Camping with Alaska Teardrop in Michigan's UP

[deleted]

Very impressive photos Shadow Catcher! And neat that the restoration is being documented. I once saw a program about Detroit and the decline there. It's nice to know that progress is being made to save/restore/rebuild the city.

[pohukai]

..., though I can't say I'm planning any return trips to Canada any time soon. They almost didn't let me in this time. They were super suspicious of me that I was a woman traveling alone from CA to visit Toronto. Hauled me into (told me to park and go inside) the declarations office and interrogated me for a half hour (just at the counter, not at a table with a single lightbulb over it). The whole experience was terribly unpleasant ....

Thanks for sharing your memories and stirring up my old ones! In 1981 (~23yrs old), I bicycle camped around Lake Michigan and rode into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie. I, too, was questioned heavily because they couldn't believe my story. My bike and gear were searched and when they found nothing but stinky clothes, I guess they figured I was ok. I almost wanted to say 'screw it', but I had ridden so far and I wanted to mark it off my 'bucket list'. I had dinner in town and rode back across to the bridge before night fall. I haven't visited Canada since.

Of all the states I've camped, Michigan had the most beautiful state parks to camp in.

Thank you for stoking the memories!

[deleted]

Glad to hear you made it into Canada Jim so you could cross it off your list. I can appreciate why you might not have had a burning desire to return. It's a shame. I have friends in Canada and had been to Toronto several times as well as cities in B.C. on a handful of occasions and nothing remotely close to that had ever happened before. If I'd said or done something that was suspicious I wouldn't have minded so much but to be treated that way just because of an assumption was really a shock. Or maybe I've just lived too sheltered of a life.

We do agree that camping in the UP is excellent! The parks we stayed at were all beautiful in their own ways. Having the lakes literally a stones throw (if you have a good throwing arm) from the trailers was pretty neat. I hope the post stirred more pleasant memories than bad ones. I'm thankful the good far outweighed the bad during my trip

[alaska teardrop]

Stacie wrote:

So Fred, Alaska in say 2015? Pencil it into your calendar?

As Willie Nelson sings " You got the money, honey, I got the time"

From the beginning of February to the end of September?

[deleted]

8 months? I said visit Alaska Fred, not move to Alaska

I better start saving up now!

[pohukai]

...I hope the post stirred more pleasant memories than bad ones ...

Oh yeah, that was the greatest trip I ever took. The greatest thing was the people I met along the way and I developed a better understanding of people. Have you ever asked yourself, 'Are people generally good or generally bad?". I'm generally a pretty positive person, so the answer is pretty obvious but the trip proved my point! "People really ARE generally good!"

[deleted]

I agree there too! When we (meaning Fred fixed it and I watched) were fixing my flat in Wisconsin? Not one but two people stopped to see if we needed help. One walked out from his house across the street to see and offered to bring his portable compressor over to refill the tire once Fred got it plugged. Fortunately I keep one in my trunk so we didn't have to impose. Then another man stopped by on his way home a couple of blocks away. Since he couldn't help with the tire he gave us turn by turn directions to get us back to the freeway we needed to be on. Nicest people ever!

[GerryS]

I agree. The problem is, those who are bad HIDE looking like good people.

[deleted]

Fortunately I've never come across any real bad people pretty much ever. For the most part I think there are a thousand truly good people for every truly bad person.

[Shadow Catcher]

We have been both the recipient and giver of help for others with problems (my goal is being the giver more than the recipient). On our way west, stopped at a rest stop in Nevada I saw some one working on their brake/lights to their trailer and pulled out the seven blade tester I keep in the tool box and walked over. He was able to test the wiring from the TV and that was all working correctly so knew it was the cord from the trailer (he thought it was the truck).
Practice random acts of senseless kindness!

[deleted]

That's great Shadow Catcher. I love the whole random acts of kindness and paying it forward concept. I do think the trailers/rvs bring out the best in people, both the owners and observers. With just a few exceptions I find most people (even if they don't own one or ever want to travel in one, have a certain amount of envy of the freedom and adventure any rv represents so maybe they go just a bit further out of their way to help us, and each other, along.

[Shadow Catcher]

Stacie
My observation is that teardropers are a bread apart! We share one thing and that is trailers that mean we will be spending a LOT of time out doors. I have met every one from the NASA rocket scientist to the good old boy with his frog gigging outfit, the diversity with in this community is truly fascinating and gatherings never boring. I am on a number of RV forums and this one is by far the most helpful and encouraging .

[Westcliffe01]

Stacie, the 2 hearted river area has changed a lot in the past few years. There used to be a year round outfitter there, Rainbow Lodge, but it was destroyed by fire a couple of years ago. On my last visit this last summer, I found that all the signs that Rainbow lodge had put up (apparently 99% of the signs) had been taken down. My wife and I decided to take a ride to the former Rainbow lodge location to see what had become of it and left the state park at about 4pm, plenty of time we thought....

Due to the disappearance of the signs, we could not find the site and finally went to the very isolated lighthouse (Crisp Point Lighthouse) for some sunset pics. We did find the lighthouse since it seems to be the only thing that had signs pointing to it... Got there just before sunset, took some pictures then it started getting dark. Returning to the campsite we somewhere made a wrong turn and got lost. The GPS was routing us down ORV trails, we discovered that when the markers were only inches wider than the truck. The 2 hearted river has a gorge and if you end up on the wrong side of it (North Side) it is very hard to find your way out, since all roads/trails leading south peter out before they plunge down into the gorge. There is also a lot of thick sand and slopes, so a normal car would have long been stuck. There was no cell phone service either.. The area does have black bear and wolves...

We did finally find our way out by a total fluke and got back to the campsite just before 11pm pretty drained.. If venturing out in that area, I STRONGLY recommend a GPS that has a "track" feature, so you can see where you have been. That way, if you do get lost, you can back track. I was using a fairly expensive Garmin automotive type GPS and in their wisdom, they got rid of the track feature. If the weather had been different, it could easily have turned into a life threatening situation. In the days that Rainbow Lodge was active, one would potentially have been discovered by trail riders the following morning, but now that all of that business and also the gas station that they ran no longer being there, it is hard to say how long it could be before someone happened by.

I have heard of "death by GPS" but I was amazed how easily one could get yourself into quite a spot in an area one thought we were quite familiar with. I also have to think what the heck the people were thinking when they took down all the signs ??? Removing the signs has made navigation considerably more difficult compared to how it used to be.

It is a nice part of the country, but when traveling alone, please take proper precautions...

[deleted]

Wow Westcliffe01, that sounds frightening! Glad you made it back to camp ok. We were downriver of the burn zone and didn't hike any distances, but your words of caution are appreciated and will be applied to future trips nonetheless. I was lucky I had Fred (his experience and his trusty atlas with me) to guide me along.

If you'd like, feel free to post some pictures from your trip in the thread if you have them. I'd love to see more UP pictures of areas to visit someday.

Shadow Catcher that's true. This site has so much information and generosity it can be almost shocking how helpful and friendly this forum is. Not your typical forum experience based on my experiences.

[Westcliffe01]

OK, here are a few of my pictures from that trip...
Clouds in the sky looking up from the lake Superior beach


This is the beach looking west at sunset at the Muskallonge Lake State Park


Infamous Crisp Point Light house picture taken minutes before we got lost in the UP woods at night...