A few belated pictures from last weekend's UP trip

I went to Muskallonge Lake State Forest campground last weekend with my entire immediate family and our grandfather. We only stayed for three days but they were good days. Personally I would have preferred to camp in a more private and totally "rustic" setting, but it was still pretty good—despite having to walk a few hundred yards to an actual toilet every time I had to pee.

I didn't post these last week because I was mad about breaking my camera while we were up there (busted the screen), and also because there aren't really any wilderness-related shots. I just uploaded them to my computer though and decided I could throw a few up. Not much commentary.

There was a bear ranch somewhere outside of Newberry. From what I understand most of the bears are rescued, which is pretty cool, and they all looked happy (if hot!). This was after we started picking cherries and throwing them in.

There are structures like this all around. There were several on the beach of Lake Superior and there was one on part of the lakebed where Muskallonge used to be (the water level has dropped quite a bit).

Inside.

This was on the outside.

The tracks of a bounding critter on the beach of Lake Superior.

Another.

Two more, under construction. They were actually different the next day.

Some cool lighting. Hard to capture in a photo though.

A dune climb outside of Grand Marais—it used to be called Devil's Slide, but now they just call it the Log Slide. A sign said it's 500ft, 300ft vertical. I'm not sure how big Pyramid Point or any of our other dune climbs are, but this might be slightly bigger. None of us climbed it that day.

A viewing area down a trail to the left of the slide.

I didn't get any opportunities to do any real "nature walking," though I could have maybe found some time to get outside of the campground. My brother and I did scrounge up firewood though, which saved us from paying for it (probably would have had to pay like $14 for the amount we got and ended up with something more poppy—we found a good hard maple limb). The rest of the time was just enjoying being outside, enjoying scenery, and that kind of stuff. There was some berry picking—in fact, a lot of blueberry picking (less raspberry and serviceberry)—and a little bit of wandering, but wandering within bounds.

My brother made an observation that I thought was neat: Many of the inland lakes up there are still mostly forested around the edges. There are some houses along the shores, of course, but the areas that are cleared out are much smaller. Compared to some of the inland lakes around here they look positively uninhabited. He asked me if he thought it would be like it is down here someday, and I told him that I don't think it will. I think that the time for growth in the upper peninsula has mostly passed; life in the UP is different than it is for us down here, and in large part it takes a different breed. I think it's quite possible for things to remain (mostly) the same. And that makes me feel really good.

Maybe my favorite moment from the trip was during the last night of our stay. My brother had just got back from a walk while he smoked a cigarette and told me the stars were shining off of the lake and that I should check it out. I did, and he was right; it is literally one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I've heard that the stars in the UP are amazing, and I thought I knew "wilderness stars," but that night they were just that. It was very calm, so the lake was like glass. Any star that was bright enough reflected off of the surface. It was beautiful.

And then, of course, a late arrival had to show up, shining their headlights right in my direction—and my moment was gone. But a good moment it was.