Into the Wilderness
My weekend was great, especially when you consider that my Friday night was pretty much rained away. It had been a long 9 days, starting with the job interview trip and continuing with the craziness of things in the lab, and I was starting to feel drained. I decided that I needed to enact the plan that I had been mulling over for a few weeks, and thus, I decided to have a weekend of being in nature. I borrowed a tent from my friend Jacquie and westward I went to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.
I needed some time to be away from things. No lab. No worry about the money or job search. 99% out of cell phone reception. No internet, no computer, and for the most part, no electricity. There is something renewing about getting away from it all.
I would like to preface that we use the word mountain loosely in the U.P. For example, Brockway Mountain is a mere 720+ feet above Lake Superior (which is 602ish feet above sea level). Nothing in the Porcupine Mountains is above 2000 feet above sea level. Consider that the city of Denver is 5280 feet above sea level. But I digress, because it really isn't that big of a deal. Any time you get a few hundred feet above the surrounding land, you have the potential for a spectacular view.
A second preface, this is not the photo entry. I still have 350+ photos to go through, resize, and upload the ones I like. I did, however, include a few photos to add a little color to this post.
Since Friday night was rained out, I drove towards Ontonagon County Saturday a little before noon. The drive down M-26 outside of Houghton and through Ontonagon was a great start to the trip. Peak color lining the entire corridor. It was a good sign of things to come.
My first stop was Lake of the Clouds. This is the park's "moneymaker" shot. It is what you see on the post cards, and for good reason. There were a lot of people at the park this weekend to soak up some fall color and enjoy a late season trip. I didn't stay long at the Lake of the Clouds outlook, as I knew I would be back the next day.
In all, I hiked 8 miles on Saturday, and followed it up with 13 on Sunday. Between, I had a campsite reserved at the Presque Isle River Unit, the rustic campground on the west end of the park. I was far from the only one enjoying the night there. My campfire skills are not the greatest, so I ended up with a lot of flame, but not a lot of heat (if that is possible). And heat would have been a good thing. It had cleared out and the winds had died down, so the temperature plummeted. By morning, it was around a frosty 30 degrees. I shivered in my tent most of the night under multiple layers of clothes and two blankets, but I did manage some sleep. The sun rose the next morning, and the temperature shot back up, and even by the time I had done a little morning walk by the falls of the Presque Isle River (swollen from the heavy rains of Thursday/Friday), the hoodie was off. Sunday was a beautiful day, and worthy of a long hike.
For the last three weeks, Sunday has been the best day of the week as far as weather is concerned. I had spent the previous two watching football, and I wasn't going to let another gorgeous day slip away (besides, the Packers weren't playing until Monday Night).
Overall, my weekend ended hiking along an open bluff at sunset above a canopy of color below and the Lake of the Clouds in front of me. As dusk was settling in, I was arriving back at my car and ready to head home. Unfortunately, heading home meant that I had to stop at the lab and do the sampling (3 hours). And thus, not even home before the end of my weekend, I was already back into the rush of everything going on. Little rest for the weary.
I am sore today. There are a lot of things stressing me out again. Really, I am in no different shape today than I was on Friday. Nothing changed. Well, I might have changed a bit through my experience, and only for the better, but that is about it.
Even with that, I would not trade those glorious 36 hours in the wilderness area of the Western U.P. for anything.
But enough of it, have a few more pictures before I sign off (in chronological order). Hopefully there are more to come!
The view from Summit Peak, looking north over the hills and to Lake Superior on Saturday.
Walking along the Beaver Creek Trail through a wetland during my trek around the Summit Loop on Saturday afternoon.
Looking WSW from the Lake of the Clouds boardwalk area through the valley on Sunday, around noon.
I needed some time to be away from things. No lab. No worry about the money or job search. 99% out of cell phone reception. No internet, no computer, and for the most part, no electricity. There is something renewing about getting away from it all.
I would like to preface that we use the word mountain loosely in the U.P. For example, Brockway Mountain is a mere 720+ feet above Lake Superior (which is 602ish feet above sea level). Nothing in the Porcupine Mountains is above 2000 feet above sea level. Consider that the city of Denver is 5280 feet above sea level. But I digress, because it really isn't that big of a deal. Any time you get a few hundred feet above the surrounding land, you have the potential for a spectacular view.
A second preface, this is not the photo entry. I still have 350+ photos to go through, resize, and upload the ones I like. I did, however, include a few photos to add a little color to this post.
Since Friday night was rained out, I drove towards Ontonagon County Saturday a little before noon. The drive down M-26 outside of Houghton and through Ontonagon was a great start to the trip. Peak color lining the entire corridor. It was a good sign of things to come.
My first stop was Lake of the Clouds. This is the park's "moneymaker" shot. It is what you see on the post cards, and for good reason. There were a lot of people at the park this weekend to soak up some fall color and enjoy a late season trip. I didn't stay long at the Lake of the Clouds outlook, as I knew I would be back the next day.
In all, I hiked 8 miles on Saturday, and followed it up with 13 on Sunday. Between, I had a campsite reserved at the Presque Isle River Unit, the rustic campground on the west end of the park. I was far from the only one enjoying the night there. My campfire skills are not the greatest, so I ended up with a lot of flame, but not a lot of heat (if that is possible). And heat would have been a good thing. It had cleared out and the winds had died down, so the temperature plummeted. By morning, it was around a frosty 30 degrees. I shivered in my tent most of the night under multiple layers of clothes and two blankets, but I did manage some sleep. The sun rose the next morning, and the temperature shot back up, and even by the time I had done a little morning walk by the falls of the Presque Isle River (swollen from the heavy rains of Thursday/Friday), the hoodie was off. Sunday was a beautiful day, and worthy of a long hike.
For the last three weeks, Sunday has been the best day of the week as far as weather is concerned. I had spent the previous two watching football, and I wasn't going to let another gorgeous day slip away (besides, the Packers weren't playing until Monday Night).
Overall, my weekend ended hiking along an open bluff at sunset above a canopy of color below and the Lake of the Clouds in front of me. As dusk was settling in, I was arriving back at my car and ready to head home. Unfortunately, heading home meant that I had to stop at the lab and do the sampling (3 hours). And thus, not even home before the end of my weekend, I was already back into the rush of everything going on. Little rest for the weary.
I am sore today. There are a lot of things stressing me out again. Really, I am in no different shape today than I was on Friday. Nothing changed. Well, I might have changed a bit through my experience, and only for the better, but that is about it.
Even with that, I would not trade those glorious 36 hours in the wilderness area of the Western U.P. for anything.
But enough of it, have a few more pictures before I sign off (in chronological order). Hopefully there are more to come!
The view from Summit Peak, looking north over the hills and to Lake Superior on Saturday.
Walking along the Beaver Creek Trail through a wetland during my trek around the Summit Loop on Saturday afternoon.
Looking WSW from the Lake of the Clouds boardwalk area through the valley on Sunday, around noon.