Day1  Wednesday June 15, 2016             Indian Lake State  Park, site 39

380 miles           10.6 mpg

Made final preparations to leave, like connecting the trailer to the truck, closing up the house.  About an hour before we left, the Township Road Commission decided to cut down the dead ash tree in my front yard, next to the road.  I wanted the wood, so I stuck around to see that they leave it piled up in my back yard instead of the front, where it lay.  They were very good about it.  It wouldn’t look good to see a cut down tree in my front yard for 3 months.

We left at 10:00 with Brevort Lake National Forest C.G. as our destination, a few miles east of the bridge (Makinac Bridge for those of you outside Michigan).    We were in the Brevort area bout 3:00 in the afternoon and decided to continue on to Indian Lake S.P. near Manistique about 80 more miles.  That would reduce the length of our drive the next day.  It was a dreary drizzly day and we though we should use the bad weather for travel rather than hanging out in the trailer.  We got to Indian Lake about 5:00 PM (17:00 for those of us who like 24-hr time).  Made some sizzler steaks and baked potatoes in the drizzle and sat out under the protection of the awning.  It was so hazy, that you couldn’t see across the lake. 

Don’t particularly like state parks.  Usually small, closely spaced sites with no privacy, but this time wasn’t too crowded with people.

Indian Lake State Park, site 39

Day 2   Thursday June 16, 2016                Chequamegon-Nicole N.F., Birch Grove C.G., #15

280 miles           11.0 mpg

Woke up early to 58 degrees and drizzly rain.  Sat out anyway and had some coffee before we packed up the chairs to leave.  We stayed hooked up so we just had to lift up the stabilizers and jack and go.  Left at 08:00 EDT.  We arrived at our next planned destination at 13:30 CDT after a 6-hour drive.  This campground was new to us and was a gem.  It was 16 miles off of US-2, on back country roads and unpaved national forest roads.  We were about an hour east of Duluth, MN.  The campground sits in a heavily forested area between two lakes.  We got there early enough to enjoy our campsite on a beautiful sunny day.  I would come back here.  Made some ham steaks and Bush’s grillin’ beans. 

During the evening, there was the world’s loudest whippoorwill making whippoorwill noises on and off all night.  He had a girlfriend talking back, too.

Day 3    Friday June 17, 2016      Turtle Creek State Park, Avilla, N.D.  site #58

356 miles           10.7 mpg

We took 9 hours to get here.  Left Birch Grove at 05:30 CDT and arrived at Turtle Creek at 14:30 CDT.  We were still on MI time when we left.  Leaving so early, we saw lots of deer in WI, MN, and ND.  At least a dozen in the first few hours.  It was a beautiful sunny morning that turned into black clouds and heavy rain for a few hours through Minnesota.  Dark light night! 

The state park was about 20 miles west of Grand Forks, ND.  The whole day was on US-2.   We had no trouble getting a site even though it was a Friday night.  It’s still early enough in the season.

We had the luxury of taking long showers in the park facilities so we did.  We also needed the A/C because it was 82 degrees and humid.  The place was almost full by evening, but there were still some vacant spots when we left in the morning.

Turtle River State Park, North Dakota, site 58

Day 4    Saturday June 18, 2016               Evergreen Campground, Havre, MT,  site 23

630 miles           10.7 mpg

Our original plan was to stop at Lewis & Clark State Park, near Williston, ND and then on to Evergreen Campground in Havre, MT.  We left very early at 05:45 Central Time because we feel like we’re still on Eastern Time.  Our arrival time at Lewis & Clark would have been around 11:30, way too early to stop for the day.  Havre was another 6 hours from there so we decided to head there and take a day off our schedule and get us to Glacier a day early.  It was a good plan and we got to Evergreen Campground at 4:30 Mountain Time.  Crossing the time zone helped.  A 12-our driving day.  But the driving was on a beautiful day, no traffic for miles and miles, open rolling farmland as far as you could see.  Very non-stressful. 

Evergreen Campground is the same campground we stayed at two years ago on our first trip to Glacier in 2014.  It’s a private campground and is only 3 hours from the Two Medicine area of Glacier National Park.  It’s a small mom & pop campground that’s a little old but very well kept up and is very clean.  Right after we arrived, it threatened rain and we ended up cooking hot dogs under the awning until the wind kicked up and we had to put the awning away before it was blown away.  It cooled down considerably after that but was blustery all evening.

One thing of note was that there were lots of doves in the campground and they were quite noisy.  Never seen so many doves and how noisy they were.  It was like surround sound cooing.

Preparing hot dogs in the rain under the awning at Evergreen Campground, Havre, MT

Day 5    Sunday June 19, 2016                  Glacier National Park, Two Medicine Campground, site 98

188 miles           7.9 mpg!

Left Evergreen Campground at 06:45 and arrived at Two Medicine four hours later.  It was a beautiful day, but I was fighting 30 mpg headwinds all the way.  Speed limit is 70 but drove 60 to reduce the wind resistance.  This is the worse towing mileage I ever had. 

Ended up on site 98, which is next to the one we had last year, one the water.  We debated about getting one in the woods, to stay out of the cold wind (low 50’s).  But decided on this one because the next day is supposed to be perfect.

Will end this post here.  Next post will be about our time at Glacier National Park.

Finally seeing some mountains.  US-2 just east of Browning, MT