If you're new to the site this is a good place to get a perspective on what RedRidge is, why we own it and what we intend to do with it.  
      in about November of 2013, we started looking for undeveloped property that was fronted by a river, preferably within a 45 minute drive from our homes in Mason, Michigan.  We had recently taken a trip to Yosemite and hiked Snow Creek Trail.  Laura hiked the Annapurna Trail in Nepal that same year.  Exposure to wilderness of that beauty and magnitude has a twofold effect on a person.  First, it rekindles your love for the beauty of nature.  Second, it shows you the incredible negative impact that we as a species have on it. 
     After many hours of diligently searching we narrowed down sites that met our specifications.  We looked at a location very closely in Grand Ledge that had a great piece of river on it.  I loved the spot immediately and thought of the great access that we would have paddling from this site and down to The Ledges Park downriver.  Through further conversations with the township in which the property was located, we could not come to an agreement on how we would utilize the property.   We also looked at property on the river in Eaton Rapids.  The property was located on a man made backwater on the river and was fairly rugged.  It did not take long to see that the infrastructure relating to the river for the mill(s) that one thrived in Eaton Rapids were poorly maintained and when they fail, or are removed, that will mean that the waterfront in that city is going to change dramatically.  In defense of Eaton Rapids and the people there that love the river very much.  They do good works for the river there and will defend it.  However, this property too was not a good fit for us and what we needed it to be so the search continued. 
     Laura and I found a scrubby little patch of woods on a real estate app located in southern Jackson County.  I was hesitant to say the least.  We ruminated on the idea and freely exchanged our thoughts, hopes and fears on the property.  I spoke with the seller's agent on the phone a few times and he suggested that he show it to us.  Through our research it was safe to say that we had a better idea of what we were looking for and the agent probably didn't know much about riparian zones and what we needed, so I got permission for us to stumble around the property unescorted.  It was late winter by this time and we had already been looking at properties for months.  We turned down a private road and saw no signs marking the property but were eventually able to identify it through pictures and property descriptions.   I will admit that on arrival, I felt unwelcome.  The property sat on a hill and had a small woodlot.  Half of the property's three acres was swampland that I could see and was basically undevelopable.  The ground down by the river was soft and looked to be prone to flooding, I imagined it to be stagnant and filled with mosquitos in the summertime.  It was now February and it was cold, wet and not a leaf on a tree to be found.  We walked the property and I was unimpressed.  The seller wanted a premium price for swampland and I wasn't buying.   Laura, on the other hand was in love with it.  She wanted it the second she stepped out of the  truck.  Where I saw a scrub lot, she saw an Oak Savannah.  Where I saw a creek, she saw the Grand River Fen.  where I saw a maintenance nightmare and years bushwacking to be able to move about, she saw woods like the one in which she grew up.  I said no, and she said yes.   
     Adjacent to and across the river was another piece of property.  This also looked to be undeveloped and considerably more rugged and less wooded.  Maybe I could look up the owner and ask them about it.  On our way back home we decided to stop at the Liberty General store and introduce ourselves as this looked to be the center of cultural activity in Liberty.  A young man attended the cash register and was barely interested when I told him that we were looking at property nearby and wanted to know if he knew anything about the area. In fact he did and hunted the area. The deer were plentiful and enormous.  He believed that the property that were were talking about belonged to a guy named Steve and he might be willing to sell.  I was excited by the prospect.  I asked for Steve's phone number and I would contact him to see about it.  The cashier looked at me gravely and said, no.  That wouldn't work.  You don't just walk up on Steve and ask him about his property.  Steve was not approachable. As a matter of fact, he was the gentleman standing out on the front porch of the store drinking a cup of coffee.  The young man went out side while I stood at the store's counter and had a brief exchange.  He came back in and told me that Steve had agreed to speak with me.  Good luck he quipped.  Huh? The gentleman sipping his coffee greeted me with very few words and steel in his eyes.  He looked to be about sixty and well travelled.  He had the look of a veteran, probably a veteran of many things, but there was something telling me he had been there and back again.  At about 5' 6 and looking like he was carved out of teak.  He appeared to be a man of Native American descent.  He wore a Vietnam era army coat and shook hands like an iron worker.  He spoke very few words and listened loosely unless you had something to say.  He didn't suffer fools at all and I felt that I had my work cut out for me.  I asked him if he were willing to consider the sale of his property.  He agreed to meet with me the next day on the lot and come prepared because it's wild.  The very next day, I showed up at the property.  Steve was already there and brought a friend with him.  We looked inside the cabin, which was in a state of disrepair.  The doors on it were slightly ajar and there were obviously animals living in it.  The small cabin had a log holding up the roof and was filled with squirrel turds and construction debris. The cabin itself was about the size of a large master bedroom and sat on wooden stilts on a hill. He explained that the property itself was 9 acres and he wasn't positive on the property lines.  I saw no woods to speak of, mostly puckerbrush and pickeyweeds. Steve, I think considered this to be a selling point, I on the other hand considered it a liability.  When speaking about the lot, I got the sense that he was not interested in selling, but met with me to see what he could get.  He told me that his price was firm and if I tried to negotiate, there would be no sale and that was final.  He didn't try to show me around the property and we stood there next to the run down cabin talking about the deer and the birds there, which he liked to feed.  Ultimately Steve and I couldn't come up with an agreed upon price. We parted ways as gentlemen, well met. 
     Laura contacted the property owner of the previous property directly and negotiated a sale price that was a full 33% below asking price.  She explained to the property owner that it was our intent to keep the property as is, for the time being and appreciate the beauty of the place.  The owner, was happy and settled on a greatly reduced price.  Six weeks later we showed at the signing with tents and kayaks packed on the truck.  By noon, we were at the newly acquired lot.  And so it goes, we bought a swamp.  On 4/20/14 we definitely had a place to camp.  There was no power, no shelter and no potable water to be found.  For us that was perfect.