For Suzanne's 40th birthday, she asked for a backpacking trip. After months of planning, it was finally time. The trip consisted of a thru-hike along the Lakeshore Trail (a part of the North Country Trail) through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The start point was Grand Marais and the end--Munising Falls, Munising. We spent her actual birthday hanging out in Grand Marais and eating two fine meals (and some good local beer) and the Lake Superior Brewing Company.
The light at the end of the Grand Marais breakwall.
Supposedly, there was a seasonal road somewhere near here that wasn't plowed, but for the life of us we couldn't find anything that even came close to looking like a road (even by UP standards).
The first half hour of hiking was a little tense. It was raining off and on and the trail was not marked. We ended up hiking down a steep hill of beach sand (basically an overgrown dune) and found ourselves on the beach not sure if we would be able to get back up to the trail. Thankfully we ran into a woman on the beach who thought there was a staircase going up next to the waterfall a mile or so down the beach. Turns out the trail was located on the beach (with no signage along the way).
Meanwhile, back in Marquette the kids were having a blast with grandpa C and Sandy, who treated them to a trip to Frosty Treats.
It was very windy our first day of hiking, with some pretty impressive waves on Lake Superior. We decided to forego filtering water that night in hopes that the waves would calm down by morning. This decision was made easier after watching a guy lose the pot he was washing in the crashing waves. It was much calmer the next morning and we were able to get and filter plenty of water to get back on the trail.
Somewhere along the way (literally in the middle of nowhere) we stumbled upon this car. Grandpa C thought (when we showed him the picture) that it was probably from the 40s.
We found a nice creek to take a break and "ice" the feet. Beautiful scenery and it was great to get the boots off for awhile.
Very cool log bridge, we crossed a few minutes after taking this picture.
After another long day of hiking, we made it to Chapel Rock, our campground for night two. We got camp set up and had dinner on Chapel Beach before calling it a night.
Our final day started with blue skies and fabulous scenery.
And 45 miles later, we popped out into the parking lot at Munising Falls, jumped in the car and headed to Munising for dinner before heading home. It was a great trip, with some long hiking days (14.5-16.3 miles each day), but very rewarding with some wonderful views.
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