Porcupine Mountains, Day 1

The Brooks fam made it to the Porkies, amazed that we can drive ten and a half hours from home and still be in the state of Michigan. Boggles the mind. We're in the U.P., almost to Wisconsin, where you see the red pin in this map.

We met Pete, Cindy, Matt, and Hannah last night in Silver City, and this morning after filling the kids up on waffles and yogurt, we hit the Pinkerton Trail, off of South Boundary Road in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. We had a four and a half mile hike ahead of us. The kids were awesome! About a third of the way there, we took a break at Pinkerton Creek and as the kids frolicked on the banks of the creek, I heard Matthew say to Joe, "This just gets funner and funner!"




The kids are each carrying between 15 and 20 pounds of weight. Jay and I have about 35 pounds apiece, and Buster's doing his part by carring about 5.5 pounds (comprised mainly of dog food and our first aid kit).



The record-setter of the group, though, is Pete who, in addition to the usual stuff a dad would carry in his pack, is toting along a 50-pound car battery. Yes, fifty. That's five zero. Cindy estimates his total pack weight to be around 80 or 90 pounds. (He declined to weigh it prior to leaving their house - some things, it's just better not to know!) The next two photos show Pete and Cindy after a short break about two miles in, getting ready to conquer the rest of our hike. If you click on the first shot for a close-up, you'll find that Pete's expression says it all. ☺



Why carry a car battery, you ask? No, he's not training for a strongman contest. He needs a sleep-apnea mask at night to regulate his breathing, and the mask requires power. Of which there is none here. Without the mask, his sleep is constantly disrupted and he gets terrible migraines the next day. And we decided early on that migraines would not be allowed on this trip. So the car battery was the only way he could ensure power for the mask for four nights. Crazy, huh?

It's amazing to be staying right on the shore of Lake Superior (or Gitchee-Gumee, as it's called in the Ojibwa language). Superior has always seemed so powerful, mysterious, beautiful. Cindy tells me it's her favorite Great Lake. Our cabin's situated right where the Big Carp River empties into Superior. Pete and Cindy's cabin is just across the river.

This afternoon we were sitting on the wooden bridge over the river and were startled by some very energetic waterfowl that came flapping and splashing down the river, half-flying, half-running across the water, making their way under the bridge and out to Lake Superior. They are really cool-looking ducks - the way they dive under the water for food makes them almost resemble penguins. We found out later they're called Common Mergansers. They come through in groups, several times a day, and they're quite entertaining to watch. The kids helpfully yell "DUCK! DUCK! DUCK!" when they see a group of them approaching, so that we can run over and watch them pass.

We were sad to learn that we couldn't have a campfire tonight because it has been so terribly dry here all summer. There have been widespread forest fires east of here, in the central part of the U.P. So we improvised and ended our day with s'mores over the Pocket Rocket tonight. The kids are hopeful, though, because before we started hiking today, a ranger told us that if we get a good heavy rain in the next couple days, we'd be fine to have a small fire. This might be the first time I've ever hoped for rain on a backpacking trip.