We just returned from a 3 night trip to Harrisville State Park on Lake Huron. It was our first multiple-night trip in the Camplite and it was wonderful. Temps dipped into the 30s at night and struggled into the 50s in the day, with rain and fog pretty much the entire time. That was great for the main purpose of the trip; to see the migrating warblers and other birds going up the shores of the Great Lakes in May. We saw 42 species, with close looks at some, in the 2 days we had to bird-watch. The birds stay low in the trees and are not moving much in that weather. It could have been many more, but the heavy rain one day kept us mostly inside and I had a full day of work-related meetings to attend locally. The Camplite was comfortable and cozy for the 4 of us (2 people and 2 dogs who think they are people). The Patty O'Room added much needed space for both us and our stuff to get out of the rain. We were camped right on the beach and just a short walk up the beach from our site was a dog-friendly section. Our dogs left lots of skid marks in the sand from chasing waves and sticks. The electric heating element I installed in our HVAC unit (Coleman-Mach 9200 Btu Polar Cub) came in handy since it was easily able to heat the trailer to 72 degrees when it was 38 outside and because our propane furnace conked out. I still have to R&R that problem, but it was definitely screwed up, trying but failing to cycle even when turned off. I had to pull the fuse. I'm wondering about aluminum shavings from installation shorting something out in the unit because I opened the access panel and found a mess of shavings and aluminum sawdust. We also had another light fixture short out on the trip from loose aluminum shavings. I'll report back on the furnace when I figure it out. Our TV pulled the Camplite effortlessly and the Andersen WDH worked great. The penalty for effortless towing was awful gas mileage; the trip totaled 510 miles and we used 51 gallons of gas for 10 mpg overall. So, the Land Cruiser was working at it, but never let us know until we filled up. We measured water usage and averaged 12.8 gallons per day with a trip total of 4 showers, 7 meals prep/clean, toilet flushing, and misc. The park is one of a series of beautiful state parks in the cedars and pines on Lake Huron from Tawas City to Mackinac City. We are planning to camp at every one of them, hopefully soon and in warmer weather.
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Great pics & report!
Will be camping @ the Straits State Park MI for a few nights this summer. Looking forward to visiting the area.
Thanks for sharing! That looks like a wonderful site and place to explore. Looks like it was early in the season for you folks up there. A good mix of hobby and work. We are gravitating toward the Paddy O, based on your previous post, once we can manage it that is.