This past weekend, my two oldest kids and I made our way up to Mackinaw City to open up the cottage and do some repairs.  While we were out of town a couple of weeks back we heard about the forest fire near Grayling that burnt about 1100 acres and closed down the I-75 expressway.  On our journey to the north we came across the area that was burnt by the fire and was amazed at how bad it looked.  I’ve never seen a section of forest or woods that have been hit by a forest fire before.  I was kind of taken by surprise at how barren the landscape looked.  Everything was chared black or brown from the fire.  There was no grass, or understory growth under the trees, and the trees themselves were burnt like match sticks.  No leaves, no pine needles, no nothing. 

      It gave me a new appreciation for what the spring woods look like normally.  It also showed me what an awesome responsibility it is to have a campfire or recreational fire.  It was said that this fire was an accident,  I never did hear how it actually started, but I did see the end results, no matter what the cause. 

     When we came across the burnt area that went for about a mile down the highway, we pulled off at the next exit and came back down the county road next to the highway, so we could get a closer look and take some pictures.  The road we were on stopped at a dead end and a gate that went to a road that went into the Grayling Game Camp.  This looked like a sportsman’s club of some sort.  It appeared that their property was in the direct path of the fire.  It appears that it burnt quite a bit of their land, it was truely sad to see that.  The only good thing we can say is that mother nature uses fire to clean out the debris and bring in new growth.  I’m sure it won’t be long before we get to see some green growth back in that area soon.  It will take some time for the trees to come back though.  So just remember before you light a fire, take precautions to make sure it doesn’t get out of control and make dog gone sure you put it out!