The drive east to Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore was along the shoreline of Lake Superior. Absolutely gorgeous drive. I stop in at a welcome center and pick up a park map so I can plan out my day. I blanked on the name of the park as soon as I got to the help desk. Apparently “Painted Rocks” wasn’t close enough to Pictured Rocks for the guy to figure out what I was saying…. Regardless, there looks to be a lot of hiking options, but I have no idea what the best would be. So many hikes and you know only like, 50% of them are going to be legit. The other half are paved tracks around the visitor center and crap like that.
I get to the park visitor center a few hours before closing and question a ranger on where to go. She points me to legit hikes that will show off the cliffs, have few visitors, and give me a good glimpse on the different types of habitats found within the park. Exactly what I was looking for. I leave the visitor center and drive about 20 minutes to the first hike, which should show off the cliff features.
So, I didn’t grab a great map while I had the chance. I’ve gotten cocky over the past few months, especially with my Garmin unit. As I get out on the trail, I realize there are a million little spur trails. Some dead end at waterfalls, others parallel the main trail then scoot back and merge into one path. So odd. I’m not lost, as I know what direction I’m headed, but I don’t know exactly where I am. Ok I’m kinda lost. But I found a bunch of cool mushrooms! So I’m ok with it!
Once I hit the coastline, I figure out where I am. Obviously I’m on the coast. Of a lake. A large lake at that. If you haven’t been to Pictured Rocks, you should go. If Pictured Rocks was never on your radar of places to visit, it should be. These cliffs, this water, these views… They are incredible. I am in total awe of the sheer size of these rock faces plunging into the water. The cool, clear, blue-green water lapping up on white cliffs. The scraggly, twisted and archaic looking pines desperately holding on to what rock remains. This place is awesome. My longer than expected hike turned out to be the best mistake I’ve made on this trip.
While I’m hiking, and trying to not take picture every 15 seconds, I get phone service for a moment. I call my wife and dad, as I haven’t spoken to either of them in some time. As I’m on the phone, I get a call from the place I applied for a job with. Oh boy. Wonder what this is? Well, I got the job! While sitting on a cliff face during sunset in one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to on this entire trip. What are the odds. I quickly call Cas and my dad back and tell them the good news!
With that intel in hand, I start my hike back to the car. Pep in my step now of course, but, also a small sense of dread. I now have a date that I have to be back home by. Before, I could pick and choose when I was planning to be home. Of course I miss my family, but if I want to stay out an extra month I could. If I wanted to come home a month early, I could do that too. But, now there’s a date. I don’t know how I feel about it exactly.
I get back to the car right at dusk. Good thing too as I have no headlight with me. Would have been an interesting fumble through the woods. I plug in a campsite to my GPS and head out of the park. Not too far, as there is a National Forest bordering the National Lake shore. I find an old service road and try my best to hide the truck in the brush. Eh, it’s not totally hidden but I don’t think anyone will mess with me. And I was right.
In the morning, I checked out a few more cool places within the park. My favorite was an old log slide. Basically, folks back in the day cut lumber down in these super lush forests, then just pushed the logs down a huge sand dune into the lake. There, they would drag them to where they could collect and process them accordingly. What you’re left with is a huge, bare swath of land leading straight to the lake. It’s massive. Steep as shit. And way too intense to walk down. But it is fun to sit on top and gaze at the beautiful blue water.
After the log slide, and a few more trails to a sad waterfall or two, I decide to head out of Pictured Rocks and continue on to the mitten of Michigan. My excitement for today will be crossing the Mackinaw Bridge. It’s the largest suspension Bridge in the Western Hemisphere, and third largest in the world. Think of the Golden Gate Bridge but like, three times larger. I drive south through the boonies, and finally get to where the bridge is. I stop at a rest stop and gaze at the bridge from a distance. It’s fucking huge. I’m not normally scared of bridges but this one seems a bit terrifying.
As I drive closer, I realize it’s a toll bridge. That’s cool, I figured it had to be. I pay my $8 and crawl onto the bridge. With a speed limit of 35 for cars it feels like a crawl. Trucks are stuck to 20mph and only allowed in the right lane. This seems intense. Because it is. I’m high as shit and this bridge sways a considerable amount. But, a few moments later I’m off the bridge and in the town of Mackinaw. I try to find an independent coffee shop in this town, but there isn’t shit but, you guessed it, Starbucks. Fine, I’ll bite. I need a Peppermint Mocha stat. I get to the Starbucks here, and it is awesome. A cute little two story log cabin looking thing. I order coffee downstairs and saunter upstairs to free WiFi and awesome views of the Mackinaw Bridge. This place is sweet.
After coffee and blog writing, I decide to find some local grub/beer to fully experience the area. The best one I could find is a place called Biere De Mac. Oh man, this place was amazing. The burger was so legit and the beer was on point. Plus, I sat at the bar, and the bar keep was spilling all sorts of Michigan secrets. Where to go for cool rocks, where to go for the best food, anything I needed. Still, rocks are super cool here for some reason.
While I’m pulling out of the parking lot, I get a call from my buddy Todd aka Wolfman. He’s an employee with the USFWS on the lamprey project in the northeast. He’s got some truck issues and needs a hand. He knows I’m somewhere in Michigan, and is hoping I can come to Gaylord tonight. Their truck must have gotten snagged on some brush out in the field, and torn out a wire harness somewhere. Now, the truck is giving an electronic warning that the diesel sensor has been damaged, and the truck will shut off in 200 miles. Geez. That’s inconvenient when you’re out in the woods. He’s hoping I can follow him from Gaylord to his office just barely 200 miles away to make sure he makes it home. With how much Todd has helped me in the past, of course I’m going to come make sure he makes it home! I put his hotel in my GPS and drive south.
I get there, and there’s still some time left in the day. We should go for a hike. I find a supposed hike on my app AllTrails and we head out. The trail ended up being more like a road, but at least we get to walk and there are tons of blackberries ripe. We walk, much on blackberries, and find super tall benches to sit on. Apparently they are for when it snows. Sounds awful.
After our hike, we decide to walk to a local brewery to grab a few beers. Snowbelt Brewery was a recommendation from my Buddy Eric, who grew up in Gaylord, Michigan. While gaining intel on the brewery we are also made aware of an amazing BBQ place across the street. Spoiler alert. It was fantastic. Todd and I drink and eat until we can’t anymore, then stumble back to the hotel room (don’t worry we walked to dinner and the bar in anticipation). It’s so nice to not have to find a place to sleep tonight. I appreciate Todd letting me crash with him.
In the morning, we head west towards Todd’s place of work. It’s in the town of Manistee, which is near the western coast of the mitten. We make it to his office with no incident, which is great. He’s even got a few miles left on the truck to have a maintence guy take it to the dealership tomorrow. When we get to the office, Todd shows me an exotic species of lamprey that his team is working to eradicate. Todd reaches into a tub of water and snags an eel looking creature. It instantly recoils backwards as Todd struggles to grad a hold. It’s hilarious. The lamprey eventually wins and Todd lets it fall back into the tank. God I wish I had a picture of this… A coworker yells out, “hey, are you qualified to hold those things??” Ha!
After saying my goodbyes, I head out to another camping spot I found on my trusted freecampsites.net website. Supposedly on a lake and way out in the woods. I’m in. I set up the GPS point in my phone and drive off.
My phone GPS got me sort of close, but I ended up having to switch to the Garmin unit at some point as my phone became lost. Not a surprise there. Once I got to the campsite, I realized that two people were already there. Dang. Well, there seemed to be some other cool spots on the way, I’ll just go plug into one of those. I found a small site along the lake that seemed beautiful. I wedged the truck in and started setting up camp.
But, something was off. It smelled here. It smelled overwhelmingly of piss. Not animal piss, but human piss. Like someone had pissed in a bucket for 2 weeks straight, came into the woods, and dumped at this exact site. I mean, it was doable but I am questioning everything. As I sit and question my life decision of staying at the Piss Inn, I see an adorable dog, and two women come around the corner of the road on horseback. Ah shit, are these the land owners? I don’t know whose land I’m on.
As they get closer, I say my hellos and get out of the truck to pet the adorable pooch. They are confused as to why I am where I am. And I am confused to see two chicks riding horses in the middle of nowhere. I establish they are in fact not the land owners, just some friends out trail riding with the pooch. Eventually the older woman says, “why don’t you come camp with us?” She’s worried about me being alone. And honestly, I’m sitting is a piss stained camp spot with no real alternatives, I’m down to go camp with the horse folks. They give me some esoteric directions to their camp, so I pack up and head off. I find the camp as they described, and their horse trailers. It was not marked at all and was actually a fun challenge to find! Once there, I collect some firewood and do a bit of writing.
An hour later, the two ladies roll up on horseback, slightly surprised I found the site. We make a fire, I play with Benny, the adorable Australian Sheppard puppy, and am introduced to a cat that was in the horse trailer. Now when I say horse trailer, it’s really like, the first half is a legit camper with bed and kitchenette, and the back half has room for tack and the horses. So the cat was lounging in a sweet room with the screen door closed staring at birds the whole afternoon. I wish I could have brought my Moab on this trip… She would have hated me….
Anyway, I find that the older woman, named Ginger, is retired and just travels all over the state to trail ride horses. Theresa is slightly younger and works as a storm water engineer for the state. On the weekends, they pack up, leave the husbands at home, and ride wherever they feel like riding. I sure hope I have a cool hobby like that when I’m older. Maybe something slightly less expensive though.
For the rest of the night, we chat, drink some wine, and try our best to keep a big fire rolling. When the wood runs out, we go our separate ways to bed. The topic of conversation is a big storm that is going to plow through in the middle of the night. I’m worried about the horses tied up near the trailers, but apparently, they are used to these types of things.
