A trip to the UP - June 27-29

June 27-29 2014 Michigan Mountain biking + More

I drove to Ashland to meet Emily at her cousins house. We loaded her gear + bike into my car and we were off to Michigan. We brought dinner with and ate at a nice rest stop in Michigan. Really happy that the bug population is low. We arrived in Hancock at 9pm and felt like stretching our legs so we took a walk down by the canal. really nice evening.

Sidecar BMW at the hotel. Crazy front suspension

On Saturday we took advantage of the continental breakfast at the hotel and then went to the tech trails. The ride was fun and things were going well until we got onto some more technical trails on the Hillside loop. Emily went over the bars on a bridge and bruised her legs and arms + received a puncture wound on her right thigh. A scary situation. We hiked out of the trails (1/2 hour) and then drove to the hospital. After being there for a couple hours she walked out with 14 stitches.

We decided to makes the best of being in this area so we continued north to Eagle River, Eagle Harbor, then Copper Harbor. Really pretty country up here and I am glad I am refreshing my memory.

I had done some research before this trip and found a bakery run by Monks in Eagle River (the JamPot). It sounded amazing and I knew I had to stop in. I was amazed by all the jam in this place. They also love fruit cake...there was a lot of variety. I bought a orange zest poppy seed muffin and a strawberry jam bran bar. I savored both of them - great treats

 So much jam at the JamPot bakery

 Fruitcake

Loaves of fruitcake

We took the scenic route up the very bumpy Brockway Rd. Some great 360 views up here. 

 Looking into the town of Copper Harbor

We ate dinner in Copper Harbor on Saturday night.  A great meal followed by relaxing and reading good books on the beach. Great weather...it is actually warm 

On Sunday I went to the MTB trails while Emily did some reading and resting. The trails up here are more fun than I remembered. 

After some climbing. Very happy I got out and rode 

 On the way to the trails I noticed a brand new community garden

Emily's legs were feeling better so we explored some shop on the main strip. Some nice pottery

 Grandpa's Barn had a lot of great books + the owner was awesome. She was super into DIY. Making her own laundry soap and yogurt + more. 

On Saturday night I couldn't resist this ice cream shop. It was right next to the motel. The owners were so nice and had been living up here for decades. They pick all their own berries and those berries are served on the sundays. Emily bought some thimble berry jam from them when we stopped by on Sunday. 

 We took the senic route back south and stopped at this waterfall right next to the JamPot bakery. 

 I hiked up a bit and explored

 A little bit further down the road in Eagle River...

 Laminate wood supporting the bridge cars drive over.

We decied not to spend money on a Motel and save my day off (monday) for a different time so we headed home on Sunday.  We stopped by the Hancock Co-Op and bought some klamata olive Rosemary hummus.  We had a picnic dinner on the way home. Glad Emily is doing OK and the rest of the drive home wasn't too bad. 

July 2014

7-6-14 Sunday

I rallied up some motivation and got behind the wheel and made an early drive to Cable. We hadn't paddles/bike shuttled on the river yet this year. Last year we had been on it a few times by now. I have never been on the upper stretch (flowing out of lake Namakagon). 

Putting into the river

 The river needs to be high to run through this upper section. We ran into a decent amount of rocks and got a bit scared during some of the rocky sections but it was good fun. There was also some mellow stretches to relax on. Saw a few bald eagles too!

Really cool Hobbit like bridge crossing the river. We believe it leads to someones cabin. Kind of wild because this is out in the middle of nowhere. 

The paddle was enjoyable and I leaned some new skills in the canoe. We treated ourselves to ice cream (praline pecan) in town, then went to the garden to weed. 

Some shots from Emily's 30 x 60 plot. She has been doing a lot of weeding. I helped out today...

 Two rows of carrots ^^^

7-19-14 & 7-20-14     A  A weekend BWCA Trip
Emily and I headed up the North Shore on Saturday Morning and got our permit that same morning in Grand Marais. We headed up the Gunflint Trail to just past the half-way point and ate lunch before putting the boat in the water.  We ended up having to do a 290 Rod portage right off the bat. Almost a mile of portaging and we walked it 3 times. A bit tiring especially since the mosquitoes were out. We had some beautiful paddling while in the wilderness.

 A campsite we checked out but did not stay at.

 A great spot to have a fire

 The end of one of the portages.

 Throw on a x-large pack and hike

 A Dew Berry. Super good and similar to a Raspberry

 I wanted to ride bike trials here. Super nice rocks to gap to and from

 The end of the last portage.

We went swimming to clean up before heading to town and also met the owners and Jams by Jan. The jam with the moose on the jar that you see all over Northern MN. It was close to 80 degs  up the GF trail and we drove south into Grand Marais. We were shocked when we opened the car doors and it was a crisp 60 deg. We put on long pants and sweaters and walked over to the Angry Trout for a much anticipated dinner. We were one of the few people who chose to eat outside to avoid the rush inside. We were comfortable thanks to the wool sweaters. While waiting for dinner to arrive we saw a group of otters swimming around the harbor. 

The meals at the Angry Trout are more expensive than I am use to but upon the first bite the price does matter. So fresh and so well prepared. The fish is right from Lake Superior. My lake trout above.

Emily's Meal

The Library and the way up the gun flint trail

We went to the cabin up the shore from GM and had a campfire on the beach and then threw out our sleeping bags and fell asleep to the crashing waves.

On Sunday morning we cooked some darn tasty oatmeal on the beach and then went down to the point.

 A simple breakfast

A cool morning with fog but it was beautiful. 

We did the tourist thing in Grand Marais and then went towards home. Construction on scenic hwy 61 and the temps became very warm the further from GM we went. It was almost 90 deg in Duluth when we got home. I biked down to Ultimate Frisbee and took a swim in the lake afterwards...super refreshing.