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| Very old graves at Pine Grove Cemetery in Eagle Harbor, MI |
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Annual snow gauge along Route 41 in the Keweenaw |
Here's how differently driving works in Michigan's Upper Peninsula than in other places around the globe. From your starting point, your destination is 12 miles away. So you get on a long, relatively straight stretch of road and drive at a steady 65 to 70 mph for ten minutes. At this point, having kept a constant speed, you check to see how far your destination is. It's 10 miles away. That's just how it works.
Today, we drove about 20 Upper Peninsula miles to Calumet, a little
town on US 41, to meet Ms. B.'s cousin, Chris, and his wife, Bonnie, for
coffee at a little shop called
Keweenaw Coffee Works. We had good coffee, pleasant conversation, and, for me, a fair blackberry
scone. After we parted ways, Ms. B. and I hit the road eastward, bound
ultimately for Copper Harbor, a wee little burg pretty far east. We
figured that, along the way, we'd find waterfalls, pleasant scenery, and
possibly some spirits.
We did stop for geocaches at a number of excellent locations, such as
Jacob's Falls,
Eagle Harbor Lighthouse (where we enjoyed a picnic lunch) Manganese Falls, Evergreen Cemetery, Pine Grove Cemetery, and
Brockway Mountain, among others. Ms. B. found a neat little rock & gem store.
One of our favorite stops was very close to Jacob's Falls —
Jampot Bakery, Jams, & Jellies, which is a lovely little shop run by monks of the
Society of St. John. Just about everything they produce is made with heavy-duty spirits. We
picked up an "Abbey Cake," which is kind of like a fruitcake, made with
walnuts, dates, and molasses, generously laced with bourbon. It was one of the
most delicious thingummies I've ever tried, and after having some at lunch, I
had to wait a few minutes to drive.
There's not much to be found in Copper Harbor; it's about the size of a
thumbtack. But after the bourbon in the Abbey Cake wore off, we figured a dose
of extra spirit couldn't hurt. We found some at
Lake Effect Bar & Grill — a fair Chardonnay for Brugger and a decent gin & tonic
per me. Most interestingly, a couple we had encountered and chatted
with at Hungarian Falls yesterday happened into Lake Effect while we were
sitting at the bar. I mean, a day later and 50-plus miles away, we have
another random meeting. I mean, what are the chances? Again, we chatted a bit,
largely about geocaching and hiking. I wonder if we'll run into them back in
NC?
Eventually, we made it back to our lodgings along Portage Lake. We had
leftover goodies for supper, watched the sunset over the lake from the deck,
and — since we were in a Bigfoot state of mind — watched
Abominable (2006), which I had apparently watched some time ago, but I had forgotten.
It's pretty awful, yet incredibly fun, with Jeffrey Combs,
Lance Henrickson, Matt McCoy, Phil Morris, and
Dee Wallace Stone, among others.
Tomorrow, we leave the Keweenaw Peninsula behind and head back to Kimberly's
folks' place in Midland before for a couple of days before returning to NC.
And I think it's gonna be a long, long drive.
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| Brugger playing around at Jacob's Falls |
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| Eagle Harbor Lighthouse |
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| Manganese Falls |
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| Abbey Cake from Jampot Bakery. Loaded with bourbon! |
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| Another lovely evening on the lake |
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
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Some future guest at our VRBO lodging may end up having a devil of a time. |
To me, the UP is a place of unparalleled natural beauty, interesting people, and, for Kimberly and me, what I'd call romantic charm. On our two trips here together, we've shared some of the best settings, best experiences, and best personal bonding of our lives. We've spent time in a few pockets of population — Marquette, Houghton, and, to a lesser extent, Munising (though none of these would qualify as more than a small town in our region of North Carolina). However, what we truly love is the generally sparse population, and, in many places, outright isolation. In the latter, we find both a sense of closeness with nature as well as an eerieness; the idea that, with just a little nudge, events could slip into the realm of a classic horror movie.
Today, we rose early, since getting back to Kimberly's folks' place in Midland
would be a long, 500-mile drive. (Remember, UP miles are far longer than even
the dreaded country mile). To complicate matters, we ran into long corridors
of road construction, one of which stopped us dead for at least 15 minutes. We
stopped for a scant few caches. But our stop at
Canyon Falls, near Alberta, MI, ended up being one of our favorite stops of the entire
trip. Just off US 41, the trail leads you along the Sturgeon River,
past several stretches of rapids, a few small falls, and incredible rock
formations. The falls, which aren't huge but very powerful, pour into a
spectacular canyon of stone.
There was a single cache near the falls, which I found — shortly after a
couple of other cachers, whom I think I saw leaving as I was on my
way toward ground zero. Pity our paths didn't actually cross.
After Canyon Falls, our route took us back through Munising, so we stopped for
lunch at
Eh, Burger. The name caught our interest when we stayed in town the other day because
it's just so beautifully Yooper. In the same vein, their burgers come with
"Holy Wah!" sauce — again, a classic Yooperism. To our delight, the Eh,
Burgers rocked. Fiercely. As did the fries. Good, good stuff.
We spent a total of ten hours on the road, sometimes moving (fast!), sometimes
stopped for construction (uggh), sometimes checking out the sights along the
way. Fairly exhausting, to be sure, but what a fantastic outing in Michigan's
Upper Peninsula. With all the obstacles that kept presenting themselves prior
to the trip, we weren't sure we were going to make it — or, if we did, make it
in good health. To this point, the Fates have smiled on us.
Yay.
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| Ms. B. on the rocks at Canyon Falls |
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| Down in the canyon |
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| Wicked cedar along the trail |
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| Eh, Burger! |
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| Even the raptor critters like Eh, Burgers! |
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