.

Friday, 02 July

I closed up the Cabin and headed down to Port Austin for the Fourth. Despite being sick for much of the time, it was still good to be at the Cabin. I had intended to take it easy, this was just a bit more "ease" than intended. Overall the bugs were not too bad. Yes, there were plenty of mosquitoes, but the canopy and hammock made them easy to deal with. There were also flies but they were not too annoying and were not as voraciously biting, as they tend to do earlier in the season. Overall, this was just an extra trip to spend some time at the Cabin before the longer trip I usually make in August.