Our trip to Pokagon began with a stop in Frankton to drop off Cooper with Jesse's parents, since dogs are not allowed in state park inns. For this journey, Noah and Holly joined in the fun. We rode four-deep in our new state park cruiser, which performed admirably. Once we were near Ft. Wayne, we decided to stop for lunch. After a ridiculous amount of time spent consulting an iPhone map which directed us to numerous closed restaurants, we stumbled into Cebolla's Mexican Grill. We enjoyed some delicious Mexican food, and while eating, realized that this restaurant is owned by the family of one of Abby's favorite students! What a coincidence! Recharged with salsa and tacos, we made the rest of the journey to Angola, home of Pokagon.
Pokagon is located on a peninsula in Lake James, which is a large, natural lake with many boats and homes. We found the park and its Potawatomi Inn to be quite busy because of its indoor pool and bitchin' toboggan run. The toboggan run is a man-made, 1/4-mile long, refrigerated tracked sledding hill, with top speeds of 42 mph. You ride a long, wooden toboggan and it takes about 30 seconds from top to bottom. Toboggans are rented by the hour, and they fit you and up to three of your closest friends. We found it to be terrifying and awesome. The wait can be quite long, up to two hours, but we rode in the evening hours, around 8:00 and waited close to 15 minutes each time. After your ride, you do have to drag the sled back up the hill and some stairs, so take someone who is strong, like Jesse. Some people are big fat cheaters and have a chauffeur drive their sleds back up to the top for them. Lame. Our own sled made it to 35 mph on the south track, which was quite fast compared to the others we saw.
We started our day at Pokagon by checking into the inn. We stayed in a second floor room with two queen beds. The room was fairly nice, and the bathroom was spacious. The view of the courtyard was limited. However, directly across the hall was an outdoor covered porch which offered a very nice view of Lake James and audible screams of terror and joy from the toboggan run. Our only complaint in regard to the room was its close proximity to the elevator. Starting at about 7:00 a.m. its constant dings drove us to the brink of jumping from the porch.
After checking in, we wintered up into our hiking attire and made a quick trip around trail 3 in the Potawatomi Nature Preserve. From this trail you can also check out the small Lake Lonidaw on which we saw a guy ice fishing. The hike took us through Hell's Point, the highest elevation in the park. On this trail we encountered some deer, the first time on our entire tour. Some of the swampy areas were frozen into mini-lakes and we skated around some on those. After our frosty hike, we headed back to the inn for dinner.
The inn's dining room featured a slightly different menu than the other inns we have visited, due to its northern location. The menu featured several fish dishes, whereas the others have offered more southern-type fare. Noticeably missing and missed was sweet tea and fried biscuits with apple butter. They also did not offer desserts on the buffet as all other inns have. This was somewhat disappointing, but the food was nonetheless good. After dinner, we bundled back up for a night on the toboggan run.
After our tobogganation, we looked forward to a trip to the hot tub and pool. After a quick stop in the room for costume changes and drinks, we proceeded down the hall and were intercepted by and inn employee, who, noting our swim suits, informed us the pool had closed an hour early. He would not admit a reason, but we were sure it was due to a floater, Caddy Shack style! At that point, we resigned ourselves to stay in the room with drinks, Scrabble, and euchre. Jesse won all. Later that evening, after a fair amount of libations, we made an incredible discovery: The vending machine on the second floor mistakenly sells Famous Amos cookies for, get this, 10 cents. You read it right... 10 cents. Mmm... Labeled at $1.50, they spiral out at 10 cents. Amazing. Jesse and Noah tried to tell some 6th grade girls in the hallway about it, but were thought to be creepy and were hence ignored.
The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast in the dining room. Normal breakfast fare was offered. We loaded up on coffee, pancakes, sausage, biscuits, and bacon, and then loaded up the cruiser and headed out for a final hike. We took trail 1, starting down the hill from the inn on the semi-frozen shores of Lake James, and walked it through the southwestern border of the park. We saw the Apple Orchard and passed the Nature Center. Along the 2-mile hike, we encountered many cross-country skiers, many of whom seemed to fall down a lot. The park does offer ski rental and several trails, but it looked painful to us. After our final hike, we jumped in the cruiser and headed back south. We discussed returning to the park in summer sometime to enjoy its lake, when you can rent canoes and boats.
Cebolla's Mexican Grill
236 Fernhill Ave.
Ft. Wayne, IN 46805
260.484.8423
Pokagon State Park and Potawatomi Inn
450 Lane 100 Lake James
Angola, IN 46703
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