Mini-Vacation: Porcupine Mountains State Park - September 10-12, 2004.

{ The author of this treatise is Diane G Lafave Gibbs }

    ... we just got back from the lake after a lovely weekend at the U.P. and Porcupine State Park. Man, the weather was so beautiful...perfect temps, sunny, amazing. Even the nights were nice at about 58-65 degrees...sleeping in the motorhome was great.

On Saturday, Rachel and I went on a little hike...it was supposed to be three and a half miles from one lake to the next one, but the drive around was about 20 miles, so we figgered it would be a nice walk for the two of us to shortcut on the trail and meet the boys and Dave over on the other lake shore...well...as soon as Dave drove away, and we hiked about a quarter mile, we came to a sign saying the lake was actually four and a half miles away...oh well, we can handle it...beautiful day and all, nice trail, fun for the two of us to have the time together... it seemed like a LONG four and a half miles when we got to the glen where you had to hike straight up a steep slope (by a beautiful little waterfall)...but we were singing and talking about what we'd have for lunch, and joking that we knew we were getting close 'cause we could SMELL David's dirty diaper! But the trail seemed to be endless, and it started to get mucky...I wasn't happy about that as I was hiking in my newer KSwiss (very white) tennis shoes.

Finally we reached the other lake shore, and I peeked at my map, wondering where the parking could possibly be since it seemed rather remote...trees all around... and just a few cabins (rented out by the park service) and tent sites...looking at the map, I came to realize that the parking lot was actually another 2.5 miles away! Yowza. At the south end of the lake, there were signs to confirm my guess.

Rachel's boots were already starting to chafe as she seldom wears them. But we bucked up and decided we'd tell Daddy he needed some map-reading lessons and we trudged on...through a marsh where you had two boards nailed to cross beams and you had to balance your way across a marshy area about the size of two football fields...one slip, and YUCKY! There were spots where the boards were cracked in two and you had to jump across the muck to the other boards. I was fine, but a little concerned about Rachel's balance. She did splendidly and didn't complain at all.

We got to a fork after the 2.5 miles and found that we actually had another MILE to go...and it happened to be all uphill to the peak of the highest summit in the park. There was another one mile option downhill to a trailhead, and I was pretty sure we'd not find Dave there, and would have to hike further up the road, so we headed up the hill.

When we got to the top of the hill, we actually found a tower overlook site and then read that we still had another .75 mile hike down mostly a boardwalk to the parking lot. We left the boys at 11 a.m....we spotted the motorhome at 2:50 p.m! Quite the little hike! Totalled almost 8 miles!! Rachel didn't complain much at all even though today she has blisters on the back of her heels. She asked to be carried once, and I did that for as long as I could, but it was right before the last major uphill, so I gave it up pretty quickly. And she even told me I could let her down sooner than I did, 'cause she felt badly having me carry her uphill.

Anyway, we had each carried our own water bottle (which were empty when we got done) and we had a small baggy of gorp and three tollhouse bars to munch on...we only ate two...but we dove into some yummy warm ramen noodle soup once we got back.

I took lots of pictures, too...so you'll get to enjoy some of this hike later...when I get time to download, shrink and attach.

The kids loved the Lake Superior shoreline and the flat rounded stones for skipping and writing on (scratching w/other rocks) and collecting cool ones. We hiked by lots of waterfalls, too.

Anyway, thought I'd share the tale of our trip.  We took the stereoscopic camera and spent a roll of film on the falls by Presque Isle, Mich. Should have some good ones to share! :)