Check out the map of our trip on Trimble Outdoors: Pictured Rocks - May 2008 Trip
As most trips do, our trip started with planning. Sara and I had gone to Pictured Rocks last year, but we only got to hike about seven miles of the trail. This time we wanted to do a complete through-hike.
Last year our plans to spend the first night in a drive-in campground ended in disaster since we didn't arrive there until 0200 the day we were supposed to start hiking. This time we planned to drive from Detroit, and we reserved a hotel room for Sunday, May 4, 2008 to Monday, May 5, 2008. The place we stayed was pretty nice and offered a continental breakfast to let us fill up on calories before the long hike.
We got our packs all ready at the hotel Monday morning, ate our breakfast, and drove to the Pictured Rocks Interagency Visitor Center (400 East Munising Avenue, Munising, MI; view in Google Maps). We got our back-country camping permits here, and told them we were going to stay at Sevenmille Campground and Mosquito Campground. Then we left and drove to the Munising Falls Interpretive Center (1505 Sand Point Road, Munising, MI; view in Google Maps) to meet the ALTRAN shuttle. We had arranged for the shuttle to take us from the Interpretive Center to the northeast end of the trail at the Grand Sable Visitor Center (E21090 County Road H58, Grand Marais, MI; view in Google Maps) in Grand Marais. It cost us $75 for a pre-season trip, but it was worth it. The driver was very nice, and knowledgeable about the area.
Once he dropped us off, we packed up, stretched, and started hiking. We headed south from the trailhead along a trail initially paved with woodchips. This soon entered a small wooded area, and the woodchips ended. Anice meadow came after the woods, then about a half-mile east through thin forest. We emerged from the forest to see the northern extent of Grand Sable Lake and followed its northeast shore along Highway 58 for a while. From there the trail headed east behind large sand-dunes to the north. Although we know Lake Superior was just over these dunes, we decided not to expend energy or time trying to climb them and focused on getting to Logslide. Logslide is a beautiful lookout over Lake Superior from atop steep sand dunes leading down to the water. There's a little bench where we took a break and ate a lunch of tuna and crackers.
Initially, going west from Logslide, the trail remained at the edge of the sand dunes, but this time we could see west, down the dunes, to the water. After the dunes, there was a long, relatively steep wooded descent. Lots of tree roots and wet leaves on the descent forced us to take our time. This led us to the Au Sable Lighthouse. The lighthouse was deserted at the time of year we came by. There was a picnic table and a drinking fountain, but the drinking fountain didn't work -- probably because it was the off season. By this point we'd already hiked 7.5 miles and Sara was starting to get tired.
The trail leading southwest from the lighthouse was a small, one-way dirt road. We could see to the beach from the trail, and we noticed the first of many wrecked ship carcasses. Unfortunately, there's not much more left to see than a few beams sticking in an unnaturally ordered pattern out of the water. There was also an informational sign at the roadside that alerted us to the wreck and told its story.
The unimproved road led us to the Hurricane River campground, which spanned some distance along the shore. We took a short break on a bench here and saw a park ranger idling in his truck. Sara was already having a tough time, and we considered asking the ranger to drive us out. Sara decided to forge on, however, so we continued. We also ran into a drive-in camper at his campsite and said hello. The hike from Hurricane River CG to Benchmark CG was primarily a foot trail in moderately dense forest. It was rather uneventful and easy to follow. After Benchmark CG, we soon ran into the long, expansive, and sandy Twelvemile Campground. I wanted to mark this on my GPS, but I didn't know where the center was, so I marked the northeastern and southwestern extents.
The last three miles of the first day, from Twelvemile CG to Sevenmile CG were pretty rough, especially on Sara. At some point earlier, she had pulled a muscle in her thigh, and she was forced to slow down. When we finally got to Sevenmile CG around 1900, we chose the first campsite we found northeast of the river. We set up camp near one of the fire pits and started a campfire. There was plenty of dry wood and birch bark around, which made it pretty easy. We roasted some bratwurst over the fire and ate dinner. This helped us rid our packs of the heaviest and most perishable food. We then had time to go out and watch the beautiful sunset before falling asleep to the sound of the waves lapping up against the beach. The next morning we ate fresh scrambled eggs which got rid of more heavy food. Only light-weight dried food was now left to carry. We packed up and headed out by about 0900. Unfortunately, by this time Sara was sure she couldn't go all the way, so we decided to hike to Little Beaver Lake campground to see if anyone could drive us out.
Between Sevenmile Campground and Pine Bluff Campground, we had a difficult time staying on the trail. It was pretty dense forest and there were many large downed trees that made us veer from the trail. At one point we went a few hundred yards off-trail before scouting in directions perpendicular to the general direction of the trail (toward the shore in a northwestern direction, then away from it in a south eastern direction). This landed us back on the trail and made our progress easier. Soon after we were back on it, the trail changed from a winding foot-trail to a straight, wide trail that made me think it had once been a road. We traveled somewhat faster on this segment mostly because it was straight and generally free from fallen trees, but also because at the campground I had taken the majority of the weight in my pack, leaving Sara lighter and faster to keep up with me.
A few miles after Pine Bluff, we veered southeast along the trail to Little Beaver Lake Campground. Unfortunately, the plan didn't unfold as we'd hoped it would. We hiked a half-mile before I realized that we would be going a long way out of our way if we found no one at the campground to take us out. So we doubled back on our track and changed our plan again. This time we decided to hike to Chapel or possibly even Mosquito campground, camp there for the night, and leave Sara at the campsite while I hiked to Miner's Castle to find a ride out.
The next few miles were rough for me because I was disappointed with myself that I hadn't realized that the Little Beaver Lake plan was a bad idea until we'd already wasted 20 minutes hiking toward it. It was also tough for me because I was carrying almost everything in my pack. I had to frequently take breaks to sit on a downed tree and rest my back and shoulders. During these breaks, Sara continued and I would hike faster to catch up with her, so our average speed wasn't reduced much. Once we reached Chapel Rock, we stopped for a break and took a bunch of pictures of the very scenic rock.
After leaving Chapel Rock, we quickly arrived at Chapel Beach. We rested at this beautiful beach for almost two hours to relax and take lunch. This was our best meal of the trip. We ate home-made dried beanless chili that only needs boiling water for reconstitution. Sara found it on a blog for women hikers. The recipe is here. She took a nap in the sun while I walked down the beach to Chapel Creek to refill two Nalgenes, rinse my smelly base-layers, and ice my feet. Although the outside temperature was 65F, the water was very cold. Sara was in good spirits at this time, and despite her sore leg, she decided to soldier on for the last four miles to Mosquito.
When we got into camp, we chose the same site we picked last year, number five, primarily due to its proximity to the bear locker. Bear lockers are so convenient, and this one was even more so because we were the only ones there. We didn't have to worry about removing all the scented stuff from our packs and placing them in a bag to hang because both of our packs fit in the locker. Anyway, we ate a terrible freeze-dried Pad Thai dinner, and we separated all the gear. All the heavy stuff would stay with Sara at the camp site, and I'd only take my pack, my first-aid kit, my rain gear, and 3 liters of water. On the way to the camp, we did run into two other groups who were both parked at the Mosquito/Chapel access lot. This lot is about a two mile hike from the Mosquito campground, and it's where I eventually ended up parking when I came back to pick up Sara. It would have been nice to get a ride out with one of the groups, but the first group was a large group of seventh and eighth graders with their chaperones hiking north on their way to the Coves campground. They planned to stay there overnight and weren't leaving until late the next day (5/7). The other group was a group of older teens with their chaperones staying at the Mosquito Group site, but they too were not planning on leaving until the afternoon of the seventh. We wanted to leave earlier, so the plan was for me to wake up at 0300, pack up, and leave by 0400 to hopefully catch somebody along the trail to give me a ride back to my car in Munising Falls.
I left Mosquito in the dark of night by about 0345 Wednesday morning. Despite the blisters, the cold, and the pouring rain, I was able to make very good progress without Sara and with a lighter pack. It was a lonely hike though. Because I was hiking by headlamp, I couldn't see any of the beauty of the trail. Fortunately this was the segment of trail we had already hiked last year, so I just put my head down and plowed through. From what I remember, the segment from Mosquito to Potato Patch is a moderately dense deciduous forest with a well worn trail sometimes passing close to the cliff's edge. After Potato Patch, the trail goes down in elevation, past a large rock formation on the east side (a great place for lunch last year) to Miner's Beach.
The hike along Miner's Beach is very sandy and takes a little extra effort. This was the first time I had any hint of dawn, and I could just barely see a difference between the pitch-black of the lake and the slightly lighter sky to my right. After the beach, the trail takes you over Miner's river and through the most picturesque pine forest imaginable. I only know this from last year's hike, however, because I flew through it at 3mph this year. It was still dark, cold, rainy, and muddy. I knew I was walking through beauty all around me but just couldn't see it. After this forest is the climb back up what I like to call "Miner's Mountain" from the beach to Miner's Castle. Once I got to the top I went right to the little rest-room shelter they have near the parking lot. I skipped going out to see Miner's Castle because when I passed it, it was still dark, and I had already seen it the year before. At the shelter, I ducked in for a while once I found a dry place to rest. I thought about staying there until someone drove up to visit Miner's Castle, but it was still only 0530, and I only had seven miles left, so I decided to leave after about 10 minutes. It sure was cold when I got back to the trail, but I warmed up quickly.
The trail from Miner's Castle to Cliffs was a somewhat dense deciduous forest. The trail was very wet with lots of little streams and small wood bridges to cross them. It was still early in the morning, so I didn't have very good light to see all the surroundings.
The final segment of the hike from Cliffs to Munising Falls had similar terrain to the wet forest near cliffs, but there were many beautiful waterfalls to see. I was trying to move fast, and I did fall once on a very slippery board-bridge. The last two miles were through a large network of Nordic ski trails. This involved a lot of elevation gain which really tired me out at the end of a 42 mile hike. I was really glad to finally see my car. I ended up taking off my rain coat, rain pants, hiking pants, and hiking boots in the parking lot before driving back to pick up Sara. I put on my sandals and drove back in my soaked boxers and Cap 3 shirt. I turned the defroster on full blast, and still it could barely keep my windows dry.
I drove to the Chapel/Mosquito access parking lot and redressed. I hiked from the parking lot with an empty pack to the Mosquito campground, and surprised Sara because she wasn't expecting me for at least another 4-5 hours. We packed up all that was left at the camp site into both packs and hiked our last two miles back to the car. That made an extra four miles for me, but with half of it being no more than a walk in the woods (with essentially nothing on my back) it was easy. After we left, Sara made up some more tuna and crackers to feed me while I drove. We stopped at the Melstrand general store to pick up some candy bars. After three days of Clif bars and dried food in the back-country, those tasted SO GOOD. From there we headed back to Munising where I got a Z-pak for Sara's sinus infection, and we paid ten bucks for two showers at the Alger Falls Motel. We changed from our hiking clothes into comfy dry jeans and started the long trip home. All-in-all, it was a wonderful trip.
See prior posts for a listing of the gear we took.
