Munising (MI)

Sept. 24-26, 2011 - Spending time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has been wonderful.  The trees are changing color and getting more beautiful every day.  I love eating fish at the local restaurants; there is nothing like a Midwest fish fry!   

The day after our backpack trip, we all hiked to the Au Sable lighthouse along the shore of Lake Superior.  It was a beautiful hike.  The best part was carrying light day packs on our backs instead of heavy backpacks.

I spent Sunday morning storing our backpack gear and cleaning the RV.  That afternoon we kayaked with our friends, Russ and Clara, launching the kayaks from the shore behind our RV site.  Lake Superior was calm when we started, but really whipped up swells and white caps for our return trip.  While the guys watched the Packer football game in our RV, Clara and I drank chocolate wine and ate chocolate truffles at her RV.  It has been fun to stay in the same RV park with friends, going back and forth to visit.

The four of us explored back roads on a rainy Monday.  The Upper Peninsula has so much to offer for those seeking outdoor recreation.  We drove through Hiawatha National Forest lands, walked on trails along small inland lakes, checked out canoe launches on sand-bottomed, clear rivers, and ate hand-dipped Jilbert ice cream at the Forest Glen General Store.  Evening found us sipping Buttershot Hot Chocolate, hot chocolate with a dash of butterscotch schnapps.  Life is good...

Au Sable lighthouse on Lake Superior

Teva, the sleeping bag cat

Pat kayaking on Lake Superior

Boardwalk Trail near Munising

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (MI)

Sept. 21-23, 2011 - It was such a beautiful hike as we backpacked the Lakeshore Trail at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  It is the premiere trail in the Midwest for hiking and backpacking.  Our weather was not perfect, but the rains only came at night after we were in our tents.  Cloudy days, with occasional sunny breaks, gave us great light for taking hundreds of photos to capture the beauty of Lake Superior with its 200-foot cliffs and sky beaches and maple/beech/pine woods and cascading streams and waterfalls dropping over cliff edges to meet the lake.  It was great to hike with our friends again and spend time immersed along the shores of Lake Superior.  This was Tom's first backpack trip in seven years.  As he hoisted on his heavy pack the second morning, he remarked, "You guys are nuts!"

When we hiked out on the last day, there was an ice chest of cold beer and wine waiting for us in one of the cars.  We had a tailgate party at noon!  Two park employees working on a project at the parking lot thought it was great that backpackers coming off the trail had cold drinks waiting for them!

Backpacking friends at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

A sky beach 200 feet above Lake Superior

Grand Portal Point

Spray Falls

  

Pat along Lake Superior on a very windy morning

Munising (MI)

Sept. 20, 2011 - It was a beautiful day to hike five miles with our friends to two waterfalls.  Now we're packing for our Pictured Rocks backpack trip.  There is not much room in an RV to spread out to get the backpack gear and food ready.  Tom baked cookies tonight.  It smells so good in here when he does that!

More to follow after we get off the trail...

Tom & Pat at Mosquito Falls

Champion (MI) to Munising (MI) - 73 miles

Sept. 19, 2011 - Leisurely morning... We didn't pull out of our site until 11:35 am, Eastern time.  It was a short trip to Munising Tourist Park Campground where we are staying for the next week on the shores of Lake Superior.  We have a beautiful view of the lake and Grand Island.  Strong winds this afternoon whipped up lively white caps.  Tom walked along the shore while I finished reading my book.  Russ and Clara Marr rolled in about 7:30 pm from Janesville, Wisconsin.  After they got settled into their site, we had a drink here.  We are looking forward to connecting with the rest of our backpacking friends on Wednesday for our four-day trek at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Our site on the shores of Lake Superior

Autumn color

Saginaw (MN) to Champion (MI) - 238 miles

Sept. 18, 2011 - We put on traveling miles today since the weather has been rainy and breezy.  We’re spending the night at an RV park on the shores of Michigamme Lake along Highway 28 in Michigan, the highway that will take us up to Lake Superior.  The plan is to meet friends on Wednesday for a four-day backpack trip at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  The weather forecast is not looking so bright.

Quote from the book, The Wind in the Willows:  “There you are!  There’s real life for you, embodied in that little cart.  The open road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling downs!  Camps, villages, towns, cities!  Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow!  Travel, change, interest, excitement!  The whole world before you, and a horizon that’s always changing!”




 

Teva's Travel Log

Help, I’m a prisoner in mobile kitty jail!

This is Teva the cat writing now.  About a week ago our humans, Tom and Pat, picked my brother Cooper and I up after breakfast and carried us out to the motorhome thing that has been in our driveway for a couple of months.  We’ve been on a few short trips before, but I heard the humans talking about a 2 1/2 month trip.  Tell me it’s not true.

We’ve been on the road just over a week now and it hasn’t been as bad as I first thought.  I ride up front with the humans, either on Pat’s lap or on the dashboard.  My fluffy brother, Cooper, rides in the back on the bed looking out the window.  We do get a lot of attention (brushing and food) in this traveling house.  And the humans have given us all kinds of new toys, mostly little mice we can toss around.  They also brought along the laser light to entice Cooper.  That cat is such an airhead, he’ll chase that thing for hours.  He really believes he can catch it.  Usually I don’t want anyone to know I’m related to him.

Oh, and wait until you hear what Cooper did yesterday.  That knucklehead jumped out of Tom’s window just after Tom had expertly backed the mobile house into a campsite.  Cooper decided to make a run for it.  He got a few feet from the mobile house and realized he didn’t know where he was, so then ran back and hid under our mobile house.  There are some good places to hang out up in the frame (I’ve been there myself when the humans used to let us out at the big non-moving house.  They changed their minds about letting us out after Cooper stayed out for two nights and came back with a nice scratch across his nose.)

While Cooper was under the mobile house, Tom tried to coax him out and back inside the motorhome.  Finally with some smelly wet cat food and Cooper’s favorite - cantaloupe, Tom was able to grab the knucklehead.  Oh, did I mention that I got thrown in the bathroom, so I wouldn’t escape from the mobile house while the humans opened the main door in case Cooper might come back in on his own.  Ha, like that’s going to happen.  Well that’s news from mobile kitty jail for now.   To be continued...

Cooper & Teva on their cush-y perch at back of RV

Teva hanging out in upper cabinet

Teva, the dashboard cat

Lake Itasca (MN) to Saginaw (MN) - 161 miles

Sept. 17, 2011 - We drove the car back to the Mississippi River headwaters after a breakfast of applesauce pancakes.  It was the first time I stirred homemade applesauce into the pancake batter; it was really good.  There were a lot of people at the headwaters this morning.  I’m so glad we had the place to ourselves last night.  The river is higher than normal, so there wasn’t a place to plant our feet on each side of the water.  We saw the Mississippi River several more times as we headed east on Highway 2.  It is a long and winding river...

We stopped in Grand Rapids, MN to take a few photos for a friend of ours who lives in Sequim.  She was raised there 80 years ago.  It was fun for us to get out of the RV and walk the downtown streets.  We discovered an old school that has been turned into a museum and shops.  Judy Garland was also born in Grand Rapids and there is memorabilia about her.

We’re spending the night in an RV park near Saginaw, Minnesota.  It got dark here by 7:30 pm.  Yikes, is Fall on the way?

Great MN sweet rolls - Yah, For Sure, You Betcha'