Spending the last part of Winter break in Sleeping Bear Dunes got things officially to start, with the typical blanket of snow that's hard to find downstate. I drove up there on a whim due to my plans of going on a solot trip through Canada that were botched by a last-minute ice storm the day before I had planned to leave.
Heading North, I spied maps of the northern Ontario coastline, but pulled off the highway, instead opting for the Western shore of the more familiar peninsula. I hit it big, getting to Platte River Campground around 9:30pm to a fresh 10inches of snow and an ambience of quiet that's hard to find 'till that latitude. I was alone, no other cars/campers around. Taking the proper time to let the stillness sit in, I set up camp (hammock) for the night and went for a solitary walk along the road, where the loudest noisees I heard were my breath and the swishing of snow beneath my boots. I walked to the end of the river mouth, where the Platte River meets the vast outpourings of Lake Michigan.
The next days were spent exploring. I snowkited for the first time of the year, right at the park at the mouth of the river. The wind was only looking to increase for the next couple of days and I decided to head farther North, spending the night in my car at Peterson, in favor of an early start for the day.
It was New Year's eve day and the wind was right. A brief trial run of conditions turned into mind-blowing bliss and an entire day of exploring coastal foredunes layered in a base of popcorn kernel snow and sprinkled with a batter of powder served in succesively larger bowls. I couldn't get enough.
I ended up riding back upwind as much as the elements would take me (about half-way on a two mile joirney) and decided to camp out for the night. It was New Year's eve, and although Travere City was less than an hour away, the decision for the first time in my life was to spend it solo. I made a big fire, beans and pork sausage (Romanian tradition) for a meal and slept on my kite that night.
