Where have I been?

Well, some of you may or may not have noticed, but I've been gone. After my six days of work, I packed up and headed out camping. I go where I've always gone camping, the upper peninsula. I usually don't have any type of agenda, I just get in the car and go. This trip I ended up first west of Marquette and than all the way west into the Porcupine Mountains.

The first night I stopped at a campground where I was 1 of 3 tents in the entire campground. Out of 110. Pretty sad I thought. I got a spot right next to the playground so I had an endless stream of children running by. Kids are absolutely the greatest. They just crack me up, so simple minded and innocent. I did pretty much freeze that night. The temps dipped down into the 40s and I was very envious of my trailer neighbors and their furnaces going off every couple of hours.

My first day of hiking I spent more than a hour driving around trying to find the Black River Falls. The directions I got out of a book did not match up at all with what I had on my county map. And all the street signs aren't real names or anything like I'm used to. Instead they are all numbers and letters (PS2, PD3, PPR, PU4, etc). Eventually I did cross the Black River and found signs pointing in the direction of the falls. After another 15 minutes of two track dirt roads, the road ends with a trail to the falls. I was surprised to actually find another car in the parking lot. On my way down the steep trail, there were 2 ladies trying to carry some camping equipment down the hill. I offered to help since I was headed that direction. We made small talk and whatever and I went on my way as they started to set up camp. After I finished taking my pictures I headed back up the trail to find them barbecuing hot dogs. I talked to them some more and they offered me some food. Normally I would pass it up, but it smelled so good, I was so hungry and I had no idea how far from any place to eat, so I decided to chow down with them. After I graciously thanked them for their hospitality, they told me to come back later that night for lots of beer. I laughed and told them I would probably never be able to find this place again.So after my free lunch, I headed further north to Canyon Falls. Basically it is a canyon that has been whittled by some very fast moving water. You can walk down along the canyon and the river for miles. There were quite a few people there, so I don't know why I was so startled when this nice boy started asking me about my camera. I stopped what I was doing and talked to him for awhile about photography and all the falls in the area. He was there with a bunch of friends but he wanted to take me even further north to Houghton to see Hungarian Falls. He was cute and I liked his accent, so I'm surprised I said no. But I really couldn't work going any further north into my trip.
So after that stop, I did go to a couple of more waterfalls, including my favorite Bond Falls. I would definitely say it out does Tahquamenon Falls. It was pretty spectacular.
The campground I stumbled across for the night had the most helpful energetic camp ranger I think I've ever met. I was headed to the Porcupine Mountains the next day and really had no idea where to start as far as that was concerned. He said he has been trying to get into that headquarters for years now and so he knows everything and anything about the place. He was a wealth of knowledge. I spent probably a hour talking to him. When I stumbled out of my tent at 730 the next morning, I don't think I even had my tent zipped back up when he popped around the corner asking if I had decided what I would be doing in the Porkies that day.

I don't know what it is about traveling alone, but people treat you so much more different. Feeding you. Wanting to take you different places. I can't say that any of that would have happened if I had been there with a group of friends or whatever. That and I think that the Upper Peninsula just houses more friendlier, down to earth people.

So my third day of the trip included four waterfalls and even a trip into another time zone! The day included my second favorite falls, Sandstone Falls. The most spectacular thing about it is the huge rocks that surround the falls. These four falls were so remote and the trails were so difficult, that I seriously did not see anyone on any of these trails.I met up with some friends to camp with and explore the Porcupine Mountains that evening. I wasn't able to do as much hiking as I had planned due to the lack of energy and ambitions. But we did get some hiking in. I went to both the lowest point and the highest point of the mountains. It was pretty awesome. And there were a ton of backpackers out in the woods. Something that I would consider doing if I knew what the hell to do. There were even a pack of probably 6 or 7 young female backpackers. I was impressed!
On my way back across the Mackinac Bridge, I decided that I would pay for the cars toll behind me. Kind of like a pay it forward type deal. So I told the lady, she just said "okay," nothing else. I wondered why she responded like that. I wondered if people do this more frequently than I would have thought, so she didn't think it was a big deal. Or I also wondered if she may have pocketed the money. I tried to watch the car behind me when I pulled out. They sped up on their way out of the toll booth, but I don't know if they were trying to catch up or if they just drove fast. When they did make it up near me, they didn't look over at me or anything like I would have expected, but than they got stuck behind me in road construction. I would like to think that they were on vacation and that their last impression of the upper peninsula would be what mine was, there are some really nice people that live up there.