September 11

It is 21:18 and the day is coming to an end with a bang not a whimper. I am in my Stephenson tent, Jim is a few feet awy under his Integral Designs Sil Shelter, and in the other tentsite at this camp groun the two other fellows we shared the shuttle with, Jim and Ron, are in their tent probably listening to the small shortwave radio they brought. We are all being treated to a lightning and thunder show without the rain. But, I have little doubt the rain will eventually arrive in buckets. I suppose I am getting ahead of myself though and I should start this journal at the beginning.

There isn't much to say about the journey to Grand Morais. My train ride to Chicago was uneventful and I found Jim waiting in the train station just as he said he would be. We were on our way around 16:00 (Central Time) on a fine Sunday afternoon (the weather in Ann Arbor and for much of the train ride had either been raining or overcast). The drive was also uneventful. We passed the itime chatting, learning a bit more about each other, and , for me, snoozing. It would have been nice to see the Lake as we drove up in the dark, but the darkness provided its own interesting sites. Most drivers drive with their high beams on so they can more easily spot deer and other critters moving across the road. We saw several deer including a fawn and its mother just standing around seeming curious about us (probably just nervous and not sure what to do). We also saw a coyote.All told the drive was about 8 hours long and we pulled into the visitor center for Picture Rocks Park at Grand Sable Dunes right aroun 01:00 (Eastern Time).

Neither of us wanted to set up tents so we simply cleared out space in the covered truck bed and bedded down there. Shortly after doing that the clouds that had been hanging around most of the evening finally decided to open up with a modest thunderstorm. Our sleep, when it came, was OK but not great. I think Jim was really regretting not having his earplugs.

We got up at 07:00 to a cloudy and somewhat cooler day. I suppoe the temperature was in the mid 60s though I never did check. There was a light wind, but it was strong enough to cause me to put a long sleeve shirt on for wind proection. By the time we had pretty much finished sorting ourselves out and determining what we were going to wear and/or pack for the hike and what we were going to leave in the truck rangers had started to arrive to get the visitor center ready for the day ahead. The ranger suggested Walkers (Welkers its right on the point) as a good place for a breakfast and so we headed over there and found a very nice meal indeed. We then went to a couple local markets to find denatured alcohol for me and earplugs for Jim. We also were told where we could go to get some good smoked fish and beef jerky. The little one man shop we found was operated by a nice affable fellow with whom we talked a bit about our upcoming trip after we purchased our food. We still got back to the visitor center only about 90 minutes after we had left it. We picked up our backcountry permit and waited for the shuttle to arrive.

The shuttle dropped us off at 13:00 at Sand Point. This is actually a couple miles from the western start of the Pictured Rocks Trail (PRT - and also referred to as the Lakeshore Trail). The couple miles we skipped would have been, according to Jim, through diciduous forest and be less rural. The trail would also rise and fall with great frequency if the section we did hike is any indication. Our decision to start at Sand Point was directly influenced by the two older gentlemen who were also on the shuttle. They were starting here and we certainy wold not have even considered doing the same if it had not been for them.

The afternoon skies had cleared and the temperature was around 70 degrees. There was a gentle breeze that helped keep the bugs at bay too. The hiking through the forests beyond Sand Point wasn't physically hard but I ddi find it demanding. The trail is broad and easy to follow, but there are plenty of roots reaching out to trip the unwary hiker. I wasn't moving with the confidence I would have liked and that caused my pace to slacken. Even so, we were probably maintaining a 1.6 to 1.75 mle per hour pace and since we only had about 7 miles to go to reach our campsite I was not concerned. This was going to be a nice day even if the initial treadway was a bit tricky in parts.

We stopped for lunch aroun 15:00 at a small overlook that was really quite pretty. Lake Superior was a lovely aquamarine color and the skies were blue and cloudless. The breeze was still blowing so the flies that were around couldn't disturb our leisurely lunchtime repast. We were able to spend some time talking with Ron and Jim and I think everyone enjoyed the time spent at the overlook.

After the overlook the trail seemed to open up a bit. The undulations became less and the forest seemed to widen. All of a sudden the trail arrived at Miners Castle. This geological formation of sand stone and other types of rock was created through classic erosion processes. It really does look like a cstle with two tower terrets (I can also imagine other structures, but somehow calling it Miners Microscope Eyepiece or Miners Two Fingers doesnt have the same ring to it that Miners Castle does). The area has many viewing platforms and a paved trail that is clearly meant to be used by the average non-hiking tourist. We actually encounteed a few people wandering around the viewing platforms as well as a few more out on day hikes in the area. Even though it is past labor day and today was a "normal" workday there were people of all ages here. I really enjoyed spending some time at the platforms soaking in the scenic splendor of the castle, the Lake and its many hues, the cliffs off in the distance that I knew we would soon reach, and so on.

For the most part the trail got easier after we left Miners Castle. We had already had the hardest climb of the day up many roughhewn high steps and though the trail was still rising and falling over many small hills it wasn't as root laden as it had been. There was one blow down that I did find a bit confusing. In fact, I probably would have remained confused for several minutes longer if a group of day hiker did not appear, coming towards me, and show me the best route to take. I eventually caught up with Jim and we continued on towards Miners Beach. This is a really nice beach and my only complaint is that since the wind seemed to have died down a bit the flies were able to come out in force and have a meal. They were fierce on the beach. If they had not been present I am sure we wuld have spent more time there. We did spend enough time there for everyoneto take a very quick dip in Lake Superior's chilly waters. It was nice submerging, albiet very brifely, and wshin off a bit.

Potato Patch campsite is only about a mile from the beach and we reached in in short order. The trail leaves the immediate vicinity of the beach, crosses a road, and climbs steeply but shortly up a hill to the campsite. This campsite doesn't have to much to recommend it. It's water source was dry so I had to schlep back down the hill to the lake where a stream was to retrieve water. The climb down the hill took seemingly forever without a hiking staff. I got 4 liters of water and climbed back up the hill to join everyone else. We had all set up our tents by this time and Jim and Ron had gotten a fire going. Jim gave them their water and started his meal cooking. I spent a lot of time trying to filter water using my new Safe Water Anywhere inline filter. I am giving up on the gravity filter system. It may work for many people, but it does not work for me. I didn't get to start cooking dinner until about 19:40 well after everyone else was really into there's. We chatted over our meals as the clouds that had been rolling in ever since we arrived at Miners Beach a little after 17:00 continud to thicken. It was pretty clear a storm was coming. I am sure we would have continued to talk more if we hadn't all started to see lightning over the lake. It was just after 21:00 when we retired to our tents and, as I already noted, not long after that the the lightning and thunder really began in earnest. The rain storm started only a few minutes later and it still shows no signs of abating an hour later. In fact, I seem to have acquired a tiny puddle in my tent. It may have been caused by a shoe of mine rather than water splashing in through the bottom door vent. The rain has been that hard and I expect that even though everyone put their food bbags in additional over bags to protect them from the rain that the rain will still manage to soak the food bags since it is so severe. I just hope no trees come crashing down.

This first day has been very enjoyable. We did not have a big mileage day planned. We were therefore able to enjoy ourselves at all the places we choose to stop at. I think my confidence level will rise with each step I take and I should be in fine trail form tomorrow. I am even pretty happy with the "big circle" approach to stabilizing my pack with the Therm-a-rest although I think I had something cinched to tight since my chest muscles by my armpits are feeling a touch sore right now.

September 12

We're at Trappers Lake campground. Our tent sites have lake view frontage. Of course, from within a tent or Sil Shelter you can't really see the lake so I suppose the property value isn't enhanced too much. But, the campsite is nicer than Potato Patch and the lake has alot to do with that. To reach this inland lake campsite we hiked around 16.2 miles. I may have actually gone a bit farther than that and that would be the beginning of an interesting day.

Jim and I got up just before 08:00 on a gloriously bright and blue morning. The large thunderstorm that had kept us up had ended several hours before after dumping what seemd like inches of rain upon us. We packed up and had breakfast alone. Jim and Ron were gone before we even got up. We were hoofing it down the trail at 09:00.

The hiking to Mosquito campground was easy. We walked through more forest, not as close to the Lake as we did a bit yesterday, and the footing was quite good. Accompanying us on our walk, and very noticably so, was the crash and thud of the surf of Lake Superior. At overlooks we could see many whitecaps forming, and foaming there way in to the beaches or cliffs were they would crash noisily. Sometimes I heard a "whomp" as a particularly big wave crashed into a cliff. It is an awesome sound and sight.

Jim and I took a break at Mosquito campsite. He desparately wanted some tea to perk him up and while he was having that I decided to mosey on ahead knowing that he would catch up pretty easily. As I walked through the forest, heading in a southerly direction away from the Lake it occurred to me that I might be off the Lakshore Trail. But, there are parts of the trail that move inland away from the lake so I did not give it much thought. However, the trail continued to move generally inland and I eventually decided I had gone astray someplace. The little map they provide you isn't terribly detailed but I felt pretty sure I was on the trail that lead to the Chapel-Mosquito parking area and that it couldn't be much further to that trailhead. From that area I could take the Chapel Rocks trail to those self same rocks and re-join the Pictured Rocks Trail. I figured that doing this wold be shorter than re-tracing my steps and finding the Lakeshore Trail. I also figured that Jim would be well ahead of he since he hikes faster than I do and no one else would make the mistake I did.

I enjoyed walking through the woods on these two trails. I met two day hikers as I was walking towards the parking area, but that was it. It was nice being alone in the woods. The woods were quiet too. There is relatively little bird song herabouts and when you move away from the Lake you no longer hear the incescant pounding of her surf. The two hours I spent walking the 5 or so miles were worth the mistake even though I did miss out on the high cliffs section of the Lakeshore Trail.

I reached Chapel Beach around 12:40 and quickly decided I did not want to stay there. It was just too windy for my tastes. I lingered at the head of a set of steps for a few minutes before heading off east along the trail. The Lakeshore Trail at this point, in fact from this point on, wandered along the cliff top of the shoreline. You were never very far from the lake and you could always hear the surf's roar. I met a few people along the way. Two of them said they thought they had seen my partner ("a fellow somewhat taller than I with a pack like mine but a bit smaller") just a few minutes up the trail. Of course, I assumed they were right that this fellow was Jim and that I might actually catch up with him before he reached Trappers Lake Trail which leads to the campsite on Trapper's Lake.

I never did catch up with Jim. At about 15:00 I decided to have lunch right at the trail junction with the Coves group camspite which I figured was about 3 miles from Trappers Lake. I saw the same two fellows returning to wherever their car was while having my meal.

The trail continued its gentle meander towards Trappers Lake and I got to the trail junction around 16:20 and the campsite perhaps 15 minutes later on. I found no one there. I was surprised by this and a bit concerned since I should have found, I reasoned, at least Ron and Jim since they had left camp this morning before we had even gotten up. After looking for them for a whiole I decided to head back towrds Pine Bluff campsite where I knew I had seen some people. I did not really believe any of the people there were Jim, Ron or Jim, but at least thy were peopple. I had just begun to walk down the trail when Jim, Ron and Jim appeared. It turned out that Jim W. had made the same mistake I did, but he turned back and walked along the PRT and then spent a good hour at Chapel Beach. Ron and JIm had walked at a leisurely clip and also spent a good bit of time at Chapel Beach. In fact, if I had gone down to the beach proper I probably would have found all three of them. Instead I ended up being in the lead the whole afternoon. This was just as well since it meant Jim was able to retrieve my keychain whih I had inadvertantly left at Coves when I had lunch.

Trappers Lake campground is on a very nice small lake. I did not take a swim this time, but I still enjoyed the area around the lake. Everyone chatted around the fire ring as we had dinner and listened to Jim's shortwave radio (they're partial to talk radio with a liberterian - individual rights mixed with a dose of religion - radio. But, they also found a nice local high school girls bsketball game). It was a very good way to end the day. With my mistake I probably ended up doing about 17 miles of trails instead of the 16.2 I would have done had I not gone wandering down the wrong path.

September 13

I slept pretty well last night. We had a sprinkling of rain around 05:00, but when I got up at 08:00 the skies were pretty clear and the sun was shining. It promised to be another fine day for hiking. Ron and Jim were already gone when we got up and we were in no hurry to break camp. We had a unhurried breakfast and did not leave the campground until just shy of 10:00. The skies were still blue and the temperature was hovering around 70 degrees. We planned on hiking to Masse Homestead which sits on the back side of some of the Grand Sable Dunes. The campsite does not have any surface water so we would have to carry extra the last few miles, but that was alright. The real draw of Masse Homestead, or so Jim said, was the view from the dunes. Of course, I wouldn't get to see this for myself until the day ws nearly over.

The first few miles of the hike were a bit further inland than the previous day. We hiked through forest on our way to Seven Mile Creek where we took a short break and then we moved closer to the shore as we neared Twelve Mile Beach. Twelve Mile Beach is a sizeable car campground and we took advantage of some of its facilities as we passed on through. Just before we reached the campground we passed a small cabin. It may be a rental cabin, but it seemed fairly far away from the campground itself to be used in that capacity. Maybe it is simply a remnant of past history like the old rusted out car we passed earlier in the day. I imagine that car simply got stuck some time and the owner couldn't get it going again so abandoned it on the old logging road that is now part of the Lakeshore Trail.

I noticed as we walked along the shoreline of Lake Superior that the surf was a bit quieter today than it had been the day before. The lake was hardly calm like it had been on the first day, but it wasn't as raucous either. As we walked we watched clouds come and go during the day. It never really looked like it wanted to rain, but it wasn't a wholly clear sky during the afternoon either.

We stopped for lunch at Benchmark campground around 13:00. I finished up my salami and block of cheese. I still had several tortilla shells and the second block of cheese though (I had packed enough food for a 5 day trip instead of the 3 day we are doing). Even though I had plenty of food I was not going to share it with the acquistive chipmunk that kept coming near to see if we had dropped anything. The campsite must see its share of sloppy hikers. I deposited my extra food in the trash bins at Hurricane River Campground when we got there a little later on.

One of the nicest parts of the trail was between Benchmark and Hurricane River. Until recently (at least since Jim last did the trail) the trail traveled along H58, but a new trail has been lain down in the birch forest so you can now walk in a quiet peaceful forest instead of on the hard dirty road. The forest walk actually had some undulations in it. I'm not going to say it ws hard walking, but it had more lumps than any section of trail we had encountered since the beginning. Some of those lumps will flatten out as the trail is compacted through use. The 1.8 or so miles of this new trail were a joy to walk through.

One of the hgihlight of the day is the Point Au Sable lighthouse complex. This light came into service in the 1880s I believe and remained active for some 75 years. The lighthouse tower is a simple white 107 foot tower which houses a 5 foot Fresnel lens that shone its light to warn vessels of the rocky shores they were approaching. This stretch of lakeshore has seen its share of shipwrecks. We could actually see the remains of some ships on the beach between Hurricane River and the lighthouse. The lighthouse complex also had homes for the keepr and his family as well as the two assistant keepers and their families. Other outbuildings included a brick oil storage building and a steel oil storage building (I imagine the steel building is more recent), a boat house, and the all important foghorn building which housed the horn and the steam engines that powered it. We would have liked to have stayed longer but the sand flies were having a field day upon us so we decided to move on.

When we reached the campsite at the eastern end of Point Au Sable we decided to gather the extra water we would need for our stay at Masse Homestead that evening. Jim thought there woud be water farther down the trail, but we decided to play it safe and retrieve water from the water source that never dries up. Getting to the Lake took a little bit of effort on Jim's part, but we managed to filter 7 liters of water before the flies had had too much to eat. We chatted briefly with two backpackers who were heading in the opposite direction. They had decided to camp at this campsite but they were clearly a bit antsy since it was only about 15:30. I think we managed to talk them out of going to camp at Hurricane River which would have been noiser and just less pleassant.

We had 3.3 miles to go and they would include what is perhaps the longest ascent since the beginning of the hike. You cilmb 250 or so feet from the lakeshore to the top of the Grand Sable Dunes. The trail is well laid out and the forest is nice, but it is certianly a more strenuous walk than what we had been doing the past couple of days. At the top of the dunes you reach Log Slide where a log flume existed perhaps a century ago. The flume was some 600 feet long and dropped logs a distance of around 300 feet. They would make the journey in about 10 seconds. The logging that took place in this region a century ago must have been extensive and the sound of those logs crashing into the lake must have been something else indeed. On the platform above where the flume once stood there was an article, written in the early 1900s, about a man who was crushed on the flume in an accident. I'm sure that happened more than once.

As we sat on the platform resting our feet a group of car campers (or maybe they were staying at a local hotel) from Missouri came up from a sandy point on our right and we talked with the ladies about our backpacking trip. They seemed genuinely interested in how we managed to do such a trip with such small packs. Nice women..

We had about 1.4 miles to go to Masse Homestead and the walking was easy. We crossed some plateaus just after the Log Slide and then re-entered the forest. It was an easy stroll to the campsite and I think it was about 18:00 when we arrived. JIm was there but Ron was not. Ron had gone up and over the dunes to the Lake to get some extra water. That must have been quite some schlep. Getting down to the lake, after the inital climb up the backside of the dunes, probably wouldn't be that bad, but coming back with a water bottle or two would be a real chore. When Ron eventually returned we learned that he had also gone for a swim so that accounted, in part, for why he was gone so long.

Jim, Jim, and I went up to the top of the Grand Sable Dunes to check out the view. The view was exquisite. On the summit. These dunes are not simple mounds of sand. There is life on their shoulders and tops. Tough desert grasses and shrubs have taken hold in the sandy soil. I imagine the ecology is very fragile. The dunes descend steeply towards the Lake and its deep blue waters and if you look out towards the east you can see the lighthouse on Grand Morais Point. As we stood on top of the dunes I could not help but notice the dark brooding clouds that were passing over head. During the latter part of the afternoon the sky had held a mixture of light and dark clouds interspersed with large patches of blue. It looked like it could really rain and I was glad to get off the peak of the dunes when we did just in case the clouds did decide to open up upon us.

After dinner everyone packed it in pretty early. Jim and I wanted to get up early the next morning and so we asked Ron and JIm to wake us as they were getting ready to leave the next morning. The evening was turning out to be a very nice one. There is a moon and the temperature has dropped some so it should be good sleeping weather. Our trip is almost done and today was a very good day.

September 14

Ron or Jim did a barely passable imitation of a rooster around 06:45. It was still dark and actually quite cool. I did not want to get up. Oddly enough I had not slept as well this night as I did the previous evenings. I'm not sure why, but once I got up to heed nature's call around 02:00 I could not get back to sleep for the better part of an hour. When I did get back to sleep I had some odd dreams that made the sleep feel less than perfect. Maybe someone was snoring too loud or someone else's body was emitting too much gas, or the slight hill I was on was just too much. I started to pull myself together at 07:00 putting on all the clothing I had. I finally put the fleece vest on. The temperature at this pre-dawn hour was probably in the upper 40s. The hot oatmeal and tea I prepared for breakfast were very welcome. Ron and Jim finished packing up and said their goodbyes at 07:30. We would meet at the Grand Sable Visitor Center later and exchange phone numbers before heading our separate ways.

Jim and I left at 08:00 and began our forest walk of some 3.7 miles by following the spur trail east towards the Pictured Rocks Trail. It is clear that the park service doesn't want this part of the spur trail to be used since as it wound its way eastward it eventually came to a considerable amount of ground level brush that was pretty much covering the treadway. The trail does link up with the Lakeshore Trail and we walked along the forest floor at a pretty good clip chatting about various and sundry things along the way.

The day was shaping up to be a lovely day for hiking. When the sun rose the temperature began to climb into the 60s (by the time we reached the visitor center is was probbly in the 70s in the sunshine). The sky was devoid of clouds.

I think the high point of the hike today was our walk around Grand Sable Lake. This looks like a lovely lake to take a kayak or canoe on. It certainly must be a fine lake to swim in because we eventually caught up to Ron and Jim and Ron was in the lake when we saw them. After closing in on the lake's outlet the trail jogs up on to H58 for a little ways before ducking into the fields and woods that are near the visitor center. The meadows here have a different feel to them than what we had walked through before and that added more charm to the 40 miles of trail we had been hiking. We were able to walk through a nice variety of country and see a good deal in the past 3 days.

We reached the visitor center around 09:40 just about 90 minutes after we had left our campsite. The hike was over. This has been a very enjoyable three days of hiking. The first and last days were very short with the middle two days requiring us to push ourselves a little bit. I enjoyed Jim W's company and although my politics differ from Ron and Jim's they are good people and I think everyone ejoyed everyone else's company. They had told us that the car/trailor campground had showers for a quarter and we decided that was too good a deal to pass up. We almost ended up passing it up anyway. When we arrived at the campground they were cleaning the showers and that seemed to take forever. Jim and I were just about to call it quits, after a good twenty minutes had passed, when they finally opened the showers up again. Although I did not have sufficient soap to really wash well it was quite enjoyable just standing under the high pressure hot water for the six minutes that my quarter had purchased. . We said goodbye to Ron and Jim who were heading off to another part of the U.P. to spend a couple days at Ron's deer cabin and piled into JIm's Ranger to begin the drive down to Ann Arbor.

As I sit here in the truck's cab typing this we are in the Lower Peninsula. We've crossed the Mackinaw Brdige, eaten our pasties which we purchased at Lehto's, and stopped for lunch. The driving weather is ideal and JIm can easily see anything that might decide to leap out in front of us (a coyote ran across the road this morning). The trip is essentially over and we both had a very fine time. I do want to do the Pictured Rocks Trail again some time.

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