I went on vacation.
Man, I soooo needed a vacation.
In fact, I think I'm rapidly approaching needing another one.
But I digress.
I sort of went on a two pronged vacation, and this was the first part.
Beardy Man, his manwife Tews, his manwife's wife Andreea, and I (whooooaaaaa) had made plans to go up to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the fall.
Hello fall!
Pictured Rocks is easily one of the most beautiful places in Michigan. You know how Michigan looks like a mitten, right? Well, its in the top part of the part of the state that doesn't look like a mitten, and most non MI-folks forget is part of the state and think is in Canada or Wisconsin or some garbage like that. Its called the Upper Peninsula, or UP for short.
Whew! Ok, are we good?
The northern edge of that remote land of pasties, euchre and snowmobiles is all along Lake Superior. Its a good 6? 8? hour drive? Something like that. The boys insist we leave at like, 12am or some garbage, and drive all night. I was crabby about this because I was promised real sleep in a real bed. And I knew they would sit up in the front and blast the air con and...anyway...I digress.
So we drove all night and made it to Muinising, nearest town to our destination, around 6.30 or 7 am, just as the sun was rising over Lake Superior. Man...what a world to live in.
We watched the sun come up, then, all hyped up and running on excitement, we got some breakfast, (ok, alot of breakfast), drank a ton of coffee, spent too much money on permits, changed into our trail clothes, and made it to the trailhead at maybe 8.30 or 9 in the morning.
This was an intense day for me, because I don't ever get up before noon unless I'm severely jet lagged.
Less talking now, I promise...
This was a cool little spot along the trail...
The boys are probably comparing notes on pipes or something at this stage...
I swear to God, the light actually looked like this...
As you hike, its really only a short 2-3 miles in through woods until you end up at the coast.
Then the trail stretches for miles and miles along the cliffs and beaches of the lake.
Its really less of a lake and more of a freshwater inland sea.
The thing is massive...
Also I'm obsessed with textures, so there are a lot of pictures of rocks...
This was our first point of connection with the beach, so we felt compelled to kick off our shoes and explore.
Big ole pile of driftwood...
The rock in the area is mostly sandstone, which makes for some wild formations and erosion, since its so thin and brittle...
Yeah, like this shit.
Awesome.
We found a cool little natural cave and hung out there most of the afternoon.
Beardy Man didn't want to look up for this picture, and only did so because I threatened never to make roasted potatoes again.
And I botched the pic anyway...
Sacre-bleu! Envadors!
Sup, homes?
Also, since we were all hilariously sleep deprived, we all sort of stretched out on the rocks and slept in the sun for several hours. Tews reported waking up at one stage and seeing tour boats going by taking pictures of us sleeping.
They must have thought we were some sort of seals or something...
Met some nice fishermen.
Played endlessly with this dog.
"that dog's a retrievin' fool"...
Left the cave, made it to camp. Crashed the heck out.
The next day...
Beardy Man makes sooooup.
Lots of hiking...
Lots of cliffs and incredible views.
Sup, kiddos?
Uh...here's my feet.
Some early fall color.
The darling of the Pictured Rocks...Chapel Rock.
Eenvadors! Chaaaaarrge!
Airing out the rainfly...
A blurry pic of the boys attempting to enjoy a windy sunset.
Killer skies.
Yeah. Just, yeah...
Fact: Men like to light things on fire and poke at them with sticks. The bigger the better, of course, seems to be the logic.
So fall is pretty much the greatest time to go backpacking. It's the perfect temperature, there aren't any bugs, there's almost no people...its beautiful out all around.
Also there were loads of mushrooms....
There they are a-standing in a row...bom bom bom..
Big ones!
Small ones....
Some as big as your head!
Crazy, huh?
And it was pretty much the greatest four days ever.
I stunk really badly.
It was a great trip.
It should also be noted that the boys went on and on about how they were going to "show these girls how to really play euchre" because "in the UP is the only place it really counts" and Andreea and I beat them like a million times. It was good...so very very good.
After our hike out, we took a short trip over to Marquette and ate some Thai food and ran around town for a bit before driving like mad a million hours back to Ann Arbor, which was awful. I did manage to buy a fluffy fox tail along with some smoked fish at a gas station on the way home. I want to go back....
These are from the sunset on our last night there, which also happened to be a full moon.
Just fantastic.
This kind of thing makes me so glad to be alive, and to feel so privileged to be surrounded by such beauty and wonder, to have friends who are willing to trek through woods and put up with my stench.
We are truly lucky.
Man, I soooo needed a vacation.
In fact, I think I'm rapidly approaching needing another one.
But I digress.
I sort of went on a two pronged vacation, and this was the first part.
Beardy Man, his manwife Tews, his manwife's wife Andreea, and I (whooooaaaaa) had made plans to go up to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the fall.
Hello fall!
Pictured Rocks is easily one of the most beautiful places in Michigan. You know how Michigan looks like a mitten, right? Well, its in the top part of the part of the state that doesn't look like a mitten, and most non MI-folks forget is part of the state and think is in Canada or Wisconsin or some garbage like that. Its called the Upper Peninsula, or UP for short.
Whew! Ok, are we good?
The northern edge of that remote land of pasties, euchre and snowmobiles is all along Lake Superior. Its a good 6? 8? hour drive? Something like that. The boys insist we leave at like, 12am or some garbage, and drive all night. I was crabby about this because I was promised real sleep in a real bed. And I knew they would sit up in the front and blast the air con and...anyway...I digress.
So we drove all night and made it to Muinising, nearest town to our destination, around 6.30 or 7 am, just as the sun was rising over Lake Superior. Man...what a world to live in.
We watched the sun come up, then, all hyped up and running on excitement, we got some breakfast, (ok, alot of breakfast), drank a ton of coffee, spent too much money on permits, changed into our trail clothes, and made it to the trailhead at maybe 8.30 or 9 in the morning.
This was an intense day for me, because I don't ever get up before noon unless I'm severely jet lagged.
Less talking now, I promise...
This was a cool little spot along the trail...
The boys are probably comparing notes on pipes or something at this stage...
I swear to God, the light actually looked like this...
As you hike, its really only a short 2-3 miles in through woods until you end up at the coast.
Then the trail stretches for miles and miles along the cliffs and beaches of the lake.
Its really less of a lake and more of a freshwater inland sea.
The thing is massive...
Also I'm obsessed with textures, so there are a lot of pictures of rocks...
This was our first point of connection with the beach, so we felt compelled to kick off our shoes and explore.
Big ole pile of driftwood...
The rock in the area is mostly sandstone, which makes for some wild formations and erosion, since its so thin and brittle...
Yeah, like this shit.
Awesome.
We found a cool little natural cave and hung out there most of the afternoon.
Beardy Man didn't want to look up for this picture, and only did so because I threatened never to make roasted potatoes again.
And I botched the pic anyway...
Sacre-bleu! Envadors!
Sup, homes?
Also, since we were all hilariously sleep deprived, we all sort of stretched out on the rocks and slept in the sun for several hours. Tews reported waking up at one stage and seeing tour boats going by taking pictures of us sleeping.
They must have thought we were some sort of seals or something...
Met some nice fishermen.
Played endlessly with this dog.
"that dog's a retrievin' fool"...
Left the cave, made it to camp. Crashed the heck out.
The next day...
Beardy Man makes sooooup.
Lots of hiking...
Sup, kiddos?
Uh...here's my feet.
Some early fall color.
The darling of the Pictured Rocks...Chapel Rock.
Eenvadors! Chaaaaarrge!
Airing out the rainfly...
A blurry pic of the boys attempting to enjoy a windy sunset.
Killer skies.
Yeah. Just, yeah...
Fact: Men like to light things on fire and poke at them with sticks. The bigger the better, of course, seems to be the logic.
So fall is pretty much the greatest time to go backpacking. It's the perfect temperature, there aren't any bugs, there's almost no people...its beautiful out all around.
Also there were loads of mushrooms....
There they are a-standing in a row...bom bom bom..
Big ones!
Small ones....
Some as big as your head!
Crazy, huh?
And it was pretty much the greatest four days ever.
I stunk really badly.
It was a great trip.
It should also be noted that the boys went on and on about how they were going to "show these girls how to really play euchre" because "in the UP is the only place it really counts" and Andreea and I beat them like a million times. It was good...so very very good.
After our hike out, we took a short trip over to Marquette and ate some Thai food and ran around town for a bit before driving like mad a million hours back to Ann Arbor, which was awful. I did manage to buy a fluffy fox tail along with some smoked fish at a gas station on the way home. I want to go back....
These are from the sunset on our last night there, which also happened to be a full moon.
Just fantastic.
This kind of thing makes me so glad to be alive, and to feel so privileged to be surrounded by such beauty and wonder, to have friends who are willing to trek through woods and put up with my stench.
We are truly lucky.
