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| Lover's Leap |
Four months after the fact, we finally headed up nort' for Ali's bday adventure in Pictured Rocks. Famous as the setting for
The Song of Hiawatha and similar to much of the U.P., Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is glorious. There are 300+ foot rocks stained by all sorts of minerals (black from manganese, red-orange from iron, green from copper, and white from calcium to name a few), and since the cliffs are largely sandstone, the beaches are pristine and the formations are impressive.
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| Bridal Veil Falls (from kayaking) |
Though we started the 6-ish hour drive from Madison as soon as we could Friday evening, we were stuck in an epic campsite-hunt that kept us up almost to 4am. There are three nearby forest service campgrounds that take reservations (one of which is on an island only accessible by a 9-5 ferry), but we were hoping for one of the first-come park service sites within the actual Lakeshore property. All the sites were claimed when we arrived at midnight, and all of the sites at the adjacent state forest were taken, too. We drove for what seemed like forever to get back to the west side of the park, where we went for a last ditch attempt at a "dispersed" forest service campground. The road down to the Hovey Lake sites was in miserable shape (at least for our little rental car), and all three sites were claimed. We drove through again and were headed for the boat ramp to sleep in the car when we remembered reading that Hovey Lake was supposed to have four available campsites. Lo and behold, 10 meters down the boat ramp drive, there was a parking spot and a picnic table! We had found our basecamp for a few days!!
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| Pictured rocks, upholstered rocks... same difference, right? |
Saturday morning, we were up with the chickens (and said chickens are on eastern time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) to get into town, get our tires re-inflated, get our backpacking permits for Sunday/Monday, and get to the meeting point for our sea kayaking tour. Oh, and we also had to find a good spot to pull out our alcohol stove and make breakfast since we were trying to maximize our 3 hours of sleep. Thank goodness for gas station coffee.
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| Kissing Rocks |
Once we managed to complete all of our morning errands, we just had to get outfitted and going. Since we were going through a guide service (waves + stark cliffs + just two not-super-experienced sea kayakers didn't sound good), we ended up with big ol' tandem kayaks and nylon skirts (easier to escape from than neoprene... also, much more leaky) and ~100 other folks. They divided us into groups of 5-8 kayaks, but we effectively ruined any group separation there was supposed to be. Though the morning started out grey and choppy, the sun burned through just in time for our turn-around and lunch.
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| Mosquito Beach |
We got to see some really cool sea caves, "kissing" rocks, baby waterfalls, and the ever-popular Lover's Leap arch. Just before Lover's Leap, we were also treated to some crazy teens launching themselves off the cliffs next to this one pock-marked cliff where Ojibwe tribes would supposedly leave enemy chiefs to die in particularly nasty ways.
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| Cliff Divers (at the bottom) |
Lunch at Mosquito Beach was beautiful and, thankfully, lacking in the beach's namesake critters. The lake settled in the afternoon, so we got to get really close to the cliffs on the way back. We had a pretty great swim at the end of the paddle, a good hike around the campground, and a really easy time getting to sleep Saturday night (no thanks to the idiots with some kind of automatic weapon just beyond forest land).
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| Spray Falls |
Sunday, we were up before the sun and were headed to the far side of the park to spot our car for the hike. We got ourselves together just barely in time for the shuttle, but we managed to get on the trail before 9:00. The first day, we planned on a rambling 13 miles from the Chapel Rock parking lot, back over to Mosquito Beach, and ending at Pine Bluff (backcountry) campground. I'm pretty certain that the number of backcountry sites in the park rival the number of frontcountry sites; heck, they may even beat the number of car-camping sites. We were expecting rain and thunder, and the weather didn't disappoint. We started off in a super gloom with mild rain. The canopy sheltered us from the worst of the first storm (out of three, if I remember correctly). We walked out to Superior along the aptly-named Mosquito River. Our rain shells helped to shield us from the Minnesota state bird, but lots of DEET and frequent re-applications were still necessary.
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| Accurate. |
There were some nice, miniature falls on the creek we followed, but the best miles were out along the cliffs. We joined the North Country Trail (a thus unfinished national scenic trail that goes through some of the most bug-ridden parts of WI) out at the actual lake shore. From there, we got to see Lover's Leap from the east side, Chapel Rock (a really nifty carved out rock that has 3-4 columns and what looks like an altar on top of a pedestal of rock - these columns hold up another platform that's topped by a tree), Grand Portal (a spectacular arch on which we had lunch), Spray Falls (well fed by Beaver Creek), and hundreds of unnamed arches and caves and painted cliffs.
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| View from our lunch spot |
In addition to the awesome scenery, there were also blueberry shrubs lining the trail - and the berries were at their peak! We were pretty tuckered out by the time we reached 12-mile beach, but the blueberries were looking even more droopy. We did our best to ease the bushes' burden all while fueling our last few miles of the day.
The rain had finally quit by the time we got to camp, but the wind had picked up considerably. I got our tent set up and kept an eye on our couscous curry while Ali went and bravely flung herself (and our water reservoirs) into the crashing waves of Lake Superior. Dinner was spectacular, and Tiramisu-Jello (designed by Ali) was a great way to end the evening. As soon as our food was in the bear locker and our still-sodden clothes were tucked under the fly, we were soundly asleep.
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| Wind whipping up the waves |
Monday's 10-mile hike back to the car was gusty, grey, cool, and much, much faster than Sunday's stroll. We were in and out of the pine and deciduous patches of woods, hovering by the beach and even more (!!) blueberries than the previous day. A bit beyond halfway, my ankle started complaining, and an unfortunately chilly lunch made it all the more stiff and uncooperative. Our trekking poles came to the rescue, and I hobbled past the first two road crossings without too much trouble.
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| Grand Portal from the less-grand side |
There was a really cool section of birch forest just past Hurricane Creek. Though the section of Pictured Rocks we saw was sheltered by Grand Island and largely in a bay, the trees here were as gnarled as some of the woods on less-sheltered Superior coastline. Unlike certain trees near the Porcupine Mountains' shore, these had an odd sort of majesty.
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| Falls on the Mosquito River |
The terrain was unkind to my weary ankle in the twists and turns near Hurricane Creek, but one more road crossing, and we were back to the beach and our car. Just as we were packing up, a ranger stopped by to make sure we weren't heading out in such brutal winds. Hopefully, the hikers we passed mid-trail made it out without incident.
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| Chapel Rock |
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| A root as big as many trunks connects the tree to the rest of the cliff |
