Many guests to Rosewood Pointe enjoy kayaking in Lake Macatawa and on a calm day, heading out into Lake Michigan to paddle near the shore.   However, for those of us, who enjoy a more leisurely kayak, I would suggest visiting Hemlock Crossing in Port Sheldon Township.

Hemlock Crossing / Pine Bend

Hemlock Crossing opened in 2003 and offers 239 acres of woods and wetlands along the Pigeon River. Over 6 miles of trails for hiking and cross country skiing meander through bottomland and upland forest, old pine plantations and along the river. A pedestrian bridge and numerous overlooks offer scenic views of the river corridor, wetlands, natural springs and woods. Facilities include two small picnic shelters, a kayak/canoe launch and over a mile of paved trail.

Pine Bend is a secondary access on the west end of the property that offers parking and a trail head. Pine Bend is also the site of the Weaver House, a restored 1901 home that is available for reservation for business meetings, family outings and other activities. There are no entry fees at Hemlock Crossing or Pine Bend and both are open year ‘round.

Facilities

• Kayak/canoe launch
• Unique pedestrian bridge
• Many scenic overlooks along the trails
• Two small picnic shelters with tables and grills
• Weaver House (reservable)
• Historic interpretation at Pine Bend
• Modern restrooms open warm months at Hemlock Crossing. Pit toilets available year ’round at Hemlock Crossing and Pine Bend
• Hiking and ungroomed cross country ski trails

* Barrier free facilities include picnic shelters, restrooms, kayak launch and a one mile paved trail through woods and fields.

Park Hours

Hemlock Crossing and Pine Bend are open year ’round at the following times.

April 1 through October 31 – 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

November 1 through March 31 – 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Fees

There are no entry fees.

Directions

Hemlock Crossing is located in Port Sheldon Township just west of US 31 on West Olive Road.

If traveling northbound on US 31 from Holland, follow signs from Port Sheldon Street.

If traveling southbound on US 31 from Grand Haven, follow signs from West Olive Road.

Pine Bend can be reached by traveling west on Croswell Street from US 31 to 156th Avenue. Turn south on 156th Avenue and follow the signs to the Pine Bend entrance.

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Well I couldn’t get into the Mirandy to test the Internet. Seems there are no spare keys, surprise, surprise. But I did get into the Tiffany and the wireless works great from the kitchen table. That pretty amazing, considering that there is a couple walls and about 200 feet between the router and myself. Signal strength is excellent at 54.0 Mbps! I am going to go down to the lake now.

Now I am sitting out on the dock and I still have three bars!! That’s about 500 feet from the base station!

Today I upgraded the wireless router which services the resort. At present I am sitting in the living room of the Kiwi House and have an excellent, 54.0 Mbps signal. 30 minutes ago, sitting in the same location, with the old router I had a low 1.0 Mbps signal. The improvement is significant!

I bought the new Linksys router made by Cisco systems. It was $179.99, the most expensive router out there. However, I had bought a D-Link router first and spent 1.5 hours cursing at the thing before I read on the Internet that it doesn’t work with SBC DSL. I returned that and was set to buy a Netgear router, but the clerk assured me that he owned a LinkSys and that it worked great with SBC. That convinced me to try LinkSys. In the past I have had bad experiences with LinkSys, but that was before they were bought by Cisco Systems. This time around it took me all of 3 minutes to get it up and running, I was shocked!

The new technology is called MIMO, Multiple In Multiple Out. I first read about it a few weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal. It allegedly bounces more signals around by using more antennas. The result is enhanced coverage both in range, and also in areas that previously had poor access due to walls, etc. I am going to test it in the Mirandy Cottage. With the old router I could only get access in the porch and even that was pretty unstable. We shall see!

MIMO works even better if your machine is MIMO compliant. Mine is not. Hoever, the WSJ did say that even machines with non MIMO compliant connectivity would be able to get better coverage. So the resort should be good for another 2-3 years before something else comes along. I’ll report more as I test it in the other units!

Brent

This year I decided to order some premium golf / polo shirts with the new Rosewood Pointe logo embroidered on them. My closet is littered with cheap golf shirts, so I went all out and got a really nice shirt. They are gray and we have them in nearly every size for both men and women.

I am going to sell them at $5.00 above cost. Cost was $25.00, so the price per shirt is $30.00. They make a great shirt and nice remembrance of the time your family all gathered at Rosewood Pointe! My goal is to break even that’s why I can offer them with such little markup.

Drop me an email if you would like some shirts and I’ll have them available for your upcoming stay!

Thanks!

Brent

It’s been a bear, but I am slowly getting the website updated with the interactive floorplans, new pictures, etc. I’ve owned this place now for almost five years. It’s amazing that it was five years ago that I mput up the website, made all the improvements, etc. Time sure flies!

Anyways there have been many many more improvements since then, and I felt that the website failed to capture the beauty of the place. With that in mind I’ve developed interactive floorplans for the all the units and just today completed the new Guest Information Booklet which is available for download here.

Slowly I hope to take a ton of new pictures of the grounds and all the rooms and have those up on the web as well!

Stay tuned!