No Longer Yoopers - now in Indian River, Michigan

We did not sleep much the night before, it rained and being under the forest canopy, the drippings of the rain onto the roof lasted all night.  At first it was a nice sound, by 1am, not so nice.  By 6am I am exhausted.  But we plugged along.  We were able to get out onto the road by8:30am, knowing we had a long day ahead of us, and also moving into Eastern Time Zone we knew we would loose an hour.

Lots of rivers and inland lakes in the Yooper 

All our years of travel - we have never been stopped by a train

Beginning to drop down into Marquette

Seeing Lake Superior when it's 'nice'

The ride along the upper portion of the Upper Peninsula was uneventful, at times boring.  Not many people live in that area.  In and out of small little towns, some prosperous - figured out that tourism is the key with setting up cabins or campgrounds that would cater to the outdoors' person.

Campground where we stayed 8 years ago in Munising, right on Lake Superior

Muldoon's Pasties - great place, introduced to pasties here

The amount of kayak rental companies in Munising - amazing

And the lonely road at times

And always there was construction to deal with

The Yooper is a very beautiful place

Dropped down into Marquette, we remembered the view of Lake Superior in front of us as we dropped into the city.  We stepped down about 1000 feet in elevation to about 500 feet.  Then along Lake Superior, sometimes saw folks stopped and enjoying the chilly water.  Into Munising where we saw the campground we stayed at 8 years ago and also where we were introduced to pasties - the fruit ones are delicious!  The crowd of people in that town was amazing, anything to do with the water and also with Pictured Rocks National Seashore.  We had taken that boat ride 8 years ago and I guess with the push of the National Parks to 'find your park' - people found out about Pictured Rocks.

This old road side motel is now a museum, 8 years ago it was just hanging on

For sale - most waterfront properties were for sale - water too high

Pasties and smoked fish are the big thing in the Upper Peninsula

At the top of Lake Michigan

These forest service folks were walking along the road

Water encroaching, not good if you have a home on the lake

Dropped down and followed the top of Lake Michigan until we came to St. Ignace where we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge, not a fun thing especially when it was windy and at the major connections of the supports, the RV would sway towards the guardrail.  Scary.

The number of wheels!!!  What is he hauling?

Grab your money to pay to go over the bridge

About 30 miles south of the bridge we headed east off Interstate 75 towards Indian River where we are staying for a couple of days.  Cute camping resort, geared for families.  Lots to do if you are a kid here.  And glad we will not be here this weekend - looks like the thing to do is fires (hate the smoke) and people visiting.

About 1/3 over, was pretty windy

2/3 over - not fun

Ferry to Mackinaw Island

Presque Isle River Trail, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Yesterday we went back into the Porkies (Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park) to see the Presque Isle River Trail and walk it, if possible.  The word PRESQUE comes up a lot in the Great Lakes and it's French for 'almost' like, almost a island in this case.  This area looks like an island but it is not.  Almost.  Anyhow, found the parking lot which was not marked, we assumed where it was, and donned our hiking stuff, lots of bug spray, and off we went.  Decided to take the trail on the east side of the river, following it until we decide to turn around.

This looks like a nice walk

Looking along the west side - boardwalk along river, we will cross to east side

Oh good, more steps and a suspension bridge to east side

View from bridge, looking up stream

Turned around and saw where river meets Lake Superior

Since it was a weekend, lots of people, and we are pokes, so they passed us up on the trail while we stared and gawked at the scenery.  Only those folks who passed us never came back so we made the assumption that somehow you can cross the river to the other side.  At one point I did see a family who passed us walking on the other side and thought - okay, we will do the same.

Pretty 

Just follow the blue marks on the trees (North Country Trail)

Trail right on edge

And the falls right below us

Manabezho Falls from east side

And people playing in the water near the falls

I kept thinking - don't misstep, that's a long way down and it would hurt

Pretty walk, strolling along the North Country Trail.  Did not see any 'thru' hikers, just families which is really a neat thing.  At one point you could turn and go to Lake Superior but we opted to walk along and see the falls (3) if we could.

Manido Falls

A little stream to break up the monotony 

Rivet

Nawadaha Falls, from east side

Almost stepped on a frog, and then later a small garter snake.  Funny thing was - no bugs.  We were not bothered at all.  But, we could do a hike in this area without steps.  Again.  And today - our knees are killing us.  But, no matter where we looked and took a picture, beautiful pics.

We were standing on outcropping, river right below us

Nawadaha Falls from west side

As it turned out, we did cross the river at the Boundary Road and then continued up the west side of the river, stopping at the observation decks to look at the different falls.  Some crazy folks swimming in the tannic waters, but when you look closely at the water, it was clear.  The rock is what causing the water to look brown.  And joy, we had to climb back up the steps to get to the parking lot.  Going up - not bad at all, it's going down that hurts the knees.

Picture makes it look big, was only about a foot long

Manabezho Falls from west side

And back along boardwalk near beginning of hike

Super!  Stairs, I love stairs.

Tomorrow we leave the Yooper (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and head to Cheboygan which is a city just below the Mackinac Bridge.  Will only be there a couple of days before moving to southern Michigan, getting closer to Ohio.