#12: Happy New Year

For the past few years I have been fortunate to spend a few days in late December with friends at the rustic Burns Bunkhouse cabins in Waterloo Recreation Area. The rustic cabins, we have stayed in both of them over the years, provide bunk beds, a wood stove for heat, plenty of table and counter space for cooking and eating, and benches. You provide everything else. If you want light after sundwon bring a couple of Coleman lanterns. If you want hot food a couple Coleman camping stoves will work great. And don't forget to bring water or be prepared to get it from the nearby pump and deal with the iron taste. The cabins force a relaxed atmosphere and provide a fine place for base car camping as trails abound. The past few years we have managed to snag a cabin for New Years and this year we had cabin #2 for 3 nights.
Having that much time to spend can be a real treat if you are with the right people. It might seem like a lot of time but time has a ay of slowing down without feeling slow on these trips. We can spend time walking on and off-trail routes through the Waterloo and Pinckney Recreation areas. The possibilities for exploration are numerous. With winteryou often get a chance to go places that would be impassible during the warmer months. After all places that are swampy mud during the summer are frozen at this time of year. This year our explorations were a bit more relaxed than they have sometimes been. We only spent a few minutes off trail pushing through pricker filled bush and strolling across Mill Lake. But while we did not do a night hike in a blizzards like we did th ring in 2008 we managed to enjoy our sojourns nonetheless.
Sites Of Interest

Some of my day hikes in Michigan are chronicled here on the Michigan Day Hikes Travel Pages.
Waterloo Recreation Area
University of Michigan's Stinchfield Woods
The Gerold E. Eddy Discovery Center is worth a visit.


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