Category Archives: Hiking

hiking

September 25, 2013 Oglesby, IL

After a great time visiting Chicago, we traveled to Starved Rock State Park, Illinois. It is a lovely park and we were happy with our level site. Since Labor Day, the campgrounds have been pretty deserted Monday thru Thursday, and this park was no exception. The park lies along the Illinois River and is known for its fascinating sandstone rock formations. There are 18 canyons in the park formed by glacial meltwater and stream erosion. The waterfalls in the canyons are dry this time of year with the best time to see the waterfalls being in the spring during the end of winter thaw. The area has been home to numerous Native American tribes. The Park gets its name, Starved Rock, from a Native American legend. In the 1760’s, Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe was killed by a member of the Illiniwek tribe. During the ensuing battles to avenge the killing, a band of Illiniwek under siege, sought refuge on the top of a 125 foot sandstone bluff. The Ottawas surrounded the bluff and stayed there until the Illiniweks died of starvation, thus the name “Starving Rock”. In 1673 French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette passed through here on their way to Illinois from Mississippi. When the French claimed the region, including most of the Mississippi Valley, they built Fort Louis on top of Starved Rock during the winter of 1682-1683.

Chief Pontiac

Model of French Fort Louis in the Visitors Center

When we decided to come to this park we had no idea of the variety of fascinating things we would discover. When driving to the park we noticed a sign for a Scout Museum. Of course Eagle Scout Bill had to tour this museum. It gave a fascinating history of the Boy and Girl Scouts, and also housed a Civil War exhibit and an exhibit on the history of Ottawa County. The Scout Museum had a special geocache

We found these statues of Lincoln and Douglas while geocaching in an Ottawa city park.

and of course we had to hunt that down. We loved all the places the multi cache took us in the area.

Inside of the Scout Museum, Ottawa, Illinois

This man created the boy and girl scout movements that we know today.

William Dickson Boyce, who brought the Boy Scout movement to the United States.

Ernest Thompson Seton

Bill wore this a uniform like this in the 1960’s.

Badges honoring Boyce, founder of the Boy Scouts.

A memorial to William Dickson Boyce. We found this strange because it was in a cemetery but appeared to be more like a memorial than a grave marker, even though his daughters and sons are buried nearby.

The second day we hiked up to Starved Rock and did some more geocaches of the area. Starved Rock State Park has a lodge, and while geocaching in that area we discovered many trees that had been carved with eagles, Indians, and even a Boy Scout sign.

View of the dam on the Illinois River from the top of Starved Rock

Starved Rock

PLEASE don’t take my picture!

We had to climb MANY steps to get to the top of Starved Rock!

More eagles winter in Starved Rock than anywhere else in the lower 48 states.

This carving was dedicated to the Native American Indians. It was done by Peter “Wolf” Toth who carved and donated statues in every state. This donation is his 62nd carving.

Our time here went by too quickly and soon it was time to move on. We certainly did enjoy our time at Starved Rock State Park!

September 15, 2013 Baraboo, Wisconsin

We awoke to the sound of rain, never a good thing to hear on moving day! Luckily we were in no hurry since we had a short distance to travel that day. By the time we were ready to leave, the rain had eased up. We arrived at Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful, biggest and most popular parks in the upper Midwest. It has 500 foot bluffs that look out over a 360 acre lake. The hiking ranges from easy trails to those that are very difficult.

We were somewhat disappointed in our campsite. The majority of the sites in the park are hilly and it was difficult to level the RV. We changed sites and still did not have a site in which we could completely level the coach. That rarely happens to us. We had heard about the flies in Michigan before we left Florida in June. We had been pleasantly surprised not to find the flies or mosquitoes to be much of a problem. That changed once we arrived here. The flies are horrible for some reason and we have to race in and out of the door to avoid them dashing inside.

One day we took a scenic drive through the park with 15 stops and a written commentary to follow.

It wasn’t the most scenic drive we have found in our travels so far, but we did find some ancient native mounds dating back over 1,000 years. These were done by a group of Native Americans called the Effigy Mound Builders. Not much is known about this group of Native Americans but it is thought they used the mounds for burial grounds, festivals and special rites. The name Devil’s Lake originally came from Native American names which translated to Spirit Lake, Holy Lake, Mystery Lake, or Sacred Lake. It was the Winnebago tribe that gave it the name which when translated means Devil’s Lake.

One mound is in the distance. Not as tall as we expected and easy to miss without the signs.

The majority of the parks we enjoy were built many years ago by a wonderful group called the CCCs…Civilian Conservation Corps. Devil’s Lake is no exception. From 1934 to 1941, during the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps operated a work camp for 200 young men at Devil’s Lake. Many of the trails, roads, picnic tables, signs, etc were thanks to them.

In honor of the young men who helped build the park

Interesting tidbits about Devil’s Lake include the fact that the Ringling Brothers once owned a lakehouse here and elephants bathed in Devil’s Lake. Ulysses S Grant and Abraham Lincoln’s wife also visited Devil’s Lake.

Tuesday we drove 15 miles to Reedsburg to ride our bikes on the 400 Wisconsin Trail, a former railroad track that has been converted to a beautiful bike trail. The trail opened in 1993 and was named after the Chicago-Northwestern passenger train that at one time traveled the 400 miles between Chicago and Minneapolis/St Paul in 400 minutes. As we rode along the trail we had pastures with farmland and cattle on one side and the Baraboo River on the other. We pretty much had the trail to ourselves and found 28 geocaches.

A view of the bike path

A very pretty mural on the side of a building near the entrance to the bike trail which commemorates the bike trail

September 11, 2013 Madison Wisconsin

We left Kettle Moraine outside of Milwaukee and drove to Lake Farm Park Campground, a county park outside of Madison, Wisconsin. It was a nice park with electric only sites. After setting up, my first order of business was finding a laundromat. The closest one took me into downtown Madison, and I quickly discovered I loved this quaint university town, which also happened to be the state capitol. As I drove into town the drive took me along the river with a beautiful view of the state capitol and riverwalk area. The town reminded me very much of my own hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, which is also a university town. There is just something charming about a university town! Madison somehow manages to have a quaint, charming feel, even though it is a large city with almost a quarter of a million people. It is called The City of Four Lakes since it is in the middle of Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, Lake Waubesa and Lake Kegonsa. It definitely had a different feel from Milwaukee which seemed much more industrial with freeways heavy with traffic, especially tractor trailers. Our first evening we drove into Madison and had dinner at a restaurant near the capitol grounds called “The Old Fashioned”. It was full of students and townsfolk celebrating the beginning of the weekend. Bill noticed one of their specialities which was a hamburger with bacon and a fried egg on top. He decided to try it and later declared it to be very good. It reminded me of an item on the menu at a restaurant back home in Charlottesville called The White Spot near the grounds of the University of Virginia. I had a BLT and the tomatoes were grown by local farmers and were delicious. We enjoyed seeing the capitol building at dusk and went back and got another picture after we ate when the building was fully lighted at dark.

While at the campground we decided to test out our new trekking poles and went for a 3 mile hike around one of the lakes at the campground. It was a beautiful fall day…not too hot and not too cold. We did have some cold nights while we were in Madison with the temperature reaching 40 degrees one night. No worries since we have both a heat pump and a furnace in the RV.

Madison continued to impress us while doing some shopping. The Walmart near the campground had an underground parking garage. You access the shopping area of the store by escalator or elevator. When you have finished your shopping you put your cart full of purchases on a special buggy escalator which takes it down to the parking garage level. This underground parking is especially nice in a cold climate like Wisconsin. They don’t have to worry about plowing their parking lots and their customers never get rained or snowed on. The check out person told us that employees were allowed to park in the garage during the winter which made it very nice for them as well.

Not used to entering Walmart by elevator or escalator

Bill putting our cart of groceries on the buggy escalator

Buggy going down!

On our way out of Madison we stopped for gas at a station not too far from the campground and were surprised to see compressed natural gas pumps at the station. The first ones we have ever seen!

$1.99 per gallon

August 23 Ashland, Wisconsin

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Sadly we left Michigan this morning. Our time in Michigan was wonderful and it certainly exceeded our expectations in beauty! The weather for the most part was cooler than expected but that was fine with us. The vicious mosquitoes and black flies we had heard so much about were not nearly as bad as we feared. Perhaps it was due to the cool weather.

We arrived in the quaint town of Ashland, Wisconsin and was immediately taken with its beauty. We found a campsite overlooking Lake Superior in Kreher City Park.

There are two streets in Ashland that caught our attention during our visit. Lakeshore Drive which takes you along Lake Superior with some breathtaking views of the lake. The other street is Main Street where we found 11 huge murals painted on several building for 8 blocks along the street. The first mural was done eleven years ago by Wisconsin artists Kelly Meredith and Sue Martinsen as part of the state’s sesquicentennial celebration. This then became part of a long term project to bring art, history and tourism to Ashland. Yes, these are murals painted on buildings! Take a look!

Lumberjack Mural depicts the men and women of Ash;and’s lumber era

Waitress mural

Storefront mural…a compilation of Ashland storefronts from the early 1900’s

Veterans Mural in honor of all the Ashland men and women who served our country in wars and conflicts

Lighthouse Mural depicting 3 lighthouses within Apostle islands off of the coast of Ashland on Lake Superior

Asaph Whittlesey Mural depicts Ashland National Bank, 1892

Ore Dock Mural, the dock was built in 1916 and extended in 1924. It was 1800 feet long and at the time was the largest concrete dock in the world

Historical Ellis Avene Mural features Northland College, Wheeler Hall; the old Ashland high school; and the Knight Hotel

On Sunday we decided to make the 30 mile drive to Copper Falls State Park to do some hiking and see the waterfalls. The forecast of 95 degree weather concerned, but did not deter us. A brief history of the park is that thousands of cubic miles of lava oozed from deep fissures where Lake Superior now lies. The lava spread in all directions, building horizontal layers that reached thicknesses up to 60,000 feet. There was so much lava, the earth’s crust sagged and formed the basin of Lake Superior. Evidence of the lava can be seen in the park today. The Bad River and its tributary the Tylers Fork flow through a gorge and drop over several waterfalls. Copper was mined by Native Americans and then later by European settlers. The park has done an excellent job of creating walkways with many, many steps that takes us around a trail where we can view the waterfalls. It was a great experience, but it was REALLY hot!

August 18, 2013 Marenisco, Michigan

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Today had us leaving the northermost point of Michigan and heading south to Lake Gogebic State Park. This very small state park struck us as being more like a county park than a state park. We found a nice shady spot overlooking beautiful Lake Gogebic.

The first day we discovered a leak in the tire stems of the tires on our tow dolly. Lake Gogebic is in a pretty isolated part of Michigan, so we had to spend the day driving 30 miles into Bessemer to get the stems repaired at a small combination Firestone tire and service station. We drove around the town while the work was being done and then drove back to the park. Just goes to show you this lifestyle is not all a walk in the park!

The next two days we drove to Porcupine State Park to do some hiking. We fell in love with this park about 45 minutes from our campground and actually drove there twice to do some hiking. They also introduced us to a new form of geocaching called “letterboxing” and we enjoyed doing that both days. We were both very impressed with this well kept, user friendly park that had wonderful steps around falls and different scenic areas, with numerous benches to rest while hiking. The waterfalls were very nice, but we had definitely been spoiled by the splendor of Tahquamenon Falls.

Lake of the Clouds

View from Lake of the Clouds

Another new trail we hiked on!

Never saw a bear but we had a whistle and were on guard

one of 3 falls

Very nice suspension bridge that took us over to a little peninsula, almost like an island

View from the top of the tower

Steps, steps and more steps, doesn’t even include all the steps we climbed to get to the tower.

Typical walkways found in the park…they really did a wonderful job of buidling walkways and stairways.

August 13, 2013 Copper Harbor, Michigan

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Still marveling about the marvels of Picture Rocks and the surrounding area, we made the drive to the remote area of Copper Harbor, Michigan where we stayed at Fort Wilkins State Park.

We toured Fort Wilkins which was actually a Fort established in the early 1840’s when a copper rush took place in the area and the government was concerned about possible unrest and violence in the area. The fort was only open for a couple years before the copper rush faded. Today they have buildings showing military life during that time and some limited re-inactments.

We decided to do some geocaching since that seems to be the way to see out of the way breathtaking sights. We rode along Lakeshore Road and the highlight of the day was a drive up Brockman Mountain. The sights were breathtaking and the geocaches for the most part easy.

It was windy as you can tell by my hair!

Bill finding a geocache on top of Brockman Mountain.

Joshua’s Falls

Fresh blueberries were abundant in the woods and forests of Michigan. August is prime blueberry picking time in Michigan and when they have their blueberry festivals.

Copper Harbor was beautiful, though a little less remote and isolated than we expected and a bit touristy. We found the end of US 41 which goes from Michigan to Miami. Bill has now been at both ends!

August 8, 2013 Marquette, Michigan

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On the way to our next stop in Marquette, Michigan we decided to stop at Oswald’s Bear Ranch near Newberry. They rescue bear cubs from around the United States and give them a place to safely grow up and live. It is against the law in Michigan to breed and buy black bears.

As we drove toward Marquette, we couldn’t help but notice the breathtaking views of Lake Superior. We pulled into a private campground and were directed to a campsite overlooking Lake Superior. We were hesitate to take the site because of the traffic noise, but the view won out over any hesitations. We noticed immediately the campground was not at all as advertised on their website. The website depiction must have been from 10+ years ago, but we had prepaid for reservations and again, the view won us over.

We came to realize that first night that the water had a very strange smell….much like iron and some such minerals. The water continued to be a source of concern during our stay, but we had several water filters on the coach and used a Brita water pitcher, but still we were uneasy.

Now for the GREAT part of our time near Marquette. The highlight of our time here was without a doubt the ferry ride to view the cliffs of Picture Rocks. There are 15 miles of sandstone cliffs which are up to 200 feet above lake level. The colors are caused by large amounts of mineral in the rocks. The water evaporates leaving streaks of colors. The red color comes from iron, pink and green from copper, yellow and brown from limonite, and black and white from manganese. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words….

Another day we decided to go to Presque Isle Park, a beautiful peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior, to do some sightseeing and geocaching. We found this to be a great park with some interesting and challenging geocaches, as well as some gorgeous views!

August 3, 2013 Paradise, Michigan

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We arrived in Paradise, and Michigan was certainly living up to the name! We settled in at Tahquamenon Falls State Park, a very nice state park with tall trees and green grass. The weather while we were there was cooler than we expected, and a little wet. We did have some beautiful weather the day we went to Tahquamenon Falls, our main reason for going to Paradise. Tahquamenon Falls are two different waterfalls on the Tahquamenon River near Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula. The upper falls which is 200 feet across and with a drop of 48 feet, is the most spectacular. During the spring runoff the river drains as much as 50,000 gallons of water per second. The brown color of the falls is due from the tannis leached from the cedar swamps which the river drains.

We lost track of the number of steps we went up and down at the Upper and Lower falls. Let’s just say….A LOT!

We hiked and did geocaching on part of this trail.

Bill was glad he could add another trail to his list!

The lower falls are a series of 5 smaller falls cascading around an island. They had rowboats available for rent so you could row across to the island. It was pretty windy that day and we were tired from the climbing of many many steps to get to the upper and lower falls, so we decided not to rent a rowboat.

Lower falls not as spectacular and grand as the Upper.

We met a new friend, Bullwinkle!

Tahquamenon is in Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha”. Years ago, the Ojibwa Indians lived, farmed, fished and trapped along the Tahquamenon River.

Also while we were in Paradise we drove up to Whitefish Point Lighthouse on Whitefish Bay overlooking Lake Superior. There they have a lighthouse and mariner museum. We found there are MANY lighthouses in Michigan! This lighthouse is the oldest operating lighthouse on Lake Superior and is at a critical turning point for entering or leaving Lake Superior. The current tower was built during Lincoln’s administration! Whitefish Point is known as the Graveyard of Ships since more ships have been lost here than in any other part of Lake Superior. Hundreds of ships, including the famous Edmund Fitzgerald, lies at the bottom of the bay. The lighthouse is at the end of an 80 mile stretch of shoreline known as Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. The many rocks that line all the coasts of Michigan definitely explains why. It is too detailed to go into here, but if you have time, research more about the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The light from the lighthouse had shone without fail for 150 years until the night of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

On the way back from the lighthouse we decided to do a few geocaches in the area. We knew we were in a wilderness area of Michigan, but one geocache took us down a road that went from gravel to dirt to sand. When the sand reached the hub caps we realized we were about to become stuck and barely managed to back up without getting stuck. We did find another road and did grab the geocache! We won’t easily forget that one!

July 24, 2013 Cadillac, Michigan

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On our way to Cadillac we decided to stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan and visit the Gerald Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

I included this plaque because I thought it was interesting that Ford was the first president to visit Japan.

Replica of the Oval Office during Ford’s presidency.

Ford is the only President and Vice-President to ever achieve the level of Eagle Scout. Here are some of his boy scout mementos, including his merit badge sash.

After spending a good part of the morning at the Ford museum, we arrived for a 5 night stay at a private campground called Camp Cadillac. One of the highlights of our stay here was a visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park which was about an hour drive from Cadillac. In 2011 Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was voted the most beautiful place in America in a poll conducted by Good Morning America. We took a self guided tour around the park and rode our bikes along a paved bike trail in the park. What a beautiful place!

The tiny dots are people climbing the dunes on their hands and knees!

On another day we drove to Traverse City. It was cold and threatening rain so we decided not to bike ride, but did visit a lighthouse and found ourselves on the 45th parallel, halfway to the North Pole!

July 12, 2013 Richmond, KY

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After traveling through the beautiful hills of Tennessee and Kentucky, we arrived at Boonesborough State Park. We found a lovely site with grass and trees, but the campground was very crowded as it was one of 4 weekends of the year where campers could come and sell their various yard sale treasure. Riding our bikes around the campground was a true test of nerves as we dodged cars, RVs, campers, and many children playing and riding bikes in the street. Our biggest complaint was a water treatment plant in the park which ran 24 hours a day and made it impossible to sleep with our windows open at night, despite the cool temperatures.

We toured Fort Boonesborough where we imagined walking in Daniel Boone’s footsteps and learned about frontier life. They had reenactments and people dressed in period clothing. It reminded me somewhat of Jamestown and Williamsburg, but on a much smaller scale.

Next on our list was Natural Bridge where we rode a sky lift to the top. The views were amazing and we walked a few trails at the top, one of which took us to the bottom of the bridge. Kentucky’s Natural Bridge doesn’t really hold a candle to the one in my home state of Virginia, but on the positive side the Kentucky bridge is much less commercialized, and the view can’t be beat!

Sky lift to the top. An amazing view!!

We hiked down to the bottom of the bridge. We had to shimmy our way through very narrow passageways between rocks to get there.

We also drove to Lexington, the horse capital of the world and a beautiful area of the state. We spent time doing some geocaching.

It was suggested that we go to a restaurant near the campground that made great Hot Brown sandwiches and fried banana peppers. Let’s just say, everyone should experience them once, but once is enough.

Through the Eyes of the Selphs

Bill and Diane's travel notes and pictures

Category Archives: Hiking

September 25, 2013 Oglesby, IL

September 15, 2013 Baraboo, Wisconsin

September 11, 2013 Madison Wisconsin

August 23 Ashland, Wisconsin

August 18, 2013 Marenisco, Michigan

August 13, 2013 Copper Harbor, Michigan

August 8, 2013 Marquette, Michigan

August 3, 2013 Paradise, Michigan

July 24, 2013 Cadillac, Michigan

July 12, 2013 Richmond, KY