Camping Vacation

Another Upper Peninsula camping trip come and gone. All in all, a very peaceful, relaxed 5 days. No group trip, just the two of us. We visited a few favorite places, hiked a bit of the North Country Trail, slept AT NIGHT like normal people, ate when we were hungry, made s'mores with chocolate graham crackers, sat on our butts and read books, and enjoyed one or two bottles of wine and beer.

Some non-photographed memories:

--Carrying a tarp down to the beach on Tuesday night to lay on our backs and watch the Perseid meteor shower. We saw more satellites than meteors, but it was still cool to lay on the sand and listen to Lake Superior quietly murmur to itself. And watch a deep red half-moon rise in the east out of the lake.

--A brief drive west to Pictured Rocks Friday to see what they've done to H-58 as part of the road improvement process. We knew this was coming, but were not quite prepared to see the wide expanse of ripped out trees gouged into the forest. The sandy gravel road underneath the green tunnel of maples and beeches is no more in a lot of places.

--Collecting colorful beach stones at Twelvemile Beach Friday. Again, the lake was almost as calm as a bathtub. It was like that most of the week. And taking in the pristine shore. Picturesque even under gray rainy skies. I realized what had been vaguely bothering me about the beach at Muskallonge State Park where we camped, and that was the piles of driftood and uprooted birch trees washed up on the beach. People have made whimsical huts and teepee-like structures out of them, but it still made that stretch of the beach look a little junky.

--Realizing how much we like camping just after Labor Day. The campground was a bit crowded, and we had lots of camper turnover on the sites all around us. And there's something about plastic bicycle training wheels on asphalt that pulls at one's short hairs (when the kid is riding so fast and competently that they are only intermittently hitting the pavement, he probably doesn't need them).

--Seeing so many little brown flies swirling around a battery lantern that the light is half obscured. Kind of reminded me of one of the 'Mummy' movies, or something from Hitchcock. Then a thick layer of these dead flies blanketing the concrete outside the bathroom building in the morning, and liberally sprinkled all over the bathroom sinks and countertops. Again, something we have probably avoided there by camping after Labor Day.

--And a cautionary tale about swimming on that stretch of US2 along Lake Michigan west of St. Ignace: On our way home Saturday, I did a quick head swivel when we saw two State Police vehicles stopped along the roadside, and a cluster of people with the police on the beach, all looking downward. Then the dunes blocked the view as we passed. Two more police cars and two ambulances passed us going back toward the scene. Turns out there was a strong rip current, and there had been a drowning accident.

Things weren't all bad. Some photographic memories:



Campsite visitor



Tahquamenon Falls



The very tip of Whitefish Point





























I would have loved to haul this home and put a big round slab of plate glass on it and make a table out of it for the basement. Sadly it probably weighs 6000 pounds, give or take. And if someone else did the same thing and sold it in a high-end lodge decor shop, it would probably cost $6000, give or take.






















My point of view for most of Wednesday



Tim wearing his Bell's Two-Hearted Ale shirt, drinking Bell's Two-Hearted Ale while canoeing down the Two-Hearted River.



Here's a clear spot in the river. The water was cloudier and deeper this trip due to recent rains. Which meant there was less work involved in working our way around snags and fallen logs, but they could still lurk just under the surface. We only got hung up once.



Rabbit Patch Road. It's a good shortcut east to get to Rainbow Lodge at the mouth of the Two-Hearted River. But with most 'roads' in that area, you need to hang onto your kidneys and make sure none of your dental fillings can be rattled loose.



This dune grass looks like it goes out for miles, but it really doesn't. This is very close to a piece of property Tim found for sale. The price is a bit out of reach, but we can always dream.



Still life of forest floor. The wild blueberries were abundant as ever.



We stopped at Krueger's Fish Market in Mackinaw City to pick up some whitefish filets, and Tim thought to ask about whitefish livers. No, seriously: they're wonderful and a Great Lakes delicacy. Milder than chicken livers, they bring to mind fresh lake water. They do indeed sell them for $4.99 a pound, and we made these at home.