Welcome to Wisconsin

We arrived in Wisconsin on the first day of fall and the hottest day they've had all year. This warm snap is expected to be brief but I'm so glad our first campsite in Wisconsin is our shaddiest. We are at our first county park and it is so peaceful and beautiful. The name of the park is Big Eau Pleine. I would highly recommend this park. The only drawback for us has been no shower facilities and because our water pump is leaking we decided not to use the shower in the camper. No worries though because the nearby town of Wausau, WI has a wonderful YMCA that allows us to use their facilities for free since we are members of the Y at home in TN.

Starbaby seems to be enjoying our decision to run the air conditioner in the camper for the first time.

Presque Isle River

With only one evening left in the UP we decided to drive out to the far end of the park to see the Presque Isle River, it's waterfalls and hike out to where the river dumps into Lake Superior . It was an absolutely incredible evening and we had the whole place to ourselves since it was so close to nightfall. We couldn't believe our luck when we hiked to the end of the river and witnessed a beautiful sunset. The icing on the cake was while driving back to our campsite we had to stop our truck to let a large porcupine cross the road. It was the perfect ending to our stay in the Porcupine Mountains!

Museum porcupine 

Agates

As for Agate hunting, the beaches here are mostly made up of small rocks and sand. We had noticed people on many of the beaches picking up rocks much like we would pick up shells on the beach in Florida. We discovered the "prize" most are looking for are agates. Mark talked to a park ranger who shared that his wife was an exceptional agate hunter and had a nearby location that she kept a secret....especially from tourists. He told us about this secret location, so even though I can't disclose where we went I can say Mark found his first agate. It is the small rock at the bottom of the picture.

Pasties

A couple things left on our list of "things to do" in Michigan were eating a pasty (pronounced pass-ty not paste-y) and going agate hunting. After talking to a fellow camper, who comes to this park regularly, we were told to visit Ontonogan, MI (about 15 miles away) and give Syl's Cafe a try. Syl's had the atmosphere we were looking for and we discovered we love pasties!

Ski Slope Disc Golf

Another cool thing about this park is that many of the trails become cross country ski trails in the winter. When we checked out the local ski resort we discovered an 18 hole disc golf course with moveable baskets. We were tempted to move them closer to the tee boxes but resisted and still managed to par a few holes. I think we are getting better, but even if we aren't we are having lots of fun with this new (to us) game.




Markie taking it easy at the snowless, deserted chalet. I loved that the benches were made from old ski lift chairs.

The Porkies!

The Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park is 60,000 acres and is one of the few remaining large wilderness areas in the Midwest. It has the biggest tract of virgin northern hardwoods in North America which means beautiful fall colors. Where Copper Harbor prides itself on being a mt. biking Mecca, the Porkies beat all the Michigan State Parks we've visited with their varied and extensive hiking trails. Every day we choose a new trail to hike and are astounded at the uniqueness of each one.

   

 

Copper Harbor

We were convinced that 70/80 degree days were over but our last day at Copper Harbor was in the high 70's. Annie and Jon gave me this coffee concentrate system to make iced coffee for our travels so I haven't been tempted to give up on iced coffee yet.

Fall comes earlier to the UP and we are excited to possibly have the longest autumn of our lives as we follow the changing leaves south over the next month.

Even though we were sad to leave Copper Harbor after eight days we were created with this beautiful sunrise to welcome us to the Porcupine Mountains which will be our last week in the UP!