Green Travel

In Rural Michigan, a Place for Peace and Perspective
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
By Eric Easter

There are standard reactions I get whenever I mention the concept of camping in my circle of friends. They run from horror to outright dismissal to paranoia and fear of moments from the movie Deliverance. But the love of nature is powerful if it’s been bred in you early, and since having kids I’ve been eager to turn them on to the joys of outdoor living.

So when my wife won a camping excursion to Circle Pines Center at a charity auction and gave it as a gift to me and my sons, I was ecstatic. Then I checked the fine print on the brochure.

I was envisioning a a manly man’s forest vacation – just me and my little guys, an axe, a tent, fish guts, fire. What she purchased, however, was a week of “family camp” at a co-op that stressed bonding and sharing with complete strangers. Living in downtown Chicago, the last thing I wanted was to bond with more strangers, but we made the trip nonetheless. After some initial misgivings, we discovered an experience that was both entertaining and deeply emotional.

There is history in Circle Pines and that is part of its allure. The center is a 294-acre farm established in 1938 as a place to teach and further the Depression-era movement of shared, cooperative living. Over the years it developed as a haven for a racially diverse mix of folks singers, labor organizers, poets, artists and civil rights activists to gather and train new generations in the practice of social justice. In the early 50s, blues pioneer Big Bill Broonzy worked at the camp as a cook, where he gained the attention of patrons like Studs Terkel and folk singer Pete Seeger, who recorded with Broonzy at the center.

The center’s fortunes have ebbed and flowed along with society’s feeling about peace and justice, reaching a peak in the idealistic '60s and '70s, and picking up again in recent years sparked by greater interest in the environment and organic living.

The long tree-lined road to the center’s main farmhouse builds anticipation, but the payoff can be disappointing, depending on what you expect. It’s a camp retreat, not a forest spa or cutesy bed and breakfast. Save for meals, there is no “service” to be had. The word cooperative is taken seriously, and your first job is to cooperate by fending for your self and jumping right in. In that spirit, the accommodations are accurately described as rustic, in varying degrees that range from backcountry quaint to Unibomber.

Our cabin, considered to be the best of the lot, was a picture postcard distressed clapboard one-room number that delicately fit two beds, a desk, table and chair and woodburning stove in a 10 x10 space. For a small family or Ichabod Crane, it was perfect. A common bath house was near enough to make chilly morning showers and late-night potty runs uneventful. There are, naturally, no televisions and mobile service is spotty.

We arrived in time to unpack, get acclimated and answer the farm bell for 6pm dinner. The first day of camp can be uncomfortable, as disparate families feel one another out to determine if their values and child-rearing methods will allow them to mesh in a cooperative spirit. The desired togetherness is forced a bit by the staff who take guests through the 70 year tradition of musical offerings before dinner and classic folks songs and share cleaning duties after. A New York Dad and I shared an eyeroll when someone suggested we all dance the Hokey Pokey.

But we quickly realized it wasn’t about us. While we were viewing the whole thing with suspicion, something was happening to our children. They were, in fact, happier than they had ever been. They had made friends while we were checking each other’s credentials and were finding interesting things we had easily missed. Once we gave in to that fact, the trip became a dramatically different experience.

During the day, the small staff offers a variety of activities that are voted on by the whole group and range from playing on the beach of Lake Stewart (which the property fronts) to cookie baking to picking dinner from the organic garden. They are all optional but they are a nice solution for parents who want to read a book while the kids wander safely.

To be truthful, while the group activities were nice enough, I sought out private moments for me and my kids. That’s what I had been missing between work and other obligations, and the miles of trails through apple orchards, willows and tall pines provided the best opportunity. There, all my Boy Scout training came back and I was able to pass on the kind of survival knowledge that becomes second nature once you’ve spent time in the woods.

Wildlife is abundant around the campground, none of which are dangerous unless you swerve your car to avoid them. In the four days we were there we spotted deer, badgers, wild turkeys, hawks, woodchucks and frogs as well as evidence of various night critters.

I brought along bats, balls, a Frisbee and other distractions, but they got left in the car. Nature was good at providing its own excitement. Sticks, stones and raccoon poop became toys during hikes. An eco-friendly catch and release “bug vacuum” I grabbed from Target netted close up looks at all sorts of fauna from a praying mantis to fireflies to grasshoppers. Have you stopped long enough to stare at a grasshopper lately? I recommend it. We woke up early, played all day, ate heartily, read books by lantern and slept like bears all in one bed.

Circle Pines isn’t so much a return to nature as it is a return to a different time, where neighbors watched out for all the children, kids were allowed to roam free and create their own fun, and a bump on the head was the price of learning your boundaries, not the foundation of a lawsuit. The sound of the wind through the trees, the snap of a bean fresh from a vine, the loud knocks of a woodpecker were reminders of how much we miss in the noise of a city neighborhood, how enjoyable a simplified life can be and how tee-ball classes and karate lessons can never replace the fun that big open fields can provide.

For a family not quite ready for a hardcore camping experience, Circle Pines is a great compromise. Not so rural that you feel isolated and vulnerable, but isolated enough to feel safe and far from the madness of the everyday. By the time we left, we actually had bonded with strangers. Each of the families departed perhaps not friends, but with sincere well-wishes and with new respect for our shared space in the world and our duty to preserve it for one another’s children.

Circle Pines Center
8650 Mullen Road, Delton, Michigan
http://www.circlepinescenter.org

Getting There:
Circle Pines is approximately 3.5 hours by car from both Detroit and Chicago using I-94. Lansing, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids are within an hour’s drive. There are multiple places to stop along the way including wineries and fruit-picking farms.

When to Go:
Circle Pines hosts a teen summer camp during the warmer months. Family Camp is in mid-August, and several events from Maple Syrup making to garden planting take place throughout the year.

Where to Stay: 
Of course, the object is to stay at Circle Pines. If you prefer a bit of privacy in the midst of your cooperative experience, ask for a cabin. Tenting is also an option for those who simply want a campground without the other activities. If it all gets too rustic for you, there are ample low-cost hotels in towns off Route 131.

Activities: 
Rowboats, canoes, swimming, hiking trails, organic gardening, animal spotting. Nationally-ranked golf courses, horseback riding, hunting, fishing and children’s attractions are nearby. In season, skiing is close and most area lakes freeze over completely, allowing snowmobiling and ice skating.

Where to Eat: 
If the folk dancing before meals gets to be a bit too much, pizza, burgers and a quaint ice cream shop that doubles as a miniature golf course are all within a ten-minute drive.

What to Bring: 
Bedding, towels, glow sticks for night hiking, books, sturdy hiking shoes and a strong flashlight to point out stars. The kitchen leaves healthy nibbles, but if your favorite snacks are of the Doritos variety, bring them along.

Eric Easter is VP of Digital & Entertainment for Johnson Publishing, Co., Inc. He writes about politics, culture and technology for EbonyJet.com.