By Mary L Fox
Traveling from
around the southern tip of Lake Michigan, Sierra Club travelers met in
Charlevoix, MI, early on September 1, 2022, to catch the Emerald Isle ferry for
the 32-mile cruise across Lake Michigan to explore Beaver Island. Ed Max, a horticulturalist
and enthusiastic part-time island resident, organized and led this exploratory
trip with the assistance of Paul Saindon, Berni Kolasa, Mike Davis, and Jan
Bradford.
Despite
concerns about seasickness after seeing rough seas and whitecaps on Lake
Michigan the day before, the ferry made its way through the harbor channel, and
the lake was relatively calm with no whitecaps to be seen. People mingled and
got to know each other. One participant shared sweet, juicy Michigan peaches
gathered on her way to Charlevoix. Ships were sighted along with several
islands. From a distance, the trees from one island created the illusion of a
power plant. As we
approached the small harbor at Beaver Island, low-slung clapboard and brick
buildings were seen along the main street. Upon arrival, luggage was claimed
and loaded into cars. Glad to be able to move around a bit, most folks walked
the one-mile route to The Brother’s Place, a quaint rustic inn that would be
home base for the next five days. The inn was reminiscent of summer camp,
complete with an orientation and delivery of house rules before rooms were
assigned. Each room was decorated with a
theme – such as the Music Room with instruments, Germany and Paris with travel
posters, and Japan with a beautiful fan. The Brother’s Place was once a retreat
house for the Christian Brothers, known for their brandy – which is another
story. The inn is decorated with vestiges of that history, with lamps and
chandeliers made from Christian Brothers brandy bottles. Alas, no full bottles were
to be found for sipping.
After
settling in and having lunch, we headed out on a short hike through a meadow,
to a boardwalk in an old cedar swamp leading to a beach. At the beach, we took
off our boots and waded into the beautiful aqua and surprisingly warm waters of
Lake Michigan. The water was shallow well past 50 yards out. We returned to the
inn to help with dinner preparations or just sit back and relax on the long screened-in
porch or in one of the comfortable sitting rooms.
Jan Bradford,
dressed in a black chef hat and apron, was chef extraordinaire, providing tasty
menus of classic favorites, including made-from-scratch blueberry pancakes,
egg-in-a-hole, and Jell-o cheesecake pies, to name a few. Group members pitched in with meal
preparation and clean-up. Lunch fixings of bread, cheese, meat, peanut butter
and jelly, along with granola bars, cookies, and chips were set out after
breakfast to make individualized sack lunches before setting out for the day’s
activities.
Highlights
of the trip were trail talks by local experts and stargazing. On Saturday, Ed showed
us one of his favorite hikes through old growth forests and varying vegetative
zones ending at a rocky beach known as French Bay. At a pond along the way, we met
Pam, a fourth-generation islander, who gave a brief history of Beaver Island. Out
of a total of 34,000 islands, it is the largest island in Lake Michigan at 56
square miles, and one of 24 islands on the Great Lakes with permanent
communities. Pam stated that Beaver Island has the distinction of being a
UNESCO Bio Reserve. During the hike, she
pointed out ancient trees and provided fun facts, such as a turtle’s sex is determined
by whether the egg was in sun or shade at the time of conception.
We were also
joined by Gina, a mycologist (a fungi foraging expert), who showed the group
edible mushrooms she had gathered and described how she planned to prepare
them. She also cautioned that many mushrooms are poisonous, and foraging
requires education and guidance. Foraging is both art and science, and what you
don’t know can make you very sick or kill you. Yipes! After that rousing talk,
some of the group enjoyed a fun bumpy and dusty ride to the trailhead on Gina’s
ATV.
On Saturday
morning, the group hiked through a cathedral of trees opening to the blue sky and
sun high above a stand of birch and other hardwood trees. The group saw a full spider web hanging from
one of the trees and a carpet of lime green moss and hidden fabulous
fungi. The sunlight created a
kaleidoscope of green ranging from pale sage lichens to emerald green moss in
between the waist high deep blue-green ferns. The ground beneath our feet, a combination of pine needles, decaying
leaves and sand, was spongy soft and cushy reminding me of a bouncy house. In the afternoon, people had the choice of
walking along the somewhat rocky beach at Donegal Bay or climbing the heights
of the Mt. Pisgah sand dune. While not nearly
as high as Mt. Pisgah in the Appalachian Mountains, it proved to be a
challenging climb. After the hikes, some
headed into the small town near the harbor to visit Mary’s Toy Store, a
combination of toy museum and art gallery and the Beaver Island Historical
Society to learn about the island’s colorful and varied history.
On Saturday
night the group enjoyed some amazing stargazing at Sand Point with local
astronomers providing a hilarious commentary on where the best location would
be to see the aurora borealis. One man responded in a deep, raspy baritone, “I
asked myself that question, and I haven’t yet received an answer,” and so this
conversation continued a bit. The moon was almost full, and when it set,
Jupiter and Saturn were visible to the naked eye. Jupiter’s four moons and
Saturn’s rings were visible through a telescope. The local astronomers were
more than willing to share their knowledge and allow Sierra Club visitors to
look through their telescopes. The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) were on
display. With some adjustments to his
cellphone camera, Steve Turner captured some spectacular images that the naked
eye could not see.
Monday, the
group visited the cabin and tomb of Feodar Protar, one of the Island’s most
beloved citizens from 1893 until his death in 1925. He was highly respected and
renowned for providing healthcare and sharing his knowledge, gained mostly through
self-education and observation, to the community. An informational marker at
his home displays the circular calendar he created to mark the seasons with
notes and cut-out magazine pictures on planting and harvesting.
The group
then hiked along the Kuebler Trail, developed along an old logging rail line. Some
of the participants ended the day with a visit to a local watering hole to
sample the unique and refreshing local brews.
On Tuesday
morning, everyone quickly packed up, ate breakfast, made lunch, cleaned up the
kitchen, and caught the ferry back to Charlevoix. As the ferry approached the
harbor, three wave runners approached and began jumping the wake of the ferry.
Some of the riders shot up almost vertically in the air as they jumped the
wake. It was quite a spectacle and entertaining end of our Beaver Island
adventure!
Starting in
April, River Prairie Group’s Political Committee held endorsement interviews
with candidates ranging from Congressional to DuPage Forest Preserve
commissioners. Some 24 reports were written, 24 votes taken by the RPG
Executive Committee, and many presentations to the Illinois Sierra Club Chapter
Political Committee. 
