Hiked the Chapel Loop

Although I still have to post some photos from September and October, I will jump ahead to the pictures I took yesterday.  Because of the busy summer working the museum hours and coordinating the first annual Grand Marais Rock-On Festival, I have not gone on a major hike since the Supai adventure in the Grand Canyon in early May.  Given I was having trouble with my right hip, I was not sure how it would go.  Thanks to CBD products and Advil, I was able to get through the 9.3 mile hike with minimal pain.

I met my hiking friend, Helen, in Melstrand.  We drove into Chapel parking and were hiking before 10:00 am.  We decided to hike counterclockwise and worked our way to Chapel Falls, Chapel Rock, Chapel Beach, Mosquito, and back to Chapel parking.  Given that we were tired and it was getting late, we decided to not hike the Mosquito Falls part of the trail.  It was amazing how wet and muddy the trail was.  There were many areas that were flooded or covered in mud.  So even though the trail was 9.3 miles long, we hiked a quarter to half mile farther going up and around flooded trail sections.

Trail head at Chapel Parking...

It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 30s.  The ground was totally covered in colorful leaves.  There were still leaves on some of the trees.  What a gorgeous hike!

Chapel Falls...

Chapel Rock … our lunch stop view.

Crossing Chapel River on a sagging bridge.

Chapel Rock...photo taken from the trail west of the rock.

From Chapel Beach, the trail continues west.  We crossed the bridge, climbed up the hill, and continued along the Pictured Rocks cliffs....

Spray falls, located east of Chapel Rock.  Yes, I was using my zoom lens.

We took a brief break at Grand Portal Point.

Then we continued west to Mosquito.

We took our last break at Mosquito.

Just as we were leaving Mosquito, we ran into a women hiking alone.  She is from down state and had never hiked the Chapel area.  She took a wrong turn and lost the trail, wondered around the woods for a few hours and got lost.  She was very scared, given that it was already after 4:00 pm.  She had no idea how to get back to Chapel Parking.  Worse yet, she had no hat, gloves, flashlight, matches, or any other survival gear.  It would have been a very cold night in the woods.  There were also no campers at Mosquito, so she would have been totally on her own.  I am glad we were able to guide her out the 1.9 miles to Chapel Parking.