Day 81 – Manistique To Kitch-iti-kipi (Total Miles = 1328)

The next morning was all we hoped for! A beautiful, sunny, relatively warm day! Joyous!! And, we were headed to Kitch-iti-kipi, Michigan’s largest spring. 200 feet in diameter and 42 feet deep, the crystal blue water can mesmerize you for hours. These waters can stand shore-to-shore with the blue waters of the Caribbean.

The spring has a self-operated raft that glides along a cable so that you can see the spring from the middle of the pond. Large, no huge, brown trout swim the waters of this spring. The trees, the clouds, our beloved sun, all reflect straight through to the bottom of the pool. It is difficult to tell where land starts and water begins!! A stunning maze of all that nature, and our Creator, has to offer!

Although Kitch-iti-kipi was the highlight, the cabin and grounds where we stayed the night was phenomenal in its own right. Gerometta’s Resort was located right on the shores of Indian Lake. Sally, and her husband Ted, built this resort from the ground up 51 years ago. Sally lost her husband 2 years ago, and tears well up as she talks about him. Not wanting to give up her heaven on earth, as she lovingly calls it, she convinced her son, Bradley, to move back home and begin to take it over. For now, the two of them manage the resort together, but I can see the day when Sally will be able to just sit on her back porch, watching and praying, as the sun rises over the lake she calls home.

We woke up early enough to experience the sunrise. Indian Lake was covered in fog. The air was quiet, except for the sound of the swimming ducks dipping their bills into the water for a drink, and the far off call of a sandhill crane. Then behold! We saw the most elegant, white swan quietly savoring the first light of day…dipping her head down to savor the flavors below, then arching her long neck up toward the sky. What an extraordinary unwrapping of the day.