Sunday, June 22, 2014

First day of summer and we wake to 49 degrees and fog.  People tell us this is an unusually wet and cold year.  Yeah.

Greg points out  two lovely cranes wondering through the campgrounds.  They mate for life and most times we have seen them in pairs. They are beautiful and stand over 4' tall.

Spent some time planning the next few days and having breakfast.  It looks like the sun is trying to break through when we leave around 9:30.   We have heard good things about Porcupine Wilderness State Park and the Lake of the Clouds, so that is on our agenda for today.

We stop at the Visitor’s Center about 11:00 and learn that to the natives, these mountains resembled porcupines, which is where the name came from.  There are several displays about the area and the Northern Goshawk which is rare but found in the park.  Opened in 1945 to save an area of forest that hadn’t been logged, about half of its 60,000 acres is virgin forest.

It is a beautiful wilderness with only one campground but many trails.  We go first to Lake of the Clouds, which is over a mile long and today is not shrouded in clouds, as it often is.  

There is a ski jump on Cooper Peak 20 miles away!  This is quite a popular area for skiing, snowmobiling and other winter sports.

Next we take the trail to Summit Peak, which we decide should be called Chipmunk Mountain instead as we see and hear lots of them along the trail, chirping, clicking squeaking  and scampering over fallen trees.

  Nice view from the tower at the top – no wonder it is popular in the fall as the view is 95% trees.

  Some interesting fungus along the trail too.

We next stop at a waterfalls called Overlooked Falls,  which is down a little dirt road. Pretty but kind of buggy and boggy.

Overlooked Falls

Presque Isle River and Manido Falls ( meaning  “spirit” or “ghost” in Ojibwa).  We also do a short trail to two other Falls, Nawadaha and Manabezho. 

While Summit Peak was hot and very humid, here at the Falls it is cool – almost cold!

We see this Hiawatha carving in Wakefield, just outside the park, and continue on to Ironwood. Lots of beautiful lupine in fields and along the road.

Greg asks someone where we might watch the US Soccer Match and we are directed to the Maplewood Steakhouse, which also has a Sports Bar attached.  

Greg checks and they tell us to come on in,  can use their wi-fi  and watch the earlier game till US Game starts.  Nice friendly folks. There are a few people there to see the game and by gametime quite a nice crowd.  Greg tries a few local brews and we enjoy some soup, and ribs while watching.  Disappointing finish when Portugal ties the US 2-2 in extra time, but…at least it wasn’t a loss!

We’ll sleep at Walmart tonight but it was surprisingly buggy so we didn’t have a very restful night.