Keweenah Peninsula: May 27-28, part 2

Continuing from yesterday...

Sunday, May 27th

The day started out with pouring rain.  Joe and I went out for breakfast.  What started out as "just breakfast" turned into the entirety of our activities for the morning.  It took 15 minutes for them to seat us, probably another 15 to bring us menus and water, and then we sat and waited for our food for another half an hour.  Pancakes, scrambled eggs, nothing that should have taken that long!  I think it was just the first busy weekend, two new and stressed out waitresses, and perhaps a slow kitchen staff.  However, I was irked.  Good thing there was wi-fi: Joe and I spent our looooong wait enjoying the wonders of the internet.  I ate the whole giant plate of food out of spite and determination, and I regretted it later with a stomachache.

We went for a drive, hoping to find the Estivant Pines, but were not successful.  The signage was kind of confusing, the road was muddy and uneven, and I was still grumpy from the breakfast debacle.  We needed to cheer up...time for ghost towns and copper mines!

I asked the proprietor of our motel about mines in the area, and he suggested the Delaware Mine.  I will not torture you all with Gimli jokes ("and they call it a mine.  A MINE!!!")...okay, just once.  :-)

Apparently there were no tall miners!  Joe was hunched over much of the time.

After a short video about the history of copper mining in Copper Harbor, we donned our excellent Miner's Hats and headed down the 100 steps to the top level of the mine, 110 feet underground.  It was very cold and damp, but very neat.

Long creepy mine tunnel, lit at the levels that the miners would have had.

The tunnels went off in either direction, and it is kind of hard to say how long they were.  We certainly didn't zip down the tunnels, but they felt hundreds of feet long each.  There were other people down there with us, but it still felt how eerie and old.  Joe mentioned that there were more levels below - going down to 1,400 feet - and they were all flooded.  We saw a few mine shafts that lead to deeper levels that were filled with water.  All of the timbers, the mining cars, personal belongings - all left behind and covered with a thousand feet of water.  I started thinking about drowned miners, trapped forever in the depths. 

Some copper miners of olde: note the candles on their mining hats.

I completely freaked myself out but managed to hold it together until we got outside.  I do wish I'd had more pictures of the mine tunnels - but it's not easy to take pictures in the dark. 

Ahh, that's better.  Outside, away from the spirits of angry dead miners.

There were many buildings on the property: the blacksmith house, power house, stuff like that.  I was still not feeling great from the giant breakfast - and it was starting to rain again - so we headed back to the motel for some gaming and relaxing.

We played lots of cribbage.

And I knit a pair of socks.

When the rain cleared up, we went back out to Hunter's Point.  This time we headed to the left, away from the point.  We walked along the rocky beach and enjoyed the crashing waves, the rock formations, and the life along the shore. 

Joe walking along the shore, dodging waves and looking for skipping stones

Even though it was a cold and off-and-on rainy day, we got outside and had fun.  I really liked the mine tour.  If I were 10 years old again, upon exiting the mine I would have immediately grabbed a notebook and started writing a terribly ill-informed story about a girl that worked in a mine.  :-)  After our second trip to Hunter's Point, we played more cribbage until it was time to crash.

Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day)

We passed through the town of Calumet on the way back to Minnesota, and it really captured our attention.  You may wonder why a town of 800 people on the Upper Peninsula would interest us!  Well, Joe was intrigued by the stonework on some of the buildings in the historical center of town.  We drove through it, amazed at the sheer number of grand stone buildings - lots of churches, the vast majority of them abandoned and boarded up.  What had happened??

Well, Calumet had a copper boom in the late 19th century, and by 1900 over 25,000 people lived in Calumet and the surrounding area.  As we drove through, I joked about "the Finnish Lutheran church, the German Lutheran church, the Swedish Lutheran church, the Estonian Lutheran church...".  It turns out that I wasn't that far off: immigrants from literally dozens of European countries flooded into Calumet, creating what must have been an amazing mix of humanity around this wealthy town.  Wealthy enough for each group to build their own giant churches, at least!

It was intriguing to think about what it would be like to try and run a town that had lost 97% of its population since it's huge building boom.  I admire Calumet's determination to keep their history around - even if the buildings are not being used.

Anyway, we headed back to Minnesota.  As we got closer to Duluth/Superior, we became aware of the black, black clouds ahead.  Once we were in range, we turned on the local broadcast of the Twins game.  Severe thunderstorm warning: large hail, high winds.  Just as it started to rain, Joe saw a gas station with an overhang.  We pulled under it just as the hail started.  Unfortunately, the trunk of his car stuck out from under the overhang.  Quarter-size hail began to pelt it.  Luckily, we thought quickly and put our coats on the trunk to keep the hail from dinging it.

Sacrificing coats to protect Rasputin

And that was our trip!  Mines, hiking, going out for food, great views, cribbage, general nerdery at the historical site, driving around, and enjoying time with my best guy.  Couldn't be better. 

Hooray Michigan!

Keweenah Peninsula, May 25-26, part 1

Big Trip, Big Fun!  Joe and I hopped in his brand new car (a maroon Altima named Rasputin) and headed out to the Keweenah Peninsula of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Neither of us had ever been to Michigan, so we were excited about going somewhere new. Our lodgings were three nights in a motel in Copper Harbor, which has the distinction of being even closer to the Edge of Nowhere that I am here on the North Shore. 

DAY 1 - May 25

After taking Thunderdog to play with her puppy friends for a few days (kennel), we set off from my place on the Shore.  Once we crossed over the Bong Bridge in Duluth, we eased onto Highway 2 and enjoyed a beautiful drive on the northernmost east–west U.S. Route in the country. 

Our first stop was at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland, Wisconsin.  If you're ever up that way, I highly suggest you stop the car and check it out!  It's more than just a roadside stop: they have a great little museum about the North Shore of MN/ South Shores of WI and MI, a beautiful view, all sorts of stuff.  If we were not in kind of a timecrunch, we would have lingered longer. 

Our next stop was a quick visit to the Porcupine Mountains.  We weren't going to have much time to explore, so we headed for the best of the best: the Lake in the Clouds overlook.

I look at the beautiful Lake in the Clouds, while wearing my Piggly Wiggly t-shirt

I almost lose Joe over the edge...or do I almost successfully push him over the edge?  Hmm...

After walking around for a bit and enjoying the picture-perfect late May weather, we got back in the car and continued the rest of the way to our destination: Copper Harbor.  We drove through Houghton (where I went into my first Wal-Mart EVER...in order to get a Subway sandwich) and then got to the windy road to Copper Harbor.

We got to Copper Harbor around 8:30pm and found our motel.  We stayed at the Bella Vista motel, right on the water.  It looked like it was built and decorated in the mid 1950's, but it was clean and comfortable (and reasonably priced!).  We were expecting to spend a fair amount of time in the room - the forecast was for upper 40's/low 50's and rain - so we brought a lot of games and hoped for the best.  Lucky for us, it was exactly what we wanted!  Our cell phones were out of range and we had no internet either (!!!!!!), so instead of winding down with some Phoning we went out for a walk.

Copper Harbor is a small town.  I think we saw most of it during our hour or so of walking that first night.  I couldn't find exact numbers (it's an unincorporated community) but Joe thought that about 300 people lived there year-round.  I believe it: it's a town based on tourism to those who want to get to the edge of the world.  Long ago there was a military and mining presence (more about that later) but now it's mainly snowmobilers and deck-sitters and relaxers.  We turned in for the night and left the window ajar, to get the nice breeze off the lake.

DAY 2 - May 26

On Saturday morning we went for a hike out to Hunter's Point.  Hunter's Point is the "arm" of the harbor - a natural breakwater against Lake Superior.  We walked out as far as we could (and got lost doing it) so I figure we walked about 3 miles total.  It was beautiful, rocky lakeshore.  It was cool to know that, if my eyesight were strong enough and the earth were flat enough, I could see across to my home on the North Shore of MN.

Red pebble beach, Mergansers, Buffleheads, Canada Geese, and lots of rocks worn into Worry Stones by thousands of years of waves.

Me at the end of Hunter's Point - looking out at the island across the way

Grooving in the woods

Joe deciding which of his many rocks to bring back with us...and which will be skipped and tossed back into the lake.

After the hike, we ate lunch and then drove out to Fort Wilkin, a historical park just a short way east from Copper Harbor.  As we drove by the entrance we saw that it was likely they'd charge us to bring in a car, so we drove down the road to park and walk back.  When we did, we found the end (or beginning, depends on how you look at it) of US Highway 41.  1992 miles from Copper Harbor to Miami!  We saw plenty of Florida cars in Copper Harbor...we hoped that at least some of them had made the whole trip from Miami on 41.

The beginning, according to this sign

Fort Wilkins was established in 1842 to keep the peace amongst the rowdy frontiersmen and miners that flooded into Copper Harbor around that time.  Although it has been long abandoned, there were about 15 buildings that we could walk into - filled with interpretive items and information about what life was like at the Edge of the World back in the mid 19th century.  Boy howdy, we thought it was tough without internet access!!  The isolation of being in Copper Harbor during a long winter back then must have been very, very, very difficult.  We saw a graphic stating that only 1 in 26 soldiers re-enlisted at Fort Wilkin.  I'm surprised it was that many, honestly.  Three times as many soldiers died while enlisted, and it didn't appear that there was any active war going on at the time.

Hello cannonball?

Woe is Joe, locked up in the brig

Fort Wilkin is on the shores of Lake Fanny Hooe.  Interesting lake, interesting name.  Joe was amazed by the fact that a lake the size of Fanny Hooe could exist within just a couple hundred feet of Lake Superior.  I was amazed that they'd name a lake Fanny Hooe.  Although we didn't figure out why a lake was there (and not, over time, worn away or otherwise annexed to Lake Superior) I did find out about one Miss Fanny Hooe.  She was a sister-in-law of one of the officers assigned to Fort Wilkins.  Stories differ, but whether she disappeared one day while picking berries or was "merely admired" by the men, they decided to name the lake after her.

Fog on Lake Fanny Hooe

After leaving Fort Wilkins, we went back to town.  We saw a sign that said "Brockway Mountain Drive".  Joe said, "Do you want to take that drive?" and I said, "Okay!" so we turned off on that road...and went up...and up...and up.

Plenty of amazing overlooks: we could see the most incredible valleys, Lake Fanny Hooe (I never get tired of saying/writing that), cliffs and mountains in the distance.  We stopped at what we thought was the overlook, and gazed at a tall mountain in the distance with a radio tower on it.

You can kind of see the itty bitty radio tower - tallest spire on top of the cliff.

Well, as we were looking at the cliff we saw...an SUV drive right over the top of the cliff and down the side of the hill!  The cliff turned out to be much closer than we thought (the radio tower was smaller than we thought) and, if we kept on our road, we would soon be driving the same terrifying path as the SUV.  We were both just gobsmacked at our lack of depth perception and the frightfulness of the road ahead.

Car on the Cliff of Insanity

We steeled ourselves (I closed my eyes and thought happy thoughts) and kept going.  Once to the top of the cliff, we discovered a gift shop, signs and maps, and a lot of people enjoying the great view.  There were families, people trying to fly a kite (it was very windy) and a happy dog that came with the German woman who ran the store.  There were some raptor watchers doing a bird survey.  The place was happening!

It felt like much more than 726 feet above lake level!

Photobombing the Highway to the Cliff of Insanity

According to the woman at the gift shop (who LOVED to talk to people, guess it would be an occupational hazard of a person who hung out at the top of a mountain all day), the land we could see across the lake was Isle Royale - 55 miles away.  WOW!!

After we descended to lake level (a much less dramatic road than the way up, thank goodness), we grabbed dinner in Eagle River...and then headed back to the motel to play cribbage and reflect upon how much we did in just one day. 

Days three and four, on the way...