PORKIES
III
We had reservations at the Presque Isle Campground on the west side of
Porcupine Mountains State Park for the next two nights. My original plan was to do a hike to the Lake
of the Clouds on the east side of the Porcupine Mountains that day. Afterwards, we would drive across the park to
the campground. It seemed like a good
plan at the time, but it was late morning when we finally reached
Marquette. From Marquette, it’s another
2 ½ hours of driving to the Lake of the Clouds area. Instead, we decided to head straight to
Presque Isle and save the big hike for the next day.
Editor’s Note: You’ll notice a lot of paragraphs that start with
“my original plan…” in this trip report.
Welcome to our new world.
We got groceries in Marquette and continued west. We stopped at a rest area / picnic area early
that afternoon for lunch. It turned out
to be the trailhead for the short walk to a poor view of Agate Falls. Ironically, we had stopped here on our first
visit to the area in 2013. This time we
had a simple lunch, and I skipped the steep scramble down to the base of the
waterfall. Unfortunately, the view from
the overlook is poor.
We arrived at Presque Isle around mid-afternoon. We were a little early (!), but the ranger
let us check in at the campground. We
had a walk-in campsite reserved, as that had been the
only remaining spot available when I made our reservations. That was a little inconvenient with a lot of
stuff and a baby, but it was worth it.
The walk-in sites are far Superior (see what I did there) to the regular
campsites. They are situated in a
beautiful forest, and they are isolated from each other and the rest of the
campground. It was almost like
backpacking.
Unloading the car, hauling everything back there, and setting up camp
took some time, but it was still only late afternoon when we finished. Christy decided to take a nap in her hammock. I chose to take Jackson for a hike.
The obvious choice for a short hike in the area is a loop up one side of
the Presque Isle River and back down the other.
We had visited the three main waterfalls on the river on our previous
visit, but we hadn’t hiked the full loop.
Jackson was good with my plan, but then he always is.
We started hiking from our campsite, as that seemed easier than getting
him in and out of the car seat multiple times for a 2 minute
drive. We crossed the Presque Isle River
on a swinging bridge, which offered nice views of the cascading stream. On the far side, we took a short side trip
out to the end of the actual Presque Island, where the river runs into Lake
Superior. From there, we backtracked and
picked up the trail along the east side of the river.
The east side is less appealing that the
west. Views of the waterfalls are
limited, and there are a number of steep ups and downs
due to frequent gullies. If your time is
limited, I recommend simply visiting the main waterfalls from the other side.
I hiked upstream to a paved road, which I followed briefly to a bridge
over the river. As I was walking towards
the bridge, a car slowed and stopped near me.
I expected it to be someone that was lost and in need of directions, but
it turned out to be an older guy that just wanted to smile and make faces at
Jackson. This was clearly something that
I would need to get used to. It turns
out that Jackson smiles at everyone we pass when we are hiking. Of course, they smile back. At first I thought
everyone was just really friendly, but I eventually began to realize that they
barely noticed me. I was like the car
that the Pope rides around in. A nice
enough car, sure, but does anyone really pay attention to it?
We returned on the west side of the river,
stopping at each waterfall. I didn’t
take man photos, as I had good photos from my previous visit. This hike was more about spending time with
my son (on my back) and giving Christy a chance to nap.
Later, we enjoyed a pleasant evening and a lovely sunset over Lake
Superior. Jackson did much better that
night. Christy slept in her hammock,
while Jackson and I slept in the tent.
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