Quite an Eventful Day!Sep 23, 2009
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shoreline at Wetmore Landing
closer to island seen from Presque Isle Park
Presque Isle Park and power plant for Marquette
First, I sold my house! The closing was this morning, and I'm one step closer to living the free and simple life! Now, I will dissolve my LLC and pay off my motorhome to become debt free!
I made a little trip to a place north of Marquette called Wetmore Landing. There is a hiking trail there that goes along the shore of Lake Superior. Again, the scenery was just beautiful and if I lived around here, I would visit this more than Presque Isle park.
Then, after lunch, I drove west to find Canyon Falls, south of the town of L'Anse. Baraga County likes to call this the Grand Canyon of Michigan and says the Falls are in a box canyon. I thought I learned that a box canyon is one that comes to a dead end, so you become boxed in if you go into one. So, this isn't a box canyon, since the river flows through the canyon to a lake. But it was a beautiful place. They erected a big stone obelisk where the trail made a turn and I thought that was funny. A trail marker isn't needed on this trail and they could have used one that wasn't so "out there". Then, at the end of a fenced in area they have a sign saying "trail ends". That was funny too. To the right of that sign, there is a well-worn path that goes over a small crevasse to a place where one can get a better picture of the falls. I saw a couple about my age over there, so I went too. I met them on their return and we talked a little bit. When I was almost out of the trail, the guy was walking back in and saw me and said "Oh good!" He came back in to find me after he and his wife realized I was alone and what if I sprained an ankle or something!!! I never had a stranger show concern for my welfare before. I was impressed and grateful and thanked them for thinking of me.
Now it's late afternoon and I wanted to find the waterfalls by an old slate quarry which was outside a town called L'Anse. I followed directions on a brochure and was about to give up because I had already traveled more miles than the brochure said, but then I saw a sign pointing the way to the falls, so I went on that logging road. I drove and drove and drove and wondered how much more I was going to have to drive, when I came to a T intersection, not mentioned in the brochure. Then a big logging truck came out of one side of the T that I was going to go on. I turned right anyway but still didn't find the falls. So, I gave up and told dear Greta Garmin to take me home. I followed her directions when I suddenly found myself having to ford a creek full of rocks! I got out to contemplate this state of affairs. The creek was shallow, the water was definitely moving well, the bottom was rocky, not muddy, and there were tire tracks on the other side. Yep, I forded the stream rather than turn around and go many miles back the way I came!!! I was going to go quite slowly but then got scared that I would get stuck on the rocks so sped up a bit and made it across. If I had gotten stuck, I probably would have spent the night there waiting for someone to travel the road and find me! Whew!
