I think today may be a personal best for hours spent driving around. Last night started out great with a scenic drive out H58 to the Twelvemile Campground. This is easily one of the most beautiful campgrounds you will ever stay at. It is a rustic campground set in a stand of tall pines atop large sand dunes on Lake Superior. From the good campsites you can watch the sun set into the shimmering blue waters with not a drop of land visible in any direction. We once kayaked into this campground and spent a great night of camping. As we drove into the campground we were excited to find that we had our choice of campsites on the waterfront. We would soon learn why the campground was abandoned. We jumped out of the Jeep and began pulling the camping equipment out. Before we had even set the tent up our legs were covered in black flies. The black flies that are common on the lakeshore, called stable flies, are made much worse by hot weather and an on shore breeze. We had both. Teased by the dramatic view of the setting sun over the lake we were committed to toughing it out. That is, until we tried to put the sleeping bag and air mattresses in the tent. Even a coordinated, two person effort resulted in a dozen or so flies making it into the tent. It was at this moment that we realized it would be an exercise in insanity to camp. We quickly loaded the Jeep back up and found that the flies had invaded our ride as well. The only way to escape the little terrors was to open the top and windows and drive like a crazy person down H58. By the time we drove back into Munising only a few hardy flies were still crawling around. Luckily, we found a hotel with vacancy and decent rates and were able to recover from our black fly encounter with a six pack, pizza, and the Tigers!
After a great breakfast at Sidney's in Munising we decided to spend our last night camping in the Porcupine Mountains. We made the three hour drive to the Western end of the UP and Union Bay campground. As the Jeep rolled to a stop at the camper registration booth the sky filled with clouds of black flies. They made a tapping sound as they smacked into the windshield, dive bombing our vehicle with abandon. Camping here wasn't going to be any better than last night. Resigned to our fate, we visited a couple of our favorite sites in the park: the falls of the Presque Isle River and the view from the escarpment of Lake of the Clouds. Both were every bit as beautiful as I remembered. I've posted some pictures below. Now we are driving east. The plan is to find a campground inland somewhere away from the worst of the flies. Even with the black flies it is still great to be in the UP.
