Crooked Lake Camping

This past Tuesday through Friday, we went camping at Crooked Lake Campground in the Pinckney Recreation Area. It was a rustic campground about 45 minutes from where we now live. There were only 22 campsites and we had one of the larger ones that was still a little private from the other sites. It was a great campground on a lake and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Above are some pictures from our week.

We did a bit of fishing which was lots of fun. We bought fishing poles and licenses the day before we went as an anniversary gift to ourselves. I did a lot of fishing with my dad when we were younger, so I knew what I was doing. Before we bought the poles, Brian kept asking me if I knew how to grab a fish and take it off the hook. I thought he was just asking to make sure that more than one of us knew how to do it because I assumed he did. Well, Brian caught the first fish and didn't know how to get it off the hook! As he was reeling it in, he wanted me to take a picture of it which I thought was strange since we'd have to take it off the hook out of the water anyway. I took his picture and then discovered that he didn't know how to grab it. So, I grabbed the fish while he used the needle-nosed pliers to take the hook out of the fish. Then he caught a huge fish (probably legal size) and I made him hold that one once we got it off the hook since he hadn't done that before. It was quite enjoyable to know that I knew how to do something that he didn't. :)

The first full day we were there we rented a canoe and went all around the lake in it. There were little "water paths" between two lakes and a pond through the lilies that were fun to paddle through to get to the next lake. The lakes were very clean with lots of wildlife and plants. There were a few houses on the first lake, but it was not a busy place like many lakes we've been to.

The second night it rained rather hard. We were huddled in our tent after running the paddles and life jackets back to the canoe. Part of our campsite became a lake that ran right into our firewood which was hidden under the car to stay dry. After a little while of huddling in the tent, the DNR came around to tell us someone had seen a funnel cloud in the area and we should go to the bathrooms by the swimming area at the next lake over. We spent a half an hour in the bathrooms until they told us we could go back. Everything was fine, but very wet. It rained more that night too.

The rest of the trip was rather uneventful. We had fun walking around, fishing, and making food over the fire. It was a nice relaxing time to spend together in the outdoors.