Summer Vacation - Part 5

I promise this will be the last installment.  There has just been too many good pictures to share!

After 2 nights in the Yurt, and 2 nights at Section 17, we moved onto our last rustic cabin called "Speaker's Cabin".  It sits right at the mouth of a stream dumping into Lake Superior.

It's another small, rustic cabin without running water or electricity, but the sound of the waves of the lake more than make up for it.

The views to the west were pretty nice, too.

 We tried some new cooking, and baked biscuits over the campfire in a cast iron skillet that was provided with the cabin.  They turned out very nice, except we did burn the bottoms.

The inside of the cabin was about what we expected - a table and 4 chairs, and 4 beds.  There was also a small wood-burning stove and kitchen counter area.

Up the hill was our outhouse.  If you propped the door open while doing your business, you had a great 40 mile view to the far horizon of Superior.

Kids enjoyed the mud...

...and throwing stones...

...and we all enjoyed the sunsets.

It was a great location, and a great way to end our wilderness adventure.

Summer Vacation - Part 4

So here we are at the Section 17 Rustic Cabin in the Porcupine Mountains.  I'll just hit the highlights:

Pizza for supper!  This was a new one for us, and it turned out super nice. 

We made a little "lid" out of aluminum foil to keep the heat in the pizza, and baked it over coals. 

Of course, eating on the bridge over the stream was a must.  Just don't let your pizza slide off into the water. 

Due to a quick rain in the evening, we played cards by candlelight. 

Breakfast was always had at the bridge, too.  It was nice to have the sun on your back and warm up a bit, too.

We did a 6 mile hike, and found this cool tree growing on top of a boulder.  Only the roots travelled down to the ground.  We were all fascinated.

Summer Vacation - Part 3

The biggest attraction near our Yurt in the Porcupine Mounts is Lake of the Clouds.  It is a nice lake sitting behind a cliff of rock with nice views in nearly all directions.

It was warm and sunny as you can tell.  It was also pretty breezy, which was very welcome to keep the bugs away for a few minutes.

We also took a long and hot hike down to Lake Superior.  Yes, it was long and it was hot, but it was worth it.  We probably hit 85 degrees on the trail, but once we were near the big lake, temps probably dropped to low/mid 60s.  It was great. 

We dipped our feet in.  Water temperatures were in the low 50s this close to the surface (or so I was told by the visitor's center people).

Eventually, we had to say goodbye to the Yurt and move onto our next resting spot.  

We hiked out and drove on down the road.  Kids sure are getting good at hiking these days.  I don't think I heard any complaining at all on this trip.

The next stop is a rustic cabin called Section 17.  This place is special to me because 21 years ago in June, my wife and I were here (then girlfriend)

I tried to recreate that picture, but added the 3 kids, too.  

Contrast and compare the picture above to the picture below.

Geesh - lots of changes between these pictures.  Someone added a porch, some new siding, but that guy seems to have lost his hair!

Summer Vacation - Part 2

After our time in Wisconsin Dells, we continued driving northward and arrived at the Porcupine Mountains.  It's still a 5 hour drive north, so it took nearly all day.

Here is a blowup of the Porcupine Mountains - it's a big area.

The workers at the Porcupine Mountains Visitor's Center were very helpful.  We had many questions, and they answered them all.  We drove to our trailhead for the short hike to our Yurt, and were bombarded with mosquitoes.  We changed quickly into our Permethrin treated clothing.

It was a quick and easy half mile hike to our yurt.  Most of the trail was a muddy and rutty path for a pickup truck.

At the Yurt, the mosquitoes were worse.  We had to put on our headnets that we would wear for the next 6 days.  You might think it is uncomfortable, but it's really not as seen by this guy's expression:

Our Yurt was awesome.  It is a soft-sided canvas cylinder with a cone on top.

The structure of the Yurt is this collapsible wooden "mesh".  Vinyl windows zipped up and down, and made for good ventilation.  There are a total of 4 beds.

Also in the Yurt is a small wood stove.  We didn't use it, but it would be cozy in wintertime.

Outside of the Yurt is a green metal Bear Box.  We stashed all our stinky stuff in here for the night - food, toiletries, tooth paste, campstove fuel.  Bears love all that stuff, but can't get into the box.

With headnets on, we had a campfire to cook hotdogs and s'mores for dessert.  It was a great day.

Side Note - The hardest thing with the headnets is remembering to remove them before taking a bite of your s'more.

Summer Vacation - Part 1

We took our big summer vacation early this year.  As soon as kids got out of school, we took off for a trip up north.  We spent 5 nights in Wisconsin Dells, 6 nights in the Porcupine Mountains, and 2 nights with friends near Green Bay.

Day #1 - We spent all day driving up to Wisconsin Dells and checked into our resort.  Car time was around 5 hours - 325 miles.  Kids were totally excited at all the water slides they see.  We get suits on and go out.  Cold cold water!

Day #2 and 3 - We do more of the same, but with the addition of the roller coasters and rides of the theme park.  Kids especially enjoyed the coasters.  The go-karts were great, too!

On one of these days, we took a good break and went out to eat at a cool restaurant called "Moose Jaw".  We had a good pizza and a calzone.  These were the only 2 moose we saw on the entire vacation: