September 9, 2017
A trip back in time…
Munising, Michigan
By the shores of Gitche Gumee
By the shining Big-Sea-Water…
from
“The Song of Hiawatha”
Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow
What a day we have had!
Driving, hiking, taking pictures, meeting up with strange birds (?) and
deer, but no moose, and reminiscing.
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| Lighthouse in Munising |
Over 30 years ago, Robin and I drove along a gravel road
lined with birch trees that created a canopy over the road for about 70 miles—just
for the adventure because it was right along the lakeshore. Yesterday we started at the other end—on Michigan
58 in Munising—and drove about 50 miles east on the same path, only it is now a
paved, two-lane road. The road has been
widened and many of the birch trees are missing; however, it was a trip back in
time and we were mostly alone.
As a child, I often heard my dad quoting Longfellow, his
favorite poet—“The Village Blacksmith,” “The Psalm of Life,” and “The Song of
Hiawatha.” He told me that “Gitche Gumee”
was Lake Superior. The cliffs at
Pictured Rocks were from this poem. Hiawatha
National Forest is all around us here in this area of Michigan. Robin and I tent camped there many years ago
in a pine forest.
Every time I stand beside this Great Lake, I hear my dad’s
voice, “By the shores of Gitche Gumee….”
He never saw this water, and I know he would be excited that I would go
looking for it. We heard today that every
time we look out over the world’s largest fresh water lake, we are viewing 1/10
of the world’s fresh water. They say
that all of the other Great Lakes—Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario with two
extra Lake Eries--could fit into Superior.
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| Flow into Superior |
 |
| Au Sable Lighthouse |
 |
| Sable Dune |
 |
| Au Sable Lighthouse |
As we moved through the day, we stopped at Sable Falls. If you have ever been in our family room, you
might have noticed an enlarged, framed picture of waterfalls that I took years
ago while hanging precariously from a small tree over this same rushing
water. This time the approach to the
falls seemed steeper, and there were hundreds of steps getting down there to
its base. Oh, and there were no little
trees from which to hang!
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| Steps to Sable Falls |
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| Sable Falls (the picture in our family room - 30+ years later) |
We turned around at Grand Marais and took the same road
back.
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| Old Grand Marais |
As always, we kept our eyes out
for moose—we are terrible at finding moose.
We did encounter a deer family along the way and several unusual birds along
the road—big gray birds with very long necks, maybe some sort of crane or goose,
and they waddled along reminding me of Abigail and Amelia, the geese in the
movie The Aristocats; however, they did
not wear bonnets. It was a lovely day of
reminiscing and discovering new things.
Back in the ‘80s I encountered a menu item at Matt’s Irish
Pub in Shockoe Slip in Richmond—a Cornish pasty. Northern Michigan is the only other place we’ve
had pasties besides Richmond. It is
basically a wrapped meat pie—it contains small chunks of beef, carrots, onions,
rutabaga, and potatoes, all wrapped in pie dough and baked. Robin and I split an order of pasties in
Mackinaw City the other night, and I ended up eating the insides of the “pie.” Tonight I ordered just one while Robin
enjoyed the fried lake perch. As we move
on next week to Minnesota, we’ll see if pasties are available there. The story behind the pasties is that miners
in Cornwall, England, would take meat pies for their lunch to the mines. When
they immigrated to Northern Michigan, they continued the habit of taking
pasties in their lunches. All along the
Upper Peninsula, we have seen signs in the small towns that read “Pasties Here”
in front of small eating places, and we have found them on many menus.
Yesterday I talked about the people who lived below the
Bridge being called “trolls” by those who live in the Upper Peninsula. Today I found out that those in the Upper
Peninsula are known as “Yoopers” (UPers).
Tomorrow we are continuing west. We have a reservation in a place called
Silver City, right on the lake. To be
continued…
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