Day 15 started with a... nevermind, this is the final day so you won't get a detailed rundown of our nonsense. What you will get is a wrapup post with a bunch of nerdy stats. This is that.
But first, in order to pull off a trip like this and put our lives on hold for 2 weeks, it takes a lot of help. Big thanks to Ed, Lynn, and the team at Cento Anni for covering while I was gone.
Takas family - thank you for taking care of our goodest boy Reggie, we know he can be a bit to handle but you guys know him the best.
Hayley - thanks for taking care of Jordan's pet bird Rio (yes, the family keeps growing), she misses him so much and the updates along the way were fantastic!
Thanks to everyone that gave us recommendations, suggestions, firsthand reviews, etc along the way. This trip had a lot of those and it helps tremendously to have intel like this.
Thank you to our families for covering for us while we were gone and putting up with our texts, millions of pics, instagram posts, and other communication.
On to the nerdery:
Total miles
1310 on the Big Truck, one of our shorter trips but that's because we focused on fewer home bases and more day trips.
600+ on the Jeep, I forgot to set the odometer but had a rough idea where we started. These were the fun miles, backroads, gravel drifting, 2 tracks, scenic byways, and late night rockhunting excursions
State parks visited - 3
Beaches - 5 (this is a tough one for me and my people, but we fared well with the SPFs)
Dips in a frigid Lake Superior - 4
Dips in a more frigid Lake Michigan - 2 (including this morning, a farewell swim at Wilderness, me knowing what was in store for me in about 3 more steps)
Mechanical issues - 2, 1 broken battery terminal bolt (vise grips are STILL HOLDING) and one ornery pilot light on the oven that interrupted a delicious Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese entree
*Sorry - one more that doesn't quite qualify as a mechanical issue - Kimberly's bike being officially retired. I am convinced that she will never ride that thing again, mostly because she emphatically told both of us that she will never ride that thing again.
Whitefish dinners ordered - at least 5, with the top choice being the Jamaican Whitefish at the Brownstone Inn
Photos taken - all of them
Books read - 2 by me, probably 10 by Kimberly
Days (out of 14) with cell service - 5
Debilitating crashes or mechanical failures due to lack of biking ability - 0.0, a new record!
Memories created - infinite.
This trip was a bit different for us, undertaken during a worldwide pandemic, expanding the "Phone, keys, wallet" preflight checklist to "Phone, keys, wallet, mask", fewer destinations, more time spent in each, and having an almost teenager to lend an opinion to the trip planning was a new experience.
Given this new reality, and the slow realization that having a teenager in the house is going to change the dynamic of future trips, this image probably best sums up the feeling after this one.
Sunlight fading on the days of having a kid join us on adventures, the new dawn holding an exciting new chapter with a young adult (a super annoying, moody, hilarious, and impossibly sarcastic one) at our side.
Day 14 started with some indecision, me heading up to the visitors center to write this, and a last minute search for another campsite as our Traverse City plans had changed. I also wanted to get a ride in on the trails in the park, I had seen them on the map and I hadn't ridden since Copper Harbor, so I was itching to explore.
These trails are for hiking, biking, and just plain walking, so they are a mix of path, two track, and a little bit of trail. The payoffs are ridiculous. Take this overlook for example.
On the left you can see what is called Snail Shell Harbor, the original dock location from the historic town.
It is a strange juxtaposition seeing multi-million dollar yachts like this moored in front of the Fayette ruins, but rich people gotta put their boats somewhere.
More 'bike leaning against things' pics, Kimberly's favorite.
Final overlook from the other side of the harbor, very strong Pictured Rocks vibes here.
As I mentioned earlier in the blog, this campground has a curious setup, as shown here by the roughly 12' between our firepit and our neighbors' pit. Luckily they only had about 7 kids between 0 and 5 years old, so they really didn't make much noise.
If you look closer, you'll see the cairns that Jordan left at our site. She had made one for each of us, and then on one of our bike rides through the campground, she noticed a dog that reminded her of Aspen, Reggie's best bud who we miss dearly (sorry Takases!), so she made one for him too.
I'm sure the next campers will see the sentimental value in these and not at all get freaked out by the Blair Witch-ness feel.
All packed up, we said goodbye to the UP for now and headed across the Mighty Mac to our last stop.
We had searched all over the lower peninsula to find a place to stay one final night, and through all of the state parks there were 2 campsites available. One was an ADA accessible site in Mitchell State Park in Cadillac, the other was site 242 in Wilderness State Park. We hadn't stayed there in over 10 years, and given it was the only available site in the state on a Friday night with short notice, our decision was made.
We threw our stuff on the site and jumped in the Jeep, as it was already almost 5pm and we wanted to see if we could grab a bite at the famous Legs Inn along one of my favorite roads in the state, M-119, also known as the Tunnel of Trees.
We rolled in and immediately knew this place was different.
A few more steps and we knew we were in the right place. Anywhere with a full size Zoltar machine is good by me.
Inside you really get a feel for the unique decor of the place.
It was close to an hour wait at 5:15, so we grabbed a drink and headed out to the patio overlooking Lake Michigan.
There is a meticulously maintained garden, an outdoor stage, and I can imagine the sunsets here must be killer.
When we were finally seated, it was time to cheers to a great vacation.
This place is known for its authentic Polish food, but since I was still on the whitefish kick I sampled a Polish beer instead. It tasted exactly like being at 5th Street Hall back home.
Normally they would have a Tripelroot beer on tap, but the keg had blown and they hadn't switched a new one on yet. We were disappointed to hear that, but will return to rectify the situation another day.
The setting for your meal is pretty scenic.
We learned a little more of the history on our way out,
and we had been in such a hurry to get in that we had walked right past the reason for the name of the restaurant, the use of the antique stove legs along the building's roofline.
We made our way back to Wilderness, a peaceful, 2 lane trek back that is interrupted by potholes roughly every 10-12 feet. I discovered a sweet spot around 68mph where the Jeep would float overtop of the rough road and give me roughly 60% control of which lane we were in.
Upon our return, I turned off to the beach to catch the sunset as there was no way we were getting up once we sat down at the campsite.
We skipped a bunch of rocks (the launch angle on this could use a little tweaking, but Jordan was doing great until she almost pegged a group of swimmers - they shouldn't have been standing there).
Final sunset of the trip. Very fitting that it be this similar to the ones in Munising.
We reached the campsite, did a little final setup and bathed in 98.5% deet due to this greeting us:
Kimberly busted out the color fire packets (that is our fine china equivalent), and we sank into the fire, realizing that we had packed a ton of experiences into the past 2 weeks.
Day 13 began with me sneaking out of the Big Truck in my normal routine - escape, let the women sleep, and see what the day has in store. Jealous of this setup.
After some prodding, we were mobilized and ready for action. Today we were returning to Manistique for the first time in probably a decade. Kimberly used to audit the mBank branch up here, so Jordan and I tagged along a couple of times and explored a bit. Jordan was either 2 or 3 years old, so she doesn't remember and it's been so long we wanted to revisit some of our favorites. The first one is called Upper Crust, one of the best delis we've been to and a favorite lunch spot of Kimberly's.
We decided to embrace the 1989-ness of our surroundings, so we were going to wing it with a partial pamphlet map and no internet-enabled assistance. At the exit to the park, you are greeted with this, the first of a growing number of 'spiky' windmills being installed along the peninsula up here.
At no point did we feel at risk of contracting cancer from these, but we also were not listening to them for very long.
I did enjoy the positioning of this particular one, however. It reminded me of many neighborly disputes, and made me imagine them surveying the neighborhood while the owner of this homestead wasn't home, and the neighbor suggesting "Yeah, I'd probably face it in this direction, should be ok".
Our pamphlet showed 2 lines on the map, one was US-2, this was the other one.
After sending it on some random gravel roads for about 45 minutes, we encountered this little fella. He had a clear preference for running on the road rather than any of the surrounding nature, so we slowed down and played along for a while until we stopped to let him cross. Poor little guy, probably kept up with you for the first mile or so...
In Manistique, at Kim's happy place.
After a delicious lunch, we explored downtown in an unsuccessful search for a book I was hoping to read. Given our lack of connection to the outside world on this trip, I had picked up a couple of books on local history and was looking for another that described the Italian Hall Disaster in a bit more detail. Let's just say bookstores are not a very popular retail outlet any more.
We even checked this place, which looked like it came directly from a Back to the Future set. No luck.
From there, it was on to Big Spring. Our first sight on arriving at the park.
About an hour and a half later, we were on the raft.
The fish are huge, the water stays roughly 40 degrees all of the time, and you can see the springs feeding the pond from the bottom.
I grabbed this video to capture the bubbling of the spring along the bottom. Looks like mini volcano eruptions.
Takes about 15 minutes to get across and back. We heard the story of how the park was closed for a few months during the COVID-19 state lockdown, and locals kept cutting the padlocks and taking the raft out on their own, ultimately dropping one of the 3'x6' signs from the raft into the spring where it currently sits on the bottom.
This little inlet leads to Indian Lake, where you can usually see a few kayakers making the trip back to see the spring.
Eager to leave the herds behind, we made our way back toward the campground. On our way to Manistique earlier we had seen a couple of signs for The Dock Grill and Bar, claiming outdoor waterfront dining. That sounded great, and it was only about 10 minutes from our campground.
The view from the deck - and from our table. Not too shabby.
The food and service was excellent (I've been trying the whitefish everywhere, and have yet to be disappointed), and the atmosphere was extremely laid back. Inside, I saw this on our way out. Pretty sage advice.
We were stuffed and pretty worn out, but we really wanted to explore the historical town section of Fayette when we got back, and we knew we'd have to do it before we got back to our campsite or it would be lights out.
The experience was hard to describe. The way that all of the buildings have been preserved - not necessarily restored, but preserved in whatever their current state - is extremely well done, and the fact that the remains of this historic industrial village are dropped right in the middle of some of the most scenic natural surroundings is almost overwhelming to the senses.
We wandered with a mix of wonder & respect, and ultimately a sense of appreciation for what these hard working people had lived through and sacrificed to make a better life for their families.
I won't ruin these with descriptions, just take a look, and if you get the chance, come here and see it for yourself.
Back at the Big Truck, it got quiet pretty quickly. We may or may not have snuck in a late night viewing of Megamind while Kimberly was trying to sleep (and started saying Ollo for the rest of the trip).
Tomorrow - leaving Fayette and heading for either Traverse City or home.
