It's kind hard to know where to even begin with this post. As I mentioned last week, @mrsbozz and I were set to take our first camping trip of the year this past weekend. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. We don't usually kick off our camping journeys until Memorial Day weekend, but with the recent loss of our dog Jovi, @mrsbozz was determined to do more than just sit around the house and cry.
She deserves all the credit because it was her that suggested we go camping, and it was her that suggested we go back to Onaway State Park in Onaway, MI. It's about a two and a half hour drive north from where we live. It's also in a relatively remote location meaning you have to take back roads to get to it. That's part of the reason it takes so long to get there.
As you can see, we made it and this was our view for the weekend. Not bad right?
Honestly, if I could change one thing about the weekend, it would be the fact that it was so cold. We had a feeling it would be this early in May, but the wind coming off Black Lake was just brutal at times. Onaway State Park is one of the smaller state parks in Michigan and as I mentioned above it sits on the shores of Black Lake.
There are only about 15 sites right on the water like ours was. The rest of them sit up on the hill with zero view of the water. Needless to say, this early in the season, the upper section was basically empty, but nearly all the sites down by the water were full.
Earlier in the week I had stopped over to @a4xjeeper's house and picked up a stack of firewood to keep us warm through the weekend. He sells it on the side and it was actually quite good wood at a decent price. I paid $25 and it filled about 1/3 of the bed of my truck. It was just enough wood to give us a nice fire both Friday and Saturday nights.
While we were at work on Friday, I was keeping an eye on the weather. There had been reports of a massive solar storm and given the fact that we were basically heading to the middle of nowhere, I thought there might be a chance we could see the Aurora Borealis.
Little did I know what the night had in store!
From what I read online, the waves from the solar storm were hitting the Earth pretty much all day. If it had been dark at 3 in the afternoon we would have been able to see the lights. I sat on the shores of Black Lake willing the sun to hurry up and go down and the clouds to move out of the way.
@mrsbozz had never seen the lights before, so this was a bucket list item for her and quite honestly, it couldn't have been more perfect.
It actually turns out pretty much all of the Northern Hemisphere got a chance to see the lights if it was dark enough and the skies were clear enough. People have been posting photos non stop all the way from Yorkshire to Atlanta, GA. It actually makes me a little sad that the even was so widespread.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy that so many people got to witness the magnificent show, but it kind of makes it a little less special for @mrsbozz doesn't it? We aren't really big social media people, but I can see how it might have been cool for her to post some aurora photos and see people's reactions. Instead, the fact that basically everyone was seeing them, kind of ruined that effect.
Make sense?
We actually didn't quite notice them at first. It had just gotten dark and we were still kind of waiting to see what might happen. I stepped into the trailer to make us both a drink and when I came out, I was like "oh, there they are". @mrsbozz didn't see them at first, and I think that's her biggest complaint about the whole thing.
She was expecting that what you see in the photos is what you would see with your naked eye. If you have seen the aurora, you know that isn't the case. Unless you are in Alaska, Iceland, or somewhere else where they are really intense, the colors only tend to show up via camera. It has to do with the spectrum of light our eyes are able to take in versus what a camera can see or something like that.
Once she started taking photos and actually seeing the colors she was more than content, but she still thought it was dumb you couldn't see the full spectrum with your naked eye.
Our relatives down in Columbus, OH were sending photos and their colors were much more pink than ours. It has to do with the later of the atmosphere you can see and stuff like that I guess. If you want to see some awesome photos from further north, check out @rok-sivante's blog.
It wasn't until after the fact that I heard about some conspiracy with HAARP and the aurora. I'm not going to get into it here, so if you want to dive down that rabbit hole, feel free to do so at your own leisure. My opinion is, whether it was natural or man made, it was still beautiful and amazing to see. Plus solar storms like this have been hitting the Earth for eons and giving the same results. Long before HAARP was even around. You be the judge...
At least count between the two of us, we took about 183 photos this past weekend, so you better believe this isn't going to be the last post you see from along the shores of Black Lake. Saturday was pretty rainy in the morning so we took a day trip and grabbed some photos from that.
By the evening, we were treated to an amazing sunset, plus another welcome surprise.
That's right, Lady Aurora came back, though not nearly as intense as the night before. I grabbed a couple shots before we called it a night and headed off to bed. We also got to see a pretty amazing sunset on Saturday night which I will share in a different post.
There was a point where my wife and I said we felt like it was the end of the camping season (I think due to the chilly weather). I'm happy it isn't, we still have a ton of awesome adventures ahead of us this summer!
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