Onward and upward in Michigan and another of the Great Lakes …
We packed our bags and sent them off on horse and cart to the dock and after a casual breakfast in Main St walked down to catch our 9.30am ferry back to St Ignace and our car.
Waiting for the ferry
When we rented our bikes yesterday, the young guy asked us where we were from and when we told him he said “my father came from Australia”. He was a bit light on details as to where from but we gathered around Sydney somewhere. Anyway, whilst waiting in line to get on the ferry this morning a voice says “my son tells me you are from Australia, G’day” – it was the young guy AND his father ! Turns out he was a chef and after working at the Sydney Olympics, came across here to another Olympics and after that came to work as a chef at the fancy Iriquois Hotel on Mackinac. Here he met his future wife, who is now executive pastry chef there. He loves it on Mackinac ! Hard to imagine but he told us Lake Huron freezes over so they ride snowmobiles across to where the ferry currently goes !
Ferries heading back to the mainland – hard to believe this freezes over !
After our 20 minute ferry ride, we were back in St Ignace and the car and our luggage were waiting for us – we were again on our way. Just down the road was a scenic overlook called Castle Rock. It was a bit of a touristy trap/gimick but it did give a good view back across toward Mackinac. We did however find our first Paul Bunyan and his trustee Blue Ox statue !
View back to Mackinac 
Paul Bunyan & Blue Ox
A large part of our initial drive today was along Scenic Highway 2. It follows along the top of Lake Michigan again before finally turning north toward our next lake, Lake Superior. Along the way we crossed the Cut River bridge. It was a bit unusual to be able to stop nearby and actually get down under the bridge. This part of Michigan is densely covered in pine trees.
Under the Cut River bridge
We followed along US77 and stopped in at Seney National Wildlife Refuge. It is a very large area of protected habitats with various wildlife across the seasons. Unfortunately, other than a small Garter snake which slithered across the road in front of us and a number of Trumpeter Geese, there wasn’t much else. The wildlife drive area was pleasant enough though.
At Seney National Wildlife Refuge 
Trumpeter swans
From here we made our way further north until we reached Lake Superior at a town called Grand Marais. This is also the base for the area called the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We stopped and had a snack on the edge of the lake and then drove along the scenic drive near the lake.
Park in Grand Marais 
World’s Largest Pickle Barrel in Grand Marais !!
One stop we made was at Log Slide Overlook which was a point used by loggers to get there cut timber to the lake. It sits 175 feet above Lake Superior atop the Grand Sable Dunes. It is so named for a wooden chute that early logging companies used to slide logs 300 feet down the sand dune to Lake Superior.
The log slide into Lake Superior
We reached Munising, our stop for tonight, late in the afternoon. As we had a cruise booked for the evening, we headed off to find a spot for an early dinner and went with the hotel’s recomendation of the Dogpatch. Not that there were a lot of options in town, but it was buzzing and the food basic but tasty – we had local whitefish straight out of the lake and the usual “soup and salad” offering.
Our hotel was in a nice spot on the lake
After dinner, we set out on a Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Cruise. This is really the only way you get to see any of the lake shore and this particular area is quite spectacular with the varying layers of sandstone, different colours caused by the layers and also seepage of different minerals in the groundwater, as well as the effect of the waves on the lake eroding the sandstone – in many places the “shoreline” is actually 100-200 feet high. As our cruise also had the benefit of the sunset on the cliffs, it was very impressive.
Views along the Pictures Rocks Lakeshore 
Well, we are likely to have a “blog outage” for the next few days – tomorrow we head off to Isle Royale for 2 nights and the wilderness means a digital blackout – we will probably have little mobile signal so internet just won’t be on the radar. Hopefully we’ll be back Sunday when we get to Wausau !
Today’s Tour Trivia – Michigan has the longest freshwater shoreline in the world and has more shoreline than any other state except Alaska. Michigan ranks first in state boat registrations.