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Camping Style
About Campground
Even though Chicago Lake (188 acres) is a busy lake you can still see and hear loons. Four campsites and an improved boat launch can be found on Chicago Lake, all clustered around its north end. Site #1 is small (20 ft x 15 ft), heavily wooded and isolated. The access road is poor and a 4 wheel drive and tents are recommended. This site is suitable for one family only and is desired by those looking for privacy from other campers. Swimming is considered to be poor.
Directions
From the Intersection of US-2 and Forest Highway 13 (about 14 miles east of Rapid River or 22 miles west of Manistique), drive north 8.4 miles on Highway 13 to CR 442. Turn right (east) and drive 5 miles to County Road N-3. Turn left (northwest) on N-3 and drive 0.1 mile to FR 2422 turning left (northwest) on to 2422 and continuing about 0.25 mile to the campsite.
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Reviews Ratings
My wife's cousin has photos of 12-to-13" bluegills caught from Chicago Lake over 30-years ago. My wife and I camped near the public access and fished the lake roughly 5-years later and the black flies were so thick you couldn't motor across the lake because your eyes, nose, mouth and ears were packed full on the biting little monsters within seconds of accelerating the boat motor. My wife wouldn't come out of the tent and I suffered the most from infectious bug bites. Went home the next morning without a fish and a thousand bug bites. No insect repellent (not even DEET) will deter these bugs from attacking. Not a pleasant trip at all.
OMG the mosquitos I don't know if it's the time of year or what but it's impossible to be outside even with bug repellent. No picnic table, no grate to cook on. A beautiful trash fire of a campsite.
Great rustic and remote campsites. The road into the campsites is a dirt road but perfectly navigable with any typical vehicle unless it is after/during torrential downpours. Very nice public boat launch that gets regular use but isn't overly busy or crowded. Awesome spot if you are looking for a weekend spent directly in the woods!
We stayed at site #4 and the site was very large and had direct access to Chicago Lake. The lot we were on was right next to the boat launch so there were people in and out daily but it was never enough people to bother us. The one thing I have to say that annoyed my family the most was the biting flies and the mosquitos. Really not a reason to complain since we’re camping and all, but they were BAD. I can honestly say that I don’t think I would go back to this area because the bugs were that bad. My kids have bite marks all over and the dogs weren’t any better. Bug spray didn’t work and the flies are not phased by almost anything. The only thing that makes them go away is killing them....1 down, 500 million to go.
Back to the site itself - it was very spacious and definitely felt like you were in the middle of no where and away from the city (you certainly are!) The site had plenty of grass but for about a 20ft radius of the bonfire pit was pure sand/soot...very messy when it got wet.
Getting to the site was a chore in and of itself - there are no signs from the main road and it doesn’t help there is no cell service to look up a map of the sites. We randomly turned down a 1 lane dirt path with a 26ft trailer and ended up taking a 1 mile off road adventure to eventually get to the site.
Nearest store that I found was all the way back on US-2 called Foxys Den and it’s a good 25min ride from the site. My fault for not grabbing ice at the last gas fill up. Not using this point as a negative against the site, just advising what I discovered.
Overall it was a nice getaway from the city life from down in the LP but the bugs up there are terrible.
