The Smokers Lounge

Smoking was strictly prohibited at Leelanau. I think they had a three-strike rule. Get caught 3X and you were given your walking papers. So, if you wanted to smoke you had to go off campus. When I say off campus I don’t mean like just around the block. We had to go WAY off campus to make sure we didn’t get caught. Since we were surrounded by woods, we hit the trails and would go deep into the woods. Typically we’d go at least a half mile in different directions to get far enough away not to get caught.

However, some of the spots we’d hit were probably a couple of miles of hiking through unforgettable terrain. In other words, we did some serious truckin’ in the northern Michigan woods on a weekly basis. We couldn’t get out much during the week, but from Friday night through Sunday afternoon, it was game on. A lot of the weekends were like being in anticipation of going on a trip. The excitement build up during the week because I knew we’d be truckin’ through the woods on the next big adventure come the weekend. Since it started snowing there in November most of the jaunts through the woods were truckin’ through one to three feet of snow. 

The Tent

We had several code names for different places in the woods we’d head to. The Tent is the only one I remember at this point in my life. I’ll tell you why in a minute but let me give you a little back story first. The Tent was an actual Tent that someone had put up deep in the woods off of the main road behind the school (South Homestead Road).

I’m assuming that some students before we found it put it up as a place to hang out and party. The way you got there was to walk out the back door of the boy’s dorm and hit South Homestead Road and head toward the main intersection which is M-22. It was a good half mile to get to the spot where you’d take an immediate left.

The landmark where you took the left was in an area with pine trees that were planted in perfect rows. I’m thinking there was a patch of 50 wide and maybe 25 deep. It was a very distinctive area on the road. If you were driving in a car you’re peripheral vision would be drawn to that area it was so distinguishing. Once you made that left into the row of pine trees the Tent was a good quarter mile deeper into the woods. In the wintertime, at night, we’d always make a bonfire at the tent. There were a ton of Birch trees in the woods up there and the bark on Birch trees is like paper. You could start a fire with one match. 

The Burning Bush

We visited the Tent on many occasions. All the excursions are a blur at this point in my life except for one that was etched into my consciousness. Much like the experience I had walking up Prospect Hill in my last post. (Click here to check that one out in case you missed it) This was a Friday night in January 1974. The night before we got about 10 new inches of snow.

There was probably a good four feet of snow on the ground. I was so excited. It was a long week in school. I always loved truckin’ deep in the Leelanau woods. With the fresh blanket of crystal white snow, it was going to be a challenge getting to the Tent.

Challenging because with all the fresh snow we could be easily tracked if someone from the facility came looking for us and they did from time to time. If someone was driving down the road and saw footprints leading into the woods we could easily get busted. So, we entered the woods at a different location where it would be harder to see the tracks from the road. We also would go into the woods single file so it would only look like one set of tracks as opposed to several.

When we finally made it there the Tent wasn’t in good shape. It was a small tent and you couldn’t go inside it. It hung from two trees. It was only a landmark at this point. The first thing we did was to clear an area to make a fire. Then we went out and gathered as much wood as we could find laying around to make a fire.

There were plenty of birch trees in that area so starting the fire was easy. It was a cold January night and I couldn’t wait to get the fire started. We were all cold, but we made one big hot fire. The tent was deep enough to where you couldn’t see a fire from the road. After about 10 minutes I was warm and comfortable. We were all sitting in a half circle around the fire. I was scanning the scenery. The fire was crackling and the flames were jumping and dancing into the dark of night.

The fresh snow was a white blanket that looked like a fine fitted sheet on a king-size bed as I continued to examine the beautiful surroundings. All my buddies were laughing, joking, and cutting up. I was awestruck by the moment. As I was scanning my way around the huge fire my eyes got fixated on the interior of the fire. It was like I entered the Matrix. Everybody was cutting up, laughing, giggling, and I was in this slow-motion state locked and loaded on the fire. While I was captivated by the flames I hear that voice again, “This is a night you’ll never forget.”

Yep, here it is 49 years later. Myriad trips to that same location and this one is etched into my consciousness. At the time it was just a coincidence of the night. Now I know it was God tapping me on the shoulder…

To be continued…