Inspiration Point Loop

  Cathy and I went to Ludington State Park again today, but we needed to keep our hike short, as she has family Christmas things to do. We decided to go to Inspiraton Point and then see if we could get on the loop we found last week.

We parked at Hamlin Dam and walked across it. I took a short detour to get below it and take a picture. This small dam creates the huge Hamlin Lake!

Once you cross the dam, you have to climb up a bare dune. This is the view up this arm of Hamlin Lake from about halfway up the dune.

Then you go down a dip, and up another sand ridge. At the top of that, you turn northeast on an unofficial trail.

If you look down to the left, you'll see the foundations of the old CCC camp, where the men lived who built the stone shelters and did other work at the park in the 1930s.

This trail takes you to Inspiration Point. You know you've arrived because there is a bench that is labeled.

Here's the view across Hamlin Lake. Does it look familiar? It should because last week we were looking across at those same dunes, but from farther east and lower down.

We figured this trail, which continued on, had to connect somehow with the loop we took last week. So we kept going. Somewhere, we turned south. This trail was not looking like the one we had been on at first. But after a while... we passed that same beech tree that is growing so low in the sand. So we knew we'd soon be back at the Y off the main trail by which we could return to the dam. Easy peasy.

I had to stop on the way back for the obligatory picture of Lake Michigan. Notice the clouds. No conjunction viewing for west Michigan.

We need to turn on an app to track where these trails are. We have no idea where we connected last week with the trail to Inspiration Point, but clearly we must have. We probably did 3.5 miles. A quickie, but better than nothing.

In other news: I did editing and grocery shopping. Bleah... but I hope I have everything for Christmas. It's going to involve more cooking than I want, but that will result in yummy food. So, there's that.

See Finding Inspiration Point See An Adventure with Cathy