On the Road with Maya: On to the 'Yooper' and more 'Plagues'

Beautiful Upper Tahquamenon Falls

A modern marvel of engineering, the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge spans the waters between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron (known as the Straits of Mackinac) and connects Michigan’s ‘mitten’ to its Upper Peninsula. Unless you want to cross by boat, the bridge is the way to go to the Upper Peninsula. Repairs were being done on the roadway of the bridge as we crossed but that meant we got to go slower and enjoy the views of Lake Michigan on the left and Lake Huron on the right.

View of the Upper Falls from the bottom of the gorge
Observation platform for the brink of the falls is in the upper right corner of photo

Our first destination in the U.P. or ‘Yooper’ as many call it was Tahquamenon Falls State Park. Besides being famous for the gorgeous amber-colored river and falls, the state park contains over 48,000 acres of wilderness. The golden-brown color is caused by tannins originating from the decomposing vegetation found in the cedar, hemlock and spruce forests in the river's drainage basin. Because of the color some people have nicknamed the waterfalls, 'Rootbeer' Falls. I also suspect it is easier to say. It took me a few days to get it down, but Tahquamenon rhymes with phenomenon.

View of Upper Falls from the platform at the brink

The Upper Falls is the main attraction at 200 feet wide with a single 50-foot drop. In volume it is the second largest waterfall east of the Mississippi River, Niagara Falls being the largest. But enough of the facts, it was simply beautiful. Walking down the stairway to the brink rewarded us with the spray of the falls in our faces and the feel of the thundering water through the wooden platform.

Heading out for a hike

Maya could use a 'full body' net for the mosquitoes, but having long hair helps

We camped at Hemlock Campground about 4 miles downriver from the Upper Falls near the smaller cascades and waterfalls known as the Lower Falls. The campground was shady with mature pine, cedar, maple and birch and a nearby swamp. This did not bode well for insects. Mosquitoes were, well let’s just be honest, horrible. We did not sit out and enjoy the evenings – although fire smoke can be helpful in keeping insects away, it wasn’t enough. Not even Deep Woods OFF helped for long.

Not really that funny...

During the day the mosquitoes were not as bad and keeping a brisk pace on the trail helped. So with wearing our head nets we didn’t suffer too much while we were walking. But it was fighting our way through the swarms every time we went in and out of the RV while trying not to let too many inside that really got old. We had DEET but a cloud would still manage to get in the RV whenever we had to go in or out. Then we had the fun task of trying to kill the mosquitoes that did get in so we wouldn’t get chewed up all night long.

Maya taking refuge in the shower, poor puppy

Maya quickly got tired of all the swatting and took to hiding in the shower every time we started murdering mosquitoes. David and I had competitions for the most kills. He definitely won but when bitten I could be pretty lethal and I’m not proud to say, my language suffered considerably. For two days we had not only mosquitoes but some very small fly-like things that gave us both huge swollen knots wherever they got us. We were sure glad they did not last long!

Lighthouse, Coastguard Station and Shipwreck Museum grounds at Whitefish Bay
The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is several miles off shore.

It wasn’t all a massacre though. We survived 4 days, hiking parts of all of them and had our first experiences of Lake Superior. What a lake -- 10 percent of all the fresh water in the world is in Lake Superior! We also took two short trips, one to Whitefish Bay seeing the Lighthouse and Shipwreck Museum grounds and another to visit Crispin Point Lighthouse. Add to that two good hikes on the North Country Trail, one with mosquitoes and one mostly without, and we can say on the whole it was a good time.

Crispin Point Lighthouse on Lake Superior, restored in the 1990s

Part of the North Country Trail travels between the Upper and Lower Falls mostly following the Tahquamenon River through dense forests of both trees and ferns. The day we hiked this section was sunny, dry and breezy so the mosquitoes were at a minimum. Afterwards we had a nice lunch at the Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Restaurant, a privately-owned establishment in the park that might be as well-known as the falls. The good definitely outweighed the bad.