Grand Marais, Michigan

Monday morning in Munising our first stop was at Munising Falls.



After leaving the falls we drove to the Miners Castle viewing platform where we were rushed off by one of the squalls on the lake. From Miners Castle we headed through the woods on H-58 towards Grand Marais. As I was tooling along I noticed a warning sign reading something about the road ahead being closed. Well we stopped at the next little store and the shop keeper could have been cast on Grumpy old men... When I asked which way to take his one word response was "Detour". There were some detour signs that we started to follow. The roads in the area are packed sand and nothing more. We were following one of the NPS maps when we realized we were "off course"( not lost:-)) As we were pulling up to the end of a dead end road a local gentleman and his pooch were out for a stroll. I pulled up to him and asked him if we looked lost, he asked where we came from and we told him and his one word response was "Hell" and then he laughed with us... Fortunately he gave us some solid directions that got us right back on course through the road construction on H-58 and over towards our goal of Grand Marais.

If anybody is planning a trip up here in the next year be certain to check with the Ranger station to check on the road conditions. On the brights side, when the road is done, the area near Au Sable lighthouse and the Grand Sable Sand Dunes will be much easier to access from Munising.

After an excellent lunch at the Dunes Bar/Lake Superior Brewing company we headed down to the lake to watch Lake Superior in action. The Lake Superior brewing company is a great local bar with great food. The beer was awesome. I tried a couple flavors and bought a growler of their dark to take back to camp to drink during the Packer game. Being a combination Packer fan and amatuer low techie guy, I brought a portable direct TV dish on the trip and we were somehow able to catch the game on ESPN. Having direct TV in the camper on the road is a nice perk....

The wave action at the big lake was impressive and removed any desire to go out onto the water that day. There were numerous signs warning people not to go out on the breakwall when it was rough. Obviously the people in the picture could not read. The waves crashing in were running 6 to 8 feet tall.

The next image is of the Grand Sable Dunes from the beach at Grand Marais. This picture does not really do the dunes justice.

Back at the camp monday night we were treated to another beautiful Lake Superior sunset. After the sun went down we watched the rest of the Packer game and enjoyed what we saw. I think Aaron Rodgers played a very good game and showed good poise in handling the Vikings. A great ending to a fun day of sightseeing.

Home and back among the wired world.

Wow! What a great trip with so many super memories and sights that are difficult to say one is better that the other. We logged over 1700 miles and visited Sault Ste Marie, The Agawa Canyon, Mackinaw City and Island, Paradise, Whitefish Point, Point Iriquois, Munising, Grand Marais, and finished our excursion in Copper Harbor before coming home this morning. The past week has been without any significant internet access so things have piled up.



Among the many highlights was our Pictured Rocks cruise at Munising that was an adventure that started out nice, a couple of rain showers and three rainbows later we were back at the dock. The grand finale Rainbow was the largest that any of us had ever seen. In the picture below the bright part of the rainbow is at least three miles away. A bit later it looked even larger from the scenic overlook.





The East Channel Lighthouse in Munising Bay is one of the coolest lights anyplace in my opinion. It's interesting to see the sand filling in the front of the beach again. The last time I was at Munising on a dive trip around 1999, the steel shoreline was being installed in order to save the light from falling into the bay because of the eroding shoreline. You can see the sand that has filled in front of the steel below. When I was there last time the water right in front of the light was over 20 feet deep. The shifting sands is one of the awesome things about Lake Superior

Another of my favorite trip events was sitting at Mission Point near Sault Ste Marie watching the 1000 foot ore boat Edgar Speer coming upbound. When we pulled in at Mission Point there was an older pickup with grandpa and his two young grandchildren in the truck. The little girl in the truck was super excited because her "Nanny" was coming on the big boat. The little girl went on to say he Nanny lived on the big red boat. When the Speer passed, Nanny was out on the walkway waving like crazy at her grandchildren. The speer blew a short saute (one long-two short)and then a Master Salute consisting of three long and two short blasts for the grandkids.

I don't know how many Lakers (ore boats) we saw on the trip but there were a lot, including most of my favorites. One of my past times through the years has been monitoring great lakes shipping including modern shipping and shipwrecks on the big lake. My companions on the trip were impressed when we were crossing the international bridge back into the states when I saw the stack of the Roger Blough and named it for them. When time permits I'll post more pics up on my Picasa site. I have not counted how many images I took on the trip but most days I managed to fill my memory card. The least favorite place we visited was probably Mackinaw Island for multiple reasons. I've never seen that many fudge stores in such a small area in my life. They have to have the world record for the most fudge stores in the smallest piece of real estate anyplace. So many people in such a small area was hard to handle

Agawa Canyon trip

On Wednesday the 4th we crossed over to Canada and took the Agawa Canyon train tour on the Algoma Central line. The trip is 114 miles from the Soo one way. We departed at 8:00 a.m. sharp and returned at 6:30 p.m. The trip up was great. We ate a good breakfast in the diner car which was a cool experience. I had heard previously that the food was expensive and not good quality but found that to be false information. We enjoyed lots of superb scenery along the ride with the highlight being the dam at the Montreal River at about mile #92. There was a huge reservoir with huge granite bluffs to the east and a view of the downriver side including a peek of Lake Suprior on the west side. The tour nprovides a good booklet that lists teh different sights and the mile markers along the way. We arrived in the canyon at about 12:20 and had a quick picnic before heading out on a hike to explore the trails and three water falls. The trails to the water falls are easy walking and the flora was very interesting to look at. The moss growing on the rocks in the area was so thick that some small ferns were able to grow and sustain themselves on top of the moss. The different mosses were beautiful(daughter Kate would love this). The birch trees in the canyon are the biggest I have ever seen anyplace in the northland, there were so big I could not reach around them.

There were two downfalls to this trip that we all agreed on, #1 was that the time in the canyon was too short. We were given an hour and half to explore which was cutting it close. The second downfall to is was that the ride back to the Soo was long. Suggestions to counter these are to eat before or after the canyon and be ready to hit the trails as soon as you get off the train. #2 Plan to catch a good long afternoon nap on the way back. The ride is very relaxing and the crew on the train is very accomodating and friendly. Bring your music or a good book and the ride back was not bad.

The Scenery on the way seemed better on the right (east) side of the train going up until about mile 95 after the Montreal reservoir. Once we were north of there, we started catching very nice scenic views of Lake Superior and the Agawa Canyon on the left side. I was told that photographers prefer shooting the west side going up and the east side coming back to avoid the glare of the sun. I was shooting out both sides and will post up my pics on my picasa pages once I get to a good to a good hookup back home.

Overall it was an awesome adventure and I would definately recomend it to anybody who loves seeing good scenery.

The Soo

Tuseday morning was spent bumming around Sault Ste Marie. There was lots of boat traffic later in the morning with the crowd favorite the Edward L. Ryseron locking through downbound (second image).

After seeing the Ryerson lock through we drove down to Mission Point and caught her coming around the bend on the St. Mary's River (top photo)headed for DeTour. Captain Eric provided a Master salute for the boatwatchers at the point which is really quite thrilling. Dinner Tuesday night was at the famous Clyde's drive in where you can still get car hop service if you like. Clydes has been in business since 1949.

Yooperland

Vacation to the Upper Peninsula

Ya so den ve deicded it vas time for da vacation and decided to go to da U.P. eh?

The sunrise on the way was a great start to the trip.

Day 1

399 miles from the house to the campground on the St. Mary's River just below the Soo Locks. The weather was a sizzling HOT 92 when we arrived on September 1st which is generally a lot cooler at this time of the year. 92 is hot anytime up here... Tuesday checked in at 88 degrees. Very nice and was enjoyed by all.

On the way up thinking about all I left behind including the woodpile I saw "Big Gus" but could not fit it in the camper to bring home. Big Gus would make quick work of my log pile if I could oly get it home. So if anybody is coming by the Yoopers Tourist trap near Ishpheming and has room... If you've never stopped by the Tourist trap and have any kind of a sense of humor then this is a great place to stop. Plenty of room for maneuvering rigs around, Clean rest rooms and free coffee to boot.

Everything went well on the trip up, saw lots and lots of baby wild turkeys in the morning as we headed east on 77 nout of Hayward.

We stopped and had lunch along the shores of Lake Superior just east of Marquette near the Visitors Center, Lots of beach goers enjoying one of the last days of summer before the kids headed back to school. The drive from Marquette to Munising is nice with lots of good views of the big lake. The longest part of the day was driving from Munising to the Soo. The roads were generally in great shape but there was one section that went for about 10 miles that made a guy wish he were some place else.

We are very pleased with the Aune Osborne campgrounds. The facilities here are the best I have seen anyplace. The shower house is near new and in excwellent shape and very clean. The water pressure is a bit hot and you'll want to use a pressure regulator if you have it. The view of the St.Mary's river is excellent and the boat watching is world class.

More to follow...