Upper Peninsula Day 2

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. God I missed this!

Beautiful hike through pine forest and some bog areas.  Saw a handful of day hikers and a few other backpackers.

The weather was perfect.  Cool and shaded.  There was a bit of a wind making it cooler which was amazing while hiking but almost too chilly when we stopped.  Such a welcome change from the weather we left behind.

We didn't have Too far to go for our first day. Really just four miles until the campsite.  This was fine as we didnt get a single minute of backpacking in last summer with that horrible weather we had. 

We got to the site and it was only 2pm.  We rested and had lunch then set up the tent. It was really windy which made set up mildly annoying but we got it just fine.

With much lighter packs and rested legs,  we decided to venture down to Mirror Lake.  It was 2 miles from the site but mostly flat.  We got there and enjoyed the view a bit and rested more then hiked back to camp.  

By this time we were starving so we made dinner and changed out of our very damp (with sweat) clothes.  We found our site was surrounded by hungry and very brave chipmunks.  One nearly climbed into my lap. 🤬 THIS IS WHY YOU DONT FEED WILDLIFE, PEOPLE!

  The wind almost completely died out which was nice so we were much warmer.  Although we noticed a distinct lack of birds.  Or any sounds really.  With the exception of occasional chipmunk chatter.  It's nice, dont get me wrong.  But a little unsettling. But the lack of noise is still a welcome change of pace.

I set about gathering wood for a potential fire later.  (Spoiler, I shockingly got it going!)

All in all a great day.  And not a speck of cell service all day. ❤️. I'm sure we'll be in bed by hiker midnight.  (8pm)

Quotes only the day:

Well there's only one way up.  And it's up.

Slow and steady!  Gets you there slower.

You just haven't lived until you've been tits out in the woods

Miles hiked: 8