We've spent the last 10 days on the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan surrounded by Lake Superior. We've been sight-seeing, hiking and watching movies (3 rainy days), waiting for the Fall colors to peak. We've only seen a small portion of the western side of the UP and will move into the central part today. We started in the Porcupine Mts. Wilderness State Park, affectionately referred to as the Porkies - 60,000 acres with over 90 miles of hiking trails. We stayed first at the Presque Isle campground on the eastern side of the park. It's on Lake Superior but you can only reach the Lake by walking down a steep embankment or via a long stairway. We later moved outside of the eastern park boundary camping at the Ontonagon Township Park right on the beach of Lake Superior, a jewel of a campground, unknown to many tourists. (Lakefront sites for $23/night includes electric, water, WIFI and showers). We discovered a new cross country trail we had never heard about - the North Country National Scenic Trail - a hiking trail like the Appalachian that runs from the Adirondacks to North Dakota through the hardwood forests of Pennsylvania, through the countryside of Ohio and southern Michigan, along the shores of the Great Lakes through northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The plan (it's still being developed) is to be the longest continuous hiking trail in the US eventually covering 4,600 miles of which now 2,600 miles are open to the public. We hiked a part of it which traverses the forest along the line of Lake Superior in the Porkies. It's beautiful here, and we came to the UP after meeting some campers in ID who said the Fall colors on the UP are gorgeous mid to late Sept. Fall is late in coming this year, but it's been a nice place to visit and wait for the leaves to turn. We hiked several days in the Porkies, and one day attended a hike and talk with a ranger who talked about the wolf population. Michigan has about 650 wolves - nearly all live on the UP, and two packs use the park. The park isn't sure where the wolves den nor how many are in the packs, but in the past, one pack numbered 8 and the other 14. One year recently, they allowed hunting of the wolves, but in 2015 folks decided they didn't want that any more; they wanted the wolves protected and voted to end hunting and trapping. Wolves can only be killed if they are threatening livestock or human safety. We haven't seen any wolves here, but we continue to look. When we weren't hiking we did some sightseeing, except for the 3 stormy days when we rented movies from Red Box and watched the pounding surf and slashing rain from the RV windows. One day we drove south to an "Adventure Ride" to see one of the world's largest ski jumps. The Copper Peak Ski Hill is located outside the small town of Ironwood, and while you can stand at the bottom and look up for free, you can also pay $20 and ride the steep and slow chairlift to the hilltop, take the elevator 18 stories, and then walk up several flights of stairs to the top of the ski jump. From here competitors take off - gaining speeds of nearly 70 mph soaring through the air for 600' and landing on their skis safely - hopefully. The start gate is 1782' above sea level, and 1180' above Lake Superior - one of the highest points in Michigan. It's hard to imagine mustering the courage to fly off the jump that fast and high. And it seems crazy that someone would want to take that risk, but it's an Olympic sport we love to watch. This slide is currently waiting to be updated with wood slats being replaced with plastic, and operators hope to be back in operation by this time 2018. (They're still raising money to complete the renovation.). It was fun to go to the top! Another day we drove to Copper Harbor at the tip of the Keweenaw Penisula, a peninsula within a peninsula! Along the way, we ran across a giant measuring stick showing the record snowfall here from 1978-79 which topped out at 390 inches. It was so tall, it was hard to photograph. As I understand it, when Lake Superior doesn't freeze over, the lake effect snows can be tremendous. While there are a lot of tourists here Spring to Fall, this can be a difficult place to live in Winter. Lake Superior is one of the 5 Great Lakes and is super deep (1,276') and can be really cold. The world's largest freshwater Lake by surface area, it holds 10% of the world's surface fresh water and is about the size of Maine. It's so large and so deep, that an average drop of water remains in the lake about 191 years. For comparison, another Great Lake - Lake Huron will hold an average drop of rain 22 years and in Lake Erie, just 2.6 years. Having camped on the shore, we've seen it be calm as glass offering up beautiful sunsets. And we've seen angry waves come crashing on the beach churning up brown dirt and dragging downed trees to shore. On the way to Copper Harbor, we learned about the boom in Copper mining here in the mid to late 1800's, and at the tip of the peninsula, we toured Ft. Wilkins established to protect this shipping area. The drive at times offered views of Lake Superior and at other times traveled up a mountain showcasing inland lakes, with the fall colors only showing about 20% of their glory. We plan to travel slowly east on the UP, doing more hiking in the national forests (Ottawa and Hiawatha), looking for wolves and for the peak of Fall colors. So I hope my next blog will include beautiful scenics of the Autumn leaves of Maples, Aspen and others... and perhaps even include a wolf photo!
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We spent this week (9/11-9/18/2016) in Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness area - both beautiful places, especially this time of year. Sunday we drove north from the Minneapolis area, approaching by driving along the shoreline of Lake Superior's western border, arriving in Grand Marais, a small harbor town with wonderful views of the lake. We drove into the forest on Rt 12 (the Gunflint Trail) which is a 50 mile road that cuts through the forest and has five forest service campgrounds along the way. We camped at two - East Bearskin Lake and Kimball Lake. Minnesota is the home to "10,000 Lakes," and while I don't know if that's accurate even though their license plate purports it, it does seem possible. Along this road and into the forest while hiking, I counted 17 lakes in just a few dozen miles. We came as the leaves are turning colors and beginning to fall, and during a week when the moon grew full and lit the woods. We hiked, biked and canoed enjoying the colors, the wildlife, and being in the woods. One day we hiked Caribou Rock trail which had significant storm damage and downed trees, but workers had cleared a path. This 7-mile trail was a bit of a challenge in places due to the June storm. We ate our lunch on a rock overlooking the forest and with temperatures between 55-65° F, had perfect weather for hiking. Another day, we hiked the trails around the CHik-Wauk museum and nature center searching for moose; we didn't see them. But that same day, we also hiked an easy 3-mile trek to Magnetic Rock. The trail passes above Larch Creek affording views of meadows and streams where wildlife travel, and the destination is a 60-foot rock with a strong magnetic attraction. We put our compass on the rock, and it started spinning and couldn't find magnetic north. Along the trail which often cuts across large rocks with no discernible path, folks have created some wonderful rock cairns to mark the trail. Along Rt. 12 are scattered small villages and some charming lodges. There's no cell service and dark skies offer a chance to see the northern lights. The lodges are often close to the forest service campgrounds acting as concessionaires - taking payment and offering additional services. Bearskin Lodge was closest to our first campground - what a beautifully appointed lodge, with decks and Adirondack chairs overlooking East Bearskin Lake, and potted flowers adding a splash of color. The restaurant offers home-made ice cream sandwiches and serves up trout from the lake. They also rent canoes which we took out one day and enjoyed paddling on a bluebird sky day. We even paddled to our campground and got Shady and Rocket to see how they would like a boat ride. Shady was a breeze - given a pocketful of cheese and she settled in nicely. But we weren't too sure that Rocket would stay in the boat, and while he focused on my paddle cutting through the water so intently I thought he might jump in, he obeyed us and stayed in the canoe. One night I went to Hungry Jack Lake Lodge to have a beer and watch a pitiful display of football (Pittsburgh vs. Washington). The lodge is beautiful with pine logs, high ceilings, large windows and lots of open space in the bar and common areas, and it sits on the lake. Folks from Duluth and Minneapolis come here to escape on the weekends, and in the winter to cross country ski. It's a great place to get away and commune with nature. The Superior Forest is huge, broken into 5 districts; we stayed in the Gunflint district, but I have no doubt the other districts are beautiful too with lakes, birch, Jack pine, wildflowers, waterfalls, wolves, black bear, moose and other wildlife. We didn't see the charismatic megafauna - just squirrels, chipmunks, eagle, osprey, loons, geese and ravens. But one late afternoon after hiking a cross country ski trail (Moose Pasture), we were delighted to see a red fox dancing in the street. We were heading back to the campground in the car driving down a dirt road. As we approached him, driving directly into the sun, he danced into the woods right beside a private driveway toward the lake. Terry stopped the car, and we rolled the window down so Rocket could scent the air; his nose went into overdrive. Moments later, the fox came out of the woods onto the dirt driveway and proceeded to sit down in the road, put his head on his paws and stare at Rocket (and us I guess). I knew we were bound to see something worthy of photography because I had left my camera in the backpack in the car hatchback. There was no time to dig it out; within a minute or two, our friend vanished back into the woods. We moved closer to the town of Grand Marais after a few days at East Bearskin Lake and camped at Kimball Lake. There's a 2-mile trail around the lake that Rocket loves. We can access the trail from our campsite, #8 of only 10. This is a beautiful, quiet campground with no host nor rules - no hook-ups either, cost $18/night. We took a day trip to Grand Portage National Monument, about an hour away. The monument is dedicated to preserving the way of life here of the late 1700's-1803 during the fur trade. Here is where the French Canadian Voyaguers, Ojibwe Indians and the North West Company converged at a trading post. Set on Lake Superior's northwest border and the boundary of Canada, Grand Portage was an important stop for the fur traders who traveled through the lakes and overland from Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean. The monument has wonderful displays of the era and also has costumed interpreters who cook in the kitchen outfitted with tools from the period, preparing dishes of the time (cranberry beet tart while we were there), displaying canoe-making skills, even performing songs on the fiddle that folks here used to gig to. There's a stockade with a reconstructed kitchen, great hall and clerk's office, some vegetable gardens, wigwams and tents - all of which transport you back in time. We took one of the rare tours with a ranger into the basement archives to look at some of the artifacts excavated here and around Fort Charlotte (an 8-mile portage trail away). The enthusiastic ranger showed us tools/flints dating back 10,000 years as well as beaded items and baskets made by the Ojibwe without whom the fur trade would never have happened. (They introduced Europeans to the birchbark canoe). I won't go into the rich cultural history details here that fascinate me, but I will say if you come to northern Minnesota visit Grand Portage or Voyageurs National Park which also celebrates the fur trade. Years ago I produced a film that plays in the Voyageurs National Park welcome center so I've learned a lot about the history of the US fur trade; I'm not sure my film continues to play there, but the Grand Portage film is wonderfully crafted. We discovered that this week Grand Marais was having a folk festival - 15th annual UNPLUGGED. So Friday night we went to hear performers in the round - there were 4 featured singer/songwriters who alternated playing a tune and an additional guitarist (Jonathan Brown): Tom Paxton, Pat Alger, Lisa Brokop, Gretchen Peters - all guitarists who were very enjoyable. It was a wonderful night to hear music in a tent under the stars on the shores of Lake Superior, and I'm glad we happened upon this weekend. The festival is part of a series of events put on by the North House Folk school and throughout the weekend they also had demonstrations and workshops of artistry from traditional craftsmen/women ranging from weaving with birch bark to wood-fired baking, and including nålbinding and bead embroidery. We've enjoyed watching the colors change here a bit, and the peak is still another week away. But we are eager to get to Michigan's upper peninsula and see the colors on the other shores of Lake Superior so will leave today. We will likely spend tonight in Wisconsin as today we drive south in Minnesota and east into Wisconsin before turning north into Michigan tomorrow. Tonight is a big football game for two rivals - Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers, and as we move from one state to the next, not sure who we'll root for! Probably Green Bay....
When I was a kid, my favorite puzzles were connect-the-dots. As an adult I love to read mysteries and try to connect the dots to discover the criminal before the author's reveal. When my son was young, we used to enjoy playing Connect Four. Seems to be a pattern here...With all our technological wizardry these days, it seems everyone is connected through social media. As Terry and I wander throughout the country exploring, I think about connecting quite a bit. Staying connected with friends and family is important to me. It's often hard on a trip like this though, to stay connected. Ask my mom or friends I call regularly....there are lots of dropped calls, unintelligible words and re-dials. This week I actually had to use a calling card (yes they still sell them in places like the Superior National Forest where there is no cell service), and I even used a pay phone! Facebook has been a wonderful way for me to relate where we are and what we're up to and see what others are doing....but I still miss a lot. Simply because for all our technological genius, there are still a lot of places we travel that don't have cell service or wifi. I used to think these are the best places on Earth - places you can go and find solitude, can escape workplace pressure, and connect with something else. Whether it be connecting with your inner self, connecting with nature, wildlife, another lone hiker or camper - all of these connections are precious to me. Staring into a deer's eyes, or a wolf's, striking up a conversation with someone in the forest, or inhaling the scent of Spruce trees on a mountain - these connections are why we're on the road. But I miss terribly connecting with friends and family. Last week, precisely because we're on the road, I was able to re-connect with my cousin Chris Barden, whom I hadn't seen in over a decade. It was wonderful to spend a few hours with Chris, his wife Robin and youngest daughter Julie. We had lunch on Lake Minnetonka near Minneapolis, shared stories and got reacquainted. It was really nice to spend time with family. I write a lot of post cards, send emails, Facebook messages, and texts, but phone calls connecting with loved ones are essential to me. I know that making connections is something hard wired in humans, yet something some of us desire more than others. For example, I think Terry and Sundance don't feel the strong desire to be part of groups nor have human connections the way I crave them. I don't think it's necessarily a gender difference either. Perhaps it's a chemical reaction, a hormonal response, or maybe it's just insecurity. I suppose I should have asked cousin Chris since he's both a psychologist and an attorney. This week, I would like to have connected with more family. My mother lost her sister Juanita, and the funeral arrangements were made while I was hiking in the forest, without cell service. Juanita was 92 and lived a good life with her husband Glen, who also passed away just 2 weeks earlier. I would like to have been there to say goodbye to my aunt and comfort my mother and her sister Maxine. Juanita was my namesake - my middle name is Juanita. I loved her and will miss her. While I didn't get to say goodbye, I do feel I connected with her. The night of her funeral, Wednesday, Terry and I drove away from our campsite in search of a place to watch for northern lights - the aurora borealis. Where we were, there is no light pollution and 9/12-9-14 were reported to be nights of possible activity. (The lights can happen any time of the year and are a result of geomagnetic disturbance caused by storms on the sun). We drove to an opening in the forest over a lake. The stars were twinkling and the moon was nearly full, lighting the road and wetland around us. As we looked into the heavens and waited for a chance to see and photograph the lights, I made another connection. It was with a mournful sound of a loon calling from the lake. While we didn't see the northern lights, that loon connected with me. I thought about Juanita's long life and prayed she would rest in peace now alongside her husband Glen and Christ our Lord. Tomorrow I'll be looking for new connections - some with humans, animals, God and His wonderful creation. And I don't even think I'll research why I crave these connections - just take them as they arrive. And by the way, if you want to connect with us, please call anytime. Some folks think they won't reach us or don't want to disturb us, but you should know that we welcome the calls, emails, texts or Facebook messages. Let's stay connected. Can you hear me now?
For many years I've wanted to come to South Dakota - I wanted to see the Black Hills, the Badlands, and to include SD in my collection of states visited (all now except ND & Iowa). I also wanted to see Mt Rushmore, but I knew there has been controversy surrounding this stone carving of our "founding fathers" - not just because who was chosen to represent the founding fathers, but the placement of the monument - on land stolen from the Sioux, land that to them and other tribes is sacred. So our form of protest, or solidarity was instead to visit the Crazy Horse Monument, a short drive away, paying our $11 each to learn more about native Americans and learn about this stone carving, rather than paying $11 to park our car inside Mt. Rushmore and tour the visitor center. We drove by and took free pictures of Mt. Rushmore (or as the Sioux refer to it - Six Grandfathers) and read the park's brochure which I picked up down the road at another National park. Interestingly enough, before we set foot on the Crazy Horse memorial, we went to Wind Cave National Park which boasts the 6th largest cave in the world and contains 95% of the world's boxwork formation of calcite (looks like honeycomb). Tours daily guided by a park ranger, begin outside the cave where ranger Justin explained that the small natural opening nearby can predict the weather. If you place a piece of ribbon in front of the hole, wind in the cave either sucks it inside or blows it away from the opening - thus explaining how it came to be called Wind Cave. But one of the first things Ranger Justin said was that this cave is sacred to many native Americans of various tribes. So I began to wonder - why are these large groups of non-natives allowed to travel through the cave? And how do the Sioux, Cheyenne, Lakota, Arapaho and Kiowa feel about the tourist attractions on their land? Even at the Crazy Horse memorial, I felt humbled by the project and the honoring of a respected warrior, but conflicted about the self-promotion by the sculptor's family. Artist Korczak Ziolkowski, a Polish American, was invited to sculpt a memorial of Crazy Horse by Standing Bear, a Lakota chief over 60 years ago. The massive undertaking continues to be sculpted from the rock. When Ziolkowski died in 1982, his wife and 10 children dedicated themselves to finishing the monument, as well as housing a Native American museum on the premises, selling Native American gifts and artwork and even building an educational facility for Native American students. So their mission seems noble, but the execution feels a bit self promotional. The 22:00 video spends too much time on the process and the family's goals - to little on describing the life of Crazy Horse and the tribes meant to be honored. I had hoped the Lakota people and other tribes would feel the undertaking is an honor, but there are critics, including some descendants of Crazy Horse who think the Black Hills and burial lands of their ancestors are best left untouched. Here's a link with more about that: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/11/08/whats-going-crazy-horse-memorial-144833 As for Mt. Rushmore, here are some links that elaborate about how Native Americans feel about carving into this sacred rock: http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1212 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/04/14/different-view-mount-rushmore-108274 http://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/news/2008-06-12/tim_giago/018.html We thought the Black Hills were wonderful. We camped in the Black Hills National Forest and traveled to these monuments as well as drove the Custer State Park wildlife loop (awesome), rode our bikes on the George S. Mickelson bike trail, and took a day trip to Deadwood. (We walked through the historic town, had lunch, and I lost $2 in slots at the Wooden Nickel, but we didn't pay the $4/person they wanted to tour the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried - guess burial grounds everywhere cost to tour.) Our only complaint about this week in SD is that everything we did had a price tag. Driving the wildlife loop cost $20/car; typically we see wildlife for free. Riding our bikes along the trail cost $4/biker; typically we ride for free. I do understand the maintenance of the bike trail is costly. The trail runs 109 miles and is very well maintained; we saw mowers out while we were riding. With our annual National park pass ($80/year) we don't generally pay additional fees at national parks, except for camping or store purchases. But Wind Cave charges $12/person for the natural entrance tour, parking at Mt. Rushmore (not usually an expense at other parks) was $11 - but as I mentioned, we decided not to pay to park. And Crazy Horse Memorial's fee of $22 for both of us covered the viewing of the monument (which you can see from the road), entrance to the museum, viewing of the film, and a laser light show on the carving if you want to return after dark. This monument doesn't accept any government funding, relying on entrance fees and donations solely. Which is fine I suppose, I just wonder if the original purpose of the stone carving has gotten lost in the creation of the ancillary projects. After leaving the Black Hills, we made our way to the Badlands for the Labor Day weekend. The beautiful grass prairie lands here and outside the park are gorgeous, and we've enjoyed the wildlife: Bighorn sheep, Pronghorn, Buffalo, Prairie dogs, etc. Badlands holds the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the US, making it devine habitat for prairie dogs, rare black-footed ferrets and Swift foxes among others. Another attraction: the remarkable way the 30-70 million year old sedimentary layers in the cliffs and buttes change colors in different light makes them always seemingly variable. Camping a mile outside the park in the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands has afforded us fabulous views of the badlands. It's very hot so we hiked early one morning and in a completely different setting than Rocky Mt, National park. Today we biked in the park, again starting early before the heat became unbearable. Biking allowed us more time to take in the expanse of the rock formations, watch the colors change, and spot the animals without cars on our tail. Last night a storm raged all around and on top of us. The lightening was dazzling and at times completely lit up the badlands below us. But with the RV parked on the butte, there were times I worried we might blow right over. Eventually, the storm abated and we were rewarded with a rainbow. So, as much as I've felt conflicted about some of what we were seeing and visiting this week, I have definitely enjoyed our time in South Dakota!
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AuthorFormer documentary film producer, wife and mother of one...I'm taking time off to see the US with my husband Terry. Here's where I'll write about our adventures RVing until the money runs out! Archives
August 2021
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