Hayward Ho!

We (Kim & Joel & Eric came up from Wilmington/Chicago) all met up in Hayward WI Tuesday night (July 3rd). The 4th of July we rented a single kayak for Eric and set off for the Chippewa Flowage, a HUGE lake system just southeast of Hayward. We saw BALD EAGLES! They swooped and dove and buzzed us and caught fish and generally performed amazing feats. It seemed like a fitting show for the 4th of July to see these giant, beautiful, elegant birds living free and wild.
Mike and I nearly ran over a beaver with our kayak. But more about all that at a later time perhaps. For now - just pictures. We`are about to leave to go home this morning. We will drop Eric in Chicago and go home to Minkovitch.

Jelly Belly Swells

Today we woke up early to light rain and overcast skies. We considered going out on the Big Lake in the rain but the temperature was about 50. Without wetsuits, we figured we’d be too cold to really enjoy it. Mike swam in the indoor pool while I posted to the blog. Then I discovered that there is a place called Finlandia University just up the road a bit in Hancock. We put the cover on the kayoe and headed north. When we got to Houghton (on the mainland side of the canal) we found the Soumi bakery and restaurant for lunch. I bought a fresh loaf of nisu bread and I have almost consumed it all – it is SO good! After lunch we went to the Finnish Museum on the campus of Finlandia U. A young man named Kent, who was part Finn like me, accessed the database and helped me find all sorts of information. He was very nice and really helpful. He recommended a movie by a Finnish director, Aki Kaurismaki: A Man Without a Past. See the trailer He also recommended some books and talked about some of the few things I recall such as the word sisu, Black Finns, and soumi. Mike actually found it pretty interesting too. Then we went to the bookstore next door and picked up a few things.
When we got back to the motel, we were going to go for a hike up to the Lake in the Clouds in Porcupine State Park but we noticed that the Big Lake (Superior, doncha know) was smooth as glass. We had to choose and we went for the lake. We uncovered the kayoe and jumped in and paddled around for a couple of hours. Since we are leaving here for Wisconsin tomorrow morning, how could we have done anything differently? It was great – the lake was so still and smooth and every now and then a swell would roll slowly under us with a little gentle rocking. The swells are like the slow-motion jiggle of a nice fat jelly belly. We stayed out there in the gentle rain, 100 yards or so off shore, and watched the fog forming over towards Canada. The line between water and sky smudged so that it was hard to see where one ended and the other began.
It was around 8 when we finally came back and put the boat away. We went to dinner downstairs and got a nice window table overlooking the beach. So, during dinner, doncha know a big black bear walked by. How cool was that! Of course, he was walking around where we were only a little earlier. How weird is THAT?
We have to leave in the morning – but I am betting there will be one more paddle in the Big Lake before we go!

Updates from Saturday June 30 - Loons, and brides, and bears! Oh MY!

Did I mention the bear? We finally saw him. Or her. Or them. Twice. But that was later. First, I gotta write down some of this stuff and post some photos from yesterday, or was it the day before yesterday? Before I forget……
The sunsets are amazing and, as far as I can tell, last from about 9 pm to midnight. I have yet to stay up late enough to see the sky achieve full darkness. Or maybe it's just Canada glowing.
Anyway, Saturday morning we took the cover off the boat (more about the boat cover from Danuu at another time but definitely check out the link to their website. Way cool women! WHAT AN OUTSTANDING PRODUCT!). The BIG lake (Superior, that is) was a little too scary looking with choppy whitecaps due to a brisk wind. The temp was around 45 when we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. We decided to go to a nearby lake (Lake Gogebic, the largest inland lake in Michigan) instead. On the way there, we saw deer in the woods all around - there was nobody on the road - it is such a contrast to home where, on a typical Saturday morning, the roads are crowded by 8 am.
We came across a County park that had a nice campground ($6 per night for tents) right on the lake. The public boat ramp cost $2.50 and there was a nice sandy beach for us to launch the kayoe. We put the boat in and paddled around the lakeshore (It is a BIG lake with lots of lovely lakefront homes. And some crappy lakefront homes as well). We saw a pair of loons fishing for their lunch. And a family of ducks. The weird part was there was hardly ANYbody in boats or swimming in that lake! I guess if you live here it's no big deal but I can't imagine. I am just awestruck by how cool everything is. We did a lot of paddling and the wind kept picking up so it got rather choppy. We took on a little water when a couple of random waves caught us offguard. It was scarey at first but it was really not a big deal. We seem to have built a fine boat capable of staying afloat!
So - then we found a little restaurant on the lakeshore (Fish Tales - where they serve the best walleye on the Lake and the restaurant manager is funny and loud and thoroughly UP) and had a late lunch. They really do serve the best walleye, Mike says. The manager/waitress/cook invited us to come back later for the musical entertainment – an old guy on guitar who plays a mean Patsy Cline. Sorry to say we missed it because, what with the 400 wedding guests at the motel, we were afraid to give up our parking space under our window.
After lunch we drove back to our motel and jumped in our jacuzzi to take the knots out from the paddling all morning. Nice! Of course, that knocked us both completely out and we took a brief nap (how senior can you get?!) only to be awakened by the sound of 400 guests arriving at our motel for a wedding reception! I swear EVERY resident of the UP was there! You betcha, dere was polkas and beer and da kids and da oldtimers was hooping and hollering all night, eh? Actually, we were hardly even aware of them. Except that we decided to go for a walk down the road to the "Fine Dancing and Dining at the Foothills", since the motel grill was tied up with the wedding reception. As we approached the building we saw the bear! He (or she?) was about 35 feet from us, dumpster diving. Literally. We watched as the poor little guy tried to balance on the edge and grab some good stuff from down deep inside. Then he fell in and his head popped up like he was really scared. He was cute (for a bear) and seemed young. And there was no mama bear in sight. Which really made me nervous. But, did I have a camera with me? Of course not!
We had a simple dinner at the Fine Dancing/Dinner establishment and our waitress told us there were actually about 14 bears that hang around because there used to be a restaurant that fed them every night. Unfortunately, that place is not open anymore so the hungry bears are roaming the neighborhood (although I would hardly call this a neighborhood! Altorf is like a major metropolis compared to Silver City!) hitting up the dumpsters and garbage cans and terrorizing the tourists. We stayed to see if any dancing might develop but none did (neither did any music other than the patriotic songs on the portable CD player on the table by the “patriotic tree” which was an aluminum Christmas tree decorated with a couple of red white and blue ribbons and pieces of paper bearing the names of local service men and women.
We didn’t see the bear when we left the place. The wedding reception was in full swing so we hung out on the beach and watched the neverending sunset, the stars, the bats, the occasional drunk. We finally came inside around midnight. The wedding party went on until 3 am. But we slept soundly through it all and despite my nightmares about drunken wedding guests stealing our boat to sail off into the Big Lake; all was well in the morning. When I went downstairs for the complimentary continental breakfast, I got to see the bear again! Only this was a different bear. Older and bigger. He was checking out all the stuff that the wedding guests had left behind: beer bottles, food, cigarettes, pop cans, and so forth. Staying true to my mother’s well-established tradition of panicking upon sighting of bear, I struggled to get my camera out, find a good vantage point, turn it on, take a picture, realize the it was set for night-time and flash, re-set the camera, and blabbity-blah-b;ah. Suffice to say that I got one really lousy photo of the bear behind a park bench. If you look real hard you might be able to make him out.

Sunday July 1 - On the Big Lake at last!

Mike missed the whole bear thing but when he came down to get some breakfast, we looked at the lake, realized it was “calm” and decided to go for it! And we did! We actually paddled around for several miles and hours in Lake Superior! GotcheeGoomee! The Big Water!! The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald!! It was a major buzz!
Okay, so my heart was in my throat for most of the time, but not in a bad way. The amazing thing was that the water is so clear you can see the bottom most of the time! There are huge rocks and faults and I took a picture through the water but there is no way to reproduce the sensation of sitting at water level in a wooden kayak on Lake Superior and looking down through crystal clear water at ancient rocks. What can I say. I have no words for this.
We wore ourselves out – paddling further each time – the waves started to build up a bit – we “surfed” the swells and I could hear the boat slap each time it rose up. Mike had the better view in front. But he also took the brunt of the wind and it was brisk out there.
We finally had to call it quits and we took another long and luxurious Jacuzzi soak to get the muscles calmed down.
The clouds finally started moving in early in the evening so we covered the cockpit of the boat with a tarp and went to hound some rocks on the beach. I found lots of good ones. And enough shale for the next two years! I wish I hadn’t just placed an order with Burminco! In fact, I realized it wouldn’t take much to come up here and gather all the granite, basalt, sandstone, shale, slate, (and more!) I could ever need for the earth & space labs. But, then again, with gas prices the way they are it is actually cheaper to buy them. Not nearly as much fun though.