First things first. Kyle and I had an amazing vacation in Northern Michigan. Amazing. We stayed on Mackinac Island at an adorable B & B for one night and went horse back riding and biked around the island. Mackinac is truly unique because they don't allow motorized vehicles of any kind on the island. When we were on our trail ride we saw two huge draft horses pulling a ginormous cart......they were the garbage service! Everywhere you went you saw horses and carts transporting people, cases of beer, store supplies, and garbage. This lead us to wonder: do they have ambulances on the island? What if there is a medical emergency? Granted, the island is tiny (the road that goes around the island is 9 miles long), but still......
Mackinac Horses
Me in front of the B & B where we stayed
Me and Kyle in front of "the arch" on MackinacWe left Mackinac Thursday evening after a mad dash to catch the ferry and headed into the Upper Peninsula--or U.P.--for a night of camping near Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We arrived as the sun was setting and after we put up our tent we decided to make a run for Lake Superior to catch the sunset. Lake Superior was 1.5 miles away down a densely-wooded trail and it was getting darker by the minute, but I put my thoughts of bears and strange mountain men aside and grabbed the flashlight. We passed the "bear-proof cans" on the way to the trail and I remembered the NPS warning about locking all food in your car and not washing dinner dishes anywhere near the campsite.........
We ran the trail for quite some time in order to catch the sunset, and I think it definitely was worth the bear-fear and effort:
Sunset over Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
We ran the trail for quite some time in order to catch the sunset, and I think it definitely was worth the bear-fear and effort:
Sunset over Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks National LakeshoreOn the way back to the campsite Kyle sang a bunch of random songs--I thought he was just being funny--but his intention was to keep my mind off of the darkness and unfamiliar trail, and it worked! Such a sweetie.
Both Kyle and I packed poorly. The weather report didn't look too bad and the temperature on Mackinac was perfect. But up in the U.P., with the wind coming off of the lake (yes, those are waves in the picture), my t-shirt, hoodie, old worn-out sweatshirt, topped off with my jean jacket barely cut it. Consequently, I would be wearing these same layers for another 28 hours (with a new t-shirt, of course ;-). Luckily we weren't sweating, otherwise we'd have been a pretty stinky pair.
The next morning our very U.P. campsite neighbors pointed out that we had a flat tire. Crap. Luckily people in the U.P. were incredibly friendly and a guy patched the tire and got us back on the road for only $12! The friendly U.P. park ranger (sense a theme?) gave us a suggestion for the best day hike in the area and we headed out. The day hike was a 10 mile loop within the park that took us by two waterfalls and along the cliffs of Pictured Rocks. The trail started out flat, open, and easy, but once we hit the cliffs it was single track and quite treacherous in places. The ranger's suggestion totally paid off. The loop scenery was gorgeous! After a strenuous 10 mile hike, having hiked/ran for about 4 miles the night before and gone horseback riding on Mackinac, I was exhausted! Fighting-off being cold for almost the entire time didn't help.....but Kyle's trusty Camelbak stocked with lunch, snacks, and water kept us going.
The first of two waterfalls on the hike
The rock at the park is quite soft, leading to beautiful scenes like this one
Kyle on the trail by the cliffs and carved-out caverns
Collapsed rock and the arch it created
Kyle on 'Mosquito Beach'
Mosquito Falls--the second waterfall of the hike
Both Kyle and I packed poorly. The weather report didn't look too bad and the temperature on Mackinac was perfect. But up in the U.P., with the wind coming off of the lake (yes, those are waves in the picture), my t-shirt, hoodie, old worn-out sweatshirt, topped off with my jean jacket barely cut it. Consequently, I would be wearing these same layers for another 28 hours (with a new t-shirt, of course ;-). Luckily we weren't sweating, otherwise we'd have been a pretty stinky pair.
The next morning our very U.P. campsite neighbors pointed out that we had a flat tire. Crap. Luckily people in the U.P. were incredibly friendly and a guy patched the tire and got us back on the road for only $12! The friendly U.P. park ranger (sense a theme?) gave us a suggestion for the best day hike in the area and we headed out. The day hike was a 10 mile loop within the park that took us by two waterfalls and along the cliffs of Pictured Rocks. The trail started out flat, open, and easy, but once we hit the cliffs it was single track and quite treacherous in places. The ranger's suggestion totally paid off. The loop scenery was gorgeous! After a strenuous 10 mile hike, having hiked/ran for about 4 miles the night before and gone horseback riding on Mackinac, I was exhausted! Fighting-off being cold for almost the entire time didn't help.....but Kyle's trusty Camelbak stocked with lunch, snacks, and water kept us going.
The first of two waterfalls on the hike
The rock at the park is quite soft, leading to beautiful scenes like this one
Kyle on the trail by the cliffs and carved-out caverns
Collapsed rock and the arch it created
Kyle on 'Mosquito Beach'
Mosquito Falls--the second waterfall of the hikeAfter our hike we left the U.P. to head down to Kyle's family cabin for the rest of the weekend. There we relaxed, ate, went on boat rides, had s'mores, and just enjoyed the time together. I certainly wasn't ready for work on Monday morning--it took about 2 hours for me to get my brain working at full capacity again.
Me at Torch Lake after dinner
It was a wonderful trip :-)
Me at Torch Lake after dinner
