Friday May 28th >

Thursday May 27th

We woke up to the beginnings of rain. I quickly strung some rope around several trees surrounding the picnic table, and stretched a plastic sheet over them to create a shelter. I didn't have a way to secure the plastic onto the rope, so I hung wool socks at the edges of the plastic to hold it on top of the rope. The rope and plastic sheeting had been an after-thought when I was packing. So it was better than nothing, but our neighbor's tarp setup made it look pretty lame!

Fortunately, it didn't rain too hard. We were able to cook breakfast without getting too wet. We decided to stay for that day and another night, partly to eat up more fruit, and partly in the hopes of not having to pack a wet tent.

The rain continued off and on all day. We went to the shipwreck museum on Whitefish Point. First we viewed a short movie about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Near the end, I found myself getting teary when it became clear that family members of many of the dead crew are still alive and mourn their loved ones.

To those reading who have no idea what the Edmund Fitzgerald is - you have clearly never spent much time in upper Michigan, and have certainly never been to the Upper Peninsula, or really spent much time around the great lakes, period. There is a very long song about this vessel, and this song played over and over in some of the museum's buildings. For those who want to know more, here is a website all about the ship: http://www.ssefo.com/ In any case, the Great Lakes in a storm can be about as dangerous as any ocean under storm conditions. Many ships have been lost to storms on the Great Lakes. The Edmund Fitzgerald just happens to be the most famous one.

Then we spent some time in a chronological exhibit of many of the Great Lakes shipwrecks throughout history. Each ship's exhibit had a to-scale model of the ship. As we went around the room, I vaguely noticed that the models were getting larger with each exhibit. By the time we reached the last ship, we were looking at a very large model tanker. Then it hit me that they were probably all to-scale with one another. In comparison with the first model ship, the last was an absolute beast of a vessel!

After this exhibit, we were both exhausted, so we went to the goody shop and bought a lunch of pastys, a soft pretzel, and some fudge. OK, again, for you non-Michigan people, pastys are meat and potato filled crust pockets, served warm; fudge is a staple for tourists. We ate as we walked along the stony beach right at Whitefish Point. There was a gentle rain, which was bringing out the best qualities in the stones beneath our feet. I collected a few that seemed unusual or especially beautiful.

After leaving the shipwreck museum, we drove to the town of Paradise, MI. At the outset, this might seem preposterous. How could a little nowhere town in the middle of practically nowhere, Michigan be any kind of paradise? Well, throughout our vacation, both in the U.P. and in Canada, anytime we were near Lake Superior, we kept hearing people use the word "paradise" to describe how they felt about the area. By the end of the vacation, I had to agree that the shores of the Great Lakes could indeed be paradise.

In Paradise, MI we picked up some supplies. Ian had forgotten a raincoat, and had been pretty cold last night. So we found a thick coat which was fuzzy on the inside and sort of slick on the outside. We also picked up some clothes pins for securing our plastic tarp to its rope.

On the way back to the campground, we noticed that there were several access-points to a trail along the shore. We stopped at one of them, and learned that this trail was part of the 3000+ mile North Coast trail which stretched across many northern states.

The terrain on the trail was quite easy, but very marshy in places. I had made a poor choice of footwear, and ended up with sopping wet feet and shoes, despite the fact that I'd brought some waterproof hiking boots. As it turned out, those shoes took several days to dry.

There were many very interesting sights along the way. We were intrigued by a long stretch of sandbar and marsh up ahead. When we finally reached it, we walked out quite far into the water, but still "on land". We also got to cross a completely awesome suspension bridge that was, effectively, in the middle of nowhere (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ianjones/pictures/North04/North04-Pages/Image3.html). We theorized on how its builders might have conveyed the materials into the location, considering that some parts of the bridge were enormous wooden beams.

Back at the campsite, we were able to sit on the beach and read because the rain had stopped. After cooking and eating dinner, we read by lantern light. However, Ian was extremely cold. He could not get warm enough, even though I was able to stay warm. At first I figured I was just built differently and could better withstand cold. Then I began to wonder whether the rum I'd been working on may have been keeping me warm!
^ Up North, May - June 2004 < Wednesday May 26th Friday May 28th >