Day 14: Thursday, June 24th
Time to move on - again.
Now we are set to continue our original plans and drive west to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. AKA: "The Porkies". Our last trip to the Porkies was in June of 1997. A review of Betsy's journal for that trip shows we were there on the exact same date 13 years ago. Interesting coincidence. The only thing Betsy found worth noting for that day in '97 was the swarms of stable flies which pestered us.
But, first the usual chore of reorganizing and repacking the car. With all the shit we drag along this has become a bit tedious. We have decided we must either streamline the packing (not likely) or get a bigger vehicle (likely).
Click on the photos below for a larger image.
After packing, we headed downtown for some breakfast stopping first at the PO for postcard stamps. Previously we had noticed a place called Victoria's Kitchen with a sign posted in the window stating the special as "Coffee, two eggs and seasoned potatoes for $2.79. Our kinda place!
Downtown Houghton - 20 degrees below zero. No thanks.
Our breakfasts were served without much delay and we set about the task of converting them to fuel.
I did not care much for the potato seasoning - too salty. The bread was home made as was the jam. Tasty. We then headed back to the motel for final packing and check out.
This was one of three cats in the hotel office. It weighed in at 30 pounds. Surprisingly if felt and looked pretty solid. The owner was convinced it was part Bobcat.
Betsy wanted me to take some snaps of the storefronts across the street from the hotel.
I wonder what that small, elevated building and walkway are for? Mysterious.
It was from the second story of this building I took the photo of the hotel.
A final shot of the lift bridge and we were on our way.
First stop? WalMart!! Yep, they have them up here in Da Yooper. But, we had only seen two of them. One here and one in Marquette.
We loaded up on salad mix, veggies, milk, eggs and of course beer. Betsy found a good deal on 12 pack Liney bottles for only 10 bucks.
A very common site on the roadways of the UP.
Then it was on west to the Porkies which is about 70 miles away. We took SR 28 south and then 38 west to Ontanogan. Here we picked up SR 64 which runs along the shoreline of Lake Superior. This section was very pretty with a nice mix of woods, rocky shoreline and long sandy beaches.
When we got to Silver City I was shocked to see this: muddy water. It was the first we had seen since arriving in the The Upper two weeks prior. I was to find out later, repeated heavy downpours over a period of days and a change in soil type were most likely the reason for the muddy water in the Big Iron River.
From this point it was only a couple of miles to the Union Bay Camp Ground. When we got to the registration station there was no one there but there was a list of reserved sites posted just like we had been told there would be. Betsy copied the list on a note pad and we went looking for a site.
We did a drive through. Several times. I had forgotten how many sites there were. Yikes.
Our first choice was a site adjacent to, but separated from 30 and 31. We remembered it as the smallest site and the only one which was a bit private. It was also right on the water. Well, the site no longer exists. It is now signed as a "Public Area". Rats.
Our next choice was site 100. It had trees on two sides and looked OK. I left Betsy to hold the site and headed back to the registration station to pay for the site. This time the station was "manned" with two young girls who looked like they were about 12 years old. I am sure they were not. When I told them what site I wanted they looked at the reserved list and told me it was taken. Huh?! I looked at the list as well. Sure enough, it was there, plain as day. Betsy had pulled a mikey and didn't write it down. Now what?
I looked over the map and decided on site 99. It had trees on only one side, but it was larger than most of the sites.
I got back to site 99, told Betsy what had happened and we started looking for a suitable place for the tent.
We got the tent unpacked, the ground cloth in place, then the tent body up, then the fly, then we secured the ground cloth to the tent body and then staked out the tent.
Once up, Betsy gave the sleeping area the obligatory "roll over" test and pronounced it suitable.
Then, hastily, to avoid any incursion by flies or mosquitoes, I tossed in the bedding cargo bag, the two duffles of personal items, the pee bottles and the chairs we used in the screened in vestibule.
While Betsy busied herself making our nest in the tent, I set up the cooking station and unloaded the bikes, cooler, cookware crate, food crate, etc. etc.
With camp set we decided to relax and enjoy the nice weather. Did I say relax? As we sat there enjoying the relative quiet a van pulling a camper started backing into site 100 which was directly across from us. All the while the man backed and woman directed and not a sound from within the van. I looked at Betsy and said "Good, no kids or we would have heard them by now." No sooner than the words were out of my mouth than were heard the wailing of a youngin', then another, then a dog started barking. Oh, boy - this was going to be great.
Betsy and I just sat there looking at each other. By now we both knew this had been a mistake. But, we hoped for the best. Then traffic picked up with lots of RVs rumbling by our site. More dogs started to bark from all over the campground, and more and more kids appeared as if being spewed out of an alien ovipositor.
Well, one of us had to say it, so I did: "Betsy, this is not going to work, we gotta get out of here!"
Betsy concurred and we then started to think about our options.
All we could come up with was to start looking over the state and national forest maps and see what was out there.
We closed up the tent, got in car and made a quick stop at the Porkies visitor center hoping they might have some info on alternative camp sites. They did not, but they thought the Ottawa NF might have some
dispersed camp sites.
So, with Betsy navigating and looking at the Ottawa NF map for those little tent icons we headed south in search of solitude, or, at least the absence of barking dogs.
At some point along the way I called the Forest HQ with my handy-dandy cell phone and asked about dispersed camping in the Ottawa. The helpful fella on the other end started ticking of a list of possibilities and I started scribbling them down. Betsy had her own list compiled by then and some of the camping area names matched, some which were on our map we were told were now closed courtesy of good old budget cuts and probably lack of use.
After that we made a hit list of places to check, first based on distance and then on number of sites.
First up, Stuesser Lake. Although not listed as a camping area we thought we would check it out just in case.
We arrived at a quiet and peaceful Stuesser Lake to find it had a boat launch, out house, picnic area, nice sandy beach, and a "NO CAMPING HERE" sign. Bummer. Hoping against hope, I decided to call the Forest Service HQ and see if we could camp there anyway. Amazingly, there was a cell signal here and before long I was talking to someone in the office and explaining what I wanted to know. She said she would transfer me to someone who could help me. She did.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang. And then, oh goody - voice mail! I hung up and redialed and then told the person I had gotten only voice mail. She said she would try someone else.
She transferred me to another extension and a young lady picked up and I explained the situation: The was a "NO CAMPING HERE" posted by the boat launch, but no where else. I asked if that meant we could camp in any of the other areas. She hemmed and hawed and the finally said she would have to talk to someone else and wanted to know if were currently at Stuesser Lake. I told here were and she then asked for my cell number and said she would call right back. I had heard this before.
We decided to pour over the maps some more while we waited and then we saw Robbins Pond Campground was just a few miles away. After about 10 minutes my phone rang and the gal on the other end gave us the bad news. No camping at Stuesser Lake. I thanked her sincerely for calling back in a timely manner and we then went in search of Robbins Pond.
6 miles and 15 minutes later we were at
Robbins Pond.
There were indeed only 3 sites and only one was occupied. I looked over the site and Betsy scouted for swimming opportunities. While she did this I heard that dreaded sound - a dog barking. About that time an older gentleman walked up from the campsite below and greeted me. I explained our situation but told him it looked like this was not going to work for us because of his dogs. This seemed to concern him and he assured me his dogs were generally quiet and they spent the night in the back of his covered pick-up. I was dubious to say the least. But he was very helpful and sympathetic to our plight and he showed us some other places we might try while we looked at the map which was spread out over the hood of his truck.
Betsy arrived back at the site and we had a pow-pow. By now it was 4:30 and we were over 50 miles from Union Bay Campground where had left all our gear. We decided to go back, break camp, see if we could get our money back and head south again to stay in a hotel we had passed in Bergland. That would mean a round trip drive of "only" about 70 miles instead of 100 and we could then start our campsite hunt fresh the next morning.
When we got to Berglund and I gassed up the car while Betsy booked the room ($44 dbl.). The latter took awhile as the owners did not live there and you had to call them from the office.
That taken care of, we continued on north to Union Bay. When we got back I stopped at the Registration station and told the attendant I wanted a refund for the two nights we had paid for and explained why. He said "No problem" and began whatever procure was necessary to reverse the charge on my credit card. Well at least the $50.00 refund would cover the hotel cost for the night.
When we got back to camp site, it was busier and noisier than ever. There were more dogs barking than were in my old neighborhood in town. What is wrong with these people?! No respect or consideration for others.
Our now empty site and with our neighbors in the background.
We tore into the site like two tornados all the while being thankful it was not raining or the mosquitoes and black flies were not plaguing us. And while doing this, I was trying to give some woman all the details about our tent which she had admired while we were gone. We got out of there in record time and were soon back on the road and in out little room a the Lake Gogebic Motel.
All was quiet in Bergland and we sat out in some easy chairs and had a beer to try to adjust our attitudes. The owner came out - beer in hand and sat down on a bench near the office. He started talking to me so I wandered over and we chatted for a while. He told us about how prosperous the area used to be and how many people used to live here. At one time there were thousands who had now left - as the sprawling, now closed high school just next door to the hotel could attest. Now there were only about 500 people left. And the White Pine mine and refinery just up the road was ready lay off 100s more - again. They used to employ over 2000 people. Such is the story everywhere in the boom and bust economy of resource extraction.
Eventually he said he had better eat his dinner - his wife had brought him a grease spotted bag of something earlier and left it inside.
We did the same and had only large salads that night. It had been a hectic and frustrating day, but now, all seemed well, until, that is, a large reefer truck pulled in, parked and the driver plugged in his refrigeration unit and then shut himself up in the room. (This same thing happened at the hotel in Houghton)
Our unit had no AC, but with the constant noise of the refrigeration unit roaring ourside we had no choice but to close up the room and turn on the tiny fan Betsy had been given when she registered.
Good night!