Aug 25-28, 2009 Days 57-60

Well, it is almost over: our trip of a lifetime, our Alaskan Adventure. What an amazing 2 months on the road. Having the opportunity to see Alaska and Canada, and all the states in between, up close and personal, was spectacular and unforgettable! For those of you that tripped along with us via the blog, I’d like to thank you for being there with us “in spirit”, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it, too.

The last 3 days of our adventure were spent in familiar territory: Munising, MI. We like to think of Munising as our “home away from home” in the UP. We’ve been doing yearly vacations in this neck of the woods for the last 10 years. Every time we come up here, we discover new and beautiful things. This year we visited a beautiful river, the Hurricane River, which flows into Lake Superior near Grand Marais, MI. We also discovered some gorgeous uninhabited inland lakes with water as nearly clear as tap water: Little Beaver, Big Beaver, and Kingston Lakes.

We arrived in Munising on Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning, Len’s friend, Raoul Revord (and his significant other, Catherine), invited us over to their beautiful log cabin on Upper Twin Lake (about 15 minutes outside of Munising). They cooked a delicious breakfast of sausages, fresh peaches, and Raoul’s famous French pancakes. Before I could even ask for the recipe (which I was just about to do), I was informed that it is a secret family recipe that is passed down from generation to generation. (Darn!) At any rate, it was a wonderful breakfast and a warm and hospitable “welcome home” from friends. Thank you again, Raoul and Catherine! (pic attached)

Thursday night, our last night in Munising, Len and I had a campfire on the beach of Lake Superior and watched the sunset. We relived the highs and the lows of our trip and drank a toast of thanks for our safety and well-being. It was a perfect ending to a once in a lifetime journey! (pic attached)

As I type, we are once again inside the truck on our final leg. We are just about to cross the Mighty Mackinac Bridge. (pic attached) Only a few hours from HOME!! My heart is pounding with anticipation of seeing my family, my friends, my dog, and, yes, my memory foam bed!

Alaska or Bust 2009: June 29 – August 28, 2009. 12,837 miles. Been there done that. :-)

The End

Lake of the Clouds - unadulterated

Lake of the Clouds is over a mile long, yet only 15 feet deep.

Aug 22-24, 2009 Days 54-56

Woo Hoo!! We’re in Michigan!!! We entered the UP about 3 p.m. on Saturday. What a great feeling!

As expected, the Porcupine Mountains don’t even come close to the purple mountain majesties of the Rockies or the glacier-capped mountain ranges in Alaska. That’s not to say that the Porkies are not beautiful in their own right. Indeed, they are uniquely beautiful, and I’m glad I finally got to see Michigan’s very own “mountains”.

We camped in the Union Bay Campground of the Porcupine Mountains State Park. It is one of two campgrounds in this state park; Presque Isle is the other campground. Union Bay is a modern campground (camping lingo for “every site has an electrical outlet”), and it sits right on the Lake Superior shoreline. But, the sites are too close together, in my opinion. If I go back there, I would opt for the Presque Isle campground, which has half the number of camping sites that Union Bay does, but the sites are considerably more spacious. Presque Isle is a rustic campground, meaning there is no electricity, but you can use generators. It sits high on a bluff overlooking Lake Superior.

There are miles and miles of hiking trails in the Porkies. We hiked the East and West River Trails, the Summit Peak Tower Trail, and we went for a short walk to the viewing deck overlooking the Lake of the Clouds. It’s the first hike in the woods we’ve taken since we left Alaska and Canada where I haven’t turned around mid-hike and said to Len, “Did you remember the bear mace?” Yes, I know the UP has a bear population, but there’s something safe and secure about being within the confines of one’s own home state.

Attached are pics of Presque Isle Falls, Presque Isle River, and Lake of the Clouds. The UP certainly has its gems!

Happy Birthday Brady-boy!! Can’t wait to see you! And, to my gorgeous nieces, too: Chelsea and Charissa!

Aug 19-21, 2009 Days 51-53

We left Devils Lake, North Dakota on Wednesday morning and set our sails for Minnesota. Now that we’re closing in on home, and we still have a good 10 days left in our allotted time schedule, we’ve decided to ease up on the reins a bit, and even go so far as to venture off course a little. We’ve been traveling US Hwy 2 on our way home, but, when we got into Minnesota we decided to stray north a bit and go up the coast of Lake Superior a short ways. We found a campground right on the shores of Lake Superior in Two Harbors, MN and planted ourselves for two days. I couldn’t believe the size of some of the barges that we watched come into the harbor from our campsite. (pic attached)

The walking/bike trails along the western shores of Lake Superior are extensive in this area and we took advantage of them. We had the added bonus of wild raspberry and thimbleberry bushes being plentiful along the pathways and being ripe for the picking. Yum!

Thursday we took a drive northwards up the coast and checked out Gooseberry Falls State Park and Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, both Minnesota state parks. Even though it was a rainy, overcast day, it did not dampen our enthusiasm or our appreciation for this “superior” area. As you head north, there are even more state parks along the coastline, but, we ran out of time. We may have to put this area on our “check back later” list. (pics attached)

On Friday we left Minnesota, but, stuck close to the Lake Superior shoreline. We found a beautiful state park campground in Superior, Wisconsin, just across the Minnesota/Wisconsin border, called Amnicon Falls State Park, only 50 miles down the road from our last campsite. The ranger at Amnicon Falls told us to be sure to check out the Big Manitou Falls in Pattison State Park just 15 miles down the road. Big Manitou Falls (a 165 foot drop) are the largest falls in the state of Wisconsin. Being in Minnesota and Wisconsin really gives us a feel for “home”. I think it’s all the trees and water, minus the mountains.

Speaking of mountains, tomorrow we have reservations at Porcupine Mountains State Park in the UP of Michigan. I realize that the Porkies will be somewhat anti-climatic after having just left the Rockies, but, oh well. I’ve never been there and it’s someplace I’ve always wanted to check out. Ready or not, here we come Porkies!

Aug 16-18, 2009 Days 48-50

Having reached the Lower 48, it was like beginning a new journey: the journey HOME! We figured we still have 2 weeks of our “adventure” left. So, we set out Sunday morning, bright and early, ready to explore some new places/states. Montana being first on the list.

The roads in north eastern Montana were long and seemingly endless. The scenery was quite boring at first, but then it became very interesting. Very strange looking land masses and stone formations. Later, I read that the area we traveled through was called the Hell Creek Formation, where they have been able to extract evidence that a gigantic meteorite or asteroid struck the earth 65 million years ago. Many dinosaur fossils, including triceratops and tyrannosaurus rex have been found in this area. (pics attached)

We found a campground on Fort Peck Lake in Fort Peck, MT on Sunday night and decided to take a break from the road and unwind a little. We stayed there Sunday and Monday nights.

On Tuesday, the 18th, we hit the road again. We finished Montana and started with North Dakota. Not a lot to gawk at along the North Dakota highways. Pretty flat country with a lot of grain fields. And the road construction….arggghhh!! There were stretches 13 miles long where the road was under repair. We asked one road construction worker how they could get away with such long stretches. She said, “I don’t know, but, I get asked that a LOT!” (Thank god for books on compact discs or I could die of boredom out here on the road!)

We stayed in a campground on Devils Lake in North Dakota Tuesday night – the largest natural lake in ND. Another long, 9 hour day on the road! We were able to unwind at our campsite with a beautiful sunset, tho’. (pic attached)

Happy Birthday brotha’ Dave!!

Aug 15, 2009 Day 47

Banner Day: BACK IN THE US OF A!!!

The day started out with sunshine and blue skies, just as we had hoped! We decided to take advantage of our beautiful campground location and went for a hike along the Jonas Creek. As the trail proceeded up and up, the creek became louder, bigger, and faster. There were gorges and waterfalls and an ever constant background of the snowcapped Rockies. It was an invigorating hike (to say the least), and gave us the boost we needed to get back in the truck.

The remainder of the Icefields Parkway drive was as beautiful as the first time we drove it. When the vista is that breathtaking, the miles seem to go by faster, too. (pics attached)

From there it was on to Calgary, Alberta. It was a bit of an adjustment having to deal with big city highways again, but, we breezed thru’ it, all the while marveling at the surrounding Rocky Mts. It’s easy to see how Calgary was picked as an Olympic City. It is a gorgeous location.

We pushed on, and even tho’ we had promised ourselves we were going to make our days on the road shorter, we were like horses drawn to the barn. We crossed the border in Sweetgrass, Montana at 9 p.m. A half an hour later we were bedding down on US soil, ready for some sweet apple pie dreams!

Aug 13 & 14, 2009 Days 45 & 46

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day. We continued to barrel our way thru’ Canada. We spent 11 hours on the road and traveled 482 miles. We’re becoming a little road weary. Did I say a “little” weary? Correct that: VERY road weary! It’s not that Canada doesn’t make for a very scenic drive; it’s just that it’s such a BIG country, with a LOT of miles to cover.

On Friday, we ventured into Alberta, Canada. We decided we wanted to take the Icefields Parkway again on the home stretch. We never “ooo-ed and ahhh-ed” on this trip as much as we did on the Icefields Parkway on our way to Alaska. It was/is by far the prettiest stretch of road we have traveled. It takes you right thru’ the Canadian Rockies and two national parks: Jasper and Banff. They charge you $20 to take this route (park entrance fee), but it is 200 miles of divine beauty.

About 30 miles into our drive on the Icefields Parkway, the rain clouds moved in and the mountain tops and the icefields became obscured. There are several gorgeous campgrounds along the Parkway, so we picked one (Jonas Creek Campground) and camped for the night, hoping that the morning would bring back the sun and the blue skies.

Happy Birthday Greg, Sara, and Chris!! We miss you!!