Weeks 30-32: Did We Fall In Love With the Great Lakes? You Betcha!

Cuyahoga Valley

National Park, Ohio

by Sam the Other Bean

May 21st, 2022

Before leaving Ohio we had one more stop to make. In the northern part of the state, just a thirty minute drive from Cleveland, lies Ohio’s lesser known national park. This park has been through a lot, and this conversation would be a lot different if we were talking about this area just fifty years ago. The park we were about to visit was Cuyahoga Valley.

Cuyahoga Valley is most well known for the infamous Cuyahoga River fire of 1969, which is exactly what it sounds like. Even worse, this was just the final fire in a long string of fires caused by man made pollution. In total the Cuyahoga River caught on fire an astonishing thirteen times. The fire of 1969 finally focused national attention on water pollution and led to a shift in the way we view the environment today.

In 1974 Cuyahoga Valley National Park was established and became a success story for land restoration and conservation. Old shipping canals have been reclaimed by nature, junk yards have been reflooded by beavers, and bald eagles once again nest high in the trees. This is all due to a wave of environmental activism and new laws triggered by the Cuyahoga River fire.

While the story behind Cuyahoga Valley was impressive, I was still skeptical behind the national park ranking. Was this valley really more than just a glorified city park? Did it deserve to have the same classification as parks like Zion and Yellowstone? Well, there was only one way to find out.

Our first stop was the Boston Mill Visitor Center, right in the smack dab middle of the park. As it turns out, the visitor center is also right below two major intersecting highways: I-80 and I-271. However, these freeways seemed miles away from the world I had just stepped into. The noise of cars from above was easily drowned out by the rushing of water, blowing of wind, and buzz of birds and bees in the valley.

It was strange being in such a tranquil place while hundreds of people were passing right over me on the freeway.

From the visitor center we took a trail that meandered past the town of Boston. Boston was one of many booming towns built alongside the Ohio and Erie Canal in the 1800s. After the arrival of the train in the late 1800s the canal became obsolete, leaving towns like Boston to slowly fade away. Luckily the NPS maintains some of the buildings in town to give visitors a taste of what life was like 100 years ago.

We also passed a section of the old Ohio and Erie Canal. It’s difficult to imagine a time when water actually passed through these walls.

Our hike ended at Brandywine Falls. There’s just something about waterfalls that never gets old.

The next morning we returned to the Ledges area of the park. This hike took us on top of and around these impressive rock ledges.

We had only spent the equivalent of a day in Cuyahoga Valley and hiked only a fraction of all the trails in the park, and while I could have easily spent more time exploring the area, I felt as though I had time enough to answer some of the questions that had been floating around in my head. Chief among those questions was how Cuyahoga Valley compared to some of America’s more legendary parks . . .

Cuyahoga Valley doesn’t really compare to the scale of bigger parks like the Smokies or Grand Canyon. The nature you find in this park is also going to be a lot different from the rugged wilderness that other western parks can boast about. However, Cuyahoga Valley does have something that most other parks don’t. In this little park, just 30 minutes south of Cleveland, is a working example of how land can be restored to benefit both man and nature. Turning a fire-plagued river into a haven for wildlife and recreational enthusiasts alike is quite the achievement, and that alone is worthy of the national park status in my eyes.

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

& Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

by Sam

May 23rd, 2022

As we pulled away from Cuyahoga Valley we set our sights on an area much further north and much more remote than where we had just come from: the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This area, surrounded by some of the largest lakes on Earth, was surely out of both Kes and I’s comfort zone, yet I couldn’t wait to see this part of the country. Now all we had to do was drive eight hours directly north to get there.

Kes decided to take a nap during the long car ride. Surprisingly this is not a very common sight during our travels; if you passed us on the road you’d usually see us chatting, intensely listening to a podcast, or bopping our heads to music.

Our original plan was to stay in the UP for the better half of a week. However, as life on the road goes, plans can change pretty quickly. Just as we crossed the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula, I got a notification that our reservation for an upcoming boat-packing trip in Voyageurs National Park had been cancelled due to record flooding. Looking into the situation further, we realized that the water level was only going to keep increasing and was actually predicted to crest during the very days we had planned to visit. This, combined with a generally crappy weather forecast and our lack of kayaking experience, led us to the tough, albeit obvious, decision to cancel our trip to Voyageurs. That meant we were going to be spending a lot more time in the UP than originally planned.

Our four day trip to the UP had just been extended to ten days, yet I don’t think Kes and I were particularly upset by the change. After being on the move for so long it would be nice to finally set up shop somewhere and really get to know a place. In this instance our somewhere would be the little town of Munising (pronounced mew-niss-ing) Michigan, located about halfway across the Upper Peninsula on the shores of Lake Superior.

Little did we know that this area was the perfect place to spend an extended amount of time. We had chosen Munising primarily due to its proximity to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, a park that protects 40 miles of jagged cliffs and sandy beaches along Lake Superior. Pictured Rocks has miles and miles of hiking trails, and Munising is just about as cute as towns come. During out stint in the area we’d become temporary regulars at the breweries in town, try our first pastie (pronounced with a long a sound), and even learn about some of the local history at the bottom of Lake Superior.

We spent our first day in the UP hiking along one of the more remote sections of Pictured Rocks. This was both Kes and I’s first time seeing Lake Superior, and the awe that comes with seeing a lake so large that it literally looks like the ocean is difficult to describe. The water was absolutely freezing, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to jump in.

If the crystal clear water and endless horizon wasn’t cool enough, we also managed to spot some old shipwrecks during our hike. There’s not much left of them, but there’s enough to tell that they’re definitely man made and definitely not put there on purpose. Was this foreshadowing for later in our trip?

Our hike ended at Au Sable Light Station. I still think it’s crazy that this lake is so big that it needs actual lighthouses! How insane is that? (For some reason the only picture we took of the lighthouse was with the Polaroid. You’d think we’d be professionals at capturing where we go by now!)

The next day we made our way to an area that you may have seen before: Miners Castle. Seeing pictures from this area is the reason why Pictured Rocks was on my radar to begin with. From this viewpoint you can really see just how clear Lake Superior is and the cliffs that give Pictured Rocks its name.

Just on the other side of Miners Castle was one of Lake Superior’s many picturesque beaches. I love that all of the beaches on this lake are 100% natural.

Only problem was that we had to cross this creek to get to the good sand. Kes made it over in one piece, but just barely.

Of course I jumped at the opportunity to swim in Lake Superior. I can usually handle cold water, but this water was so cold that after just a minute or two it literally felt like a million pins were stabbing me all over. I tried to keep a cool face, but man was it painful getting myself out of the water.

While I was warming up from my dip, Kes took a stroll along the beach to do what she does best: collect pretty rocks. Turns out Lake Superior is an amateur rockhounder’s dream.

I think our smiles say everything in this photo.

Our last stop of the day was Miners Falls, just a short distance inland from the lake. This would be one of many waterfalls we would see in the UP.

The hike to Chapel Rock and Chapel Beach was probably my favorite hike of the week. This trail took us through a beautiful forest that was just coming into its spring colors. Following it would lead us to some of the most unique landmarks in the park.

There’s probably not another tree like the one on Chapel Rock anywhere else in the world. It’s difficult to tell in this picture, but this tree is the sole inhabitant of a freestanding pillar of rock riddled with holes below the capstone. How does this tree get its nutrients you might ask?

Turns out Chapel Rock wasn’t always freestanding. In the 1940s a portion of the rock crumbled leaving this tree on an island all to itself. Luckily the tree had already built a root structure that spanned to the mainland, and this root system managed to stay whole after the collapse. Now the tree can sit happy on it’s own private island while siphoning nutrients from it’s neighbors. How crazy is that?

Chapel Rock was only half the reason why this hike was so cool. Behind this crazy tree hid a beautiful secluded beach, perfect for sunbathing and swimming.

Kes and I couldn’t help but to take a dip to cool off after our hike in.

On days that we weren’t hiking we’d usually make our way to one of the breweries in town. Beer was a great way to motivate myself to update my resume and start seriously working on my post-Gap Year plans.

During one of our last days in town we decided to take a boat tour to see some old shipwrecks. We’re typically too cheap to pay for guided tours, but I couldn’t turn away the prospect of seeing shipwrecks from a glass-bottomed boat!

I still can’t get over how clear Lake Superior is. We glided over several shipwrecks that looked like they would burst through the glass even though they were well below us.

The water gave off this eerie green glow, the perfect setting for viewing shipwrecks.

After our tour we hopped over to a local joint for a UP delicacy: pasties. Pasties are about as hardy as you’d imagine - this meal typically consists of a doughy shell filled with a mixture of meat, potatoes, veggies, and gravy. You can trace this treat all the way back to Michigan’s mining history, when pasties provided the perfect handheld lunch for hungry miners.

During our time in the Upper Peninsula I learned a few things. Most importantly, I learned that Lake Superior is freaking awesome. Seeing this massive lake was truly humbling, and I still have difficulty comprehending that such a massive collection of fresh water is even possible. I learned that to live in this part of the country you have to be tough, like really tough. I can only imagine how cold and miserable Munising is during the winter, and even though we had nice weather, we still had to deal with hordes of mosquitoes, ticks, and loads of other creepy crawlies. And finally I learned that salt really does a number on cars, because man, I’ve never seen more rust buckets than in the Upper Peninsula.

Isle Royale

National Park, Michigan

by Sam

June 3rd, 2022

I didn’t feel sad leaving Munising because, although we had spent a significant amount of time in the area and had become attached to this little town, our next destination required that we spend a few more days in the UP. While Kes and I technically wouldn’t be in the UP for this next trip, the Jeep would be, so I still count it. We actually were heading many miles off the coast of Michigan to the least visited national park in all of the lower 48. We were heading to Isle Royale!

Isle Royale is, in fact, a gigantic island in the middle of Lake Superior. This island is unique primarily due to its extreme isolation from the mainland. Isle Royale is host to a bunch of cool species that have evolved from this isolation, like the Isle Royale red squirrel which is smaller, less red, and actually a subspecies of the more common red squirrel. Isle Royale is also home to devil’s club, a plant that can be found elsewhere in North America, although you’d have to travel over 1000 miles to the west coast of Canada to see another like it.

Isle Royale’s ecosystem, while unique and astonishing in its own right, is actually fairly simple compared to the mainland. Only half of the mammals found on the mainland are found at Isle Royale. This is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, this provides the perfect opportunity for scientists to monitor how relationships among species impact the ecosystem as a whole. As Durward Allen, the founder of the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Study said, “[Isle Royale is a place] where the animals you are counting and studying do not wander away.”

The reason why Isle Royale is one of the least visited national parks is, surprise surprise, due to this extreme isolation. This is not one of those national parks where you can take the family to on a midday whim. I was surprised to learn that there are actually no day-trips to this island at all. If you want to visit, you’re going to have to spend the night there, too. That means that backcountry camping is pretty much the thing to do here, and from what I’ve heard there’s not many places better to backpack than at Isle Royale. So yea, this was right up Kes and I’s alley.

First we had to get to the island, and that turned out to be almost more of an adventure than actually hiking on the island itself. After checking in early, loading up our backpacks, and going through some briefings, we shuffled onto the Ranger III and cozied up for our six-hour ferry ride to the island. That’s right, just to get to Isle Royale took the better half of a day. That’s why most people end up staying several days to a week in the park. Unfortunately for Kes and I, our schedule only allowed us to spend a single measly night in Isle Royale. Oh well, I just thought of this trip as scouting for a longer future visit to Isle Royale.

Luckily the Ranger III was possibly the most comfortable ferry I’d been on. This behemoth was built in the 50s and the engineer in me couldn’t help but to marvel at just how sturdy and well-built this boat was. Kes and I found a nice window seat, and before we knew it we were at Isle Royale.

Cards definitely helped the time pass. As grumpy as I may look, I was definitely having a great time playing games and watching the endless lake pass us by (even though Kes almost definitely won this hand).

This absolutely beautiful lighthouse welcomed us to Isle Royale, right before we docked. I wonder how many lighthouses total are scattered around Lake Superior . . .

There are loads of backcountry campgrounds scattered around the park, but for Kes and I there was really only one camp close enough for our single night stay - Three Mile. As the name implies, this campground was three miles from the dock.

The trail to Three Mile took us along the shores of Isle Royale. Even though it was well into the afternoon by the time we started hiking, the northern sun was still high in the sky and gave us plenty of light to make it to camp.

Once at Three Mile we found a shelter and set up camp. Since we were visiting Isle Royale early in the season mosquitoes really weren’t a problem, but these shelters can attest to the warmer months when mosquitoes are “the size of ponies”, according to a local we had talked to.

After setting up camp we hiked a bit further up the trail to one of the many lakes within Isle Royale. Lakes within islands within lakes, how trippy is that?

We watched the sun set on a nearby dock (for kayakers, not ferries) before turning in for the night.

We had to wake up super early the next day to pack up and hike the three miles back to the Ranger III in order to board by 8:30. Until next time, Isle Royale!

Despite only staying on Isle Royale for a single night, it gave me taste enough to already start planning my second trip to the park. It shows that there’s something special about this park when people are willing to travel to the furthest edge of the United States, plan around the closure of the island for over half the year, and pay for a rather expensive ferry ticket just to go backpacking here. But now I understand why the experience of being on the island is worth all the hassle, too.

Voyageurs

National Park, Minnesota

by Sam

June 5th, 2022

We had one more stop to make before leaving the Midwest entirely. Remember how I said our original plan to boat-pack at Voyageurs National Park fell through? Well, we still had to visit the park one way or another, even if that meant only spending half a day hiking around the water in place of kayaking on it for several days.

Voyageurs National Park is located in the heart of North America, in the boundary waters between Minnesota and Canada. Voyageurs gets its name from tradesman, nicknamed voyageurs, who transported trade goods, mostly furs, from the northwestern reaches of Canada to Montreal. These voyageurs navigated the 56-mile stretch of water now in Voyageurs National Park using lightweight birchbark canoes, and today the best way to visit the park is still on the water.

Kes and I were going to be sticking to dry land on this trip, and as such we’d be heading to the Ash River area of the park, since this is pretty much the only part of the park that has maintained hiking trails accessible by car.

The hiking trail wasn’t particularly unique or stunning, but it did afford us a nice view of where we could have been, had our original plans not fallen through.

It was oddly comforting at least knowing that we had made the right decision to cancel our trip. Water levels were, in fact, at an all-time high, as seen on this sidewalk leading down to the main dock.

I’m not going to lie, cancelling our trip to Voyageurs was probably the biggest blow to any single plan we had made on the gap year to date. As bummed out as I was, it was still nice to have the freedom to still make it to the park, even if it was on much different terms than expected. I also know this won’t be my last time to the park; almost to the contrary, visiting Voyageurs National Park is now at the top of my list of places to revisit after the year has ended. It just goes to show that no amount of planning and preparation can change the weather, and I think that’s a really valuable lesson to learn.

Our time in the Midwest was quickly coming to an end, although unlike a lot of places we visit, I really felt like we had enough time here to truly call it home, even if just for a week or two. I learned a lot about the people here, like how strange they pronounce their towns, but mostly I learned that somehow these ultra hardy people are also some of the nicest you’ll come across. I’m so glad I got to create memories in this strange land far, far away from home, but I was even more glad that now we were actually on our way back home! After weeks on the other side of the country it was finally time to head out West again.

In the next blog we’ll be visiting some awesome badlands, come face to face with some big ole’ bison, and just barely stay dry in the midst of crazy flooding.

See you then!

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Housekeeping

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