The Home Ground: Ludington, Hamlin, and the Reed City Water

Introduction

This volume checks a list of remembered places against what is verifiable now. Some of it holds up. Some of it could not be confirmed at all. And one part of it — the part about pitching a tent wherever the fishing was good — has been overtaken by rules that did not exist forty years ago.

⭐ THE FINDING THAT ORGANISES THIS VOLUME: the water is all still there. It is the camping that changed. Every single named river, creek, lake and bayou on the list has been located and has coordinates. What has moved is the legal question of whether you may sleep beside it — and it has moved in one direction.

4.1 What changed, and when

Three things happened between then and now, and together they explain why a spot that was obviously fine as a kid may not be fine today:

Table 1 — that was obviously fine as a kid may not be fine today

Change	Effect
Pere Marquette designated a National Scenic River, 1978	Camping in the corridor on National Forest land is now designated sites only
The Huron-Manistee closed to motor vehicle use except on designated roads, trails and areas — “for over two decades” (36 CFR 261.13)	The MVUM governs. A two-track you drove then is not necessarily one you may drive now
The 200-foot water setback on national forest dispersed camping	The riverbank tent site is prohibited on federal ground

🔴 Note what all three have in common: they are federal. The state rules did not tighten in the same way — which is why vols 1 through 3 of this dive go north and east onto state land, and why the state forest campground is now the honest answer to “camp on the river.”

4.2 Verified — these hold up

Hamlin Lake. About 5,000 acres, and still the centre of the whole area. Ludington State Park sits between Hamlin and seven miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, with five miles of Hamlin frontage. Fishing on Hamlin and the Big Sable River: walleye, bass, northern pike, perch, bluegill, trout, steelhead. A boat launch takes boats to 22 feet with trailer parking.

⚠ Lost Lake’s protected coves are the sheltered paddling; there is a 4-mile Hamlin Lake water trail through marshland, with an accessible canoe/kayak launch north of the boating access site.

🔴 But you cannot disperse camp here. Ludington State Park is a state park, and Michigan’s rules exclude state parks and recreation areas from dispersed camping entirely. The park’s camping is three modern campgrounds — Cedar (114), Pines (99, closest to Lake Michigan and the lighthouse) and Beechwood (147, closest to Hamlin Lake beach) — 360 sites plus walk-in tent sites and mini cabins. Electric, running water, showers.

⭐ That is the single biggest change on this list. The Hamlin shoreline is the same water; the shoreline camping is now a reservation in a modern campground.

Hopkins Lake. ✅ Confirmed: 68 acres, Mason County, at roughly 43.892 N, −86.411 W, elevation about 699 ft. Fishes for largemouth bass, northern pike and rock bass. Small, quiet, and exactly the size the memory suggests.

The Pere Marquette River. ✅ Confirmed and covered in detail in the River and Lake Camps dive, vol 2 — Michigan’s first National Scenic River (1978), 66 miles from east of Baldwin to Lake Michigan at Ludington. Designated sites only in the corridor, with Bowman Bridge and Gleason’s Landing.

The Baldwin River — not on the original list, but it is the Reed City–Baldwin water and it earns its place:

⭐ The Baldwin was the first place brown trout were introduced into United States waters, in 1884. It rises out of Wide Waters on the southern edge of the Baldwin Luther Swamp in Newkirk Township, Lake County, runs southwest to Baldwin and joins Sanborn Creek there. The upper reaches are best for brook trout; downstream toward the confluence with Cole Creek it slows and deepens and browns predominate — and get big.

4.3 ✅ Resolved — every one of them, with coordinates

Tank Creek · Weldon Creek · Bailey Lake · Pine Island Lake · Porter Creek · North, Middle and South Bayou.

An earlier pass reported these as unverifiable because ordinary web search returned nothing for them. That was the wrong tool. All eight are in the USGS Geographic Names Information System — the federal gazetteer — with coordinates, and GNIS also settles which of several same-named features is the one you meant.

⭐ THE LESSON, AND IT IS WORTH MORE THAN THE COORDINATES: the absence of a search result was evidence about the internet, not about the water. A creek does not need a listicle to exist. The right question was never “what does the web say about Tank Creek” — it was “what does the federal gazetteer have at that name in those counties.”

4.3.1 Mason County — the Ludington and Custer water

Table 2 — Mason County — the Ludington and Custer water

Feature	GNIS class	Latitude	Longitude	Quad
Porter Creek	Stream	44.12000	−86.42981	Hamlin Lake
North Bayou	Bay	44.04417	−86.45314	Hamlin Lake
Middle Bayou	Lake	44.02658	−86.45200	Hamlin Lake
South Bayou	Lake	44.01496	−86.45318	Hamlin Lake
Hopkins Lake	Lake	43.89201	−86.41063	Ludington
Hamlin Lake	Lake	44.06397	−86.39647	Hamlin Lake
Weldon Creek	Stream	43.93556	−86.17146	Custer
Bailey Lake	Lake	43.97859	−86.17209	Custer

⭐ The three bayous run north to south about a mile and a half apart, all on the Hamlin Lake quad, exactly as remembered — and Porter Creek is on the same quad. The memory grouped them correctly forty years on.

⚠ The spelling is Weldon, not Weldom — and it is the only Weldon Creek in Michigan, so that one is unambiguous. Weldon Creek and Bailey Lake are both on the Custer quad, about three miles apart — a pair, not two separate memories.

4.3.2 Lake County — the Reed City–Baldwin water

Table 3 — Lake County — the Reed City–Baldwin water

Feature	GNIS class	Latitude	Longitude	Quad
Tank Creek	Stream	43.92918	−86.00812	Tallman
Pine Island Lake	Lake	43.94545	−85.99860	Townsend Lake

⭐ These two are about two and a half miles apart, which is what makes them convincing as the remembered pair — and they sit in exactly the Reed City to Baldwin country described.

🔴 Two disambiguations that matter before driving anywhere:

There are three Tank Creeks in this part of Michigan. The Lake County one above is the likely candidate; the others are in Newaygo County (43.6767, −85.8953) and Manistee County (44.1722, −86.0967, Udell quad). ⚠ The Manistee one is on the Udell quad, which is also plausible given the Ludington childhood — worth a look at both before deciding.
There are two Pine Island Lakes. The Lake County one above, and one in Muskegon County (43.4131, −86.1517). ⚠ And neither is Pine Lake Campground near Wellston — three different places, similar names.

4.3.3 What this does not tell you

🔴 A coordinate is not permission. GNIS says the water is there; it says nothing about whether there is a legal road to it or whether you may camp beside it. Run every one of these against the Motor Vehicle Use Map before driving it, and remember that the most likely fate of a 1980s spot on national forest land is that the place is fine and the road is no longer designated.

⚠ Whelan Lake sits at 43.90990, −86.15442 in Mason County — close to the Weldon Creek and Bailey Lake pair, and a confirmed dispersed-camping spot. GNIS lists a second Whelan Lake in Michigan, so check the county before relying on it.

4.3.4 These are in the Gaia files

All ten are in MI-Home-Ground---Jeffs-List.gpx, one of five category files in the project’s 03-outputs/gaia/ folder, each carrying its GNIS coordinates and the disambiguation notes above. See that folder’s README.md.

4.4 What is confirmed near Baldwin now

Working federal campgrounds and dispersed areas in the Reed City–Baldwin country, all verified this pass:

Table 4 — country, all verified this pass

Site	Detail
Timber Creek	9 sites, $10/night, on a small impoundment at ~823 ft, direct access to the North Country Trail
Sulak	12 sites along a gravel road, a short walk from the Pere Marquette
Sawkaw Lake	free primitive sites, vault toilet, lake access
Whelan Lake	primitive dispersed, Pere Marquette nearby
Pine Lake CG (Wellston)	12 sites, $30, first-come; gravel-bottom shallow beach. From Wellston: M-55 west 0.6 mi → Bosschem Rd, SE 1.1 mi → Pine Lake Rd, right 2.8 mi, paved throughout
Sand Road primitive	free, drive-in / hike-in / walk-in, fires permitted. ⚠ AWD and clearance advised — sandy

⭐ Timber Creek at $10 with North Country Trail access is the best value on the list, and Sulak is the closest legal camp to the Pere Marquette that is not a reservation.

⚠ Pine Lake is not Pine Island Lake. They may or may not be the same remembered place; the confirmed one is Pine Lake, near Wellston, and it is a fair way north of Baldwin. Worth checking against the memory before driving to it.