The Smichna Adventures

The bed last night was amazing. But we had to pull ourselves from its warm comfort far early with the sun to move on to our adventure for today.  Our longest hike of the trip but thankfully A Day hike so we were able to Pare down our packs quite a bit. It almost seems silly to have our backpacks but we didn't bring any day packs with us. We drove through tiny one lane roads that look carved into the forest around us in an eerily beautiful fog.  We finally turned on to a dirt road that slowly degraded as we drove.  We got to the trailhead and thankfully found a place to park. This is one of the most popular spaces in the upper peninsula and getting there after 7:00am means you will never find a parking spot.  Is that and have breakfast at the car before taking off to the breathtaking Pictured Rocks.  The entire day would be about a 10 mile Loop. But getting is so early we had all day to do it. We were here 6 years ago and in that fraction of time the landscape ha...

Between the amazing cold weather and the creek next to us, we slept great, all bundled in our sleeping bags.  😊  My true happy place. Woke early to get food in us, filter water (as that's the last we'll see all day) and get moving. Today is by far the longest and hardest hike.  But we'll be back at the car and headed to a shower.  Mmmmmmmm shower.   We hit the trail by 830 with MUCH lighter packs.  Clear and cool and a beautiful walk.   The 2 miles to the next junction was flat and we made good time. A false sense of security.  We made the turn and headed straight up.  And up.  And unfortunately the weather heated up a bit as we went. But once we got to the top of Mount Cuyahoga We were greeted with some absolutely breathtaking views along with cool breezes.    We walked along the ridge for four miles up and down different Peaks.  We were both worn out And my body tends t...

By through hiking standards we really slept in today waking up about 6 45.  But We only have about five and a half miles to hike To our next site and we have literally all day to do it.  So we spent morning making breakfast and drinking our coffee and Enjoying the absolute gorgeous weather.  ( Not quite crisp but very cool)  There was a tiny bit of bird chatter in the distance and the Chipmunks still bickering away.  But still very quiet and very still here.  It's been absolutely Lovely Not worrying about emails, text messages, Phone calls or anything.  (Literally no service this entire time) A little bit of this trip is felt weird because our last real backpacking trip was a through hike.  Backpacking a smaller distance over less time requires very different mindset as well as gear And neither one of us were really prepared for this style of backpacking again.  Some things we over packed some things we under packed But overall we have everyt...

Up early, situated our gear and hopped in the car for the 3.5 gour drive to our destination for the next 3 days/2 nights. Beautiful cool and sunny morning.  Brendan: Oooohhhhh. Me: what? Brendan: I couldn't figure out why are there so many signs with a jumping rabbit on them around here. Me: what? Brendan: It's the Upper Peninsula.  Me: Oh. Sweetheart.  Love this man. As we drove the clouds filled in and the skies darkened a bit.  We have been well aware there was a high chance of rain today.  Rain is ok, rain we can manage.  It's thunderstorms I'd prefer to avoid. We've been there before and it was...less than pleasant.   We had some rain on the drive but as we headed west the skies lightened and the sun even peeked out.  We arrived at the park and checked in and got our permit and drove to the trailhead.  We were packs on and walking by 11:30.   It was amazing how our hiking legs came right back to us!  Felt like home. G...

Just a driving day.  Got a slightly later start than I would have liked but we still made it about 90% of the way there.   The bridge was terrifying as per usual.  And naturally there was traffic so we got to enjoy just sitting on it.  😳 Not much to report.  At an Airbnb near Munising in Christmas, Michigan.  (Free wine though!) Tomorrow we drive 3 hours more west and start our hike. Giant wiener just south of the bridge.  Why?

We're back for our next adventure.  We're both a little sad that this year will not be our usual month long excusion.  It just was not in the cards this year for a few reasons.  So we're only gone a week.   After much deliberation we landed on going back to the UP.  We wanted to save some money for some home projects that desparately need done so we needed some place we could drive to and not spend a ton of money.  We loved the UP when we went through back in 2020 and decided to explore the Porkies a little more and, of course, go back to Pictured Rocks.   So much to the chagrin of the cat we're packing up our gear! Tomorrow we're going to get as far north as we can in one day.  The Porkies are about a 13 hour drive from here, and we have no dilusion of getting there in one day.  So we'll get as close as we can, camp somewhere and arrive Tuesday to the park check in and get moving!!