Running Out of North

Courtney Lake is probably one of the quietest campgrounds I have been to in a long time.  It probably helps that there are very few people here.  The campground is largely empty.  While kayaking in the lake last night, we saw one other fisherman on the water,  but the absence of any noise is rather surreal as we are used to nearly constant noise.  The sound of our own paddling was loud by comparison.

Imagine our surprise when, a little later on last night, as we were sitting on the bed having devotions, some sort of explosion ripped the evening.  Sounded a lot like a shotgun blast heard from about three feet away.

When I managed to peel Deb off the ceiling, we looked out the window toward where the report came from.  Through the trees we could see a pall of smoke rising from a few campsites away.  Too much smoke to be a gunshot, perhaps someone threw an aerosol can or a M-80 into a campfire.

The silence quickly returned but was broken a few more times a little later by what sounded like small caliber gunshots at a distance.

Only in da UP, eh?  It’s a different world up here.

After all the hot days we’ve had this summer it’s a little hard to imagine being cold.  But Deb turned the fan off in the wee hours of the morning and it was 48 degrees out when we got up.  We actually had to use the heat when we left the campground.

We got up on time as there was a lot we wanted to do today.  All that non-agenda stuff of yesterday morphed into a whole list of things to do today.  Better get going.

A check of the weather showed a very pleasant day ahead, highs only around 70, but the air quality index was sky high.  Sounds like it will be this way through the entire trip.  This means that everything we see will be shrouded in a light fog and the sunsets just fade into nothingness.  Even back home, it’s unhealthy.  So any pictures I take have to be enhanced to increase the contrast and reduce the effects of the fog.

We drove into Houghton, picked up some fuel and checked out the local WalMart.  Camping around here is either on the expensive side or unavailable, so the WalMart is Plan B.  This Walmart doesn’t look too bad. Might be a destination for this evening.

Deb found a few waterfalls to visit on our continued journey Up North, and Hungarian Falls was the first stop.  Several cascades and a small dammed-up lake at the end of a short trail off a small dirt road.  Seems like a recipe for anonymity.  When we got there, we were the only ones.  When we left, there were six other cars along that dirt road.  Despite its humble location, it has been discovered.

Continuing north on State Highway 26, we came into the town of Calumet, a quaint town with a lot of history in the copper mining industry.  A lot of interesting architecture and a National Park visitor center that was not on any of our maps.  We stopped for a stamp and to talk with the ranger for a bit.    On the way into town Deb saw a sign pointing to the Laurium Manor Inn and did her signature “turn here” cry just as we were passing the intersection.  I dutifully turned down the next street and we found the Manor.  It is now a bed and breakfast and a well-appointed one at that.  Newsweek Magazine readers voted Laurium Manor Inn 3rd Best Historical B&B in the nation in August 2024.  Back in our B&B days, we probably would have loved to stay here.  Now we just drive by with our house on our back.

One could spend a lot of time here but we had an agenda and other places were calling, so we moved on.

Eagle River Falls is visible from the road if you know where to look.  We stopped here to add another falls to our collection of the day.  We are now nearing the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula and there ’s not much more north to go.

A few miles further is Jampot, a bakery affiliated with a monastery that sells jams and breads and coffee beans.  It came highly recommended by someone we talked to a week or so ago.  And by the lineup at the door, a lot of other people agreed with this and were willing to wait in line just to get in the store.  We dutifully waited in line for a half hour, and struck up a conversation with a former engineer who worked at Whirlpool.  We compared notes for a bit.  When we finally got in the store, we bought two muffins, chocolate and apple.  

We had those muffins for a snack later in the afternoon.  For all their hype, we found them to be rather ho hum.  Especially the apple one.  It was rather dry and needed a little help from a container of butter.  Those monks could do well to have a few lessons from Costco.

We stopped at Great Sand Bay for lunch.  Great view from the parking lot overlooking Lake Superior and the red sand and rock beach.

We tried to stop at the Eagle Harbor lighthouse, however the parking lot was quite full and would probably not accommodate a large vehicle.  So we took the suggestion of our Whirlpool engineer friend and drove to the lifesaving museum across Eagle Harbor and took a picture of the lighthouse from across the water.  Turned out much better than actually being there.

We finally rolled into Copper Harbor in the early afternoon.  Deb told me she has always wanted to go to Copper Harbor and this is the first time she has been here.  Me too.  Seems like a rather busy little town but the water was quiet so we parked at the Copper Harbor Marina and put the kayaks in the water.  We paddled across the harbor and out into Lake Superior, going completely around Porters Island.  What fun.

Then to Fort Wilkins State Park, a whole fort built in anticipation of a conflict that never materialized.  The fort was eventually abandoned because the garrisons stationed there were needed elsewhere and the remote location meant boredom for those located there.

This was it.  We had finally run out of North.  There was no more north to be had.  So we headed back south.  Back to Houghton where we biked the Houghton Waterfront Trail for nine miles and watched the sun slowly fade away into the haze.  So much for a sunset.

And now we are settled in at the Walmart in Houghton.  Lots of lights and some distant noise, but, as Walmarts go, one of the better ones.

Agendas

I love doing trips with no agenda.  Wake up in the morning with really no idea what we will do or how far we will travel today and just do what catches our interest.

Unfortunately, the agenda always catches up.  Not a daily one but a larger one, in the form of squares on the calendar.  Several months ago, the months of July and August were wide open.  So we carved out three weeks for a trip “up North”.  That became two and a half weeks when we realized we had another commitment.  So the time became limited to two and a half weeks..  Which sounds like a lot, but it goes quickly.  Even now we look at some things around here and realize that we will have to keep moving if we want to make it all the way around Lake Superior. Some of those things will have to go into the bucket called “next time”.

One of those things was Mt. Arvon, the highest point in the state of Michigan.  We are so close, but the 9 miles of dirt roads is a show-stopper.  We’ve been on many dirt roads, including a couple on this trip that Google Maps led us down, and the dust and the bone-jarring washboard surface and the potholes makes for some very slow progress and a very dirty RV.  So this is in the “next time” bucket.  Perhaps we’ll take some ATV’s along and really do some off-roading.  That’s a real thing here.

So, sticking to the things we could do, we made our first stop after a scant 4 miles at Thomas Rock Scenic Overlook.  The pictures that others took from this look amazing, the picture that I took is less than stellar, mostly due to the haze from the Canadian wildfires that is polluting the air.  It almost seems foggy here at times and the air quality index is terrible.  I’m thankful that neither of us suffers from respiratory issues.  It may have scrubbed the entire trip.

Then it was back towards Big Bay, as Deb wanted another look at the beach here.

The beach by the Burns Landing Historical Park is another gem, a beach flanked on one side by cliffs, with lots of sand and clear water.  It was a fairly small beach, so a beach walk lasted all of ten minutes.

We headed back south on route 550 toward Marquette, and stopped at Little Presque Isle, a small island off a point in the shoreline.  One could probably walk to the island over the sand bar, but there are warnings about rip currents, so we took a picture instead.  The island is so tantalizingly close.  And the area around looks like a small version of Pictured Rocks, with the straight cliffs rising up out of the water.

Just over a mile farther down the road is Wetmore Landing, a small parking lot that allows access to a network of hiking and biking trails including the North Country Trail.  A short trail leads to the beach on Lake Superior, a fantastic beach that was nearly totally deserted.  This was an enormous expanse of fine sand between the forest and the water, its curving shoreline forming a large bay.  A few outcroppings of rock made for some good rock scrambling, and a family with several kids was taking full advantage of this.  We took a long walk on this beach, enjoying the solitude and the pleasant weather.  The beach at Au Train was my favorite so far, but this could be a very close contender.

Wow, is it noon already?  Where did the time go?  We made lunch right there in the parking lot.

We drove for an hour and stopped at Canyon Falls, dubbed by some as the Grand Canyon of Michigan. The Grand Canyon it is not, but it does resemble a tiny canyon, with the Sturgeon River running through it.  The falls require a bit of a scramble down some rocks for the best view, but it is worth the scramble.

It was also nice to get out and stretch our legs during the short hike.

Between L’Anse and Baraga we stopped at the Bishop Baraga Shrine, not because we are into shrines but because Deb was reading about Frederic Baraga, known as the Snowshoe Priest, who became the first bishop of the Upper Peninsula.  The churches he planted were far flung and he would trek overland in the winter months to serve them, covering distances of over 60 miles in snowshoes.  A 35-foot statue was erected in the 1960’s to honor him and his work.  The statue sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Superior.  The nearby village of Baraga was named after him.

We arrived at the Courtney Lake Campground, in the Ottawa National Forest at about 5pm, just in time to make some dinner.  After dinner we put the kayaks in the small lake and paddled around for a bit, enjoying the stillness of the evening.

153 miles covered today. Progress so far:

The End of the Road

It’s not what you think.  We are not in trouble and nothing has happened.  We are just at the end of the road.  County Road 550, to be exact. This road ends in Big Bay, a tiny town with a nice county park and campground,  about a half hour northwest of Marquette.

In the 123 miles it took to get here, we did a lot.  It felt a little like a triathlon, with paddling, swimming, and biking, although this was the non-athletic version.  Most triathletes I know do not use electric bikes.

First stop of the day after leaving Colwell Lake was Wagner Falls.  This area has a lot of waterfalls, some of them very close to the road, so Wagner Falls was easy to get to.  Nice little water fall although the picture on the sign shows a pristine cascade, and now it has quite a bit of deadfall in it.

One of the areas we visited had some signs describing renovations and one of the things on the list for next year is a controlled burn to deal with a lot of dead stuff (fuel) just waiting to be touched off.

Next stop was the Au Train River, a nice place for some kayaking.  Some articles that we read suggested the five-mile section between the Riverside Bridge and the Doucette Bridge as the favorite, with the added bonus that the shuttle between put-in and take-out is less than 3/4 mile.  Many people will continue beyond the Doucette Bridge an extra two miles and end up in Lake Superior, but we chose not to do this because that section becomes very marshy.

We dropped the kayaks off, I drove to the take-out point and walked back to the kayaks.  No spotting a vehicle, very easy.

The Au Train is very calm and slow-moving, with no obstacles, so it is a very easy river.  The only challenge is lots of curves so there’s lots of steering required.  A very easy and pleasant paddle, and we covered just over 5 miles on two hours and twenty minutes.  Looks like a very popular place by the number of outfitters in the area and the stacks of kayaks that each one has.  I’m glad we’re here on a Tuesday instead of a weekend.

There was a sign with a set of rules posted at the put-in place.  I didn’t realize that some of these were a problem, but, hey, maybe nude, foul-mouthed people frequent these parts...

Right near where the Au Train river drains into Lake Superior is a turnout from Route 28, a parking spot with beach access.  And a beautiful beach it was.  We parked there, changed into swim wear, and jumped into Lake Superior.  It isn’t often that one can swim in this lake as it’s always very cold, and some of that chill could still be felt, but wow, did it feel good to spend some time in the water.  Not only was it a great section of coast line, it was a nice sandy beach also.  After over two hours in the sun, it certainly helped bring the core temperature down.

We drove on to Marquette and stopped at the visitor center, about two miles east of town.  The  Iron Ore Heritage Trail runs right by the visitor center, so it was a convenient parking spot to start a bike ride.

We rode through Marquette and on to Presque Isle, taking the two-mile loop around the island.  Lots of people here today, especially by the black rocks, a very popular spot for jumping into the lake. We already had our time in the water and we didn’t have our suits along on the bikes, so we just watched for a few minutes.

Getting a little hungry by this time, so we rode into Marquette, to Lawry’s Pasty Shop, and had us each a Pasty.  In all our trips to the UP, we’ve never had a pasty, despite the many places that serve them.  Deb did some research and Lawry’s bubbled to the top of several pasty lists, so we stopped there.

The pasty came out of the mining industry as a portable and nutritious meal, which used readily available ingredients.  Hence the meat, potatoes, onions, rutabagas, and a few other variations. Kind of like a bunch of stuff wrapped in a pie crust that could be held by hand.  Very filling also.  Gotta keep those miners satisfied.

The Lawry’s pasty was delicious.  And it was filling.  And probably very caloric.  Now I can say I’ve had a pasty.

We had to bike almost six miles back to the RV with a pasty in the belly, a bit of a challenge made easier using electric bikes.  About 20 miles on the bikes, all told.

We made a stop at Wright Street Falls, just outside of Marquette.  These had the interesting feature of an aqueduct, made out of wood, coming from the Forestville Dam.  This aqueduct leaks in many places, so it just spouts water in all directions and dribbles onto the path to the falls.  I’ve never seen one like this before.  Oh, and the falls were nice also it’s just that this sort-of dominated the scene.

This area has many miles of mountain bike trails, and is becoming quite a destination for mountain bikers. We walked one of the trails back to the RV and saw a few bikers on the trails.  Very technical and challenging. Looks like a lot of fun but probably way above my pay grade.

Next stop was the end of the road, where we are now.  The evening is deliciously cool, so sleep should be amazing.

186 miles traveled today.  1001 Miles total so far.  Progress so up till now:

On the Road Again

On the road again
I just can’t wait to get on the road again...

This would make fantastic lyrics for a song.

Wait a minute ... looks like Willie Nelson beat me to it, 45 years ago.

We are on the road again, having covered 374 miles today and currently camped out in the Hiawatha National Forest, at the Colwell Lake Campground just north of Manistique.  It appears we got one of the last campsites in the campground.  One of the risks of not making reservations is arriving somewhere and finding it full.  So far, one night in, we’re doing OK.

We were on the road before 8am, just in time to catch the rush hour traffic into Grand Rapids.  But we were early enough to beat most of the heat and the temperature here “up north” is several degrees cooler than at home.

We are officially “up north”.  It could be argued that “up north” could include Ludington, Cadillac, or even Rockford for those who don’t get out much, but, crossing the Mighty Mac bridge probably fits anyone’s definition of “up north”.

We crossed the bridge after having lunch in Mackinaw City, near the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, a lovely area with a commanding view of the bridge.  On our way across the bridge, we talked about doing the bridge walk on this coming Labor Day.  Anyone want to join us?  It would be another excuse to go “up north”.

We stopped at the Mackinac Straits Fish Company in St. Ignace for some smoked fish, one of our regular stops when coming here.  We’re trying out something new: Menominee, a rather skinny looking fish that is supposed to be very similar to whitefish.  Looking forward to trying that out.

We took US Highway 2 along the northern shore of Lake Michigan all the way to Manistique.  I know that’s not technically a Lake Superior circle tour road, but we always like the scenery along US-2.  We’ll hit Lake Superior tomorrow.

We stopped at Kitch-iti-kipi (Big Spring) near Manistique as we haven’t seen this in probably a few decades.  The water is still clear as ever, but there are a lot more people than I remember.

Another half hour brought us to this campground, where we made dinner and then took the walk around Colwell Lake, about a 2-mile walk.  Nice campground and a pleasant walk, however the mosquitos started coming out and drove us inside.

The fridge is still working and the magnetic catch I installed to eliminate the bothersome bungee cord that held the bathroom door in place appears to be working.  Even over eight miles of dirt road.  Win, win.

The journey so far:

Going North

We leave tomorrow to go “up north”.  Generally following our pattern of: if it’s cold, go south, if it’s hot, go north.  It’s hot, so we’re going north.  Around Lake Superior, to be precise, a journey of approximately 1300 miles.

We have no reservations and no agenda, just two and a half weeks blocked out on the calendar.  We will be stopping at places that interest us and just being spontaneous.  We’ll see how this goes.

It was a bit of a scramble to ready the RV as we had Alex on a camping trip over the last few days.  Come home, return him to his parents, do a small mountain of laundry, pack 3 weeks of food into a distressingly small fridge, make sure everything still works, all in the space of about a day.

Unfortunately not everything works.  Our fridge has taken to spontaneously shutting itself off at times.  It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, most of our food supply is at risk.  Especially on these very hot days.  Usually it’s a few hours before the turn-off is noticed, and these fridges take a long time to get the cooling action going again, so we’ve had some pretty soupy ice cream.

I do have some connections.  I texted my buddy, Dave, who keeps a supply of spare controller boards for his fleet of RVs.  He graciously met me at his shop this afternoon and we pawed through his collection.  No dice.  Several controller boards but none for my fridge.

Dave had the idea of calling Camping World, which is open on Sunday.  Yes, they had a few in stock and they were open until 4pm.  It was now 3pm and I was across town, so I drove down there, arriving just before closing and came home with a new controller board and $200 poorer.  Probably could have found it on the Internet for less, but we are leaving early tomorrow.  How is that for last-minute?

We’ll see whether this works.  It’s a bit of a long shot since I really have no idea why things keep turning off, but we’ll see...

I suppose that, even with a $200 controller board, the fridge doesn’t owe us anything.  This is the same fridge that, five years ago, a week after we bought this RV, I set on fire when I was attempting to repair it.  I nearly burned the RV down.  It took some doing to convince the insurance company that my claim was not fraudulent since I submitted a claim a week after I bought the RV.  In the end, they paid for a new fridge, and I fixed this one with a can of expanding foam to replace burned insulation and a few lengths of wire for a scorched section of a wiring harness.  It has operated flawlessly until now.

We took the RV to top off on fuel and to have some ice cream at Culvers; our parting Concrete Mixer, so to speak.  Probably not many Culver’s restaurants on our 1300-mile trek, so we enjoyed this while we could.

And, last, but not least, a picture of our home for the next few weeks.  I probably have dozens of similar pictures, but this one is from now.

A Hot Ride Home

We were able to hit the road a little after 7am, hoping to beat the heat as much as possible.  And, for a while, we did.  When it came time to turn the air conditioning on, I hit the button and ... nothing.  Only hot air.

We stopped at a Walmart to pick up some Ale-8-One for our kids, a soft drink that is made in Winchester, Kentucky.  It was recommended by a few people we talked to and we have seen several people drinking it around here.

A taste of authentic Kentucky.  Perfect.

We’ve found that some of the best souvenirs come from the local grocery store.

While Deb was in the store, I set about trying to get the A/C working.  I carry a code reader along and the code was “Component A9y1 (Refrigerant compressor control valve) or line to component has short circuit to ground”.  ​Sounds serious​.  I tried resetting the codes, shutting off and restarting the engine, but failed to make a difference.  So we relegated ourselves to sweltering in the heat with the windows open for the remainder of the trip.

And for the next few hours, we did just that: swelter in the growing heat with the windows open and the 65-mile-per-hour air buffeting us and blowing our hats off.

We stopped in a park just north of Indianapolis to make lunch, eating some of the leftovers in the fridge.  On a whim and an inspiration, I disconnected the battery, left it set while we were having lunch, and reconnected it when we were ready to roll.  The air conditioning began to work just like it always had and the rest of the trip was done in blissful coolness.

As always, we build a list of things that need to be fixed and our refrigerator is now on that list.  Three times during this trip it randomly turned itself off.  Some aging plumbing needs to be replaced, and the A/C problem appears to have healed itself.  I guess that’s what happens when you put a house on wheels and drive it down the road.  It is subjected to a continual earthquake.  Something’s gonna give.

We covered 512 miles today.  Quite a feat for us.  1447 miles covered total.  The travel map looks like this.  One segment from West Virginia to Kentucky is missing as I turned off the GPS tracker and forgot to turn it back on.

Last Day Here

We got up this morning and headed out early for today’s hikes.  Today was supposed to be a carbon copy of yesterday, hot and humid, so we all agreed to get the hikes in early.

First hike was to Rock Bridge Arch, which was a 1.4-mile loop including the arch and also Creation Falls.  Just long enough for a good hike but not so long that everyone gets all hot and tired.  This was a beautiful hike that sloped steeply downward for a while through dense trees and rhododendrons.  Welcome shade from the growing heat.

One little bonus along the trail was a spider web, brightly illuminated by the sunshine, a perfectly round network of gossamer thread that appeared to be still under construction.  So cool.

Creation Falls was a treat, a small cascade with a pool at the bottom that was obviously very popular from the amount of footprints in the sand and the childrens’ sand toys that were strewn about.  Several of us waded in the pool for a while and we enjoyed the time just relaxing around a waterfall.

Just a few paces beyond the falls was Rock Bridge Arch.  This is one of the few arches in Red River Gorge passing over water.

We took our pictures here also and a few of us clambered to the top of the arch, a feat that required good grip and long legs.

After completing this loop, we drove to the trailhead for Princess Arch and took the short hikes to Chimney Top Rock and Princess Arch. These were easy trails, about a quarter-mile each one-way and we got some good views from the top of Chimney Top Rock and a good group photo under Princess Arch.

Today was somewhat of a re-visit to these same spots that we did on a trip out here 5 years ago.  Back then we spent an afternoon visiting these same spots and taking very similar pictures.  I didn’t even remember Rock Bridge Arch, but there it was, in several pictures from five years ago.

It was now past 1pm and we were heading back to the camp site.  The plan was to make the breakfast that we didn’t have as a group this morning as we left early, however, an ice cream shop got in the way.  We stopped at The Brick Ice Cream for a single scoop and received one of the largest single-scoop servings I have ever seen.  Not sure I will need lunch after that one.  We treated everyone for ice cream as it is our 39th anniversary today.  What a great way to celebrate an anniversary: having ice cream with good friends.

Ice cream for lunch.  This could be habit-forming.

It poured rain for a while after we got back to the RV, otherwise we probably would have made another trip to the pool.

We had chicken quesadillas over the fire for dinner this evening.  Always a favorite but it took a while to get a fire going.  Camp fire wood bought at campgrounds is notoriously wet and this time we were dealing with paper that wouldn’t burn well because the humidity turned it into wet rags.  We finally had to convince it with a little fire juice and a fan.

Since we will be leaving early in the morning for the long trek back home, we bade goodbye to our friends and did as much packing as possible.  Tomorrow it’s get up, unplug, and drive, drive, drive.