Pictured Rocks

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Julie, Abbey and I joined eight friends for a hike along the North Country Trail along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The trail along Pictured Rocks is about 45 miles long and covers a wide variety of terrain.

We took the shuttle from Munising to Grand Marais on Friday morning and exited the bus to a hoard of black flies. Fortunately, that was the last we saw of those nasty creatures. We had purchased some Repel Lemon Eucalyptus insect repellent that worked wonders on black flies and did pretty good deterring mosquitoes too (although it needed somewhat frequent reapplications for the latter).

On the first day, we crossed behind the Grand Sable Dunes and enjoyed a wide variety of wildflowers and bird life. The forest floor was carpeted with spring wildflowers that had stopped blooming in Michigan's lower peninsula weeks before.

Fortunately I toted along my binoculars, but I regretfully left the bird book in the car. I also had now way to identify flowers, so I picked up a small Michigan guide when we past by a ranger station at noon.

By the end of the first day, we were camped near the Au Sable Light Station.

The second day was mostly beach hiking in the morning, then back into the woods for the afternoon. While we had about a dozen miles to hike, Julie, Abbey and I got started early and walked at a rather leisurely pace. When you hike with a three-year-old, you get plenty of time to stop and reference the field guide. You also get plenty of time to watch birds through your binoculars.

By that evening, the clouds had rolled in an we got a few sprinkles of rain around dinner hour.

The second half of the trip was a dramatic departure from the gentle beach and forest walking of the first two days.

Our family left camp at dawn and stopped on a bluff over looking Lake Superior for breakfast. As we we cleaning up, a frantic hiker passed us and said that he had just come from the next camp don the trail and that there was a black bear in the campground. We quickly packed up and headed onward to see if we could find he bear, but he was long gone by the time we got there.

Later that morning, we started climbing into some rockier headlands. Now we were in the area for which the lake shore is known. Small cliffs gave way to higher and higher ones, and drama of the scenery became more intense. That night we camped at Mosquito Beach, which proved to be a misnomer.

The fourth and final day continued the climbs over rocky headlands. I filled my camera with images, too many to show all of them on this blog.

Bright sun, blue waters and woods full of colorful birds and flowers made for a beautiful walk.

By 2:00pm, we were exiting the woods. As we got near the road, Abbey surprised us all as she saw the car, then turned around and ran back into the woods crying. We quickly soothed her with promises of pizza and Phish Food.

The company was good, the weather cooperative, and Abbey successfully completed her first backpacking trip. It was a good walk and has filled my mind with memories.