These are the thoughts of a Texas transplant in West Michigan who makes his living as a newspaper reporter by evening, and a struggling novelist by day.

Monday, July 17, 2006

into the woods and out onto the beach

it turned out to be quite eventful sunday. nothing was really planned for the day.
turns out laura and evie were on the way to some beach. we tagged along.

after inquiring what beach to go to, laketown beach was dismissed because of the stairs and evie might not be able to make it over and then back again. we dismissed saugatuck state park, but settled on whatever the little area is next to it where you go to the felt mansion and the old prison.

dawn and i had never been there, so it was nice to go somewhere new. in fact, just last week a friend at work asked if we'd gone to any new parks this summer. we hadn't gone to any. dunno why, but we just hadn't gotten out. god knows there areplenty of them.

so we knew the beach was ahead of us somewhere. but the woods were betwen us and the beach.

we set off, tall trees all around and trickles of sunlight seeping through spaces in between branches. the path was marked well enough and padded down with pine needles and such.

we walked endlessly, not really knowing where we were going. i had visions of the donner party in my mind if we didn't make it out. but i figured that as long as we stuck to paths, we'd end up somewhere eventually. plus, there were fplks on the paths every now and again. so i guess resorting to cannibalism was premature on my part.

we went towards an area where the paths went left, straight ahead and to the right. we headed straight and in the process saw a fawn eating off to the left side of the path in some heavy vegetation. it was about 15 feet away but didn't run off. we then found out we were going the wrong way. this guy said we needed to have gone left. so we sorta followed him.

as we made our way southwest, this guy somewhere in front of us, my imagination got away from me. i began to think he was leading away from civilization and resort to some unseemly act of violence. i had just finished watcing the movie "hostel" the night before, so a lot of this violence was fresh in my mind.

but we encountered peole coming back, so i figured we were safe.

soon the terrain elevated and wound around a bit. the sound of boats on lake michigan was heard through the trees and sand dunes.

then under foot the ground changed from the pine needles and dirt to sand. it happened quickly as the path wound its way up and to the right. the trees gave way some. and there she was the grand lake making its appearance through a larg path cut througha large sand dune. it was so blue and it stretched on and on.

we made our way onto the beach. giant sand dunes covered with vegetation and trees comprised the backdrop behind us. in front waves spashed up towards us and water, water every where for miles toward the western horizon. and there we werew, tiny humans resting n towels in the sandy beach between the nature of the lake and that of the sand dunes and woods behind us. you begin to feel quite insignificant in the presence of mother nature.

we hung out for a couple of hours. dawn, laura and evie went into the lake. i stayed behind. i'm not fond of getting in the lake. i respect it too much and fear it. i've heard of too many accidents and drownings and don't wish to become a statistic. besides, someone had to look after the pooch that went with us.

we made our way back and encountered a lot of people coming toward the beach. it's very popular, it appears.i don't blame them.its beautiful and secluded.

after some minor difficulty finding our way back (went down the wrong path), we emerged from the woods and into civilization -- the asphalt parking lot.

such a lovely place. if any of my relatives ever decided to visit, we're definitly bringing some gear and going back for some more. or dawn and i can go and enjoy.

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