With more bad weather pending and many facilities closed for the winter season, we decided to return to the USA and the south shore of Superior. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a distinctive region with a lot of local pride. The folks here are known as Yoopers (Upper Peninsula = UP = Yoop, for those of you who, like me, needed the connection).
The Keweenaw Peninsula is the big finger of land that sticks up from the south shore into the Lake. Notable historic landmarks here include….
Deepest snowfall ever recorded east of the Rockies – 390.4 inches in the 1978-79 season!
Hard for us folks from the southland to imagine.
Also hard to believe that Michigan had its own space program, launching a rocket from this site at the farthest point of the peninsula in 1971!
The rustic log inn where we stayed was a Depression-era project of the WPA in the 1930s, providing employment to folks who lost their jobs in the local mining industry…..
Lots of hiking trails will soon become snowmobile heaven……
The hunt for the elusive agate continues….. in the gravel pits, on the beaches, in the streambeds, hills and parking lots, and on the face of this sandy cliff face in a biting wind.
Raider never loses faith in the endeavor, always alert for a discovery….
To be fair, agates are hard to come by… some people are convinced that the locals collect the most and best rocks in spring and early summer for resale to visitors. Many of the stores are out of stock as well….. one of them resorted to simply showcasing an artist’s rendering of the elusive material.
Henry finally negotiated a deal with the crusty character who owns Prospector’s Paradise, a large rock shop…
In exchange for some franklinite, a mineral that Henry brought along for trade, he got to pick about 50 pounds of agate material from their stock…..
Not as good as discovering them in the wild oneself, but it was fun going through the pile…. and Henry will have lots of raw material to slice and polish!
Weather over the lake changes frequently and quickly, with beautiful long vistas that show what is coming.
The weather finally gave us a generous snow storm, which we chose to ride out at a charming B&B in Ironwood…..
The proprietor of the property, as luck would have it, has a bakery business called Yooper Delights, and she was generous in providing us with decadent goodies, like these warm almond scones.
What else do you feed a Yooper? Well, their culinary claim to fame is the pasty (rhymes with nasty, but that is not a fair descriptor of the taste.) It’s basically pie crust stuffed with potatoes, a little carrot, onion and often some meat… but mostly potatoes. They are fun to eat, but pretty bland….. a little chili sauce helps.
Back on the home front, Henry’s son Clay was alarmed/horrified/galvanized when he saw the following photo on the wildlife camera on Henry’s property that they use to keep an eye on things….. Fire!
A storm knocked over a tree that fell on a power line…. sparks ignited some of the dry pine needles and low brush. Fortunately, the fire did not reach any of the structures on the property, so the house, barn and wood shed are all untouched; however, several acres were burned, and metal animal sculptures and Corvairs were scorched. We’re very lucky that Clay was on the lookout and damage was limited!
Wisconsin presented the final stretch of lakeshore for our Lake Superior circuit; we covered it fairly quickly. The only sight of note was this wonderful mural on the side of a grocery story in Ashland, Wisconsin.
…… So our circuit of Gitche Gumee has come to an end. Headed south with close to a half ton of rocks loading down every niche and crevice of the truck and trailer, we will nonetheless travel fairly quickly through the midwest toward Texas.
Our next planned undertaking will begin in February….. traversing South America, then across the Atlantic for a long sojourn in southern Africa.
Our fervent hope is that the world will continue to battle the coronavirus with all the weapons at its disposal, with nations cooperating and sharing generously to end this devastating pandemic.
We wish you a healthy and happy holiday season. Let’s take care of the planet and each other, and rest well at the end of the day.
Emerald Isle to the Norse Lands 