Forest of Doom

I stopped to take a picture and the techno-kid turns around and says, 'come on Dad, we are going into the Forest of Doom.' I laughed again, and even as I type this, I am laughing. It all started as we were pulling into our next adventure.

We did the fort on Mackinac Island and the fort by the bridge. To finish the trifecta, better 1/2 and I decided we would go to Mill Creek. So on our third trip to Mackinac after spending the day on the farm, doing farm stuff, we thought this would be fun. Mill Creek was not there when we were kids, so it was going to be something totally new for us as well.

When they moved the fort from the Straits to the Island, over 200 years ago, a mill was built to help supply lumber. Eventually, by the early 1800's, the mill was abandoned. The historical society has done a great job rebuilding the area and providing some cool insight into the history of the area. So Mill Creek was..born, so to speak.

As we were driving in, the t-k piped up from the back, 'We are going into the Forest of Doom.' I have no idea where he got that from, but it stuck. We entered, paid our greenbacks(it was about $35 for the four of us, gammie included) and we headed toward the nature trail. In about an hour, they were going to do demonstrations of the mill working and how people lived at the site. So we had time to check out the creek and other cool stuff.

Enter The Forest of Doom.

You can see evidence of the doom part right here. Better 1/2 took this cool pic of a spider web as we walked down the path. I did not see any giant spiders, but I am sure they were scared off by the chatter of t-k as he asked a gajillion questions about the forest. Every so often, there are those cool signs that explain all kinds of stuff about habitats and lumbering and forestry projects. He learned a lot about all of that.

The creek, and the remains of the work beavers had done years ago. It seems the beavers moved up creek and no longer actually live close to the mill. Probably too many humans doing crazy human things. If you are adventerous enough, and willing to hike a couple of miles through untamed forest, you can find them. We passed on that. The t-k kept calling out, 'here beaver, beaver, beaver.' Then he would click his tongue, like he was calling a cat. He really wanted to see a real beaver!

They had a cool display all about beavers back near the mill and even had some stuffed beavers. No, I did not tell him those were real beavers, stuffed. Oh no. He would have had a fit. He said I like those toy beavers, they are cool. I left it at that.

We did see a couple chipmunks, but that was it for wildlife. We then found these huge boulders and the handy dandy sign stated they were left by the glaciers. Then it was a gajillion questions about rocks, ice, and everything associated with ice ages. Talk about stretching my limited knowledge! But sometimes this old guy remembers what its like to be a kid with ants in the pants. So I said, 'hey, why don't you climb on top the boulder, it will be cool and you can see a long ways!' So he did.

Then we got to see a demonstration of the old mill working. The guy was a fountain of knowledge and did a great job. It was super cool. He said based on his research, he is convinced there was as many as 200 households outside the fort in the late 1700's, a lot more than the 'official' estimate of 20 something. He shows records where the settlement asked for enough cord wood where, if you stacked it single cord width, it would go from the creek to the fort. That is over four miles. That is a lot of wood, about 4000 cord. Makes sense if there was that many people living there.

At the end of the day, we had a ton of fun and we all got a bit of education. We did pass on the zip-line ride, the walk across the rope bridge and climbing the rock wall. All cool stuff folks can do there to add to the experience. But well, maybe next time, maybe. Me and heights are not on good terms, so I may just have to take pics as everyone else does it.

I look forward to going back. Hard to say where our wondering will lead. We are planning more adventures elsewhere in the state next year. But we will go back to the Forest of Doom.

Happy Wanderings