Day 1: Arrival

We decided to take a bit of a departure from the vacations we'd been taking lately and take a road trip into nature. We rented a cabin right on Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

On the way up, we stopped at a rest area for a drink:Brian wanted to do the majority of the driving, so my role was that of providing entertainment (interesting conversation, DJ skills, etc.), navigation, and wildlife watching. Usually that last one refers to me telling Brian to slow down so he doesn't hit the animal on the side of the road that might jump out in front of him (even though this "animal" frequently turns out to be litter).

But not always! I yelled at him to stop because a turtle was in the road. We had to turn around, and he hadn't moved. He was right in line of the tires, and showed no sign on moving! So Brian helped him along:Once placed in the grass, he scampered away to safety:Finally, we arrived at our destination. Here is the view of Lake Superior from the porch of the cabin:A view of the cabin, through the trees:
The sauna, right on the beach:
Brian, looking out at the lake from the beach:We were tired from driving all day, so just had a frozen pizza for dinner. And some beer!Then we got a bit of reading and/or video game playing done (I will leave it to your imagination as to which one of us did which of those things!) and went to bed.

We got up several times during the night to go out to the beach and look at the night sky. Because there is so little light pollution here, especially compared to where we live, we saw so many stars. It was amazing. Unfortunately, this was the only night cloudless enough for us to do this, so it's a good thing we did so, even though we were tired!

Day 2: Hiking

On our first full day in Michigan, we were excited to get out and see some wildlife. particular birds, though we are very bad birders as we don't have binoculars! (This trip revitalized our interest in birding and we have binoculars on order that will hopefully be here by the end of the week).

There was a nice hiking trail withing walking distance of our cabin, so that's where we headed.Stopping at a stream, hoping to see something:
I got a little hot with my jacket, so Brian offered to (insisted on) carrying it. I think it was so he could have more bug protection! Luckily for me, the bugs were bothering him and leaving me alone!
Unknowingly, Brian had trapped a bug on his head when he put my jacket over his head to keep the bugs out. And then wondered why there was non-stop buzzing! He finally realized what had happened, got the bug out, and resumed his protective head cover.
Taking a rest and contemplating the beauty:Most of our wildlife sightings were signs of wildlife rather than the animals themselves, such as woodpecker holes:
And deer tracks:There were all kinds of interesting fungi growing:
In the middle of the trail, we came across this sad little chair (we did not sit on it!):
They are camouflaged, but here are two black-capped chickadees who were building a nest on top of this tree:More beautiful scenery:
Finally, the bugs got to be too much for Brian, who tried to scare them away with his jacket:

You can see Lake Superior in the background:We needed to cross a stream to get over to the lake. The first bridge option was pretty rickety:The more stable looking bridge had a barrier placed so we had to go over it to get to the bridge:A pretty wildflower growing on the barrier:Side view of the rickety bridge. Yes, that is a round trunk used as support!When we finally got to the lake, we skipped some rocks:A butterfly:We heard a frog, so we tried to locate him in the pond. These guys hide very well, but we finally saw him:
We walked back over the bridge:But then realized we needed t go back over the bridge again in order to follow the (confusing) trail. This bridge looks unstable, but we were walking over solid ground, so if we'd fallen off, our feet wouldn't have even gotten wet.It took us a lot longer to finish the hike than we anticipated. We had a great time, though! We walked back to the cabin. We ate lunch and then Brian did a sauna while I read and napped a bit. And did more of that through dinner. It was wonderful!

Day 3: Hiking

Our third day was also mostly about hiking. On the side of the road, before we got to the place where we were hiking, we saw a turkey:Finally, we made it to the Porcupine Mountains. We went to the trail recommended by the person staffing the information center.

Here is Brian, right before embarking on the worst hike of our lives:
It was certainly beautiful!
Climbing the stairs to get to the lookout:
At times, between the clouds (it was raining a bit) and the trees, it seemed like we were hiking in the dark:The trails in Michigan tended to not be as well-kept as the trails closer to home. We actually preferred the trails in Michigan -- offering a bit of excitement, or steeplechase hiking:We finally finished the buggiest hike in history. We had bug spray in the car, but hadn't put any on since the bugs had not been bad the previous few days. That was a big mistake! We both had to use our jackets to cover our heads and much of the time was spent walking as quickly as we could to avoid more bites and get to the safety of the car!

We drove to another area of the park. Along the way, we saw a giant beaver swimming in a pond. Sadly, I didn't get a picture. He was huge!

This area is known for its waterfalls, and was basically bug-free!We came across this adorable squirrel:Who climbed in the tree upon our approach:This picture does not do justice to the steepness of the hill we climbed up (and down):But it was worth it, as the views were spectacular:The diversity of landscape in such a small area was pretty amazing:
He's hiding, but if you look closely, you can see a yellow-bellied sapsucker. At least that's what we think he is!We drove off to the third recommended hiking place, and it was astounding:Perhaps the best part was coming across these cedar waxwings building a nest:We also saw this dark-eyed junco. He sang for us for quite some time:
Back on the road, we stopped at a sign about a bat cave. There were no bats at the moment, but apparently during the fall, thousands of bats rest here:Across the road was a little pond where we found these two frogs:They blend in so well!

And then...

Another turtle in the road! We stopped the car to move him, as we had the previous one; however, this one ran off into safety as soon as he saw us coming:Brian followed him, lecturing him on safety and giving him other turtle life lessons. Namely, how it is not a good idea to hang out on the road where cars are going 55 miles per hour and most are not on the lookout for turtles! We doubt the turtle listened, though!Back at the cabin, we did a sauna. After dinner, we decided to go back out to the place where we had hiked yesterday. Our goal was to see at least one bird.

It was pretty chilly, so we got to wear some knitted goods:
Waiting peacefully for some birds:
Going to other areas to search:
Looking in trees:
Would you believe that, although we heard hundreds of birds in the trees, we couldn't see even one? They must all have been roosting for the night.

Defeated, we returned to the beach and walked around a bit:
Then, as always, returned to the cabin for a good night's rest. We estimated that we hiked a little over 10 miles, much of it over hilly terrain, so the rest was welcome.