The drive across the Upper Peninsula the past two days was
uneventful and monotonous. The entire U.P. was extensively logged during
the 19th and 20th centuries so there are few large
trees. Most of what’s left is scruffy-looking second growth. After
logging ended a lot of the land reverted to ownership of the state because of
back taxes. It was then sold to settlers who got land that was cleared
except for the stumps and debris. What we were seeing wasn’t homesteads,
though, unless it had been abandoned. It looked like land that was
neither being managed nor had returned to its natural state.
The logging boom created towns like Grand Marais which had a
population of 3000 during its days as a major shipping point for timber. The town now has a year-round population of around 400. It has one block
with a hardware store and two other small stores for groceries which are little
more than our gas station convenience stores at home. The single gas
station has diesel for $3.11 a gallon. The next town of any size is
Munising, 50 miles west on the lake, where we saw diesel for $2.49
yesterday. We’ll wait till we’re back there on Wednesday to fill up.
The reason we’re in Grand Marais is to see the Pictured
Rocks National Lakeshore which runs from here to Munising. Staying in
Munising would have been more convenient but I couldn’t find us a space
there. Since it was cool and drizzly today we decided to check out the
eastern end of the park which took up the afternoon.
The first overlook was at Grand Sable Lake. There’s
quite a drop off to the water so getting to it isn’t possible. It’s a
beautiful lake. We were surprised not to see anyone on it.
The Hurricane River emptying into Lake Superior.
The second stop was the Hurricane River. Since
hurricanes don’t come this far north the name is a puzzle. Maybe it’s
named for the hurricane of mosquitoes and flies which attacked us. The
combination of long pants and hooded rain jackets protected us fairly well
until we were able to get back to the truck where we grabbed the bug
spray. We’ve had so little trouble with bugs so far we forgot to use it
before we walked down to the river. The hordes of flies appeared to be
ordinary house flies, not the dreaded northern stinging black flies which we
haven’t seen yet.
The 1874 Au Sable Light Station, three miles west of the Log
Slide overlook where this picture was taken. The light station was built
to warn ships of the Au Sable reef which is a mile long and only 6 feet below
the surface. The reef caused a lot of ship wrecks before the light
station was built. The light operates now by solar power rather than
kerosene. We drove to the trailhead but didn’t do the 3.5 mile hike which is more distance than we can handle. It’s a good thing
because we might have been carried off by mosquitoes and would definitely have
been rained on.
The Log Slide overlook was created to give a view of an area
of the Grand Banks where timber was slid down the dunes to the lake to waiting
log ships. There are numerous warnings about going down the slide which
is very steep and ends in drop-offs which can’t be seen from above. The
signs say it will take just a few minutes to go down but over an hour to climb
back up and that it shouldn’t be done by those who aren’t physically fit. Duh.
These wheels are about 10 feet tall. This contraption
was invented to move log sleds in all weather conditions so logging could
continue all year round. The logs go on a sled which is attached under
the axle. Before this was put into use logging could only be done in
winter when everything was frozen.
The Grand Banks are an area of massive sand dunes west of
Grand Marais. I overheard someone saying they looked much bigger than the
dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan. I
wanted to go to Sleeping Bear but couldn’t find an available space, so now we
know what it looks like without going. The dunes are really impressive. The top is 300 feet above the lake. The Log Slide goes down these dunes
right in front of where this overlook was built but vegetation has grown up to
where it’s impossible to see the actual slide area. The wooden flume is
gone now but the large crease in the sand is still there. Logs going down
the dry flume created so much friction it set the flume on fire.
Apparently it was rebuilt but has since deteriorated to nothing.
The log slide was the site of a horrible accident during
logging operations. A very large piece of timber (25 feet long and 20
inches across) came down the slide so fast it didn’t go in the water when it
hit the bottom, instead skipping about 200 feet over the water and the raft of
logs which was being secured for transport. It hit and instantly killed
the captain of the schooner which was going to move the raft as well as a logger from
Grand Marais. Logging was very dangerous business from one end to the
other.
Our last stop was at Sable Falls at the east end of the
park. The falls are much higher than they look in the picture. They are really beautiful as is the forested area around them.
The Sable River below the falls. Every river we’ve
seen around Lake Superior has been heavily colored by what I’m guessing is
tannin. It’s all the color of strong tea.
A section of the 168 steps down to the falls viewing
area. Fortunately the falls were worth the climb back up.
Amazing woodpecker cafeteria tree. We’ve seen a lot of
trees with woodpecker holes but never such large ones. The most
surprising thing was that the tree split into two trunks above this area and
one trunk was still very much alive.
We got back to the RV just as the sky opened up. Perfect timing. A fog bank is rolling over us from the lake now and is
covering the campground. No wonder navigation on this lake is so
tricky.
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