The Beaches of Livingston County
A happier story of happier times. As always, click on thumbnails for larger images.
North-northwest of Ann Arbor, in Putnam Township, there is the beautiful little town of Hell. Hell, Michigan.
Now, fans of the American hockey team the Colorado Avalanche might claim that Detroit is hell. Fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes might claim the whole of the state of Michigan is hell. But the real, official, duly chartered town of Hell, Michigan is just a short drive up local roads from Ann Arbor, through gently rolling hills and woods.
There are a variety of theories on how such a beautiful little place got such a unusual name. The truth has been lost long ago, as the the little town of Hell has been Hell since 1841. It's residents have been having fun with the name ever since. There's annual foot raches through Hell, motorcycle rallies in Hell, local weatherpeople showing footage of snow falling in Hell. Recently, Kentucky Fried Chicken had a summer national promotion giving away coupons on the internet for free hot chicken wings if you could prove your town that day was hotter than Hell (MI). People come and mail letters on Halloween from Hell; they come on April 15th and mail their tax reciepts to the government from Hell.
Hell, Michigan, is right in the middle of the great chain of lakes and forests in an arc of almost fifty miles surrounding Ann Arbor, part of the vast outdoor wilderness that makes living in Ann Arbor so awesome. And so, the afternoon after our marvelous day at Michigan Ren Faire this past August, aelkiss and niquerio and Jesse set out for a day exploring the waters of Hell.
And one of our first happy discoveries was that Hell had beaches. :-)
Now, over the years, as mentioned above, we'd taken advantage of many wonderful outdoor activities surrounding Ann Arbor. From geocaching to apple picking to even horseback riding and maple syrup runs, many are the merry adventures I've been lucky enough to have during my very happy years in Ann Arbor. But one thing I had thought one wouldn't expect to find almost a hundred miles from any of the Great Lake coasts is a beach. Happily, we were wrong. :-)
Many had been the times in previous years we had gone canoeing on the Huron river -- a real river, not just a creek or storm drainage ditch -- in Ann Arbor. Argo Canoe Livery was literally just up the street from the medical center; and every day during the summer dozens of canoes and kayaks would wind their way down the river right past my apartment and around the foot of the great hill upon which University Hospital is built. (For a picture from overhead, with helpful annotations, see here.)
That Sunday afternoon being cool and clear and beautiful, we had come to come to Hell to explore a wilderness area we hadn't been to before. We had started at the Hell General Store, which also sees duty as the local post office, ice cream parlor, and canoe rental. Upstream of Hell are a chain of multiple lakes connected by rivers, and the canoe livery had driven us up and dropped us off. They had accidentally, however, forgotten to give us paddles to go with our canoes -- something realized only after we arrived (and, of course, leaving us upstream of Hell without a paddle). So while the canoe driver raced back to Hell to fetch us some paddles, we spent a little time being silly on the warm, sandy beaches of Hell. (Mental note: next summer, beach party in Hell.) So with the paddle situation soon rectified, we set out to explore the chain of lakes on the way to Hell...
Bruin Lake wound into Watson Lake, Half Moon and Highland. Each lake had it's own character, from shores packed with summer cabins, to long streches of shoreline dotted with massive private estates, to areas of true wilderness, waters lapping onto undisturbed shores. There were shallow passageways lined with cattails and deep waters roiled by the wakes of surging powerboats. There were fish and ducks and furry water mammals (muskrats, maybe?) playing on the surface. We even put onto shore on another sandy beach on Blind Lake where someone had installed a rope swing and fooled around for a while.
The sky was brillant blue and the breezes were cool with the promise of autumn and sunshine was everywhere. We paddled and raced and sang and laughed, all the way back to Hell, for a last ice cream and dropping me off at the airport, to catch a flight back to duty at Wash U.
We had come to explore a new waterland different than the Huron we were familiar with; we discovered a country of lakes and honest-to-god sandy beaches, right just outside of Ann Arbor. I look forward to returning next summer not just as a few-hour canoe trip fit in between breakfast and a flight home, but as a long, lazy summer day beach and water fun party. A Social on the Beach, right here in the Midwest? Why not?
Of such things are memory made. Sand and sunshine and smiles, and a fond echo of joy that lasts long after the summer warmth has faded. :-)