From Crystal Falls to Porcupine Mountains`

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011
From Crystal Falls, we are heading to the Porcupine Mountains today! We seem to be unable to get started much before 11 am or noon!  We get up, have coffee, check our email et al, have some cereal, then get ready for the road.  Today, since we were at a park that does provide showers, we added that to our routine.  Dan has to be in range for Verizon at 3:00, so we may have to stop before we get to the Porcupine Mountains to take care of business.  We plan to spend 2-3 days there, then head up to Copper Harbor.  From there, we'll head back down to Pictured Rocks and Gran Marais.  We could easily spend a month in the UP and still not see everything, spend as much time everywhere that interests us!  So, this 2 week trip will be a down payment, and we'll see what we see.  We'll just have to come up again next year.
We've seen yard sales and garage sales, but yesterday, we saw a 'field sale' - my term, but they were set up in the middle of a field with knee-high grass!  This morning, we saw a sign in a little gas station/cafe:  "Yard sale Until the Snow Flies - new items added every day as we clean out some outbuildings..."!  We stopped for gas and coffee, and talked briefly with a group of motorcyclists from Sweden.  They'd been to Copper Harbor, flying the Swedish flag from the back of their cycles.  Happy bunch!
It seems the further north we go, the more the trees are showing their colors - imagine what Copper Harbor will be like!!
As we traveled along M-28, we saw a sign "Bond Falls".  To honor our tradition from Yogi Bera "If you see a fork in the road, take it!, we decided to check it out.  What a wonderful, magnificent surprise!  These falls can compete with Tahquamenon Falls for beauty!

Bond Falls - hard to choose the best shot!

Lower Bond Falls

More Lower Bond Falls

Dan, the intrepid adventurer

Yikes!

colors just getting started...

Bond Falls, up close

Gorgeous!!

 

from the side

Can't choose - you can't make me!

He HAS to climb out on the rocks....

from the top

OK, if I have to choose, this is my pick!

Monday, Sept. 19, Fayette and Crystal Falls

Fayette, MI - on the Garden Peninsula (into Lake Michigan)
Well, here we are , the third day in the UP, and we've only made it about 150 miles...We just keep finding interesting stuff to see and do.  I guess we'd better make some tracks if we're going to see all we want to in these two weeks!
We spent the night in the Fayette Historic State Park, site of the long abandoned village of Fayette.  What a lovely site!  Many of the buildings have been restored, with markers and interesting displays, so you can see what life was like in the late 1800's for the people here.  The beaches are all limestone rock, and there's a huge limestone cliff that overlooks the little harbor.  Huge ships plied these waters, hauling the iron ore that was smelted here. The limestone was also used in the smelting process.
The colors are just starting to be seen. I expect by the time we head home, we should be treated to a real color show!
This afternoon, Dan had some work to do, so I got to play 9 holes of golf!  Did pretty well (for me), actually par'd a par 4 and a par 3.  Tonight, we're staying at Bewabic State Park near Crystal Falls.  Lovely wooded place, looks like a pretty lake to explore tomorrow morning.

This birch tree has several main limbs, not like the typical ones I've ever seen...

view of the cliffs from inside one of the old buildings

view of the lake through the trees

limestone covered beach at Fayette

when I say limestone-covered, I really mean it!

little plants make their way through the limestone cracks

cedar forest near Fayette

cedars and limestone...

colors are just starting to show.

building in Fayette, used bricks and limestone

What a pretty site!  see the abandoned docks all around the harbor

view of the cliffs through the woods

Cedar knee almost begs you to have a seat.....

So, Dan thought he would!

road around Fayette

We kept hearing a bell - there's the buoy!

Sunday, more trucks in St. Ignace!

Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011
Having had a late night, we slept in on Sunday morning.  We decided to go downtown St. Ignace to see if those trucks are still here - they are!  We didn't get to talk to the drivers, but we did get to examine the trucks of which they are so obviously (and justifiably) proud. Every inch of these beuties is shined to a high degree.  Paint jobs that tell a story, beautiful colors, polished chrome like we used to have on cars.  Turns out this is the National Assn. of Show Trucks show, and it happens every year here the 2nd weekend of September.  Cool.
We finally cruised out of town around 1:00, heading west on US-2.  We stopped for lunch (pasties, and pie for tonight).  Our next stop was the Cut River Bridge - one of only two cantilevered bridges left in Michigan.  Beautiful structure, but you can only see it from below or the side - from the .it just looks like any other bridge!
Next stop was in Epoufette, to get some dried fish.  Stopped in Manistique for some groceries, and then on to the Garden Peninsula and the Bay De Noc.  We're camping tonight at the Fayette State Park, near the town of the same name that is now a ghost town.

Pirate theme paint job - complete with 'gun ports'!!

Cool truck, lots of chrome!!

Cool truck, double trailer

look how shiny that trailer is!

Sargento truck

shiny shiny!!

now tell me that trailer isn't as shiny as it could be!!

How'd you like that one breathing down your neck!!

Wow!

 

cool paint job.

Dan couldn't resist....

That's the other side of the pirate-themed truck..

First day on our UP adventure!

super cool truck!

huge and cool!!

Today, we just drove the 300 miles to St. Ignace, just over the bridge from the lower peninsula to the UP.  We hiked up to the top of Castle Rock (pretty tame, but pretty good view of two of the Great Lakes and the Straits).

We kept seeing all these really old, beautifully restored tractors everywhere.  Turns out there was a show nearby.  Then, we find out there's also a semi truck show in town, and there would be a truck/light parade later.  Cool!  We're there!  So, we rode our bikes back into town, back to the VFW that evening, for some refreshing beverages while waiting for the trucks to come.  First hint that we aren't at home anymore is when the fellow in the bar came up to us, laughing, and asked if we were the folks who had locked our bikes up outside?!  He said "NO ONE locks their bikes here in town!!"  We had a nice conversation - turns out he works for the USDA, and his job is to go around 'murdering ash trees' - trying to stop the ash borer from spreading.

So, we waited...and waited....and finally someone said the trucks aren't coming until 10:00 - they left St. Ignace, drove over the Mackinac (or is it ..aw?) Bridge, turned around, went in a big circle to north of St. Ignace and then back through town.  Well, let me tell you, we were really glad we waited.  Picture the Woodward Dream Cruise, with not so many spectators, but with over 100 HUGE trucks all spit shined, with fancy lights all over, and their air horns blaring, people cheering and waving.  What a hoot!  Here are 4 of the best shots I got tonight.  OK, somehow the pictures got in BEFORE my writing!  Oh well, they're there, anyway!