The Upper Penninsula

 

Lake Superior is the largerst freshwater lake, in terms of surface area. It looked like the ocean.

 

We left Houghton, MI on an overcast morning.

 

Traci, aboard our ferry, The Ranger III.

 

The ferry broke down on the way back, so we took the Queen Marie to Copper Harbor, and I got sea sick.

Three Mile

 

Our first view of Isle Royale.

 

Trekkin' in the rain.

 

Lots of interesting fungus shapes.

 

Our shelters looked like this.

Isle Royale

 

These were the most abundant flowers on the island.

 

It rained the first couple days, and then the sun came out.

 

This snake probably would have had a nice meal if we hadn't come along and interrupted his lunch.

 

Many sections of the trail had wooden bridges because it was so marshy.

Moskey Basin

 

We backpacked a 35 miles loop. This is our campsite at Moskey Basin.

 

Typical view of the island.

 

Currently, 19 wolves live on the island. We heard several of them howling one night and saw tracks and scat.

 

Cool view to Canada, eh?

Chickenbone Lake

 

I was really concerned with the possiblitly of swarms of mosquitoes, but it turned out that dragon flies were more prevalent.

 

Paper birch.

 

These are the tallest aspens I've ever seen.

 

Daisy Farm

 

We scored shelters for 3 of the 5 nights which was nice beacaue our stuff dried out better in them when it rained. It may seem silly to erect our tents in the shelters, but it got down to 40 degrees, and the tents make it 5 degrees warmer.

 

We were searching for the elusive Greenstone, but we found Smiley Rock instead which was actually way cooler.

 

Dozens of wildflowers were blooming already.

 

End of the World

 

OK, it wasn't the end of the world, but it felt a bit like it. We hiked to Scoville Point, the easternmost tip of the island near Rock Harbor.

 

 

Beautiful lichen.

Libby!

 

I went to Chicago to see Libby.

 

The Brady's were just a bonus.

 

View from the 96th tower of some building in Chicago.

 

A Night in Chicago

 

My only requirement of the weekend was some Chicago deep dish pizza. We went to Gino's East Side.

 

The veggie was good!

 

This is almost a picture of the Stanley Cup. Dang!