Tomorrow will be our last day in Michigan until sometime in August. It is a strange sensation to look around my house and know that I won’t see the same familiar furniture, wall hangings, pictures or black cats for a while. I’ve spent parts of the past couple of days busying myself with last minute tasks for our trip while trying to squeeze the last amounts of home out of this place at the same time. On our drive home from Canada we made a list of the foods we thought we would miss the most on the trail. We visited Horrock’s, a farm market in Lansing and filled a cart with fresh vegetables, fruit, bakery bread and other perishable foods that we will soon have to do without. Mary and I both spend time with family members we are going to miss while we are hiking. We visited Moosejaw in East Lansing for new trekking poles, a back up water filter cartridge and some new wool socks. I figure if I’m hiking 273 miles I am likely to wear out old socks before reaching the Canadian border. I applied water proof to our hiking boots and insect repellant to all of our hiking clothes. Our mail drops are boxed up and ready to go. The house is cleaned, the laundry is all done, the bills are paid and our packs are stuffed and loaded in the Jeep. I feel a bit like Frodo leaving the shire, but at least I’ve had more time to pack. In less than 48 hours we’ll be in Vermont and the adventure will really begin.
Good luck, guys! I will be reading your blog. Do you have any recommendations for easy day hikes and camping in the UP?
ReplyDeleteThanks for following our trip. The UP has many great places to camp and hike. I'm assuming you want modern camping (showers and bathrooms that flush) so I would recommend Tahquamenon Fall State Park. It is about one hour north of the Mackinaw Bridge. There is a very nice campground at the lower falls and a trail that runs between the two falls. A local service runs a shuttle between the falls, so you can hike it one way and shuttle the other. It's called the Tahqua Trekker and its run by Tom Funke. If you do a google search it'll come up. The falls trail is 6.4 miles one way and mostly flat and easy. If that's more than you want to bite off you can just hike out as far as the falls go from the Lower Falls, then retrace your steps to the car, drive to the upper falls and repeat the process. If you are up for driving further, the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Munising is really cool too. Most of the camping in the area is rustic (no showers or flush bathrooms), but I think there is a private campground that is nicer west of Munising on M-28. Just about any business in the Munising area will have a list of area attractions (mostly waterfalls) that you can take for free. Many of these are short easy walks from the car. The National Parks have a visitor center in Munising as well that can direct you to attractions and hikes in the area. It's on H-58 just east of the center of town off of M-28. Let me know if you need more ideas about the UP. We've spent a lot of time up there! Good luck.
ReplyDeleteBoth of those sound great! I've been to Mackinaw Island and have seen the bridge, but I don't think I've ever crossed it (I'm one of THOSE Michiganders). I've been thinking that I'd like to do that and see Lake Superior. Alex asks if you took the picture of the moose in the water.
DeleteYou should also check out Whitefish Point and the Shipwreck Museum. It's a short drive from the lower falls campground and gives a pretty neat perspective on the big lake and her history. I took the Moose picture in Kootenai Lakes in Glacier National Park in Montana.
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