We finished off our “East Coast Adventure” in much more of a rush than we had planned. Things were closed for the season, and we had someone expecting us back. Now those pressures were gone. We had time and we didn’t really know where we were headed, except west. This was a luxury we didn’t have when we moved east last August, so we could take some time to wander our way back west. We did have the boat to tow, so that limits our options of adventures a tad bit. We chose a route that took us through northern New York, then through the great lakes region and we were off, westward bound.
Our first night was at a beautiful lake in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. The loons and owls were our only company for the night.
Spring had just arrived in upstate New York, with most of the trees still bare from winter, but it was still a beautiful area.
Our route through the Great Lakes took us right through Niagara Falls, so of course we had to stop off to have a look.
The falls were impressive, but as you might expect, very touristy. We had to hunt around for parking that was less than $20 for the hour we were going to be there. It was neat to see, but I wouldn’t go out of my way.
The next morning we made the big border crossing into Canada, then crossed back again into Michigan. We headed north up the mitten on our way to the upper penninsula.
After a couple nice nights around Lake Huron and Michigan I was really starting to like the area. Rural areas, lots of lakes for fishing, woods. Then things got interesting. As we headed toward Lake Superior it seemed a storm was blowing in. Winds were whipping off the lake, and rain was turning to ice pellets. We had planned a full day at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but after a few quick forays into the driving wind we decided we needed to find a place to shelter up for the night. Before we arrived at our overnight destination the snow was already several inches deep. Mind you this is the 1st of May. Before it was all said and done, a foot and a half of the wettest, heaviest snow I can remember experiencing had fallen on us in less than 24 hours. Luckily our roof didn’t cave in and we were able to head south to Wisconsin and sunny weather the next day, but this was one amazing storm.
Later we found out that Gordon Lightfoot passed away on May 1, and there is no doubt in my mind this was Lake Superior’s way of saying farewell to an old friend.
Not ones to be deterred we made it around to Superior’s north shore and spent a couple days exploring. There were no lack of waterfalls, beaches and amazing woods to see, even though we were somewhat hampered by the snow in the back woods.
Once again we found a great campsite on our last night in Minnesota, with more loons and grouse to keep us company in an otherwise deserted forest. The lake was a bit icy, but with a bit of firewood scrounged up we enjoyed a quiet night by the lake before we continued our trip west.
