I made a 30 minute mistake by heading for I75 when I left the house instead of going west and catching 23 North. It was smooth sailing through Detroit. It wasn't until I was approaching Saginaw that I realized that not all of Michigan was unemployed and that a good portion of the population decided, "Hey! Let's all go Up North for the Independence Day weekend!" .

In total, the drive north took 4 hours and 5 minutes. As I cleared the tree-line that hides the bay from view, I was in awe at the splendor of the view. I knew that the only place on the Great Lakes where the water is shit-brown is the place we call home. I know that the whole of the shoreline along the lakes is not industrial and dingy. What I didn't know was that the vista provided along this stretch of US23 was so gorgeous. The pictures don't do it justice, but here they are...

I bought my $8 day-pass at the park's check-in booth, and made my way to the southern most parking area. There were only 4 parking spots open and I had to back up to grab one of them. The walk to the beach was about a quarter mile. After changing into my board-shorts and rashy, I grabbed my nine meter kite, my twelve meter kite, my board and my harness and hiked over the sand dune where I was met with another spectacular sight.

This represents about a third of the time that I was there. I was on the water by 1:30 and i didn't quit until 5:30. I took one break to get a drink. The rest of the time, I was on the water. My twelve meter kite got the nod while the nine sat on the beach all day. I rode up and down the shore-line watching other kiters attempt tricks when I was near shore and doing my own tricks when I was out deep. I didn't really work on any new tricks while I was there. I just concentrated on throwing big jumps. Most of the kiters there were just mowing the lawn (riding back and forth without attempting tricks). There were two guys that were looping their kites and throwing some jumps that I hadn't seen before. Those two guys appeared to be playing for a girl standing in the shallows with a DSLR camera. She snapped some shots of me, too. I'll look for those on flickr.com later.

At one point, I counted 27 kites on the water and 3 more on the beach getting ready to launch. There were only 3 classic C-kites present. The rest were bow-kites. Of the C-Kites, there was a 2005 North, a 2009 Fuel, and my 2004 Nemesis. The rest of the kites were mostly Best from what I could tell. I did see some Naish Sigma kites and a few Liquid Force Havocs/Sessions. And, I think I saw one Royal Era brand kite. Not a single Eclipse or Epic kite from what I remember.

For about thirty minutes, there was a speed-boat that ventured into the area where the kiters were monopolizing the surface of the chilly blue-green water. The kiters responded like dolphins around a sight-seeing boat. I started it off by riding past the boat and trying to give the kids on the bow a high-five. We missed by more than a foot, but that got them into the spirit. On the next pass, I ran straight for them and, about 20 feet before what would have been a certain impact, I pulled hard on the right side of the bar, sending the kite to one-o'clock and yoinking me off water. It was about a 12-15 foot jump. They cheered and clapped. On the next pass, I did the same and went a bit bigger with the jump. Then, other kiters joined in. I made my way up-wind while watching the other kiters try to impress the boaters. It was fun to watch. When they'd had enough, the captain piloted the craft upwind to where I was. I threw one last jump that went across their eventual path but well in front of the boat. They cheered again and motored away to the south-east.

The drive home only took 3.5 hours at a reasonable 77mph. All-in-all, I would say that the four hours of kiting was worth the 7.5 hours of driving. The water was chilly, but the air temperature was warm enough that several times, I would purposefully dunk myself into the water when jibing in order to cool off a bit. I probably should have put on some sun-screen before I made my way to the beach because I came home with some sunburn on my face, neck and the tops of my ears.

I would love to go back some day, but when I do, I will take the camping gear and and stay overnight. It will have to be after a long dry spell of no-wind locally, though.