Sleeping Bear Dunes Part I

Well I thought I had a great night of sleep last night but it turns out I slept wrong and I could barely walk on my right leg all day (never mind the blisters I developed from my 15 miles off hiking yesterday). I think my cot is to blame. I got this cot off of Craigslist in Denver and it looks like one of those folding stadium chairs except it’s a cot. I slept on it for 6 weeks last year and as the weeks went on I managed to snap off/rip many of the things that hold the fabric together. So basically it’s now just a pile of metal with fabric loosely draped over top.

So let’s recap: Day3= sunburned, gritty with sand, stung by various forms of demon creatures, starved and limping.

(Lake Michigan)

I headed south out of the UP and drove over to the Western Shores to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Mom had texted me and told me the Blue Angels would be at the Traverse City Cherry Festival (where I was passing though) so I got really excited. However, I got there at 10:30 and the show didn’t start til 2:00 and the traffic was horrible and I was overwhelmed at all the people so I kept driving (as much as I could in a traffic jam). As many towns as I drove through, the one I remember most is Charlevoix, MI. They have petunias lining both sides of the roadway from city limit to city limit (5 miles!) I thought it was cute when I first drove in and then I realized that it just kept going. What an amazing town that obviously takes pride in themselves.I arrived at Sleeping Bear dunes and my first stop was the gift shop. Last year I went to over 20 National Park sites and never bought more than a postcard but for some reason I went on a shopping spree and bought not only postcards, but also a bumper sticker and a 1000 piece puzzle! Thanks to Ken Burns’ (no relation) documentary there is now National Park Scrabble, Uno, Monopoly plus a plethora of other branded merchandise. I wonder if you’re allowed to register with the National Parks for gifts…

I limped out of there and headed out to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. There really were only a couple overlooks worth stopping at. Most were just pull offs explaining the flora.
I almost didn’t make it out of one overlook with my clothes on (I know, typical Kelly). Anyway, this overlook allowed you to walk out on the dunes on a “boardwalk”. I headed out but as soon as I left the forest I felt like I had entered the Sahara. The wind was blowing so hard it completely covered the boardwalk and children were running around screaming with their eyes closed because the sand was literally blowing into your skin. I of course trudged on to take pictures. The farthest overlook was tame but at the next overlook the wind was whipping so hard I swear it almost blew my clothes off! I ended up plastered against the railing trying to keep the front of my shirt down while I held onto my shirt and shorts behind my back with my one hand and took pics with another. I didn’t dare ask anyone to take my picture for fear of what would happen. They had to be hurricane force winds. Of course there was also another one of those sand cliff trails that Michigan seems to be so fond of. I stumbled out of there and tried to catch my breath and see what was left of my skin.
I got off the scenic drive and headed to the Dune Climb. Luckily the wind wasn’t nearly as bad because I was on the land side of the dunes and not the lake side. By this point I didn’t want to do anything but figured I’m there so I have to do it. It wasn’t like Great Sand Dunes in CO. Nope this was one straight up dune (that's the sky in the pic below, not the lake). I got to the top of the main dune and took some pics and went back down. No way was I doing more than that. It was refreshing to turn around at the top and see Glen Lake and a cute little farmhouse in the distance. Almost worth the climb… almost.

Picture Rocks Part II

After I stopped running and put my shoes on, I continued on back to the trail-head. There was another waterfall from the same trail-head that I felt obligated to do even though by that point I had blisters and was limping. I was pounding along the trail with my head down when all of a sudden I heard a crash and I looked up and saw two bear cubs! I was not at all expecting bears in MI. Once again I am convinced Michigan is trying to kill all its tourists. Everywhere I've been where bears are even remotely possible in a 200 mile radius there are warning signs posted everywhere. I never saw one sign telling me there were bears. So either MI doesn't care to warn people or I saw some vagrant bears. I couldn't get my camera out quick enough to take pics. I didn't see a Mama bear so I hurried out of there. After I kept hiking I saw a family with kids hiking back so I told them I saw two cubs and they made some joke about it eating their children. BEARS ARE NO JOKE PEOPLE!! Cubs=Mama Bear. Mama Bear=Death. Idiots. I snapped a pic of Mosquito falls, turned around and stomped on back. My next stop was Miners Castle. It was stunning! It was just a few overlooks but it was so pretty. On my way to one of the overlooks 2 women in Indian getup were ahead of me and this little girl was coming from the other direction and she says as loud as she can "MOM LOOK THAT'S AN INDIAN!!" She then repeated her observation even louder when her parents tried to ignore her. I'm not sure if the lady understood what the girl was saying but she did notice that everyone was looking at her. How embarrassing. There was also a group of barefoot guys in bathing suits trying to figure out how to get back to their car. Apparently they had dove in 7 miles up the coast and swam on down, exploring caves along the way. Seriously, I thought I was a more intrepid tourist than most but these Yoopers got me beat. I stopped at one more overlook to get a view of the cliffs from the other side.
My last stop was one more waterfall, Munising Falls. They were right in town and were neat to see.
I couldn't walk on my right leg anymore and I was starving for some real food. So what's a girl to do in the Upper Peninsula? Why, grab a pasty of course! What is a pasty you ask? Well its chicken, onion, and potato in a pastry crust. Man, they are hearty! I found the last site at a 6 site campground and managed to get my tent up, limp off to the bathroom and collapse into my broken cot. At least I was full from my pasty.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Part I

So I have to split July 3rd into two days because so much happened and I have so much to say about it. Saturday my destination was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was the along the shores of Lake Superior and it was gorgeous!! I grew up around Lake Ontario and never thought the Great Lakes were something to be marveled over. This water was blue/green and clear as could be. It reminded me of Florida actually (but 20 degrees cooler on its hottest day). My first stop was outside of Grand Marais, Michigan. I hiked out to the Grand Sable Dunes.I had been to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado 3 times so I wasn't as impressed by the size of these sand dunes. However, I was impressed at the sheer cliffs and "ghost forests" that they formed. A ghost forest is when a forest grows but then the dunes take over and starve out the trees to they are "ghosts". There were really no trails so I hiked over to the shore and the sand just dropped off a cliff so I became a little more cautious. The oddest thing was hiking through the forest and then the trail turns to sand and then you are in the middle of dunes and then there's a Great Lake in front of you. Quite the changing ecosystems. I then hiked over to Sable Falls. They were very picturesque.
My next stop was the Log Slide overlook. Apparently the UP relied on timber, copper and ore for their economy in the past and this area was where a lot of timber was harvested. So I hiked out and I see the following signThat's right. This park lets people fall down a sheer sandy cliff that apparently was previously used to shove logs down!! I didn't think anybody would actually do it since it takes less than a minute to go down and about an hour to come back up. But of course, there were some idiots doing it. When I stepped out of the forest and onto the sand I was immediately swarmed by flies. I wasn't that concerned until I realized these flies sting! What!? What kind of heinous devil spawn of a fly are these things? I had never heard of killer flies but these things were swarming me and I could barely take any pictures. I barely lasted a minute there and I ran back to my car through the woods like I was on fire. The main road through the park was closed for construction so I headed back and took a 12 mile detour down a dirt road. Every roadtrip I'm on I always hit at least one dirt road, usually unintentionally. Luckily, this one wasn't in too bad a shape and it shaved about an hour off the detour I thought I had to take. I then caught another 5 mile long dirt road to a trailhead. I hiked to Chapel Falls. The nice thing about Michigan is that it's covered in trees so the hike was nice and shady. The Fall were pretty. I decided to hike 1.5 miles further to Chapel Beach.
There's a really pretty rock (Chapel Rock of course) that sits above the beach. I was walking past it and thought, oh my gosh this is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen! It's crystal clear water and there's Chapel Rock and then a little waterfall that runs into Lake Superior and the beach runs along the shore until it hits these beautiful cliffs (the pictured rocks). I started running down to the water and all of a sudden here come the damn satan flies! Now I realized why this beach was nearly deserted. I was so hot I dove into the water in my jean shorts and yellow tank top and glasses. I was so disappointed because I wanted to spend some time relaxing at this gorgeous spot but I couldn't escape the flies. After submersing myself as much as possible, I surfaced to leave. I sighted in my shoes and bag on shore and took a deep breath and burst out of the water, ran across the burning sand, grabbed my shoes in one hand and my bag in another and took off running through the forest. I was soaked and my hair was dripping onto my glasses so I couldn't see and my feet were covered in dirt and I was swatting the flies so I got sand and dirt all over me. I'm pretty sure the other hikers thought I was some feral creature running through the forest.

Mackinac Island

Friday morning I still had another 5.5 hours to go to get to Mackinac Island. I was exhausted when I got there. I have never driven so much on a roadtrip. My usual preference is to make lots of little stops along the way. Last summer I don't think I ever drove more than 4 hours in a day. But it was worth it when I got to Mackinac. I traveled up on the River Road scenic byway along the coast of Lake Huron which was pretty.
I stopped in Rogers City, MI to see the World Largest Limestone Quarry. I guess it was cool. I had to drive across the Mackinac Bridge which is America's longest suspension bridge at 5 miles long. It was pretty impressive. When I got to the end there was a toll bridge and when I pulled up to the window the toll agent said "you're all set". I said "excuse me?" and she told me that the guy in front of me had paid for me. I was too stunned to do anything so I drove away but when I came back Sunday I paid for the person behind me to keep paying it forward. I had just missed the ferry from St. Ignace so I wandered around the boardwalk and waited for the next one. I caught the 12:30 ferry. I heard the people behind me mention that they were considering going to a dude ranch next summer so I turned around and told them all about dude ranches. I couldn't resist spreading the good word. I shoved my way off the ferry and went straight to the bike shop. I should mention that Mackinac Island doesn't allow any motor vehicles so the only mode of transport is horse or bike. There's tons of hotels so all the guests have their bags loaded on wagons to be delivered while they ride in a horse drawn wagon. It's so idyllic. I went up to the bike rental window and told the girl to give me the cheapest thing that rolls. So she gave me this:It was so old school that I had to pedal backwards for brakes. My first stop was Arch Rock which was gorgeous. Mackinac has an 8 mile long road that goes along the perimeter so I pedaled along taking pics along the way. I was amazed at how blue and clear the water is! I stopped at the Little Stone Church which was really cute. I went up to the Grand Hotel which has the longest porch in the world. You have to pay to walk on it but I wandered around the front taking pictures. It was gorgeous. They also have a neat topiary of a horse drawn carriage.
I explored the stables as well which were quite fancy. I then raced down the hill on my bike to return it on time. I spent the rest of the day wandering around the village and exploring the little shops. I saw a huge freighter go by and bought some of their infamous fudge, vanilla pecan. Mmmmm :) One hotel had all these flags and kites flying in the air and it was really pretty. I caught the 5pm ferry back. I drove about an hour to my campground. I thought I would have to fight for a spot but it was nearly empty. I had a great site by a beautiful lake. I'm so glad I went to Mackinac. It was such a beautiful place (although I could have done without the strong downwind stench of horse manure).

4.5 days, 1700 miles

I just started work 3 weeks ago and I was pleased to find out that we had off from July 2nd-5th. To me, days off= roadtrip. I don't think I've ever really been on vacation in my entire life. Even when my parents would take us places as kids, each day would be so packed full of stuff to do and see that we usually came home even more exhausted than when we left. We even did Gettysburg and Washington D.C. in a weekend and I don't even know how that's possible with a family of 5! I just think there is so much to see and do in this world and you're not going to see much tanning your hide by a pool. So that's my "vacation" philosophy.Anyway, I had a couple destinations in mind but then I remembered that last year Grandma and Grandpa Doyle had gone to Mackinac Island in Michigan and loved it so I decided to go there. I also figured that this was the only time of year I would want to go to Michigan since in the winter it turned into a frozen wasteland. Well I don't know what to say about Michigan. It was gorgeous obviously but every night I went to bed and felt utterly exhausted and just glad I made it through. I'll get into more detail later on but suffice to say this was the most intense roadtrip I've done. Not even superseded by the GAT (which p.s. was one year ago. You can look to the archives of my blog on the right hand side of the page for the full recap)The trip started out badly because I didn't have Jack by my side. He was experiencing some functional difficulties so he had to go in for repair. Well apparently they just replaced him!! I plugged him in, eager to get going and who should start talking but some American bitch, Samantha. I wanted none of that so I sought Jack out and he was nowhere to be found! There wasn't even an American male option. I was stick with the snooty Australian Lee. I don't want some foreign guy giving me directions around America. Ugh, I miss my Jack :(
I went straight across Canada to save time and had no problems at the Canadian border. I crossed back into MI around 10:30 pm. I handed the border patrol guy my passport and he stepped back into his booth and said "so how many times have you been through my station today?" I didn't say anything because I didn't think he was talking to me. Then he yells "Ma'm!?" and I said "Oh, this is my first time... Why? Is there an initiation?" For some reason I tend to get saucy around authority figures, and it was made even worse by the fact that I had worked 9 hours and driven 5 hours so I was a bit punchy. Luckily, he didn't get mad he just said "You look familiar that's all". He handed me back my passport and said "Have a good night Mrs. Burns". I replied with "Thanks, it's Miss Burns". OMG! I sped out of there before I got detained. I drove another hour and crashed in Flint, MI for the night. What a way to start.