Everybody hikes the Upper Peninsula, from what I hear, but you hear less about the little islands of Lake Michigan. A writer in the Flint, Mich., Journal, describes a weekend backpacking trip on Manitou Island:

Well, I could talk about the high winds and thunderstorms that pounded my tent Friday night.

Or how they cancelled the ferry on Saturday, leaving me stranded an extra night with a handful of jerky and trail mix for my breakfast Sunday morning.

Or about pitching camp miles from my fellow packers, and the coyote tracks I found just outside my tent when I crawled out at dawn.

Or sitting on my haunches beneath a storm-cleared sky, sipping hot coffee and gazing out at the breaking waves.

Yep. I found what I was looking for as well.

And it’s all there waiting for anyone, just a ferry boat ride away.

The story opens with a rather simplistic bit of fretting over whether a woman should go backpacking solo but eventually gets around to describing the island, which sounds like an excellent place to hang out for a couple days (in the off-season, anyway.)