The Great Smaug

[campfire]

Life in Da U.P.

Once we settled into life in da U.P., we continued our habit of daytripping whenever we had an open weekend. Our destinations? Every nearby place that sounded interesting. Every month we check off items from our list and find new places to replace them. And overall the list is growing faster than its shrinking. During last year's Lake Superior circle tour, we passed through Munising, Michigan. This is where we refueled after traveling ~850 miles on ~36 gallons of fuel. This is a record that I am proud of, but I do hope to beat it next time, as I didn't use my full 40 gallons of fuel, and fuel mileage is slightly up after my manifold swap. Munising is one of the many towns we drove through too quickly. Much to see, no time to see any of it, and it fell during a particularly rushed part of the trip (we were approaching our one hard deadline).

As it's now fairly local to us, we decided to make our first real daytrip to Munising. And we decided to use the Suburban.

Signature windshield/hood shot (looks different without the crack ):



First stop, Escanaba:



Escanaba sits at the junction of Little Bay De Noc and Green Bay (the body of water, not the city). The two bays, along with Big Bay De Noc, connect jointly to Lake Michigan. Any way you measure it, a lot of water is involved.

We had planned to drive through the edge of town, but ended up going down to the lake shore instead. Probably the happiest kind of detour.

 

[campfire]

Beacon and sailboat out in the bay:





Distant shot of Newpage's Escanaba paper mill:



Closer shots of same mill & its dam:

 

[campfire]

Railroad engine:



This busy 4-lane section of US-41 lead to an interesting encounter with law enforcement on the return trip. No warnings or citations were issued, no laws were broken (AFAIK), and the stop was very short. But I still got pulled over. Not sure why.



The real reason I post it is to give insight to the regional culture. Population density is quite low up here. The overwhelming majority of roads are primarily 2-lane (with 3rd passing lanes tossed in sporadically). Thus, as it sports a full 4 lanes, this 6ish mile section of US-41 (from Escanaba to Gladstone) is one of our busiest roads. More pavement and more cars than typical roads in the vicinity. And it's still nearly empty. For certain mindsets, this region is paradise...

 

[campfire]

Once past the thriving metropolis (population <13,000) and its big highways (), the roads return to their normal state. Winding 2-lane forest roads with centerline rumble strips. Straights:





Curves:



And lots of trees:





In several different parts of the forestry cycle!

 

[TREA18]

Nice. Keep the pics coming I want to travel up to UP someday.

 

[campfire]

Nice. Keep the pics coming I want to travel up to UP someday.

Will do! I travel through the U.P. every day (), so I should be able to keep the pictures coming as long as you want to see them.

 

[campfire]

Roadside Wonders...

Da U.P. is full of roadside beauty year-round. For this trip (early August), the roadside beauty was the colorful late-summer variety.

Green trees:



Waterfalls:



And wildflowers:

 

[campfire]

Wagner Falls

Our first destination was Wagner Falls, just outside of Munising. Wagner Falls sits alongside M-94 right before it intersects M-28. Like many of our stops, this one was spontaneous. "Hey, look...there's a turn-out point for another waterfall!" And that was the extent of the planning.

We parked along the roadside and walked down the wooded path toward the waterfall.









We were clearly not the first people to come here.

 

[campfire]

Wagner Falls (II)

A very short walk took us to the falls. Not sure why the next 2 shots turned half-sidewise on me.





We weren't the only ones taking pictures that day...




And the actual Wagner Falls:





Very pretty. We didn't stray off the path this time for a closer look, but we still enjoyed the sight.

Interestingly enough, we had taken M-28 last year on our Lake Superior Circle Tour. We came within 500 feet of Wagner Falls and never even knew it was there. Make me wonder what other things we have missed along the many thousands of road miles we have traveled...

 

[Blue85]

Once we settled into life in da U.P., we continued our habit of daytripping whenever we had an open weekend. Our destinations? Every nearby place that sounded interesting. Every month we check off items from our list and find new places to replace them.

This has always been part of my dream of living in the UP. Most of my exploring would be the Keweenaw, Porcupines, Hurons and the whole Lake Superior shoreline, but eventually I would branch out. If Munising wasn't 7 hours away from me I would be doing more like this. The PRNL is awesome and there is so much cool stuff I hope to see someday. Would love to backpack the North Country trail through there, too.

 

[muddermilitia]

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing

 

[campfire]

Reviving this thread...after we left Wagner Falls we picked up highway M-28 into Munising. Back along the Lake Superior Circle Route. We have a lotta good memories of this body of water.



One of the primary attractions in this area is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore:



One of our first glimpses of Munising Bay:



Complete with shipwreck map. Shipwrecks are a big deal all over Superior, and Munising is no exception.



And lighthouses (real and fake) are also a definite thing here.




It was good to be back up at Lake Superior again.

 

[campfire]

Stopped at the ranger station to get some info, and came across this truck.











He looks like he is set up for some serious traveling fun. And it looks like someone had some fun designing and building that camper. It definitely has a woodsy theme going on.



Side note: This location is officially called "Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Hiawatha National Forest Interagency Visitor Center."

Who comes up with these ridiculous and lengthy names?

 

[campfire]

Close-up of that front license plate (Michigan does not issue front plates, so that spot gets decorated according to owner's taste. Like Adam's truck).



And the back says:

 

[streetrodchev]

Cool license plate.

 

[campfire]

Our planned activity for the day was a glass-bottomed boat tour of the bay (and its shipwrecks). Being a schedule-based tourist trap, we found ourselves with some downtime before boarding time. So we headed out of town for a very brief tour of Pictured Rocks (about an hour, IIRC). We went up to Miner's Castle, as it's on the close end. Typical U.P. forest road heading up to the cliff (complete with 6.2 diesel hood ornament ):



When we got up to the park/observation point, we found it occupied by a wedding party:



With a neat trolley for transit:





After navigating through/around the mass photo shoot, we went out to the observation platform.

 

[82355]

Did you see the Edmund Fitzgerald?

Martin

 

[campfire]

And then we get to the really neat part. I can't describe Lake Superior. It's huge, fierce, stormy, and yet it is clear, turquoise, and sparkling. All at the same time. It is both stormy tempests and clear blue paradise. It looks like the pictures I see of the Caribbean (at 40*F ).

Typical Superior view (deep water)



Turning to the right, your eyes are met with this view of the Miner's Castle:




This image gets plastered on billboards all over this region. Someday I hope to see it via boat. And then I want to hike the shoreline. And then, and then, and then, the list goes on...







The water is clear enough you can easily see the bottom, even when the water is dozens of feet deep. 2-3' water seems almost clear. Definitely cleaner then the other lakes and rivers I've met.


I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of Lake Superior.

 

[campfire]

Cool license plate.

I wish I had run into the owner so I could have asked about the rig and its adventures. That would have been quite a trip if it went all the way up there...

 

[campfire]

Did you see the Edmund Fitzgerald?

Martin

No. The Fitz sank further East off Whitefish Point. Just barely on the Canadian side of the international border. The Canadian gov't has outlawed any surveying or visiting the wreck. So nobody sees the Fitz anymore. And not many folks visited it before the laws changed.

So the ship mostly lives on in legend. It came ~600 miles and then sank 17 miles before it would have reached a safe harbor. So close. But there are well over 200 ships that have sank near that location. It seems to be its one claim to fame in this world.

We'll probably get out to Whitefish Point this summer to see the shipwreck museum there. One lifeboat from the Fitz is there on exhibit. I think that and another partial life boat at the Valley Camp museum are the only relics that can be seen without upsetting the Canadians.