Day 14

After an hour, the trailer finally stopped making noise and I was able to fall asleep. It rained, but not like the thunder and clouds promised. The rain—a medium rain—lasted only five minutes, maybe ten. Siskiwit Campground is definitely one I will never return to. Oh, and the mosquitoes were blood thirsty suckers both last night and this morning. It’s been three days since we last showered. I am very much looking forward to a swim in my favorite lake later today.

You have to love when you absolutely fall in love with a place and it’s not close to home and yet you still find yourself there. Even for a few hours, it’s a lovely welcoming feeling. That’s how I feel about Wisconsin up by the Apostle Islands. This is definitely one of my favorite places in the US. It’s right on the lake and it has my favorite—and one of G3’s favorite places to swim. For breakfast we went to Mannypenny Bistro, a restaurant I remember G3 really liking the first time we were here in 2020. The breakfast, while a bit on the pricey side, was delicious. I had crab cake benedict and the hollandaise sauce was surprisingly good—but not as good as Kati’s.

After we ate, G3 and I took a short walk around Bayfield, staying near the lake I love so much. While here, I wanted to stop by to see a friend who lives nearby, but unfortunately, time does not allow for it. Kati is antsy to get to Michigan and find a campsite with a shower. She won’t be able to swim with us because of her knee.

Climbing out of the water onto the rock ledge would be difficult if not impossible. Plus she is feeling extremely down, worried she might not be able to go to Isle Royal. Hiking with a pack on her back with such intense pain in her knee might be too hard.

Houghton Falls! The best—and most fun—way to get into Lake Superior is to jump off the rock that hangs over the water. We discovered it four years ago while we were here the first time. We had to hike a short—maybe ten minutes—distance to get there, but the walk is flat and relatively easy. I hiked in my Keens and G3 in his slides. Kati stayed in the car to rest and protect her knee. The scenery at the end of the trail is pretty. Brown rocks with a reddish tint jut out into the lake and trees line the green and blue water. When we got there we had the spot to ourselves. G3 jumped in first and I followed. To get out, we had to swim around into a cove. We jumped several times before other people showed up, but it was never crowded. G3 really had fun. It might have been the most fun he’s had on this trip, he certainly seemed the happiest he’s been in a while. Having spent a good deal of time in the lake, I feel clean.

I wonder if part of the reason I love this part of the country—Superior and the other Great Lakes—so much is because it’s where I came the summer of 2020 when I was deep in grief over the death of my father. It was in camping and swimming here that I could escape the constant reminders of what I lost, what COVID had stolen from me. After months of crying, I found a bit of peace, some happiness. The Great Lakes were a haven for me and G3, a place where he could be a kid again, and not encased in the emptiness left when his grandfather died. It was here that I laid down some of the pain and learned how to embrace life again.

En route to Michigan, we stopped in Ashland to fill up all our water bottles at the artisanal well. I’m not sure what makes the water artisanal, but we’ve stopped there before and the water tastes better than bottled water in a store. Plus it’s free. You can’t beat free.

And we are back in Eastern Standard Time. We weren’t in Central Time very long, and we weren’t in Wisconsin long enough either. I understand in some ways why G3 has been less enthralled with this trip than previous ones. It’s seems like we’ve driven more and done less. But if he wants more of what we’ve done in the past he’d have to forgo Boy Scout Camp. We’ve exhausted all the places we can hit in just three weeks. And on teacher salaries, flying anywhere and paying for hotels each night, as well as paying for a rental car would be too expensive for more than a week.

We are staying at Courtney Lake Campground in the western part of the Upper Peninsula. As soon as we pulled into the site, Kati recognized it. We think we stayed here previously, probably as we were driving home from our trip out west in 2021. We had decided to detour through Michigan then because we loved it—especially the UP—so much. We got our tents set up and now we are heading out to find dinner. The closest restaurants appear to be forty-five minutes away. We had hoped to have another campfire this evening, but we might get back too late.

Yes, it’s ten o’clock. Too late for a campfire. G3 is disappointed again