Upper Peninsula, October, 2020

Saturday October 3 2020

First order of business for this autumn trip was to take the yearly family photos, which we did in the back yard.  We left about 2:30 p.m. in a chilly rain.

This wasn’t really a “color tour” trip; it was just a convenient time for us.  We were told we’d missed the best of the fall color by about a week, but there was a lot left.  We had also been warned that we were heading into an area where people’s political views would be very different from ours, but we saw many yard signs for both political parties in the upcoming election, and as always people were nice and friendly to us.  We stopped around 9:30 p.m. at the Lake DuBay Shores Campground in Mosinee, Wisconsin.  At 5 a.m. I awoke freezing.  The heater had stopped working.  Somehow all of us – LCR, the trailer shop guys, and I – had missed that we were out of propane.  We put on more blankets and clothes to keep warm until morning.  I had forgotten to bring my clock with the indoor thermometer, but by 9 a.m. when we went to the office to buy propane, the outdoor temperature was 30 degrees.  Naturally, we went out for breakfast. 

Sunday October 4 2020

We grocery shopped, then there was a day of beautiful driving.  Going north, the color got more intense, with more trees turning or turned to autumn reds, browns and gold.  Heading into the wilderness, I saw signs for Ottawa National Forest, but it did not appear on any of our maps for some reason, and our internet was iffy so we could not determine whether we could camp there.  We headed for the visitor’s center in the Porkies, which is at the far (north) end of the park.  It’s not that far from the entrance, but 25 miles of mild to moderate mountain roads takes quite a while.  There were no campsites available in the entire park until Wednesday.  We waited in line for what seemed like forever as the friendly talkative guy at the desk chatted up the woman in line before us, who was planning backcountry camping – but then he talked to us for quite a while, too, about where we could go for camping and ideas of what best to see in park if we weren’t interested in long hikes, which is apparently the draw for many people.  Just outside the park was the Big Bear Campground.  We got spots for 3 nights.  It too was nearly full and we had to move after the first night as our spot was reserved after that.  It was nice to have heat. We spent a quiet evening reading and writing.  The internet only worked in the yard of the campground office near the lake.  They keep a fire burning there and lawn chairs, but still it was too chilly to sit outside for any time, so we only used it briefly to check in with the fam. 

Monday October 5 2020

There were high winds all night and into day.  Some rain must have fallen at night because it was also a little muddy.  I did standing yoga outside despite the wind and mid-40s temp, wearing my coat to start out.  (Later that day, a short, sandy-haired woman with a slight Southern accent asked me about yoga, in the campground bathroom.  She was proud of herself for knowing what I was doing, and was interested in trying.  I told her anyone can do yoga, and she said she might look for a class when she got back home.)  We hung around so we could change campsites before we left the park.  Then we headed to Lake of the Clouds.  This 1 ½ mile long lake is only 15 feet deep.   There was a trail to reach the rock escarpment that overlooks the lake and cuts through the park like a backbone.  High winds through the trees made a continuous roaring sound.  It is easy to lose your footing on the rock, but there are waist-high stone wall barriers so you can’t fall off.  I’m so glad I brought the walking poles, both to save wear and tear on my knees and also just for better support.  Though this particular hike was not even rated as to difficulty, I found it hard, with rocks, tree roots and in places a very narrow path.  Others remarked on it so it wasn’t just me.  I noted among the hikers one very well-dressed young woman, one of a group of Chinese tourists, wearing a midi skirt, wool sweater and high heeled ankle boots.  I was trying not to stare but wondered how she coped with those boots and that sloping, uneven rock.  I noticed none of her companions was dressed that way.  On another trail, an “interpretative” trail with signs explaining the mining in this area, we actually had to turn back rather than finish, because we could not see the trail any more.  Throughout the park trees were marked with dots of blue paint to show the trails, but somehow in this one, the dots weren’t enough.  Even unfinished, it was a tough hike.  At the end, as we stood around with a few others, a bit out of breath, one man remarked, “As we used to say in the ambulance, if they’re fogging the mirror, they’re okay!”  He must have been a retired EMT.

We headed back to the trailer for lunch.  It was almost 70 degrees by now but still very windy.

Summit Peak was not a long trail, maybe ½ mile, but seemed to be straight up and rough.  The main topic of conversation among the hikers was how hard it was.  Near the top, just when we thought we were there, the dirt trail turned into a boardwalk and many, many stairs.  One man said he counted 31 flights!  Then there was a 40-foot observation tower.  Some stayed below, but I figured, after so long, what’s another 40 feet?  The view was panoramic around mountains and lake shore, but it wasn’t the best for photography.  Somehow the expanse of water just flattens out in pictures.  It was pretty clear but we could not see to the Apostle Islands, which we understand is sometimes the case.  The mountains were multicolored, with lots of green, yellow, and still some red and pink maples.  We met a young couple on the way down who wanted to know how long we’d been married.  They’d been dating 9 months and clearly were thinking about getting hitched.  They were also from the Chicago area.  By the end of the hike we were tired and sore, but happy.    

Before we left the park for the day we looked at bike trails.  The man at the visitors’ center said he did not recommend them because in that park they are really only cross-country ski trails and not much maintained in the summer.  They went off into the deep woods.  It appeared these would be for bikers experienced in mountain or wilderness biking, whereas we’ve only biked on paved trails.  We found throughout the trip that between the rough nature of the ground and the mud and slippery leaves from the recent rain, the bike trails were not for us.  Maybe another time.

LCR wanted to go out for fish, so we asked about local places and were steered to the Konteka (named for an Ojibwa chief who lived in the area long ago), 2 towns but less than 10 miles away.  It was described as a supper club, but turned out to be a local restaurant/bar/pool hall/bowling alley.  It is rumored that they advertise you can see bears from their windows and that they may actually encourage activity by feeding the bears, but we did not see any on the evening we were there.  I was very glad I had not taken time to change clothes, as the dress code was definitely casual, with jeans being the norm, with flannel shirts and billed caps worn indoors.  The sign said open until 8 pm, but we left at almost 9 and they were still seating.  The seating was distanced and everyone was friendly and masked.  We saw our friend from the trail, who made the quip about fogging the mirror, finishing dinner with his wife.  We wondered why they appeared to be just sitting there.  They explained that a dinner out after a day of hiking made one disinclined to get up and move.

We had walleye pike with baked potato and salad.  Our friend was right; we were pretty wiped out by then.  There was just a little rain going back, but we drove slowly, because and it gets very dark out there – no other cars, lights or buildings for miles.  When you get to the actual lake shore it’s even darker – no lights visible out on the water, which stretches far out of sight, the largest freshwater lake in the world.  We were most grateful for new headlights purchased just a month or so ago. 

Tuesday Oct. 6 2020

This morning we went on a mine tour.  The Adventure Mining Company sounds like a tacky tourist attraction, but the original company was named after a ridge called Adventure Mountain.  It was a real mine, working from 1850 to 1920.  The copper in this area is pure elemental copper, which means it is hard to get out of the ground and hard to process.  Copper that is mixed in with other rock or metals is easier to process.  This particular mine turned out not to have a copper lode, but deposits in pockets, so difficult to get that the mine never made a profit.  One piece was 20 tons and had to be removed in small shavings, which took years.  The miners used drill bits and sledgehammers, working in 3-man teams by candlelight.  They made about $1 a day, four times as much as any other laborer at that time, but the work was very difficult, all done underground and in shafts barely 5 feet tall, because it was reasoned that the miners worked bent over and did not have to be able to stand up.  It was not as dangerous as coal mining, though, not having toxic fumes or frequent cave-ins.  Our guide was a petite young woman named Dean who was a civil engineering student at the nearby Michigan Tech.  In fact, she said she had an exam later in the day, on differential equations.  She was very knowledgeable and explained the geology and geography of the mine, as well as the human component of the workers.  There are 13 levels to this mine.  We were in the first level. 

From the office, to get to the mine entrance, we took a Swiss military transport vehicle.  They have two of these vehicles, named Heidi and Hans.  Heidi moved over the steep, bumpy mountain trail – you couldn’t really call it a road – in the manner of a roller coaster.  Fortunately there were straps to hold onto and we were instructed to keep hands and legs inside the vehicle.  This small mine does tours on a demand basis, so there were only three of us – me, LCR and one other man.  We were issued hardhats with headlamps before we even left the office building.  There was no other light in the mine so the headlamps were necessary.  We saw another group that was learning how to rappel down a mineshaft, which sounded interesting, but that tour started later and would have taken much longer. 

After we left the mine, we headed back to camp for lunch and a nap.  There were jets flying overhead – we could hear but not see them – and we learned we were in the flight path for the Minnesota National Guard for training exercises.  After a rest we drove to Presque Isle Falls, which is near the entrance of the park.  There are actually three falls which you can hike to.  The hikes are through very dark, deep woods – tall pines as well as other trees – with a carpet of dirt and pine needles underneath.  It was much easier to hike on than the rocky paths of yesterday, though still with a lot of tree roots and board steps.  At one point I was ahead of LCR and saw what appeared to be a very steep downhill grade.  Seriously?  I said, to anyone within earshot.  Below me I saw three hikers, an older couple and a young woman, and the young woman pointed to her right (my left) to show me a set of steps, basically boards placed strategically into the dirt.  Too late; I had already started down.  The older woman, probably her mother, took up a catcher’s stance and said, I’ve got you!  Fortunately I did not need to be caught but it wasn’t an easy few minutes.  My faithful hiking poles saved me from a fall, and I was grateful for the treads on my trusty Ecco hiking shoes.  LCR, coming up behind, remarked that it was selfless of the woman to offer to spot me, during a pandemic.

We were frequently near a young Chinese couple who were taking pictures with lots of photography equipment, possibly professionals.  At the last falls of the three, the woman remarked to me that this was the last one, as it was already getting dark.  None of us wanted to be in the woods at night in bear country.  We found a path that we hoped was in the direction of the road, which turned out to be correct, but by then we had lost sight of the couple.  We were able to walk along the road back to the parking lot, instead of back through the rapidly darkening woods.  We saw the young couple arriving just after we did, so they must have found the same way.  We all barely made it to our cars just before it got seriously dark. 

We went to the closest store for some items and it took longer than we thought to get back.  It’s very strange and exhausting to drive for miles with nothing visible, not one vehicle, light or person, for miles.  Out West it can be deserted too, but it is so flat you can usually see lights from towns even very far away.  In this area the thick forest obscures everything more than a few feet from the road.  We were also concerned with hitting animals but we did not see any at night the entire trip. 

Wednesday October 7 2020

We headed out of the park into the Keweenaw Peninsula.  It was very cold and windy with whitecaps on Lake Superior.  It took longer than we thought it would due to the twisting, turning road.  It was a beautiful drive, bright and sunny, with a canopy of trees overhead and lots of color left, yellow and pink.  Ft. Wilkins State Park was a fort back in the days when they thought there was going to be a copper boom and they wanted to keep law and order.  The fort is in a remarkable state of preservation, with most buildings still there.  You can go into some of them though the exhibits like room furnishings are sometimes behind a Plexiglas barrier.  There are apparently costumed interpreters during the summer.  The reason the fort is in such good shape is, it was hardly used.  It was made in about 5 months in 1844, but the copper boom never came.  It was re-commissioned later but never saw much use.  So the buildings and artifacts are in very good shape.  There are items in the rooms on display, for offices, officers’ housing, stores, barracks, hospital, smithy – down to the buttons and buckles they used, boots, full uniforms for fatigue and dress.  There are also photos of archaeological digs at the fort.  They excavated a privy, because it was also used as a trash dump, so there were lost and broken items including dishes and flatware and toys.  Tours are self-guided with signs posting a lot of information.  .  There are copies of documents, correspondence, and photographs.  I do enjoy guided tours, but there is also something to be said for reading and absorbing information at your own pace. It was a nice leisurely stroll through the fort at sunset.

The Ft. Wilkins campground was busy but there were many sites left.  We watched a movie in the evening.  We wanted to go out to eat but it seemed local places were open only for breakfast and lunch, perhaps because it was so late in the season.

Thursday October 8 2020

Sarai’s Birthday!!!  We texted her and fam.  We learned later that the girls had a bbq at the house to celebrate. 

I could get texts but LCR could not.  There were people trying to get in touch with him so it is a little bit of a concern.  We had WiFi but no phone service.

We decided we wanted eggs and local places either did not have dining in, had long lines or did not serve breakfast past a certain time, so we set out looking for a place that was open and available and had breakfast.  This took nearly an hour, once again, through wilderness roads without seeing another person or vehicle.  We found Slim’s Café and Bakery in Mohawk, MI, very small and basic, but they did definitely have eggs and potatoes, as well as baked goods to go.  I took some huge cookies with oatmeal, raisins and several kinds of seeds, appropriately called Monster Cookies.  We kept going on the 41 and crossed over west to Eagle Harbor, hoping to see a historic lighthouse.  There are a number of lighthouses on the peninsula but they were either not open to tourists or closed for the season.  However, we looked around the harbor and observed a ship far out on the lake from a wooden walkway with a lookout.  The harbor is studded with rugged black basalt outcroppings for the waves to crash on.  There are overlooks and small waterfalls all along the road following the northern coast of the peninsula.  One is called Jacob Falls.  There a young woman was taking a photo of her companion who was sprawled out next to the sign as if he had fallen . . . she explained that his name was Jacob!  We stopped at a roadside store called the Jampot.  As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw what appeared to be a young man in a long, flapping black robe on crutches, hop-running at a high speed toward one of the buildings.  It turned out I was not seeing things - the store was run by monks from the Order of St. John, a Byzantine Ukrainian Catholic order.  All of the monks wore black robes and had full beards and names like Brother Regius and Brother Sylvester.  They had homemade jams and jellies, pastries and breads, and religious icons for sale.  We bought several kinds of jam, caramels and a pumpkin cinnamon breakfast bread.  A customer asked how their business was going during Covid, and they replied it had been a pretty good summer. 

We turned away from the shore a bit for Brockway Mountain Drive.  It is well-known for being one of the most scenic drives in the UP.  It is a true mountain road, seeming to head straight up in places.  At the top there is a parking lot and stone barriers to observe the scene in safety.  You can see for many miles, with the lake on one side and the mountains on the other.  I noticed differences in vegetation which in turn indicate differences in the rocks and soil – stripes across the mountains, dark green for pine forests, lighter yellow, and brown and pink forests as well.  The views don’t really photograph all that well, though, because the horizon just looks flat.  One young Asian man got around this by using a drone which he controlled from below while it hovered about 30 feet in the air.  I would have liked to have seen what the photos from the drone looked like, from high in the air to the mountains and lake below, but it didn’t seem conducive to social distancing to ask, especially since his family and friends were already crowding around to see.  There were tourists from all over, including a large group of joyously smiling young men I would take for Pakistanis, taking selfies, and several Amish families, the girls and women in running shoes and white caps, with their long skirts whipping in the wind.

In the evening we watched about half of the first “Hobbit” movie but were too tired to finish.

Friday October 9 2020

Slept very late.  It was our last day in this area, so we thought we’d see what was at the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula.  We drove to a point where a sign said, “Road Stops Here.”  This was the northernmost end of US 41, which goes south through Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and continues all the way down to Miami, for a total of 1990 miles.  The sign said that like many area roads, it was originally a Native American footpath.  The road did not appear to be closed past that point so we went forth.  It was a dirt road, quite bumpy, with thick woods on either side and arching over the road.  It was a logging road and though we did not see people or other vehicles, we did see evidence of logging activity, side roads and piles of logs.  In places there were smaller trees uprooted and it looked like storm damage, maybe a microburst, as opposed to human activity, and fairly recent at that – a week or less, judging from the leaves on the downed trees.  The road went around the peninsula and came back south, not exactly along the lake shore – there was considerable forest in between – but occasionally we could see the water.  Without warning, we reached a roadblock with a sign that the road was closed, and we had to turn around and backtrack for a bit.  We found a turn-off to Copper Harbor and ended up close to where we started, but two hours later.  We had made no forward progress but we definitely saw what was at the end of the peninsula. 

We continued south, hoping to find food, but instead we found the town of Quincy.  We had seen the ruins of the Quincy Mine – stone buildings without roofs - on the way in and made a note to stop and take a few photos.  We discovered tours were available and the last one of the day was starting in 15 minutes.  So we quickly grabbed snacks and joined the tour.  It was a spur-of-the-moment decision that we knew would cost us some hours later on. 

The Quincy tour was quite different from the Adventure Mine tour we took a few days ago.  At Quincy they usually use a train track with cars like miners would have used, but due to the capacity of these cars, since Covid they cannot use them, so we went in caravan, a line of cars (and us with the trailer) driving from the buildings to the mine entrance.  In the buildings the tour began with an explanation that we were looking at the largest vertical hoist ever built.  Not only was it huge, but the building in which it was housed was quite an accomplishment, made of reinforced concrete faced with brick and with Italian tile on the roof, and on the inside walls up to a certain point – attractive and functional, and terribly expensive at the time.  I was a bit distracted because it was clear they were preparing for some sort of musical performance and recording session.  We saw recording equipment, music stands, and a group of 10-15 singers dressed in black with music folders.  I asked our tour guide, a lean young man with a full head of curly hair (not even a hardhat could mess up the look of that hair) appropriately named Dylan, what was going on.  He said it was nearby Michigan Tech’s performance of Music in the Mine, a regular event, and if we wanted we might be able to livestream the performance, which would begin before we finished the tour.  It would have been fun to stick around and hear them.  The acoustics in that huge high building would have been fantastic.  But . . . that was not what we were there for.  I did manage to find the concert on the internet later.  They performed very modern music, somewhat spooky, enhanced by the live acoustics of the huge, high concrete walls and ceiling. 

So once again our caravan went through the town of Houghton, which sort of hugs the sides of Portage Lake.  In fact it seemed we were seeing most of the town during this drive.  Unlike the Adventure Mine, the Quincy Mine was a profitable mine.  It was huge, with over 90 levels.  At the lowest point it is some 8,000 feet underground, and the temperatures at those levels would have been high due to being closer to the earth’s core.  As a practical matter, only 5 or 6 levels would be worked at a time.  At present the mine is flooded past the 7^th level.  The entrance and tunnels quite far into the mine have been enlarged because in the 1980s and 1990s the mine was used by Michigan Tech as part of its mining engineering program.  We saw equipment used by the students, evidence of practice drilling and blasting, and there was even an underground classroom with battered desks and a blackboard.  This use of the mine ceased in 1996 but our guide said it was possible the program would be revived and the mine used for that purpose again in the future.  The educational program is also the reason the mine is lit by electric lights.  As with all mine or cave tours, at some point the guide turned out all the lights just to show us what total darkness looks and feels like.  Your eyes keep trying to adjust but they cannot.  So the miners used to come down to the mine and sit in the dark for some time, relaxing, talking with their buddies, to get used to the light or rather the lack of same before they lit their candles and began working.  The techniques used in this mine were the same as we saw at the Adventure Mine – drill bits and sledgehammers, then later pneumatic drills, which were more efficient but ruined the miners’ hearing, and even more recently, electric drills.

The floor of the mine was rocky and muddy, difficult to walk on.  The tour went about 2,000 feet into the mine so overall it was quite a long walk.  Most of the tunnel we saw has been enlarged when students were working down there, but there was a turn-off at one point with part of an original tunnel preserved – as in the Adventure Mine, barely 5 feet tall and much narrower, maybe 7 feet wide. 

Toward the end of the tour Dylan’s presentation went from factual to a bit of an emotional history of the men who worked in the mine, and how much of their lives they gave for technology, since copper was the beginning of nearly all the technology we know today, starting with electrical wiring.  Mining was a good job at the time, but nowhere near commensurate with the contribution the miners made to industrial progress in general.  Various members of the tour group asked Dylan what his background was and he said he was studying biochemistry at Michigan Tech.  One of the group said he should change his major to history and become a teacher, since he was so good at describing the human component of historical events.

We weren’t sorry we had taken the tour, but by the time we left Houghton it was already getting dark and we located Van Riper State Park, less than an hour away.  The drive turned out to be a lot longer than that and more difficult due to construction with orange cones defining the lanes for many miles.  And again, we were driving through lots of deep, dark woods.  At the park, there was a system for late registration using a dedicated phone, which itself took quite a while to locate and figure out how to use.  The system was necessary because there was no cell service or internet in the park.  Once again I wondered at the reliance on technology.  It would have been easy to just pick a spot and hook up, but I didn’t fancy being kicked out in case someone else came in even later with a reservation. 

Saturday October 10 2020

We drove like mad so we could get home at a reasonable hour on Sunday.  We saw many roadside stores advertising smoked fish, and finally stopped when we found one with room for us to turn the trailer around.  The store sold several kinds of fish, jerky, cheeses and jams and jellies.  The woman inside said she had just finishing smoking the salmon the day before and showed us the smoker, right out the back of the store.  We got a few pounds both for ourselves and to take home to the girls. 

Sign along road: elopupnorth.com, also several others advertising lakeside wedding packages.  Along the shore of Lake Michigan, heading east toward Mackinac, we did see a wedding party walking along the sand, the guys in black and white, and though I did not see the women I did see the bride, in a white sleeveless gown with a shawl.  The way the wind was whipping I’m sure they were all freezing but it did look like an experience. 

The state park we were headed to turned out to be closed due to Covid.  The website did say something about closure but it was worded in such a way that a cordial disagreement took place as to whether “closed” really meant we could not camp there.  Fortunately for all concerned there were several private campgrounds in the area and we found a spot at one.  It appeared to be a trailer park with some hookups and trailers that were being stored, but I’d say we were the only actual overnight campers.

We enjoyed breaking out the tasty smoked salmon with bread, cheese and fruit.  After dinner we watched the rest of “The Hobbit.”  At some point we lost electrical power.  Everything went silent, electricity from the hookup and battery-powered lights, even the water pump.  The computer had its own battery so we watched the movie until the end, and at that point everything came back on again.  We never did figure out why the power went out or why it came back on again. 

Sunday October 11 2020

Last day!

Not much today – just driving.  We cleaned the trailer, packed up bedding and clothes, and drove south through Michigan, where color is a bit behind up north so it was just starting to get red and gorgeous.  At a rest stop we met a very friendly, talkative couple who liked the trailer and wanted to see inside.  The husband was especially gregarious and his wife explained that he was a hippie and had been smoking weed.  They talked about their grown son and his troubles with the woman he married.  LCR gave them his card in case they were ever in Chicago.

There were several traffic slowdowns into Indiana and the Chicago metro area, but even so, we arrived home around 6 pm.  The girls fixed salmon and garlic potatoes which were a wonderful welcome home. 

Gas prices:

High - Chicago $2.25

Low - Oshkosh $1.99

Signage:

Country store in eastern Michigan:  Beer, Booze, Bait, Bullets.  Cf last August Notes!

(Crane’s Country Store in Kingdom City, MO:  Boots, Britches, Bullets, Bologna)

Loose Women Tightened Here – patch being sewn on biker vest at a roadside leather outlet where we stopped.  We got LCR a new waist pack.  The owner and his wife called us “kids” so we were happy to do business with them. 

From a letter by a soldier at Ft. Wilkins - “I enlisted to avoid work, and here I am compelled to perform three or four times the amount of labor I did before my enlistment.”

Sign in bathrooms at Big Bear Campground:  There was some bear/animal activity in the campground last night (followed by warnings about trash, etc.).  Note, this was a permanent, laminated sign. 

Stationery store in Minocqua WI:  Stamps, Paper, Scissors

Bar in Hurley, WI: Krash Inn

 

And the winners:

Signs outside Country Smoked Fish on northern Lake Michigan shore:

If you come into the store without a mask we must take your temperature.

(P.S. we only have rectal thermometers.)

and:

You can choose not to wear a mask.  Then you must also remove all your clothing to enter.

It’s all or nothing.

It’s all about choices.

 

Thank you, the Management