09-02-04 @ 9:16 am EDT

(I just noticed a horrid mistake I committed right at the end of the last entry. That should be Crack-in-the-Island, with HYPHENS. What was I thinking when I typed that?? See now why I wish I could proofread better? >_< )


All right, here's part two of the Mackinac Island trip, 2004...

Anyway...I left British Landing, heading up British Landing Road, which would soon turn in on State Road as the map said. My last trip to Cave of the Woods and Crack-in-the-Island had been in 2001, when my brother and I walked all the way out there. And THAT had been my first time there in years. I think. You see, I have this vague memory of having been out there when I was little, but nobody else in the family remembers, and everybody denies having accompanied me. This 2004 trip was the first time so far I have ever wandered around the island alone. So how I have this memory of visiting the Crack so long ago, when apparently I didn't, baffles me. I even remembered it was not very impressive to look at, before my brother and I reached it in 2001.

ANYway...when my brother Eric and I found it, I remembered we had all taken this long, wide dirt road way out into the woods, a road of which I took many pictures with my mother walking ahead of me. This wide road out in the middle of nowhere left quite an impression on me so that it even entered into my story Manitou Island, when Charmian and Justin are on their way to Cave of the Woods, and again when Charmian is running away from the Windwalkers. This road was just such an odd sign of civilization in one of the most uncivilized parts of the island, plus all my photos of it had been taken portrait style with my mother ahead of me in the shot, and I wanted some LANDSCAPE style so I could use them on the desktop! Yes, that was my entire reason for wanting to go so far inland just to see Cave of the Woods and the Crack. *rolls eyes*

There were a few people up on British Landing Road and some houses that must have been private. But soon enough I turned right and after a while of walking, the road resolved itself into the wide dirt path I remembered. It didn't seem quite as wide as it had been back then but I guess that was just me. I could not remember the exact path my brother and I had taken three years ago so I had plotted one out and just hoped it was the right one. There were two main ways to get there. Take State Road, turn right on an unnamed dead end path, then turn left on either Partridge Trail or, ahead of that, Crack-in-the-Island Trail; OR, take State Road, pass the unnamed trail, and then turn right further ahead on Crack-in-the-Island Trail. I decided to take the first route seeing as it was nearer and I thought it might save me time. All I remembered of my brother's and my trek out there was that we'd taken the wide road--State--and then this little twisty one that went on forever, until we came to Cave of the Woods first and then the Crack. Well, I guess I'd find out.

Along the way I had to pass two little dirt trails branching off left and right, named Nicki Trail and Lydia Trail. I paused to look at them and they reminded me of the pretty little Coffee Trail and Indian Pipe Trail of before--not so sheltered, but still pretty and dark and mysterious, all surrounded by trees. As I stopped a jogger came running off of Nicki Trail to my right and back up the way I'd come. I took a few moments to wander a little bit down both, then back to State Road; I'd have to save them for next time, again. Aside from that jogger, this entire part of the island was mine!

Somewhere down State Road I noticed an odd sight: a torn electrical cord, just lying trampled in the road. O_o How weird to find that way out in the middle of nowhere.

I eventually came to the second trail on the right, which according to the map must be the one I was seeking. It was unnamed, so I had no clue if I was right or not; it was blocked off with large boulders and a sign reading "Dead End." I paused and puzzled over this until a glance at the map reminded me that I was supposed to take a dead end road. So I brushed past the boulders (there were big gaps between them) and went on my way. I passed Partridge Trail--it was clearly marked, thank God--and then turned at the second trail I came to, Crack-in-the-Island. Seeing as my brother and I had first come to the cave, then the Crack, I assumed that was how it would be this time around. So when ahead on the trail I noticed a little rise, and beyond that a dark mass of what looked to be rock, my spirits rose. Cave of the Woods! Yahoo! I'd found it all by myself! :D

My anticipation over seeing it had only grown. I wasn't out here just to take pics of State Road anymore. For some reason, the thought of my fictional character Moon Wolf from Manitou Island was in my mind, and it had been getting really strong. I don't know why this is but I was thinking of him a lot that day. In the story, he's a medicine man who lives in this cave and Charmian goes to him for training. He starts out pretty much as an asshole (he even slaps her across the face at one point), but it turns out he's merely being "tough" just to teach her that the Island isn't as friendly or as peaceful as she'd like to think it is--she NEEDS to be tough to learn. You know, the typical tough love teacher. Charmian dislikes his attitude, but in the end he ends up giving everything to help both her and the Island...so she learns how much he really meant to her. I've read up a little on Jungian symbolism and I've recognized Moon Wolf as an Animus figure, and I've started equating him with my own Animus; one of my most memorable dreams featured a character I've dubbed "the Witch King," who was a mysterious, faceless horned(?) man with burlap gloves who was threatening some hostages he'd taken, so I offered to distract him while they escaped. He dropped a coin down my throat and nearly choked me. o_o But I acted like a puppy around him and even developed feelings for him. Since I was so abnormally attracted to him I figure he was my Animus, and only recently did I realize that Moon Wolf makes me think a lot of him. So bibble-babble aside...I wanted to reach Cave of the Woods, just to be one little step closer to my Animus. It's part of the reason for going to Mackinac Island in the first place; it's almost like entering one of my own stories. The closest I can actually get to entering my own imagination.

I even kept thinking of one scene in the sequel story, Return To Manitou Island, where Charmian, now a year older (about ten years have passed Island time, which is very wonky and unreliable to go by since everybody ages differently), shows new friend Thomas Cave of the Woods; when he asks what its story is, all she can do is say disconsolately, "Nothing...it's just Cave of the Woods." When Moon Wolf had lived there, it was a magical place; now it's just a cave. Charmian misses her teacher but has to swallow her sadness and move on.

They took the long wide road to Cave of the Woods and Crack-in-the-Island, but at these two locations Charmian found her words running dry. Thomas asked questions and she had to make up or deny knowledge of any answers...though she crawled back into the cave, she found its floor met its ceiling in the back, leaving barely any space to even lie flat, and told him it was nothing more than a cave. And even though they both walked down into Crack-in-the-Island and examined the huge fissure, she told him that was all it was, a giant crack, sharing a quaint legend about the place which she had read in a Mackinac Island guidebook back home, but not hinting at what else the crevice concealed.

She didn't bother telling him of the one who had once called Cave of the Woods his home so long ago, nor of what lay beyond a hidden entrance deep down in the Crack...the first person was by now long gone, and the location deep beneath the earth, she sometimes wondered if it had even existed at all.

She hated keeping things from him, but felt it was [for] the best, considering...

My pace picked up as the lump atop the rise grew closer. I was so excited to be there! Smiling widely, I clambered up the slope, to see...this big mass of dirt and leaves and rock...and that was all. No cave. /:(

"Huh...?" I wondered. Confused, I started wandering around it. This had to be it...it was about the right size, and an open space opened up behind it, not far from the airport, just like I remembered Cave of the Woods and Crack-in-the-Island being. My brother and I had reached the cave from the front, just like this. There had been a little rise behind it, just like this. And then Crack-in-the-Island and the big airport field. But I walked all around this thing and it was just this filled-in mess of debris. I couldn't understand. There was no cave here at all.

They COULDN'T have filled it in--! my mind quailed as I futilely searched. No, I hadn't approached it from the wrong angle--there was no cave mouth to be found. Had the worst really happened--? Had they filled it in, deeming it some sort of hazard? Had it collapsed? I'd read that Skull Cave had actually collapsed long ago and that was why it was so shallow now. Was this the same--? I could not believe the Park Commission would DESTROY a natural landmark like this! Yet destroyed it appeared to be. I couldn't believe it. I turned away from the mess and located Crack-in-the-Island's continuation and started walking down it reluctantly. Tears came to my eyes. They couldn't have destroyed Cave of the Woods...they just couldn't have.

The longer I walked, the more I prayed I was wrong, but the more it seemed I wasn't. I even found Crack-in-the-Island itself. Yet my heart wasn't in it as I snapped the obligatory photographs. I tried to be interested as I peered down into it, walking to both ends, making sure not to wander onto airport property nearby. I felt so awful. I turned away again and tried to find my way back. The trail wound around in such a way that I had taken only half of it; I decided I would try to find the other half and see where it led. I trudged around through the woods, eyes stinging. I wandered around a bit and then came walking out atop this mossy slope which led way downward into a little clearing with a great mossy boulder at the bottom. A tree stood to my side. With a start I noticed rock edging the slope just beyond the tree.

An upward slope...?

I tentatively moved forward until I had a good view of the clearing below. I looked to my right, where the slope ended and the mass of rock began. And...there was a craggy overhang here, just beneath the tree, and below that, a great cave mouth!

CAVE OF THE WOODS!! :D :D :D

High Point Number Two of the trip! I was so relieved!! It was still here, with a sign declaring what it was and everything! All joyful again, I first walked atop the cave--wooooooo!--and then carefully made my way down that steep slope and into the clearing before it. There it was! My cave! *delirious yee* You see, what had happened was...I had apparently taken a DIFFERENT route from the one my brother and I had taken three years ago, and of course had ended up at the Crack first...and so instead of approaching the cave from the front, I'd approached it from the back--by practically walking out on top of it! Since my only memory of accessing it had been via a path through the woods, then up a slope, then up another slope to its right which led to the Crack, it was only understandable that the similar layout of the mess of debris a little while back had confused me so much. It was just a trick of the landscape. The cave had just been a little further into the woods, all along!

So so relieved, I stopped to take pictures, with and without the flash since it was so dark out here, then set the camera, my map, and my backpack aside. I got out my water and took a drink. If I had had more time, THIS would have been my lunch spot of choice--all alone way out here! It was so peaceful. Taking the water with me, I went down to the entrance and crawled into Cave of the Woods and squatted there, looking around me. It's more impressive than Skull Cave, believe me, though still very shallow and does not go back very far that one can fit. I touched the roof--it was all craggy and pitted with holes, being made of breccia--different sorts of rock all fused together due to lake action thousands of years ago, like most of the big formations on the island. As I crouched here I thought of how close I'd been to thinking it was gone altogether, and I started crying. Yah, go ahead and think me a sappy moron all you like; I really wanted to see that cave, and the mere thought that something I for some reason felt so close to was gone made me feel that way. I felt relieved, sad, and happy all at once. Very strange.

I felt like I should leave some kind of little offering, for whatever reason. The natives always left tobacco but I can/will never buy tobacco and I'm of the mind that God (and the different forms He takes) doesn't really care what you offer Him so long as you do so with your heart. It was the only thing I had with me so I opened up the bottled water and poured a little on the cave floor. Then I closed it, and sat there as silently as I could, even shutting my eyes and listening to the sound of the place when one was being quiet. It was like being in a small room, the air was so close, like it would not echo. I peered into the back and wished I had a flashlight so I could see more. Then I wiped at my eyes and sniffled and made my way back out into the open. I touched the outside rim of the cave, and the large mossy boulder to the side (never even noticed it there before, admittedly), and retrieved my stuff. Voices came from the woods and I looked up. Two girls arrived, walking their bikes, and stopped at the cave as I walked away. Bother. :( I'd so liked having the place to myself. At least they didn't show up until I was done. I wandered a bit up the trail and puzzled over my map again as they talked about the cave, looking at its sign. I hoped they didn't take my tears as a sign I was lost and upset. Though I was rather confused as to what direction to head in now. I remembered I had come down over the top of the cave, but I had no clue if the trail before me was still Crack-in-the-Island Trail or what. I considered merely backtracking, but I did not want to go near those girls lest they bother me. So I decided to take my chances. Whichever trail it was, it was bound to get me out of there somehow.

I took the trail away from the Crack and came up to a sign reading Partridge Trail. Wha...? That was the trail I had skipped by earlier on my way out here! So how had I ended up near it again? This confused me even more but I decided to take it. And...then I ended up at the dead end boulders again! Somehow I'd taken the same way back that I'd come, though it had not even looked the same! /:( I was absolutely baffled. Well, at least I wasn't TOTALLY lost! With a confused sigh I made my way back to State Road.

It was a detour, but I decided to take it anyway. Instead of heading back to British Landing and from there on to wherever the Friendship Altar was, I decided I'd pass by the Battlefield. I turned right onto State Road and eventually passed a nice clear sign reading...Crack-in-the-Island Trail! >_< Cripes, THAT must have been the path my brother and I took so long ago, the original trail itself. The reason I had grown so confused, I think, is because that and Partridge Trail wind together and look like the same trail near the Crack, so I hadn't been sure which one I was even on. With a sigh I made a mental note that THAT was the trail to take should I make my way out here again, and continued on my way. I passed the spot where, in 2001, my brother and I had came up out into the open near the airport field, and there had been butterflies fluttering all around us, way up in the air and in the drizzle. There were no butterflies this year. I kept walking. A wide, pretty green opened up to my side and I identified the Wawashkamo Golf Course. I'm not certain if I turned on British Landing Road first or stopped here, but in either case, there was a big sign declaring the property to be "Open to the Public," which I found surprising.

Wawashkamo

In 1898 Chicago cottagers founded the Wawashkamo Golf Club. By 1900 the club had been incorporated and the clubhouse had been built on the site of the 1814 Battle of Mackinac Island. Wawashkamo is Indian for "Crooked Trail." Golf course architect Alex B. Smith left the natural features of the site unaltered in his design for these true nine-hole Scottish links. Wawashkamo Golf Club is Michigan's oldest unchanged private nine-hole golf links.

Whoopie-doo. o_o Still, it was nice to look at, I guess. And the name just rolls off the tongue...Waaaawaaaasshhhhkaaaaamooooo. Just too bad that such a nice name belongs to a GOLF COURSE, of all things.

Well, a couple of tourists were making their way down the path leading to the golf club. I paused and stepped briefly onto the property to take a shot, then retreated. I wasn't much interested. I mean, a golf course is a golf course; nice grass, and that's about it. I was more interested in reaching the Battlefield itself, though I'd had no clue the golf course was actually built ON the Battlefield. How weird.

Anyway, I ended up on British Landing Road again, this time headed back the way I'd come, though I had not been on this stretch of it before. Seeing as this road slices right up the middle of the island and eventually turns into Garrison Road, I had thought it would be really big and wide, like Cadotte. It wasn't. It was actually rather small and quaint, lined with different sorts of trees alternating with open space. I came to a nice little stretch bordered by twisty trees forming a green canopy, with a little bench picnic area to the side and different types of other trees standing beyond it. Here my camera batteries gave out... -_- ...and I had to stop and change them. I hoped SO MUCH the memory card would not pull its crap like before!! Not NOW of all times! I was making good progress considering I had to make the 8:30 ferry. Walking ahead a little further at last brought me to more historic signs and I identified this spot as having been the Battlefield of 1814...which was now...a golf course! (Bet you didn't see that coming.)

Here, there was a little stopping area like before, with a couple of signs explaining the site, and a memorial stone. The golf course opened up on the opposite side of the road. I approached the nearer sign.

Battlefield of 1814

Here in this area on Aug. 4, 1814, an American force battled the British in a vain attempt to recapture the island which the British had seized at the outbreak of the War of 1812. Coming ashore at what is known as British Landing, the Americans under Col. George Croghan soon ran into strong resistance as they advanced inland. An attempt to outflank the British line was repulsed by Indians hidden in thick woods and resulted in the death of Maj. Andrew Holmes. Croghan withdrew when he found that he could not defeat the British.

Holmes, the guy for whom Fort Holmes, the highest point on the island, was renamed; and Croghan, for whom the Croghan Water Area was named, I assumed. ("You, shall get a dinky fort! And you, a water reserve!" Honors!) There was a man getting ready to mount his bicycle here and I had to kind of step around him to see the other sign and the memorial rock. The sign, "The Battle To Recapture Mackinac Island," was pretty interesting. All this time I'd assumed the Americans had repulsed a British attack! I mean, why else call it British Landing unless the British landed there? o_o;;; Jeez, was I ever off. Turns out the Americans were the ones who sneaked in and LOST to the British, when some Menominee Indians ambushed them in this big area of...FARMLAND! Can you believe it?? This big area of Mackinac Island used to be a FARM! (Trust me, if you've wandered the island a lot, finding out there was once a big fieldy farm area there is really finding out something. As Ma later said, "Where on that island do they have the ROOM for a farm??" Well, they did, and it was right here.) According to the sign (I would transcribe it, but the photo is such that I cannot clearly read the top part of it, sorry), thirteen Americans were killed and over fifty wounded; British losses were "negligible."

I moved over to look at the memorial rock, where the man was getting on his bike.

(I might be iffy on the 1925, sorry again!)

It was a little sobering to learn that an actual battle had taken place here, with actual losses. I mean, yeah, the island is practically BLOODY with how many people must have been killed there over the years, but for the most part those people are vague and nameless and not related to anything but general history--Indian uprisings, the fur trade, missionaries, stuff like that. Standing next to an actual named battlefield, with actual stats and even names--Croghan, Holmes, Chief Tomah, Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDowall (I believe that's what the sign says)--made it all feel a little more real. I'd never even known the British had Indian allies up here! Much less Menominee! Go figure. Things must have really changed between Pontiac's uprising in the mid-1700's and the massacre at Fort Michilimackinac, and the Battle of 1814.

Well, it was time to press onward. I continued down British Landing Road, passing groups of tourists on bike and on foot. It too was a detour but I decided to check out the Croghan Water Area; I mean, it was the least I could do, considering the poor guy got trounced in 1814, right? I didn't expect it to be much more than Brown's Brook, and I was making good time anyway. I had to slow down when some people on horseback came jumping out of the woods, yelling, "OW!" as their horses clambered onto the road. "This horse does NOT like me!" one guy groused, and I silently sympathized...the one time my ex-friend Desirae and I came to the island, she had needled me into renting a horse, and that thing had NOT wanted to obey ONE single command I gave it. >:/ On foot is definitely the way to go. There was a sign with a jumping horse on it here saying something like "Moderate difficulty" or something (at least I think this is where this all happened, I might be wrong) and with surprise I noticed this was the end of Lydia Trail! :D Hi again Lydia! So that was where it led to--British Landing Road. I paused and peered up it, then took a few steps into the woods. There was this GORGEOUS little spot where the sunlight, such as it was (no, we never did get the "abundant sunshine" prophesied in the forecast), filtered down onto a patch of grassy mossy ground below, like a little spotlight, and I just HAD to take some pictures of this. One of them currently adorns my desktop. :)

I had to pause as I heard the weirdest bird calls...at least I think they were from a bird...I HOPE they were from a bird! It sounded like a cross between a turkey and a crow! O_o It was so loud! I cocked my head and puzzled over this bizarre noise, and even tried calling back a few times, though I couldn't tell if it understood or heard me. I waited a bit, kind of wishing some more tourists would happen along so I could ask them, "Do you hear that??" I've never wanted to be able to identify bird calls more in my life as I did at that moment! I still wonder what that was. I had to shrug and just give it up since I had no clue. Then I went back onto British Landing Road to seek out Croghan Water Trail.

Along the way I saw a seagull standing in the road ahead. Just...standing. I stared at it in curiosity and it slowly meandered out of my way as I progressed. "You're a little far inland from British Landing," I said as I went by it, and it started wandering up the slope toward the trees. "At least you don't have to fight with all the OTHER seagulls," I admitted, then paused. The bird was walking around on the ground in the woods by now. I had to take pictures of it just because it was so weird. A seagull walking in the woods? Well, I've never seen something like that before, at least. I stared at it a minute more, wondering if maybe it was hurt, then shrugged and went on my way again. Hm.

At last, a little stream appeared off to the side, and a trail. Croghan Water Area! Woot! Again I did not expect to see much of interest, but I could just pass along the trail and make it back to British Landing Road, from whence I planned on heading to the Friendship Altar and then Scott's Road to head around to the East Bluff. I set foot on this trail and had NO CLUE how damned LONG and WINDY the thing was!!

I swear, this trail seemed to go on FOREVER! I ended up inching around trees, climbing over a fallen one, stepping over logs, going up steep hills and down again. The scenery was such that you'd think you'd just fallen into the Hoh Rainforest or something. It was so mossy and wet and weird back here. I started gritting my teeth the longer it went on. How damned big WAS this water area, anyway?? I'd expected just a quick little walk, not a virtual mountain hike!! The scenery just kept changing and morphing into different types of trees and slopes. It's like I was passing through a dozen ecosystems!

"CRIPES!" I exclaimed when I came to this dinky trail that was so neglected that I was brushing tall thistle plants out of my way and cringing, hoping the bees wouldn't get me. "Doesn't this thing ever END??" Even the map hadn't indicated it was so long and twisty! Over and over again I wished that British Landing Road or even British Landing Nature Trail would come into view, but they never did. I kept hearing other tourists ahead of me but they were just beyond my reach! I finally spotted what looked to be a clearing ahead and made for it, only to end up on this steep slope leading down to a scummy little pond ringed by trees and cattails. I blinked and stared at it for a few minutes. Now a pond, that I had not expected, even in something called Croghan Water Area. Go figure. I picked my way down to it and peered into the water. It was all scummy and icky brown like toilet water. *ick* I shrugged and took pictures anyway, just because it was new to me. Then I decided that instead of heading to British Landing Road, I'd continue taking Croghan Water Trail through to British Landing Nature Trail, because according to the map, this should lead me straight through to the Friendship Altar...something I had never even set eyes on before. A new discovery! Woot!

And I suppose this is where I should leave off for today. Again this has not been proofed so please forgive horrid typos and errors; I will beat myself thoroughly should I spot them later on. The finale of the 2004 Mackinac Island trip should be in the third entry, I hope. And tar for now...