{"id":1728,"date":"2009-07-24T21:36:23","date_gmt":"2009-07-24T21:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2017-08-20T23:23:47","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T23:23:47","slug":"american-road-trip-1-grass-lake-to-the-porcupines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/american-road-trip-1-grass-lake-to-the-porcupines\/","title":{"rendered":"American Road Trip 1: Grass Lake to the Porcupines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day One: Grass Lake to Hiawatha<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Driving north through Michigan’s lower peninsula is largely routine for too many of us trolls (what the Yoopers call residents of the lower state). The occasional construction zone, the intermittent shower which grays out the windshield, the Winnebago which won’t do more than 45 mph as it pulls an SUV, boat, and bike rack on three separate trailers.<\/p>\n

But what we gain when we clear the lower counties is Gaylord, home of the renowned Call of the Wild Museum. It has probably been over 30 years since I’ve been there, so of course I had to spend seven bucks to revisit that portion of my childhood. And, unlike my Velvet Peanut Butter fiasco, my expectations were not too high.<\/p>\n

But how could they be? My recollection is of a dim set of plaster of paris tunnels with glass cases, each containing a dusty set of taxidermied animals. Run up to the case and you can press a button which would cause a muffled speaker to emit a recording of the animal’s call. The wolf was difficult to distinguish from the snowy owl, however. All of Michigan’s wildlife was celebrated here in crudely posed death. Why wouldn’t I want to return to see if my memory was accurate?<\/p>\n

I parked in the sparely-crowded parking lot, walked in to the enormous gift shop in the front of the museum, and asked the girl at the counter for one adult ticket. She was probably in high school, so I asked her if the museum had changed in the last 30 years. She told me earnestly that they had switched the positions of some of the animals. She asked if I wanted the complementary clipboard which had the child’s scavenger hunt questions. I passed.<\/p>\n

Oh, but now, in addition to the animals (which perhaps have been dusted once or twice in the past decade, from the looks of them), they have added painted bear tracks to lead you through the tunnels, from display to display, and they have even televised the face of an old hunter from the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century onto a mannequin\u2014the effect is weird, eerie, and not remotely of historical or educational value. Whose idea was this?<\/p>\n

But that Call of the Wild has lasted so many years largely without change speaks to the kitschy sense of entertainment which is the entire UP, as well: Gaylord is only a warm-up to a bevy of absurd amusements for tourists, from Haunted Michilimackinac tours to Mystery Spots, Weird Michigan Wax Museums, and 17 go-cart tracks within eight miles of St. Ignace. All of them here in late July were empty. (At least I left Call of the Wild with $5 worth of fudge.)<\/p>\n

As I turned down US-2 (which I will largely follow all the way to Glacier National Park in Montana), I was eager to put these behind me, along with the closed Lake View Motels, the abandoned Glenn’s Gas stations, and the seedier looking “Indian Souvenir” shops.<\/p>\n

Arriving in Manistique, I pulled into a recommended campground on Indian Lake to discover Winnebago heaven, each pulling boats, bicycles, and SUVs. The State Park offered sites for $32, and I told the ranger that I would pay her $10. She didn’t need to tell me that this wasn’t Nepal, so I left there, as well. Moving across the bay, I turned up into Hiawatha Nat’l Forest, paid $12 for a site with apparently no one for some miles, and roasted some Koegels.<\/p>\n

One thing that also seems scarce in the UP are coffee shops with wireless, so I do not know how soon this blog will be posted, but I leave tomorrow morning for the Porcupine Mountains.<\/p>\n

Day Two: Hiawatha to the Porcupines\/Presque Isle<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I’m continuing the same blog entry because my one aborted attempt to link to an internet service caused me to despair of finding another falsely promised outpost.<\/p>\n

Backtracked a little to the eerie early morning hike of Fayette State Park, mostly an abandoned iron smelting village beneath limestone cliffs on Lake Michigan. I arrived at 7:00 am, long before anyone else was there, and so I watched alone as the fog slowly lifted off the old bat-infested furnaces and the ruined hotel. There is a fair amount left of the village, but this because the State has invested in its preservation after it shut down in the 1910s.<\/p>\n

Something which is clear about the wilderness of the UP: it will eat anything we build here. Ancient masonry crumbles, and as I drive US-2, there are miles of imploded and crumbling houses, blistered shells of supply stores, the sporadic new construction of aluminum siding, proof the owner believes against winter lake storms and an insistent forest. Hiawatha, Ottawa, and the Porcupines are enormous, of course, and there are more abandoned turn-outs and driveways into the wilderland than active ones.<\/p>\n

Camping here is preferable to the closed and claustrophobic shacks or squat strips of hotel rooms, mostly which promise free coffee or hot showers as if these were luxury. Camping pretends to be nothing but temporary, makes no claims on the land, offers (if I avoid the RV havens) nothing but a\u00a0fire ring and perhaps a table.<\/p>\n

Outside of Norway (wittily announced by a Viking longboat beneath its Welcome sign) is Piers Gorge, a set of falls and rapids along the Michigan-Wisconsin border. The lower rapids probably match the beauty of Tahquamenon, but there is absolutely no one there during my visit, not in the dirt parking area or along its two miles of trails. A deadfall along the route shows signs of bear markings on the trees, a limestone hill above me appears to have small caves; I do not overstay my lone welcome and press on to Iron Mountain, a small town that consumed a friend of mine many years ago. Now I know why she cried on the phone about being trapped there.<\/p>\n

I left US-2 and moved north to Ontonagon and then to the Porcupines. I was assured a site on the Presque Isle side (I will hike those trails before I leave tomorrow morning) and then made a quick visit to Lake in the Clouds. Was it still the same beauty from my childhood trips? The answer is yes, though the thrill of the view (looking down upon a quiet blue lake settled within a forested bowl of hills) was somewhat dampened by the new stone wall they have placed along the edge. My childhood trauma of my father positioning my young brother and I along the edge (in my memory, feet dangling from the stone cliff) so that he could secure a 3D photograph has never left me. Now I could not approach within 10 feet of that ledge. But I took photographs of the fateful rocks that still bear the scuff marks of countless child tennis shoes.<\/p>\n

The Presque Isle campground has more people nearby than Hiawatha (where I was quite alone in what became a rainy night and morning), but it is dry and clear now, and my fire will finish off the sausage I brought. I think that (after I explore the Apostle Islands tomorrow and the Parkway along the Duluth shoreline, I can make it half-way through Minnesota into the national parks there. This means missing the Great Chautauqua tent show tomorrow night in Bayfield, which I was looking forward to, but it gains me about 200 miles. We’ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day One: Grass Lake to Hiawatha Driving north through Michigan’s lower peninsula is largely routine for too many of us trolls (what the Yoopers call residents of the lower state). The occasional construction zone, the intermittent shower which grays out the windshield, the Winnebago which won’t do more than 45 mph as it pulls an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,248,304],"tags":[325,413,578,579],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chizblog","category-culture-criticism","category-travel","tag-america","tag-michigan","tag-road-trip","tag-usa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/072609_0500_AmericanRoa1.jpg?fit=323%2C217&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1709,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/american-road-trip-missouri-and-kansas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":0},"title":"American Road Trip 2: Missouri and Kansas","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2012 Jul 18","format":false,"excerpt":"Corn corn corn corn. I knew the long haul across Kansas would be a challenge. So I started the morning off by being the first one to charge into the over-advertised Meramec Caverns. Truly, they are extensive, and I admit I've never seen such an impressive array of different formations.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/080313_1800_AmericanRoa1.jpg?fit=352%2C231&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1730,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/american-road-trip-1-porcupine-mtns-to-north-dakota\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":1},"title":"American Road Trip 1 : Porcupine Mtns to North Dakota","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Jul 26","format":false,"excerpt":"Day Three: Porcupine Mountains to Chippewa Nat'l Forest Early morning is probably the best time to visit the three falls along the river here. Again, eerily, no one is on these trails\u2014outside of the occasional wooden post suggesting a marker, I can easily imagine these as they have always been.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/072609_0500_AmericanRoa2.jpg?fit=377%2C257&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1735,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/american-road-trip-1-glacier-to-idaho\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":2},"title":"American Road Trip 1: Glacier to Idaho","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Jul 30","format":false,"excerpt":"Day Seven: Sorest Calves in Glacier This morning's hike took us into the \"Heart of Glacier,\" a flora identification trip to Iceberg Lake, about 10 mountainous miles round trip. The hike began well, with seven of us outfitted with boots and packs and a cool crisp morning. About two miles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/073009_1627_AmericanRoa1.jpg?fit=443%2C295&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1737,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/american-road-trip-1-idaho-to-yellowstone\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":3},"title":"American Road Trip 1: Idaho to Yellowstone","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Aug 2","format":false,"excerpt":"Day Nine: Idaho Falls to Yellowstone Part of me expected to reach Yellowstone (and flee Idaho) by mid-morning, but I knew better. First, the only T-Mobile dealer in Idaho (because all that exists here is AT&T and Verizon) was in a Wal-Mart. So began my very first trip into a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/080309_0217_AmericanRoa2.jpg?fit=387%2C305&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1732,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/american-road-trip-1-north-dakota-to-glacier\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":4},"title":"American Road Trip 1: North Dakota to Glacier","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2009 Jul 28","format":false,"excerpt":"Day Five: Minot, ND, to Chester, MT It's hard to imagine just how big the American agricultural machine really is. Knowing that I am only scratching the northern tip of flax, corn, and cattle country, this day has been (until its end) an exercise in open sky and broad fields.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/montana-300x201.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1706,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/american-road-trip-2-indiana-and-illinois\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":5},"title":"American Road Trip 2: Indiana and Illinois","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2012 Jul 15","format":false,"excerpt":"Nothing necessarily insightful about these next few posts, but more an account of some of the highlights of my second American Road Trip. This time I will be taking two specific roads while traveling to Vegas and back: Route 50, called the \"Loneliest Road in America,\" and Route 66, of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/04\/071513_0434_AmericanRoa3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1729,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions\/1729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}