Our last hike in the UP ~ Amazing.

Sunday  [September 13th] was the last day of our Grand Tour, Emily took this 'selfie' of us while we were still at the Miner's Castle Rock lookout which you can see behind us.

Jer was beside himself when we parked.

"Mom, close your eyes and don't look!" He grabbed my hand and we walked out on a board walk [I think] and I had to keep looking down at my feet as I didn't want any surprises to trip on.

When I opened them...

I

saw

this....

and gasped. 
I did take about 20 photos of the scene in front of me with different exposures so I could eventually pick a favorite.

Very long exposure so the water and waves blended.

Yes, I used a tripod.

This is what you see if you Google Miners Rock Castle on the internet.
100's of images taken from the same exact place.

OH, I was so pleased to see this iconic place.

As we walked to another viewing area, I stopped. This was the one shot I wanted. It is framed by the trees, ...

It doesn't look like all the other photos on the internet...

It shows water blasting through the cave...

and waves blasting against the rock.

To me, this is the one I'd pick to keep forever.

We walked around to another observation point and I took this with the cell phone. These are such beautiful and unique rock formations!

Back into the car we went and headed down some back roads. 

Miner's Beach was one of those places and I found it fascinating. The beach was beautiful and the trail above the beach had some amazing Lichen!!!! AND wild blueberry plants!!!!

Miner's Beach, surfs up!
This was a fantastic spot too. But I won't bore you with more photos right now. I'll pop some in at another time.

Lichen!!!!

Wild Blueberry plants!

The forest floor above the beach was covered in them. And yes, I tasted a couple of ripe ones.

DEEE-licous.

I'm going to skip some stuff and go right to our last hike which was to Mosquito Falls and Chapel Beach. 

What no one realized was that to make the whole loop, it was 10.5 miles. Well, we read it, but I guess it didn't click in our brains. [Ever try this with a 5 yr old????]

😮😯😲

Mosquito Falls and Chapel Falls via the Chapel Loop is a popular 10.5-mile loop trail in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising, Michigan

The trail was rather demanding in some spots and in other places, the Park Service was rebuilding some board walks over wet areas to prevent erosion.

It was drizzling and a quite overcast. However, that did not dampen our spirits or attitudes. We marched on past wet lands, over marshy areas, and over roots and rocks. 

We found Mosquito Falls and I was entranced. While Jer walked off to check out the falls in one direction and Mari and Emily went in another, I climbed around  and then knew I'd found the place. 

I told Jer that I was going to climb a small bluff and release some of Rich's ashes from my necklace.

He knew this was going to be an enormous cathartic moment for me. So he crossed the river and took this GIF of me. For a long time, I couldn't move or speak. My heart felt heavy and surprisingly a bit free. It doesn't make sense to me but I knew I felt that strong connection.

And he would have approved of the spot.

The view when I turned, was this.

This image, the sound of the falls and the soft rainfall will forever be embedded in my brain. The feeling of grief, relief, and the whispers in my head of our love for each other was so strong, it could not be denied.

Jer and Emily gave me the time I needed and didn't come up the trail until I stood up and wiped my eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Me.

"Oh yes. This place. I felt it. It was right."

I got a hug from them and we continued the trail through the forest.

I felt heavier and lighter at the same time.

 

Happy Fall ~ and some more of the UP

~~~ Which means.
Winter is coming.
The Brothers Odd are getting prepared.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last stop of the first day of our whirlwind Tour was a place called Brunette Park, Michigan. At first glance it didn't look very special at all. Sandy beach, winds, waves, blowing sand, beautiful skies, and sunshine.

We walked east along the shoreline towards the trees and something began to change. There were Rock outcroppings to walk on instead of sand.

I decided this was a brilliant spot to break out my Infrared once more and use the Chrome Filter.

When we got to the rocky shore, I photographed the rocks we were walking on. To me, they were nature's works of art. If I didn't know they were rocks that I was walking on, I'd have thought they were abstract art.

I commented to Em that I'd love to have the shot below in large print on my wall. 

What looks like raised veins of white is sand that had been deposited on the rocks by waves.

We spent a lot of time here just sitting and watching the waves. The sounds of the water were so calming to me.

If allowed, I would have found a dry spot and just fallen asleep.

I did look up and my son was out playing in the water. It looked as if he was literally walking on water which I mentioned when he came back.

To which he quipped, "Oh of course! You doubted me?"

We all laughed. 

Just before we headed back to the car, I looked behind me at the pines. They were covered in some of the most intriguing Lichen I'd ever seen.

They were so beautiful and intricate.

Yeah, the kids thought I was a little funny getting excited over something like this.

But there I was, touching it and  admiring it with a beautiful lake and red rocks behind me.

Well, that is me. I like the odd things. I'd go back just to take more photos of the Lichen.

And this Lichen had a common name:

Old Man's Beard!

How cool is that?

We all slapped as much sand as we could off our feet and Jer announced that this ended our first Tour Day.

We had to go to Houghton and grab something to eat and head to the Hotel 3 hours away and get some rest before the next big day.

I'd planned on finding a spot at night along the lake shore and filming the Milky Way.

Guess who was too exhausted to think about getting up and going hiking in the middle of the night???

Yup. We all slept until just before dawn.

And we had quite the adventure come Sunday morning.

Yeah. I'm gonna leave you hanging.

Break time from the UP

Wednesday night it rained once more, I'd had spent Wednesday catching up on house stuff. Boring stuff like mowing, moving the washer, dryer, fridge, and cleaning behind all of them. 

With all the essentials done including grocery 'getting', the dogs and I crashed early.

We woke to a wet and bleak morning. The dogs had a ton of energy and I was restless. I did some business that needed getting cleared up....

--- and we jumped into the car and headed out with rain gear.

Why not? 

It was a light drizzle with no heavy rain in the forecast. Think of the freedom of being able to comfortable walk on a rainy day. It wasn't cold and yes my hiking boots got soaked.

As did my pants up to my knees.

 

However, we had the Reserve to ourselves because no other sane person would go out walking in the light rain. [Maybe]

The wet trails were not really muddy except in some spots. The dogs loved the moist air as it accentuated the scents of the deer and other animals that had followed the same trail we did.

I let them lead the way, smell the smells. Both dogs were fantastic. Charlie stayed close as usual and Hannah raced forward and back. We may have only hiked 5+ miles, but Hannah surely put on at least 20 with her puppy exhuberance.

It was nice being back in the forest alone without others. Quiet. Nothing but the droplets coming off leaves and the sounds of footfalls.

[Don't get me wrong, last weekend's whirlwind adventure was incredible, but I'm used to quiet hiking]

We had some great fungi/mushroom finds 

I find fungi to be beautiful even in its ugly form of decay.

Their shapes are curious as they spore and then die off.

This minifigure👇👇 IS on top of an expired mushroom. I know where to find them each year but I've always been too late to find them in perfect form. I always find them in this just black nasty looking state.

Obviously fit for a Vampire Queen!

I found a wonderful variety of shelf mushrooms that were quite beautiful. Mini me and the pups decided to climb around on them. I think these could be classified as Artists Conks.

With the wet weather this fall, the fungi and mushroom are so abundant in the forests. Just call me happy. 

Friday night late we had a series of heavy downpours.

This afternoon after taking the dogs for another sloppy walk in our forest, I checked the rain gauge.

Tomorrow is another day. I haven't decided on trying to roam the neighbor's desecrated forest and save on gas to get my daily dose of forest or to use my car and take some great trails at the Reserve. I'm back to 'training' for the 20 or 30 mile hike next spring.

The weather has finally gotten out of the extreme heat and humidity, so I am ready to 'rock'.

I'm considering how to keep up my hiking without breaking the bank now that gas in our town has jumped to $4.37 per gallon.

A bike ride there would take me 2 hrs. 10 hrs for walking 27 miles. 

I'll see what my budgets afford me as gas continues to jump and winter heating costs are coming.

One of my gal friends has offered to go hiking with me at the Reserve and share gas costs. I'm very open to that as I really enjoy hiking with her.

Gay Michigan

I'm going to just say this. Visiting Gay, Michigan was probably one of the most interesting places I've ever visited.

It is located in Keweenaw County. 

Copper Mining at Gay

I actually read the history of the town and was intrigued. Immigrants were taught English as well as working at the Stamping Mill. The company constructed homes and schools.

The town has a beautiful playground now that seems to be cared for by the local residents.

We decided to go visit the ruins.

The ruins inspired me to 'shoot' them in Infrared B&W. 

These miner figures were painted in various areas of the ruins. It reminded me that this area held ghosts and the history of immigrants coming to our country to work in harsh conditions and raise families. 

What was it like, how difficult was it? I was so curious I read more history of the place. 

Was it noisy? Was it smelly, was the work difficult? I couldn't help but feel the vibe of the place.

I had to take a shot of Jer walking through the ruins for perspective. Yep, it looks a bit spooky, but that is how I wanted to portray it.

Here is a photo from the Keweenaw County Historical Society:

In the photo above you can see the smoke stack, there was some sort of processing that needed a chute [????] to dump the waste out in the Lake.

 

I couldn't resist more than one angle of these wooden supports.

Who can resist a little family portrait in the ruins???

I'll go back here and there is another set of ruins that Jer says I just 'have to see'. I guess I was so fascinated by them.

And of course.

It was the perfect place to do some toy photography. Yep. I brought characters just for this place.

I won't put them all in here, but I had a fantastic series of shots.

....Oh.

And my son thoroughly got immersed in the process, we found out something we had in common.

Below.

I handed him the camera and to set up Homeless Joe and his Dog with a background of the wooden structures and alien looking landscape.

After several tries he ended up with this. I'm proud that he took me up on the challenge since he has never operated any other camera other than a cell phone.

I won't bore you with the series of photos we did while in the ruins. It was fun, creative, and so much fun for me.