Family Camping Trip - Lake Superior

      A few years back, I took the kids up to explore the area in the U.P.  (the Upper Penninsula of Michigan), along the coast of Lake Superior.  We camped at a lovely little county park called "Little Girls Point" just across the Wisconsin boarder.  It wasn't very crowded and right along the shore. We could walk back and forth to the beach from our camp.

      This beach is also kown as a great area to find a special kind of rock that was discoverd in 2017.   These rocks are called "Yooperlites" because the man who discovered them named them after where they were found - in the "U.P".  People from that part of Michigan are called "Yoopers".  You have to use a UV flashlight at night to see these rocks glow at night.  Otherwise, they just look like regular speckled grey rocks.   Here are yooperlite photos by somebody who is much better at using a camera at low light levels than I am!

So, the goal was to hunt for Yooperlites, and bring back a huge haul like we did a few years back. As you will see, the trip we got was not what we planned. 

I'd say it was still a good one, just not the one we'd expected.

  The 5 hour drive north went well.  We enjoyed a new car game called  "Shotgun" that I found on Amazon. (I'd highly reccomend it.)  It was fun for all ages, 

When you get into Northern Wisconsin, it's like you are in a different state.  There are enough deer hunters that they sell corn at the gas stations. This was a bit baffling, and I couldln't believe anyone would actually buy it. 

Then the next truck that pulled in got a bag, paid for it, and drove off.  There must be lots of full stomached deer in Northern Wisconsin.

There are other things about the area that I found even more baffling, and slightly amusing. 

 This boat was one.

We got to our campsite on Lake Superior just at sunset.  The view from our site was amazing!

Sylvia was a great help at setting up the tents.  Sean set out on a frantic search for firewood. We were far from any towns, and the roadside firewood stand was sold out. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any for our first night, but tracked down some the next day.

This is the view from our campsite just after sunrise the next morning. It was really lovely!

Luckily, we brough along our dutch oven for a lot of the coocking,  because we only had firewood for half the trip. Sean was a genius with getting the charcoal to just the right temperature.  We found a bellows at the second hand store a year ago.  Ephraim was very excited to use it.

 Sean secretly wishes he was a blacksmith.

I should've taken more pictures of the tasty dutch oven meals we had.  My favorite was chicken and biscuits the second night!  So creamy and delicious!  We also had a nice pineapple upside down cake the first night.   The picture below was a bacon/cheese/vegi omlette for our breakfast.

Meals were one of the things that went even better than planned. 

If you drive about 10 minutes from the campsite, you get to a trailhead for Superior Falls.  I had never been there, but had read that it was a nice hike, so off we went!

After a really steep descent, which my knees will never let me forget, we got to a lovely spot along the lake where a river ran into it.

There were piles of sticks that had washed up on the shore.  Ephraim and Sean had a difficult time deciding which ones to adopt as walking sticks.   

That's the kind of problem you like to have when out hiking.

There was also an entire beach full of rocks of all sizes to hurl into the water.  This is another great item to have on a hike with a ten year old boy.

I watched for a while, sitting on a bench to let my knees recuperate, then I couldn't stand it any longer.  With all the straight sticks laying about, and all the rocks piled up, I had the urge to get in some serious batting practice!  This was a lot of fun!

It's very satisfying to hear the sound of a rock smacking a stick, and then watch it sail out into a giant lake.  Home run!  

Sylvia found a bunch of washed up birch barch that she made arm guards out of.

Very stylish!

She wore them for a while as we continued our hike, until she decided they were making her too hot. We learned something new, birchbark is a good insulator!

We hiked a bit farther up the river, and came to the lower section of the falls.  The bank was nothing but skipping rocks, begging to be skipped.  We were all impressed that Sean  had enough "zing" on his rocks, that they could skip clear across the river, multiple times, and still smack with a ringing sound on the cliffs across from us.

Some cyclists came hiking along the trail while we were rock skipping.  They stipped down to their biking shorts and went swimming in the river. It was quite deep out towards the falls. One  biker swam clear over to them. I was so envious! I almost jumped in to try it myself, but didn't want to hike back in soggy, dripping pants.  Next year, I'm going to do this hike again, and pack a swimsuit!

Ephraim had lots of fun practicing skipping rocks. He didn't know how to do it at first, and was trying to throw them like a frisbee. (Facepalm!)  By the end of this trip, his record was 11 skips!

We went back to our campsite, and down to the beach just below it.  I loved sitting by Sylvia and sifting through all the different rocks. It was really relaxing to feel around for the smoothest ones, or search for ones that had the perfect contures for rubbing your thumb across.

   We did find some Yooperlites that first night, but only a few. Two reasons: There were a LOT more hunters up there this year. The word has definately spread. Lots of families with kids swarmed the beach right after sunset.   We also ran into flashlight problems. Our good UV flashlight had the rechargable batteries die, and I didn't pack the recharger.  Our other UV flashlight (which I had just bought the day we left for the trip) was just pathetic.  I have strong opinions now about the quality of UV flashlights. In case any of you are ever in the market, I'd reccomend getting a uvBeast flashlight off Amazon. 

Despite the meager Yooperlite haul, we still managed to take back several pounds of "regular" non-glowing rocks.. because hey.. each rock was saying 'TAKE ME HOME! I WILL BE YOUR SPECIAL ROCK FOREVER!"  And we listened.

Sitting on the beach in the afternoon sun turned into laying on the beach in the afternoon sun.  

I realized that everyone on the beach was staring at the ground (there were lots of rock hunters looking for agates in the daytime).  They were missing some really beautiful clouds!

I loved the sensation of laying flopped (ungracefully I'm sure) over a pile of beach rocks, staring up at the clouds, listening to the waves and seagulls.  It was like there was nothing to be stressed about in the whole world. 

It was a brief window of perfect balance in the universe, and I was the only one who knew it.

Eventually, I got up and joined Sylvia and Ephraim in the REALLY cold water. It felt good on my feet and knees (who were still screaming complaints about the hike from earlier in the day.)

 Ephraim enjoyed diving down and pulling up interesting rocks from the bottom of the lake floor. I bet he would like scuba diving.

Sean and I both enjoyed just sitting and reading our light weight mystery books on the beach while the kids played.  This was how a vacation is expected to feel.  I find it really interesting to look back at theat afternoon, and know that in about 3 hours, we will have adrenaline shooting through our bodies, as we mentally fight down the spikes of fear.

That evening, a storm rolled in.  I thought we could ride it out easy in the tent.  We had snacks, a deck of cards,  and lawn chairs set up.  We were ready to party!   It was all cozy, until the wind started whipping in so loud that you couldn't hear each other yell "Go Fish!" during the card game.  The lightening and thunder starting booming right above us.  There was less than a second gap.  We were right in the middle of a serious storm. It was dark, scary,  and loud. I was worried our tent fly would sail off to Mexico with the winds.  Sylvia left her own tent, and joined us in the large one between thunderclaps. We started a new card game.  We tried to keep it going so Ephraim would have someting to focus on other than the storm. 

 It was an intense hour. 

Eventually, it slowed down to a drizzle.  We tried to yooperlite hunt along the beach in the rain, but it was pretty cold and miserable. We went back to the tents to get warm in sleeping bags, only to find that they were all getting wet.  Our tents were both leaking in various places.  Sylvia dashed to our tent, which wasn't much drier, looking for a place to sleep. We told her to sleep in the car.   It was looking like it would be a long night, with constant drips coming down from the roof.  

After sitting in the soggy tent a bit, Sean and I decided it was better to pack up right then, even though it was still raining, and drive the 5 hours home to finally sleep in a dry, warm beds.

I was worried that this could've soured the whole trip, but everyone kept in good spirits! Sylvia helped tons by taking down her tent alone, and then helping Sean pack stuff into the trunk.   I helped pack up  the large tent, and Ephraim happily watched Bluey on the ipad in the car. It went surprsingly smoothly, despite the rain!

We took turns drining home. Sean naviagated the remote northern roads and avoided all the corn fed deer.  I dozed on and off with Ephraim flopped on my shoulder in the backseat.   I took the  midnight - 3AM driving shift. A lot of it was stressful, due to the constant rainstorms we were driving through on unfamilar roads.  

      One of my favorite memories of the whole trip was between 2 and 3AM. I was tired of listening to my audio book, and need something peppier. Sylvia was riding shotgun, so I asked her to pull out her phone and give me a tour of her musical downloads.  It was really fun to hear what she had, and nice hour to spend bonding with my favorite road trip co-pilot.

 Jamming along to My Little Pony songs at 3AM as we pulled into our driveway was a great way to end the trip!  We fell into our beds and slept solidly.  I woke up at 10AM, grateful we had driven home.

The next two days were spent with our lawn covered in tents and sleeping bags .

I felt a bit annoyed the hammock was supporting drying camping items instead of supporting my tired body... but what can you do when all your fencetops, and clotheslines, and chairbacks are full?

Finally, two days later, all the tents, cots, bags, and bedding were dry and put away.  It wasn't exactly the trip that we had expected, but it was still a good one.  I think it felt like a postiive adventure because of the upbeat attitudes all along the way. There were plenty of chances for cranky, dissapointed voices to sound out, (firewood, weather, flashlights, etc) but everyone took the unexpected set backs in stride.

 I was really proud of my people. 

 They are a fun bunch to get rained out with!