When we went camping last day

The only campground in the lower peninsula with an opening Labor day weekend was Proud Lake.

It isn’t the type we typically prefer, a tightly grouped loop of sites with little separation and a lot of traffic minimizing the kids permission to bike and, resultantly, make friends.

Pulling in, we discovered our site inclined about 45 degrees from the road: sliding the trailer up on its skid plates was quite a challenge and we didn’t have nearly enough blocks to sniff level. We considered installing repelling ropes but decided there were enough finger holds in the trailer that cleats would suffice, though we did have an ongoing concern that one of the kids would hazily crawl out of the bunks and roll down the trailer into a wall.

The camp did have great biking (Will loved coasting down the campsite) and hiking trails, however, and Jared found the fishing fantastic.

Ari and I, then Jen, Will and I took a great hike out to and around the swamp, spotting a baby snapping turtle, several egrets and a number of ducks.

Behind the camp’s checkpoint Charlie was a closed off road that led down to what we suppose might be the old, now closed beach and what appears to be a group camp area. Very isolated and very nice ride.
On the way down, we came across a rafter of turkeys, the little dots there in the picture. They actually let us get within about 10 feet but didn’t (as turkeys generally won’t) sit still enough to get a good shot. (Sort of like 2 year old boys.)
At the end of the road there was a nice little bog and just before that, the group area with some benches and a fire pit which the boys enjoyed pretending to cook over.

Brochures for Proud Lake boast fields of wildflowers. We seem to have missed the fields but did find some nice flowers along the path, including more jewel weed
What looks to be white campion
Also, also called bladder campion

Wreath goldenrod
And some simply gorgeous Jerusalem artichokes.

The entire trip, Jared wanted to go fishing. However, the campground had not fishing pier and the lake, generally was not easily accessable, except for the little beach area (probably not a good spot to fish) and the boat launch, which had a little dock but also a lot of people launching and wanting to fish.

We went to the launch once, on Sunday, and the traffic was too heavy. Jared was very disappointed and kept pushing to go again later, you know, like after dark. 12 hours of hiking and biking in I was in no mood for late night fishing so deferred to the morning, saying maybe if we got up early we could.

It rained all night. The child, though, was emphatic.

After he fed about a dozen worms to the fishes, he really honed his concentration on the bobber and at first wobble gave a little tug then reeled in a lovely 6"-8" pumpkinseed!

On the next cast, he caught another.. And the next, a blue gill!

We had to sacrifice the tackle to save the blue gill or Jared probably would have wanted to continue until the bait abated. So at that, we brought them up to the trailer to show William, named the fish and released them back to the lake as we do -- Jared wanted to bring them home to add to the fish tank.

While the camping left us with a continuing inclination to lean as we walk, the park is a great day destination for hiking. And apparently, fishing.