I’ve only been going to Stone Circle for eight years, but Terry Wooten, Louan Lechler, Jim Ribby and a revolving cast of poets, storytellers, songwriters, court jesters and dysfunctional lovers have been at it for a quarter of a century. Beginning tomorrow, June 21, they’ll be there every Saturday night, from 9:00 until midnight or until the poets fall asleep around the bonfire, whichever comes first. Bring your kids – they’ll love it. Bring your sweetheart – you’ll both love it. Come all by yourself – you’ll love it.
On any given Saturday, you might run into a farmer who brings zucchini for everybody, a teacher who brings buses full of schoolkids every fall, a retired judge, a med student who’s been coming since she was a toddler – anyone, really. You can:
- Listen to bardic tales and Inuit chants and dog haiku around the bonfire
- Hear poems about Ernie Harwell and Tecumseh and a bear named Buddy
- . . . and songs about the Manistee River and Leelanau County and a dog named Woody Guthrie
- Hunker down under the Poem Dome on a rainy night as Jim Ribby recreates the Yukon Gold Rush
- Watch the Northern Lights dance
I’ve packed away memories in a little red bag, found the perfect place for my sand chair – and even gotten up and recited a few times myself. You come, too. Stone Circle Drive runs east of US-31, about ten miles north of Elk Rapids (or a mile south of Barnes Road if you’re traveling in the other direction). It’s just $4 per adult, $2 per child, and there’s a family rate but I forget what it is.
Torch Lake Views 
uphilldowndale
June 21, 2008
Sounds good to me! in fact it sounds fantastic.
Do I need insect repellent?
Gerry Sell
June 21, 2008
It’s always such a quandary – do I idealize Life Up North or tell the unvarnished truth? You might want to bring along some insect repellent. Either that or bring a muskie on a leash – the muskie might eat the mosquitoes. But maybe not. Muskies are so unpredictable. The bonfire helps a lot, of course, but Michigan mosquitoes are fairly intrepid. Yes. Insect repellent. Definiitely.
Gerry Sell
June 21, 2008
PS – if you and the fell-runner and the boys and Moss the Dog ever visit Michigan’s Lake District, the Writing Studio and Bait Shop will be proud to provide your supply of Deet free of charge. Also Milk Bones.