Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Chapel Loop Hike -- Post 1

After checking out the beach, I walked back to our camp site to have coffee and breakfast. I didn't take the time to pack any food, so thanks Marsha and Jim for feeding me.  After breakfast, we drove west down H58 to access the Chapel/Mosquito parking lot.  On the access road, we stopped so I could capture this white birch shot.

We decided to hike clockwise around the 9 mile trail, heading to Mosquito first.

We walked through several ecosystems, including Maple Birch forests with ferns dominating the understory.

The waves hitting the rock at Mosquito, and for the rest of the day, certainly entertained us!

After eating a snack, we headed east toward Grand Portal Point. 

12 Mile Beach Camping in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Friends Marsha and Jim are up from Ann Arbor. Despite having to make mineral art for the show in Deer Park this weekend, I just had to take a day off. I headed out Monday night after working the museum to the 12 Mile Campground, located around 15 miles west of Grand Marais.

One new thing this last year or so is that the second and west-most loop of the campground is generator free.  Since the access road H58 is now paved -- all except the last mile into the campground -- more RVs with generators are using the campground. 

Like all the campground in the Upper Peninsula, you have to take care to store your food in a locked vehicle or hung from one of the bear poles provided by the park service.  I have heard stories about bears clawing through the wall of a tent in order to get to a candy bar.

The campground is located along the Hiawatha Water Trail.  Gitche Gumee, the Ojibwa (Native American) name for Lake Superior, has inspired all who have stood on her shore or paddled her waters. Running 120 miles from Big Bay to Grand Marais Michigan on Lake Superior’s south shore, the Hiawatha Water Trail (HWT) follows a shoreline paddled by Native Americans, Voyageurs and early European explorers. Experience some of the most scenic paddling available in the Midwest at places such as Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Grand Island National Recreation Area, Hiawatha National Forest and other public lands. Stopping in at the communities of Big Bay, Marquette, Munising and Grand Marais, a paddler finds places filled with history and friendly people.  For more information visit the web page http://www.hiawathawatertrail.org/.

The campground is also located on the North Country Hiking Trail.

All along the campground there is a bluff trail as well as the beach and the road through the campground.

As usual, I set up my bed in the back of my Suburban.  Some people make fun of me, but I have to say it is quite comfortable.

I woke up just before 7:00 am.  My friends were not yet awake so I decided to walk down to the beach to watch the day arrive.  I would have said to watch the sunset, but the clouds did not allow that.  Temperatures were in the 40s, but with 35 mph winds, it felt a whole lot colder.  It certainly was a fall-like day! Here is a picture I took at first light.

Just for contrast, here is another picture taken yesterday morning with around eight foot waves.  Compare it to the picture I took the night before with almost no waves.  The waves were definitely loud!

As you can see from the following photo, the waves were randomly moving way up the beach.

Here is a shot looking straight out at the waves. 

One of the games I play with Lake Superior is to stand on the previous high water mark, temporarily etched in the sand by the waves.  As you can see in the following shot, the Lake forced me back up the beach and won yesterday's "game of tag."

I spotted this attempt at making a raft. 

The waves just kept rolling in.

Nature's mineral art, helped a little by someone who piled up the beach rocks to make a cairn.

I headed up the second set of steps and walked back to our campsite.

Grand Marais Camping and Bay Photos

On Saturday night a few of my friends went camping east of Grand Marais. I went for dinner but didn't stay. I wanted to watch the Michigan-Notre Dame football game (go blue!) and make agate plates on Sunday morning. Thanks to JC, Renee, Dianna, and Mary for a great evening!

I have a slow leak in one of my tires so when I went back into town to put air in it, I captured another sunset afterglow picture of the bay.

There was one small fishing boat enjoying the beautiful summer evening.

Answering the Call -- A Poem Remembering 9/11

It has been ten years. As I was preparing to make agate plates this morning, I started watching the television coverage of the remembrance ceremonies. As most of you, I remember exactly where I was ten years ago. I was in Denver at my friend's house. Clare had left early for work and heard on the radio about the first tower being hit. She didn't have a cell phone, so she stopped at a pay phone and called me. I turned on the television and saw the plane fly into the second tower. I knew immediately, even before the other planes hit in Pennsylvania and Washington and before the towers collapsed -- that our world had changed.

During the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I was impressed with the way that everyone pulled together. As I look back over the last ten years, I wonder what happened to that sense of unity.

As I listened to the family members announce the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died that day, the tears started to flow. I was surprised how emotional I became. Oftentimes when I become emotional, I write a poem to express the feelings. The following poem evolved.


In the year after the millennium,
our lives were still normal.
We woke up that morning
expecting things to be the same.
Now ten years later we hear the names
and remember those we lost.
It is hard to assess the cost.

As time has continued on,
our lives have changed.
We have lost our sense of security;
terror threats rule the day;
our innocence has had to pay.
Individual freedoms have declined,
our world seems less kind.

At first we pulled together;
our hearts merged as one.
We were determined to move on past,
knowing the memories will always last.
We vowed to persevere and do our best
to honor those who are now at rest.

But today we are divided;
ideologies are far apart.
We no longer work together
to better the world for all.
We are not answering the call
to do what must be done
so that we can say we won.

PLEASE -- let us each and together honor those who died ten years ago today. Let's eliminate and ignore the rhetoric. Let's recover integrity, respect our differences, and make decisions to work together and develop a better country and a more peaceful world where we effectively take care of each other.

Sunset on Grand Marais Bay

I watched the sunset from the south side of Grand Marais Bay last night. The weather has been spectacular with temperatures during the day in the upper 60s to mid 70s and sunshine every day. In actuality, though, we need some rain since we have had very little for the past six weeks.

Looking to the south -- the moon was rising.

Here is a shot of the end of coast guard point on the north side of the bay.  You can see the coast guard station on the left, which is now owned by the National Park Service.  You can also see the inner harbor light house and the lighthouse keepers house on the right, which is now a museum run by the Grand Marais Historical Society.  The glow of the sunset is in the background.  Close ups of the structures are in the next few photos.

One fisherman was out on the end of the breakwater.

Looking to the east is what remains of Lonesome Point.  Notice the trees falling from the top of the bluff.  I think that Lake Superior has always grown by the force of her own waves.  When the waves hit the bottom of the dune, it scours out the sand causing the top with its trees to cave in.

And then the sun set on a beautiful early fall evening.

Recent Agate Finds

I have received a couple of emails this week with recent agate finds. First, Mark Buda sent me pictures of agates they found in northern lower Michigan. He says that they found hundreds.

Jeff Hicks sent me several photos of agates they found in Grand Marais, including the two below.