Our decision to buy Birch Lodge was a difficult one. We were pretty happy with things the way they were. Bill is an independent consultant doing historic preservation and archaeology, and my role is chief assistant and bottle washer. We built a new home downstate, but decided to make our "second home" our main residence. |
| Blush Lake, Big Island Lake Wilderness Area |
Our home now is a 32 acre in-holding in the Big Island Lake Wilderness area. This is roughly half-way between Munising and Manistique in Michigan's Hiawatha National Forest. We have the only private frontage on a 93 acre lake, the rest being owned by the National Forest Service. Our road is snow-plowed to our drive, and from their begins as a snow mobile trail in the winter. Oddly, we have high speed internet and underground utilities, so Bill can do his work from home.
From our deck we have watched eagles, loons, otters, a porcupine nursing her baby, and wolves.
The lake is shallow, but does have blue-gill, perch and pike. I kayak on the lake, and rarely is there another boat because they must carry in about 1/4 mile from the road. The wilderness area is strictly non-motor and carry in. We hike in the wilderness area, a chain of lakes, as well as the Pictured Rocks along lake Superior, thirty minutes to the north.
We especially enjoy a pair of Trumpeter swans who nest in the wetlands adjacent to our lake. Every year they bring their cygnets on to the lake to grow a bit before they go off into the wilderness area. They view our landing as a safe haven, and even have brought their cygnets up into the yard for some grass and to doze in the sun.
It will be really, really hard to leave this. We realize that if we sell, there is no finding another place like this. We looked for years for it--wilderness, but with access. But the lodge is special to us, and in the end we realize that the wilderness will get along without us, but not too many people would be willing to try to save the lodge.
We spoke with the Forest Service about buying our property to complete the Wilderness holding on our lake, but funds are not available. We also contacted some nature conservancies, but funding is an issue for them as well. Consequently, we have listed through a realtor, and hope we can find a conservation oriented buyer. For more information about our home for sale, go to our blog on our Big Island Lake Wilderness Home.
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