Going Home

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Last day in Michigan’s UP and last night Himey and I both slept like rocks. Finally. Even Dino the Wonderdog slept in this morning.

By nine, though, we were taking down the pop-up camper and had everything packed and ready to go by ten. Our only stop on the way home was a roadside park north of Bruce Crossing.

It was the perfect vacation for me. And Himey was hooked. Oh, and the cost? $266.75. Sure can’t beat that.

Six months later I made campground reservations at McLain State Park for this past July. As it turned out, Himey got a new job the first of June and wasn’t able to get time off work. I waited until the last minute to cancel the reservations; I just didn’t want to give up the dream of another idyllic vacation on Lake Superior. The day I made that call, I stumbled upon the annual Rhinelander School of the Arts, which is a week’s worth of workshops on writing, painting and other creative ventures. I had always thought about signing up for it and this year it just so happened I was on vacation that week with nowhere else to go. Hmm? A sign from God?

Never mind my ranting

Afternoon, Wednesday, July 28, 2010

For lunch today, we stopped again at the city park in Eagle Harbor, Michigan. Then we hunted up Pine Grove Cemetery. An interesting cemetery, but not even that old; we found three graves from 2010.There was even a fresh hole dug for someone’s cremains that hadn’t even been covered up yet. They just had the same kind of carpet sample that Himey uses to cover up the cremains hole after he digs it.

The thing is this cemetery was in almost as bad a shape as Schoolcraft. I could not believe it. Ok, it is one thing to forget the people who died a century ago, but do you really want grandma, who died last week, thrown in a hole where no caretaker has ever mowed. It was insane. It was unworldly. I cannot even describe the condition of this place. Sure, the old graves were falling apart, the headstones in disrepair and such. But right next to them were graves from a few years ago, with fresh flowers or other sentimental stuff (the empty beer bottle or stuffed animal) and no upkeep going on anywhere. I asked Himey how he even thought the vault people or the pallbearers could get into these places for a burial today. Sorry to rant, but holy cow, I do not get it. What are the people living in Eagle Harbor thinking??

I took lots of cool pictures though, again. This time for evidence.

After I had calmed down enough, we next drove to Delaware Mine. The lady who runs it was really nice. She said that Dino was more than welcome to come on the mine tour with us, but at $10 a pop, we thought we would skip it. We did do the above ground tour which was only $3 each.

Walking about the grounds, we came to a fenced enclosure and Dino got the snot scared out of him when a momma goat rammed the fence trying to head-butt him. She was just protecting her babies, who I think really wanted to play with Dino. Dino was really good about it, didn’t whine or bark at her and just acted like, “what’s going on here?”

Back to Camping in the UP

Wednesday, July 28

I sprung out of bed around five Wednesday, because when I looked out the camper window the sun was just coming up. I raced off to the beach, watched the sunrise along Lake Superior and took way too many pictures. That is the wonderful thing about digital cameras – I can delete half these pictures without wasting a thing.

By 8:30 we were ready to roll and drove back to the Waterworks Park near Calumet, just so the Dino-master could play. Today the waves were much higher, white caps actually. Oh, my gosh, the dog was so funny. He’d wade out to his belly and then try to hold his ground as a wave approached. Just as it was about to hit him, he would turn and run back to shore, but never made it. The water was always faster.

When we left there we went down the road to Schoolcraft Cemetery just east of Calumet. Wow, what a sad place. Most of the burials were from the late 1800s, but the whole place was in total disrepair, trees and brush have taken over. Some of the headstones were fantastic, huge monoliths, but most were tipped over and sometimes broken in half. I just feel so bad when cemeteries look like that. I mean, even if the family is all gone or moved away, there still needs to be respect for their remains. All those people who died in the UP in the 1880s and 1890s made huge contributions to their communities, just by living and working there and keeping the mining industry going as long as they could. It seems such a shame.

Next we tried to find Gratiot Falls. Out of Ahmeek, there is a road called Five Mile Point Road, which is a scenic byway to Lake Superior. Along this road are the Farmer’s Block Roads (north, south and west). Very near these roads, on one of the maps I have, is a dot for Upper Gratiot Falls and one for Lower Gratiot Falls. As we drove along, we found a sign for Gratiot Falls Trailhead, so we thought, hot dog, that must take us there.

Well, we walked and walked and walked. I need to start carrying a pedometer; we had to have hiked a couple miles. Luckily this wasn’t just a trail, but was a logging road in better shape than a lot of the Michigan roads I’ve been on. But you can only wander the forest for so long before you say, maybe this isn’t going anywhere. I will have to try to find this on Google Earth and see if we were anywhere close to anything.

I Will Not Let My Backache Slow Us Down

Tuesday, July 27,2010

Around 8:30 Tuesday morning, we finally left camp for the day. Our first stop was the Calumet waterworks city park. No one was around and we had a mile of Lake Superior beach before us.

Dino could romp and play in the water. He wasn’t used to such serious waves and the first one kind of freaked him out, but after that he thought it was great. He had such a good time.

Our next stops were the Lakeview Cemetery just west of Calumet, the spot in the road that was once the mining town of Cliff, the Phoenix Church, and Eagle River Falls. We drove by Jacob Falls, but we did stop at the Jampot which is just past the Falls. Remember this is the bakery owned and operated by an order of monks, and they make fantastic baked goods and jams. Bought some goodies that we just did not need, but it is vacation.

Eagle Harbor was next on the map. I saw a cute old school down a side street and directed Himey that way. Bonus, the old school was next to a park which had nice clean restrooms open to the public.

We had lunch at my favorite place, Essery Roadside Park. Dino actually laid down and stopped panting for a few minutes. You could tell my back was hurting because I didn’t climb all over the cool rocks being beaten by the Lake Superior waves. Plus, it was hot. 86 degrees at that point and humid.

We didn’t tour Copper Harbor or Fort Wilkins, but we did explore Manganese Falls. It is just a narrow creek, but runs through a really deep gorge. You definitely have to get off the trail here and explore to find the top of the falls where you can really see it.From the fence with its warning signs (“deep gorge – caution”), you can’t see a thing.

We headed further up the road in search of Estivant Pines. We got there and started up the trail, until we got to the sign which read that the loop was 1.2 miles. You know that my back had to be hurting at this point, as I gave in and asked Himey if we could turn around and go back to the Blazer.

Back at Copper Harbor, we naturally had to stop for ice cream. Himey even bought Dino a small dish of plain vanilla. Both my guys are so spoiled.

We took the Brockway Mountain Drive back to Eagle Harbor. Wow, what a beautiful drive, fantastic views of Lake Superior and all the surrounding forests when you get to the top. Though it was overcast, we could still see for what was forever.

Dino just loves the water

Essery Roadside Park

View from atop Brockway Mountain

Camping, finally

Monday, July 26, 2010

I had had a migraine Saturday, my back went out on Sunday, and then I found my beloved Bam-Bam dead by the doghouse on Sunday afternoon. As we were getting ready Monday morning for our camping trip, I had a sudden premonition that those were all signs that we shouldn’t go, that something even worse would happen.

Then I remembered how much Lake Superior meant to me, how I swear its water runs right through my veins. If ever there were a place on this earth for me to feel at rest, it is Gitchee-Gumee.

As it turned out, we arrived at McLain State Park in Michigan’s UP by mid-afternoon and put the camper up without incident.

It was Dino’s first camping trip, but he again proved himself to be the Wonder Dog. He barked a few times until he got the lay of the land, but settled down as soon as he realized that this was his yard now.

Once our home away from home was set up, we headed back into town to buy the things we forgot, an extension cord and a fan. Himey was ready for the camping experience, but decided quickly that as long as we had electricity, we might as well have a fan. But we couldn’t get electricity until we got a long enough extension cord.

After dinner of hot dogs and mac-n-cheese, we took a walk around the campground. Of course, it is all beach along the Lake, so no dogs allowed. Dino didn’t feel bad about that though, instead he just pooped along the road next to someone else’s campsite. Good thing I had brought along the plastic bags.

Dreaming of my Dream Vacation

Summer Vacation 2010

I had wanted to go camping in the pop-up trailer for a very long time, and I finally convinced Himey to give it a try. He has been more than willing but I kept hesitating, just not picturing it happening and not wanting to get my hopes up. In the spring of 2010 when we started talking about where to go on vacation, the biggest stumbling block was the cost. No matter where we went, with the price of gas, hotels and meals, we would be looking at a thousand dollars for a week.

When I figured the cost of a camping trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it came up at around $300. If we took the dog with, instead of boarding him out, that would save money too. So I started making plans.

I’d always wanted to stay at McLain State Park up past Houghton, and thought it would be friendly towards Himey as they have electricity at all the sites and hot showers. I’d stayed there a lot when I was a kid (which you know if you have been reading my blog from the beginning). Himey really liked the UP when we were there the year before and wanted to go back. It seemed as though it was all falling into place. I was finally going to get my dream vacation – camping in the UP. Or was I?

You’ll have to check back on Wednesday to see how it turned out. Also, this is the last back-log trip I will be writing about. The countdown is on - two more weeks and I am totally revamping my blog! Stay tuned.