2025 Wilderness Rally Jr
By Port Captains Bill and Sandi Matley
The Great Lakes Cruising Club cordially invites you to attend the first ever Wilderness Rally JR at Harbor Island NC-2. Arrival day, June 30 departing July 2, 2025.
Please use this link to register to pay for a Wilderness Rally Burgee by June 23. Burgees will be given to attendees at the rally.
Monday, June 30 will have a happy hour on shore, bring a drink and an appetizer to share. Please bring a table and your own chairs. Harbor Island doesn't have any place to sit or any place to hold an appetizer to share.
Tuesday will be a potluck dinner on shore. Please prepare a dinner dish to share. Did we mention to bring a drink, chairs and tables? Harbor Island doesn’t have any place to sit or to hold your dinner dish.
Wilderness Rally JR is the first of its kind in the many years of Cruising Club activities.
What don’t you get at the Wilderness Rally JR?
You don’t get cannon blast wake up.
You don’t get morning dual country national anthems.
You don't get morning announcements on the radio.
You don’t get morning breakfast with coffee on shore.
You don’t get guest speakers.
You don’t get excursions.
You don’t get games between the rag haulers and stink potters.
You don’t get a blessing of the fleet.
You don’t get a fleet review by the club officers.
You don’t get a formal dinner.
You don’t get an open bar.
What do you get?
Harbor Island NC-2 is a true wilderness anchorage.
Fully within the state of Michigan, USA.
Michigan fishing license required.
Almost a completely protected “doughnut” island.
70 acres of water over mud.
A protected nature preserve.
No overnight, onshore activities.
No cottages, or structure of any kind, ever.
You get Wilderness
You get birds and deer, ducks and geese, eagles and osprey.
You get beaver swimming beside your boat.
You get silence from your cell phone and Ipad. No cell signals get into the anchorage.
You will get to see the locally common, Homogawkus creature. Don’t know what that is?
Harbor Island is in the heart of the Potagannissing Bay of Islands and cottages (pronounced pah tah guh HEES ing). Cottage visitors visit the harbor to fish and swim but mostly to Gawk, at the beautiful boats that anchor in the harbor.
We can’t say we blame them. The boats at anchorage are fun to see and if we had a cottage and a pontoon boat, we'd visit the harbor also.
So, if you plan to go east from the Lakes and happen to be around Harbor Island NC-2 late June and early July, join us for all the activities you won’t get.
Join us for the quiet beauty and peace that is all for you at Harbor Island. Maybe if the sky is clear, you’ll be awake in the dark of night and you get to see the stars. It's unforgettable.
Please use this link to register to pay for a Wilderness Rally Burgee by June 23. Burgees will be given to attendees at the rally.
The Great Lakes Cruising Club is looking for a host to sponsor a second Wilderness Rally near the end of the 2025 cruising season, in a location near the east end of the North Channel.
If you would like to sponsor a second Wilderness Rally JR, you can use this outline and I suggest Keyhole Harbor GB-50.5. It is a true wilderness location with good shore meeting space.
Sadly no Homogawkus have been reported but bears have been seen.
Contact Port Captains Bill & Sandi Matley for more info:
wm1252@comcast.net - smatley@comcast.net , 734-678-7808.