July 2024 Lake Superior

We drove about 8 hours, had an excellent dinner at Cindy's Diner along I39.  We called and made plans to overnight at a Love's truck stop just beyond Bloomington.  They even had a dump for our tanks.  Got there at 7:30 and they were packed!  Had to be over 100 semis, no space for us.  Made 2 passes around lot and gave up.   Tried to call Walmart in Urbana to get permission to overnight.  No one would answer the phone.  On impulse pulled into rest stop along I74 about 20 miles before Champaign - also very busy but we were able to get a spot on the end!  We checked, this is legal in Illinois  Should be home by noon or so tomorrow.  It's been a great trip, I sincerely hope you readers are entertained by our adventures.

Today was a biking adventure.  We rode about 1.5 miles to town, all downhill.  Went to waterfront and bought tickets for us and our bikes for the ferry to Madeline Island.  This is the largest of the Apostle Islands, occupied year round, ferry takes 20 minutes, with 3 ferries you don't have to wait long for the next one: Arrived at La Pointe.  Checked map and picked a six mile bike trail to Big Bay State Park: Very flat, trail is along road but almost zero traffic.  Went into park and took a short hike along the eastern shore: Then planned our route back to La Pointe.  Decided on a longer route along north side of island.  About half way back in a wooded area a small black bear ambled across the road in front of us.  Probably adolescent.  I wanted to stop and take his picture.  Diane said heck no, and she used the zoom feature on her ebike to vacate the area.  So no picture.  : ( Checked out lunch options in La Pointe, decided ...

We took a 3 hour tour and saw 21 of the 22 islands today, here's the map, we took the classic tour: Weather turned out OK, light rain at worst portion.  Here's a zoomed in picture of a bald eagle on Oak Island: Here's a few more shoreline shots at Oak Island: Here's a 100 year old fishing camp on Rock Island, they are restoring the dock here: Devil's Island gave the prettiest views, sea caves.  Here's a few: There used to be a staffed lighthouse on Devil's Island, it's all automated now: Couple more sea cave shots: Then we saw the lighthouse on Rasberry Island.  Park Service is doing a lot of restoration here, we waved to some workers on the front porch: Got a nice water side shot of Bayfield as we were returning: After boat ride we had lunch, visited a small museum, then wandered up the peninsula to Sand Harbor, which had a nice visitors center plus a neat display of a 100 year old fishing boat: Wandered around a little more, played some double bid euch...

Today we had a 4 hour drive to Bayfield.  Went well.  Had a roadside park appear right when we started to talk about being hungry, so ate in the camper.   Got to our private campground, about 1 mile outside Bayfield.  Not as pretty as a state park, but still pretty nice: Drove to town, met Borres, and started touring.  They have been here several times over the years, both driving and by sailboat.  They recommended the Pickled Herring restaurant, Jody did a great job serving us.  Diane and I had poutine, and I got to sample Margos fish livers - excellent! Walked around the waterfront, very pretty: Then we went back to their B&B and played some double bid euchre: The weather was very nice today, almost too hot.  Supposed to rain tomorrow, we hope it doesn't spoil our Apostle Islands boat tour!

No excursions, no travel.  Instead we started the day by doing laundry - how exciting! Next was a short hike at a peninsula called Hunters Point: More natural beauty.  Then we visited Fort Wilkins.  They have confederate re-enactors here this weekend at the Fort giving presentations on a variety of topics - music, fashion, medical, from that time period.  Enjoyed it.  Hopefully the panorama picture works in the blog: Then our friends the Borres from home arrived.  Our travels will overlap for the next 3 days.  We had an awesome meal of grilled Whitefish, sautéed vegetables, corn on the cob, and stick 'o butter rice.   They left after dinner.  Diane and I took one more walk around the campground before we leave tomorrow.   Diane caught me being contemplative: We are very impressed with the natural beauty of the UP.  Tomorrow it's off to our last stop, 3 nights at B...

Today was a long day.  The Isle Royal Queen  (100 foot, 16 mph, 54 mile trip) leaves at 8, have to be there 45 minutes early: 3 hour 45 minutes later you arrive at Isle Royal! We had about 3 hours before we had to return.  Many people stay at the lodge for a night or so.  Many also backpack and stay in one of the 20 or so primitive campgrounds. Some even bring canoes.  We decided to keep our visit to a day trip.  The ferry arrives at Rock Harbor: We brought some lunch, so we ate and then went on a very pretty hike: These 12 inch wide boardwalks were not a favorite of Diane's: After an hour of hiking we got an afternoon treat - ice cream for Diane, beer for me: We are now on boat headed back.  Long day.  And the only place we have cell service is when the boat is within an hour of Copper Harbor! One more national park to cross off our list.  

About 4 hours drive to Fort Wilkins today.  It's about 1.5 miles from Copper Harbor.  Very nice campsite: After setup we got on our bikes and rode the trail to Copper Harbor.  Got confused halfway and got onto a rugged trail, not good.  After correcting for that we got to town and saw where to board our boat tomorrow for Isle Royal.  Then went to Brickside Brewery, very nice IPA's: Copper Harbor has no cell phone service.  But the state park and the brewery have wifi. We rode bikes back to trailer after beers.  Leftovers in trailer.  Then drove back for a Bluegrass concert in the park.  Fundraiser for local kids.  It was fun. After the concert we drove down just past Fort Wilkins.  We knew this is where Hwy 41 starts.  Sure enough, found this about one mile past the park:

The rain finally ended this morning!  We started out exploring more of Munising, kinda stumbled onto Munising Falls: Then we grabbed lunch in Munising prior to our 12:00 noon boat tour.  Yes, a "3 hour tour"! We were warned of the rough waters, 2 to 5 foot seas, but it wasn't really that bad.  They ran two 65 foot ships, each with twin 300hp Cummins diesel engines.  Large crowd warranted two ships.  They run 13mph top speed. We went almost 20 miles up the coast.  Was really pretty.  We started out inside on lower deck, rear of the boat rides better.  Some great pictures. Two shots of castle rock.  In second one you can see a platform at the top with people: Bridal Veil falls: Some beautiful views and color: A humongous  rock slide from several years ago: Really neat arch, they call it Lovers Leap.  But don't jump from it, water's only about 2 feet deep there: Couple more pretty shots and a big rock slide: ...