Day 10, Lake Superior Circle Tour

Another absolutely gorgeous day! High today was 82. I was wishing I had some more summery clothes with me.

We started out by going to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Visitor Center. We were the only ones there. The park ranger asked if we wanted to watch the movie, so we had our own private showing. Very interesting. Glad we took the time to watch it. We had decided against the cruise since they were only running it at 10:00 a.m. and the light would not have been as good as on the sunset cruise. And nobody wanted to get up and get going early!

Then we headed to downtown Bayfield to wander around and shop. Everything is all decorated for fall and for Apple Fest. Quite festive. Had lunch at Maggie's—very slow service, but the food was good.

I stopped at the bank to change a $100 bill and the helpful teller asked what our plan was for the rest of the afternoon. Told her we were planning to visit some apple orchards. She provided me with a map and suggested that we go to the Sunset Valley Orchard. So, off we went.

They had great honeycrisp apples and the grower gave us some samples of his excellent apple cider. We all agreed it was the best we'd ever had. Unfortunately, we are running out of room in the car, so we didn't get any, but we did stock up on apples. Turns out it was his daughter-in-law at the bank! They've won the first place Apple Festival Fruit Grower Orchard Award, so it was a good referral.

We checked out a pottery place across the street from our house but managed not to spend any more money. Then back to our house to enjoy our lakeside deck for the last time.

Then we headed back downtown for the apple pie social and judging of apple pies. Lots of fun! Were served good apple pie with cinnamon ice cream and after the winners were announced, everyone got a chance to taste all the entries. A very festive start to Apple Fest! The hall was all decorated with lights and red and green balloons.

Walked out on the dock and watched the Madeline Island ferry come in from the island. Also admired all the sailboats in the harbor.

Decided we needed some solid food to top off the pie (remember, life is short—eat dessert first!), so went to the Pickled Herring Lounge across from the dock for a light supper.

Best photo op of the day: our apples escaped their bags and rolled all over the trunk. One rolled all the way to the back of the trunk. Carolyn announced that somebody would have to climb in to reach it. She was elected. Got a great picture of her triumphantly holding up the apple while still in the trunk!

It's been a great trip! Great company, good food, beautiful leaves, and gorgeous scenery. More gorgeous fall color today, particularly up by the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore headquarters which is in the old courthouse building. Tomorrow we have to pack up and head for Minneapolis. Heidi and Carolyn still have a bit of driving after tomorrow to get to Oklahoma and Texas, but tomorrow will be the end of the trip for me.

Day 9, Lake Superior Circle Tour

Another alarm clock malfunction this morning—I didn't wake up until 8:20 a.m. and we had to meet Carolyn for breakfast at 9:00. Very fast showers etc. and we made it. My room mate is threatening to fire me from my alarm clock job. My travel alarm decided to croak, so we've been depending on the light to wake me up.

OK breakfast—dinner here last night was very good. We have leftovers for sandwiches today.

Started off around 10:30—had hoped to get gas at the place next door to the motel, but it appeared to be out of business. No gas on the road to Porcupine Wilderness, so we decided it was not a good idea to head up there with only a quarter of a tank and backtracked to Ontonagon and filled up.

Then off to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. First we went to Lake of the Clouds—great views after only a reasonable climb up a nice, graduated ramp.

Things got a little trickier after that. Many stairs and steep inclines. I made it almost to the top of Summit Peak—to the viewing lookout. Had stopped to rest and some people coming back down the trail said it wasn't far and only about a dozen steps. Ha! Try a dozen times 8 or 9! Needless to say, I did not proceed up the next bunch of steps to the tower at the top—the tower, no doubt, having its own set of stairs. The view was expansive but somewhat disappointing from a color perspective. The colors were great where we were driving.

We then enjoyed our picnic at that area and then headed for Presque Isle where there are two waterfalls and lots more stairs! We made it down to one of the falls, skipped the other one, and decided not to hike the trail to the bridge to the island, reasoning that that would also involve lots of stairs since it was probably down at water level.

Then on to Ironwood and goodbye to Michigan and hello to Wisconsin. And we gain an hour! Yeah! I'd never been to Ashland before, we always bypassed that on our way to Madeline Island because we were coming from a different direction. Appears to be a very nice good sized town.

Then the swing up the peninsula to Washburn and Bayfield. Stopped at Coco in Washburn, a bakery/restaurant I had read about and purchased all sorts of good looking stuff for breakfast. Then we noticed they had pasties which had just been baked this morning, so decided to get some for dinner.

Then up to Bayfield to our home for the next two nights. We have rented a 3-bedroom house at the Seagull Bay Motel. Right on the lake. We have a lovely deck overlooking the lake and there's a path into town, but it's about a mile. Heidi and I explored it a bit before dinner, but we'll probably drive. Give our old legs a break. Discovered the Apostle Islands cruise we were thinking of taking doesn't operate in October and the only one leaves at 10:00 a.m. Nobody seems to be too enthusiastic about having to get up tomorrow. We also suspect it will be somewhat the same scenery as we enjoyed at Pictured Rocks, so we'll probably skip it and just wander around town and enjoy the run up to Apple Fest.

Day 8, Lake Superior Circle Tour

We set off about 10:30 this morning. Another gorgeous day. Carolyn is taking a day off from driving and making decisions and is just sitting in the back seat enjoying the view, working on her journal, and generally relaxing. She has done the majority of the driving, so it's a well deserved rest. Heidi is our driver of the day. I get to ride shotgun and help Wanda navigate.

Finally found the new Holiday Inn outside of Munising—it's right on the bay and looks nice. Will store that info away for next trip if there is another trip.

The highway is following the bay—it's very scenic.

We passed through Christmas, Michigan. Bring your cards and letters here to be mailed.

The colors continue to be gorgeous. Our captain on the boat last night said the colors right on the the lake are just starting, but a few feet inland they're going gangbusters.

On to Marquette, right on the lake. Back in big city land, there's a Target, Wal-mart, Lowes, Menards, etc. and a 4-lane highway.

Outside of Marquette we came upon Da Yoopers Tourist Trap. I like a place that's up front about what it is. Well we had a blast in there. All kinds of pithy sayings. There was a perfect t-shirt for my brother-in-law, but they didn't have it in his size. “Eat venison. 10,000 wolves can't be wrong.” Or how about this: “I can't remember if I'm the evil sister or the good sister.” Or “Save a cow; eat a vegetarian.” Got to see Carolyn engage in some marathon shopping. As my sister says, I love to watch Carolyn spend money!

We were looking for a place to have pasties for lunch, but weren't having much luck. Stopped at a place called the Hillside Restaurant in L'Anse, but they didn't have them. Decided to go on to Baraga, only a few miles on the other side of the bay. No restaurants there at all. Decided to go back to L'Anse and eat at the Hilltop. Well, those sorts of manoeuvres drive Wanda the GPS lady batso, she keeps wanting us to turn around. Finally she loses patience and tells us to make a legal U-turn! Anyway, had a good lunch and then proceeded to Silver City where we are spending the night on the shores of the lake again.

There's a lovely beach area here with benches and firepits. Quite a crowd gathered to watch and photograph the sunset. Then came in for dinner—fortunately after most of the tour bus crowd had eaten. The tour bus pulled in shortly after us and the place was suddenly over run with old geezers. We asked the hostess when we paid for dinner what time they would be leaving—she said 8:00 a.m. We will plan to have breakfast after they leave!

Day 7, Lake Superior Circle Tour

Short entry tonight, it's late and I'm tired after all the fresh air today. And I left my notebook in the car and am too lazy to go out and get it.

Crossed the international bridge into Michigan. Had a pleasant customs agent who wanted to know why we had been in Canada. When we told him we were doing the Lake Superior Circle Tour, he said to take our time and enjoy!

We drove to Grand Marais and had lunch at a sportsmen's bar. Good burgers and great onion rings.

Most of the day was spent in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. First we drove through the land version, stopping at a beach and on top of some of the cliffs. Good fall colors. Arrived in Munising, we signed up for the sunset cruise on the lake to see the cliffs from the water. They are awesome! And the color was great at that time of the night. We took zillions of pictures on the way down and then just sat and enjoyed the gorgeous view on the way back.

Late dinner and now we are collapsed. Not much sightseeing tomorrow, will just drive to the other side of the upper peninsula. We're thinking of arriving early and having a laundry session.

Day 6, Lake Superior Circle Tour

Heidi and I woke up at 8:23, so had to scramble to meet Carolyn at 9:00! We were both showered, dressed, hair dried, and packed by then. Are you impressed? I sure was.

Gorgeous sunny and warm day. For us northern types, anyway. In the 60s. My two southern friends are sporting down jackets, cashmere sweaters, etc. I'd die of heat prostration in that getup!

Went back to Kinniwabi Pines for breakfast. Only one person on duty, so he was waiter and cook. A bit slow, but breakfast was good. Our waiter from last night finally showed up to give him a hand.

Got our laugh for the morning as we went into the restaurant. There was a truck parked there with a black lab sitting all perky and alert in the driver's seat, looking for all the world like he was ready to drive the truck!

Great opera in the restaurant! Very unusual to have such good music with your food.

First stop was Old Woman's Bay—we found someone to take a picture of the three of us “old” women by the sign. It was a beautiful spot. Then we crossed the Old Woman River. Heidi observed that it was a bit dried up. Guess that's what happens to old women.

Then we passed a Mom Lake on the left and a Baby Lake on the right. The Baby Lake was really small. After that came Orphan Lake. The early explorers evidently had a sense of humor.

As we crossed the Coldwater River, Carolyn opined that as far as she was concerned, it was all cold water! We had previously crossed Coldwater Creek, yesterday, I think.

Next stop was Katherine Cove. Beautiful sand beach with shallow water. Found a great inukshuk. Contributed a stone to the start of another one.

All of these locations are in Lake Superior Provincial Park—a great place. Also stopped at the park headquarters and got some helpful advice from a very nice woman there.

She recommended that we stop at The Agawa Indian Trading Post in Pancake Bay and take advantage of their fall sale. Well, of course we needed no encouragement to do that, so off we went. I acquired an inukshuk, some amethyst, a Canada hooded sweatshirt, and a magnet, of course. Turns out to be a good thing I bought the sweatshirt because I seem to have left my hoodie behind and I'll need something on my ears for our boat tours in the days to come.

Then stopped for a picnic lunch right on the shore of the lake in Batchawana Bay Provincial Park. It was so peaceful right on the shore of the lake, nobody around, just listening to the lake lap at the shore.

There was a big, fat seagull keeping a close eye on us. I decided to feed him the remains of our baguette. That attracted another seagull, who was chased off by our guy. Then I started throwing the pieces skyward and hordes descended on us! It's fun watching them dive bomb each other and snatch the bread out of the air.

Next stop was at Chippewa River Falls, an great falls visible from the bridge and also from a path through the woods.  Almost missed this one, but Carolyn executed one of her famous turnarounds and got us back there!

We observed that the moose crossing signs have solar operated lights all of a sudden. Is that to help the moose find his way across the highway at night? These bi-lingual moose are so versatile.

The GPS sort of delivered us directly to our hotel in Sault Ste Marie—sent us to a side with no entrance into the parking lot, but we just went around the block and sorted that out. Got settled in and then went for a walk on the lake walk which is just a block from the hotel. Saw a tour boat emerging from the locks. Enjoyed the public art and being out in the sun along the river.

Found a restaurant right on the river (Docks Riverfront Grill) and had a very good dinner. Spent all our Canadian money at dinner tonight, so time to cross the border tomorrow! Although they're very flexible about it; in order to pay in cash, we had to mix in some American dollars.

Day 5, Lake Superior Circle Tour

We woke up to see frost on the pumpkins and everything else outdoors. It's a nice crisp fall day. No more wind or rain.

We enjoyed our breakfast in a box and were off at 9:30. When we went through Schreiber we saw the motel I almost booked—didn't look too appetizing. Sure glad I found the Serendipity instead.

Stopped at Aguasabon Falls and Gorge. There's a lovely boardwalk down to the falls. Good job Canada! Also good signage on the highway.

We found the scenic pulloff at Little Pic River and Gorge. There's a sign that says, “No overnight camping.” Somebody inserted “pretentious” in front of camping.

Stopped in Marathon. Seems to be a company town—all the houses are identical. Think there was once a paper mill there—not sure if it's still active or not. Didn't see any sign of it. Went to Pebble Beach—covered with large, round pebbles and LOTS of driftwood. Apparently the waves and the ice smooth the pebbles and rearrange the beach every year.

We picked up some food at a grocery store in Marathon with a view to having a picnic later at one of the lovely picnic tables we kept finding by the side of the road. Well, of course, when you want a picnic table, there aren't any. There was absolutely no place to stop until we got to White River, which is Winnie the Poo's home town. So we had lunch with Poo in a nice park.

Question of the day: why are all of the trucks on the highway going west? We have seen exactly one truck going our way. Very strange.

We've observed lots of inukshuks and stacked rocks on top of rock ledges along the way. Very cool.

Arrived in Wawa and stopped to see the goose and visit the information centre. Very helpful woman there who confirmed what we had planned to see and recommended a good restaurant for dinner. Drove downtown to see the beach area by the lake. Stopped at the General Store on the way back out for souvenirs and sinful ice cream cones. Someone in the General Store informed us that the maples are peaking around Sault Ste Marie, so we're looking forward to the scenery tomorrow.

Headed to the Magpie Scenic High Falls outside of town and on the way to the Parkway Motel where we're spending the night. Pretty impressive falls.

We then checked in, computed a bit, and went to dinner at Kinniwabi Pines which advertises itself as having Canadian, Chinese, Caribbean, and European food! What a combo. Dinner was pretty good and we'll probably have breakfast there tomorrow as well.