Munising

After a few days of working in Houghton, I decided to drive over to the north central part of the U.P. to the town of Munising.  It’s known as the gateway to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  I had wanted to take a sunset cruise one night there, but alas, it rained the evening I had free.

Still, it was a nice campground with great lakeshore views, pretty sunsets, plenty of deserted sandy beaches for Millie to swim, and the best Pasties restaurant in the U.P., Muldoon’s, for an interesting lunchtime treat (I tried the veggie pasty which was excellent—kind of a veggie and cheese pot pie).

Touring Copper Country

A nice thing about being at the far northern end of Michigan, and far western edge of Eastern Time Zone in summer is that there are plenty of evening hours of daylight to enjoy after work. 

One night I drove the loop along the western coast along Lake Superior from Hancock up to Copper Harbor.  One of the most spectacular drives in the Midwest!

The most-interesting town in the loop is the town of Calumet, MI.  I got there just before St. Anne’s Church was closing for the day.  Magnificent ceiling artwork and architecture!

Another neat building is the historical Firehouse:

and this one too:

After we left Calumet, we took a great drive along the western shoreline of the peninsula

 

Millie, of course, had to have her swim!

And so did this crazy fool—actually swimming in the frigid waters of Lake Superior!

We took the inland route on the way back to Houghton from Copper Harbor—lots of curves and little dips on this tree-covered drive!

We took a swing past McLain State Park as the sun was setting on the lighthouse there.  And, wouldn’t you know it, two more crazy fools swimming in Lake Superior!

 

Houghton/Hancock

For my second work week from the road, I decided to set up shop in Houghton, MI, the gateway to the Keweenaw Peninsula and “Copper Country.”  Cell coverage maps looked pretty strong from there and they proved to be right.

I had wanted to stay at Houghton City Park the full time, but they were fully booked the first night, so I had to stay across the canal in the town of Hancock, which also had an equally nice city campground.   It was extremely windy while I was there (winds gusting to 50mph), so I selected this nice sheltered site to keep my top-heavy Winnie from blowing over!

The high winds didn’t prevent Millie from finding a nice spot to take her required daily swim—the Hancock city boat launch!

The next day, we drove into Houghton across the big iron drawbridge that connects the two towns.

The Houghton City RV park has small, terraced sites that look out onto the canal.  While my site was rather sloped and unlevel, it had a fabulous view!

The winds continued to blow pretty strong, so rather than cook on the picnic table, I just used the RV as my wind blocker!

The next morning, I watched the ferry leave from Houghton on it’s way down the canal and out to Lake Superior to go to Isle Royale National Park—only a half-day cruise across windy Lake Superior! (ugh, hope those people didn’t eat a big breakfast before riding those big rolling waves!)

Not to be outdone by the previous campgrounds, Houghton also offered a pretty nice sunset and evening scenes:

Weekend Getaway into the U.P.

So, if you work all week from your RV at a city campground, where does one go for the weekend to get away?   A small, remote campground in the National Forest.

After doing a bit of internet searching, I picked one spot in Ottawa National Forest in the Michigan Upper Peninsula that looked like it might be quiet and offer some peaceful paddling opportunities.

Millie and I arrived at Imp Lake and lucked into an idyllic site right on the shore (one of my most-favorite campsites ever).

We just barely had enough time to park and eat dinner when the monsoon arrived!  Thank goodness, the pine trees sheltered us from the high winds .

The next morning started out foggy, but the sun soon began to burn it off--

I pumped up the SeaEagle, and went out for a morning paddle around the lake.

Ah tranquility! I had the lake completely to myself (except for a couple of resident loons who were busy doing their morning fishing).  Not one other man-made sound except for that of my paddle.

In the afternoon, Millie and I went for a hike into the forest and discovered an abundance of vividly colored moss and mushrooms:

After getting Millie her required daily swim, I took the boat out one more time for a sunset paddle:

Soon after sunset, the moon began to set right behind the pine trees and the loons began their wonderful echoing calls across the lake!

To cap off this wonderful weekend, Millie and I enjoyed our little LP campfire for a few minutes before calling it a night.

Bayfield, WI

As I left Ashland, I took a quick detour up to Bayfield.   I’d not been to Bayfield in seven years, but not much has changed.  It’s still a small, quant tourist town, with lots of Victorian B &B’s like this one:

Bayfield is home to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, and has a great park headquarters building in town:

The only island you can drive on is the island directly across from Bayfield, Madeline Island.  There’s a car ferry that shuttles back and forth dozens of times a day.  If I had been vacationing rather than working, I would have tried camping at the state park on the island, but alas, I didn’t want to push my luck with AT&T coverage and was highly doubtful I’d have cell service on an island in Lake Superior!

The city campground in town was not as nice as I’d remembered it—lots of tiny unlevel sites, not very RV friendly at all.  The downtown area was also very small and difficult to find RV parking.  So, all in all, for RV’ing, I’m glad I ended up in Ashland for the week!