Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 11:09:37 -0500
Reply-To: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: Circumnavigation of Lake Superior
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
Stephen,
I'm copying this to my friend Barb Cotton. She's a vanagonaut who lives - for the moment - in Brimley, Michigan, which is on Lake Superior a few miles east of Sault St. Marie. And I'm also copying my friend Marcia Wyant, who lives in Marquette, MI, two blocks from the Lake.
Barb would certainly be happy to put you up, but she is planning to sell her house in the spring and start full-timing. But I'm sure she will have good idea about places in the UP.
Marcia doesn't have a Vanagon, but she's a Friend-of-Vanagons and her friend Sven has a lovely old red VW truck. She lives in a little house two blocks from the lake, and was really generous to me when my van broke down in Marquette. So she'd probably have lots of suggestions too. Marquette is a big town for the UP, 25,000 people, with a good YMCA (if you're a Y member) and really excellent coffee (Dead River Coffee, on Main Street - also has free wifi).
I meant to get up the peninsula there west of Marquette, but I never did due to my van breaking down in Marquette.
In the UP, do eat pasties. They are quite tasty. Stick-to-your-ribs kind of food.
I strongly suggest you bring a kayak! But be careful, Lake Superior can be dangerous when paddling, even though it's lovely. (When I saw the subject line on your email I figured this was a post to one of the kayak listservs I'm on).
When you get to Bayfield, Wisconsin, if you aren't a kayaker now, do go out on an organized trip for novices to visit the sea caves in the Apostle Islands. The Apostles are a lot of small islands just offshore from Bayfield. Some of them have caves that are just at the water level, sot he water rushes into them. You can paddle into them. They are truly amazing. To look at, they are small caves - and as you go back into them they get so small that you just walk your hands along the ceiling to go in. But what's amazing is the sound of the waves hitting the walls. It's hard to describe - the best I can do is to say that it is like being inside a drum. The sound rebounds in the most fabulous way. I couldn't believe no one had made recordings of this sound - it is amazing. Not that it's loud, it isn't, but it is so fully around you and resounding and it's almost inside you.
Bayfield is a kayak town - everyone there had a boat on their roof when I was there. It has big outfitters who take novices out to the sea caves, so getting out there might cost a bit for a half-day trip or something, but it's worth it.
Oh, and up in that part of the world people sell fabulous smoked whitefish for absurdly low prices. I bought some from someone with a hand-lettered sign stuck on the road, near Bayfield. I also got some this fall in Marquette. It's great stuff, probably healthier than pasties, too.
If you aren't totally shying away from cities, Duluth is a rather nice place. I camped at a really nice state park just south of the city. Can't remember what it was called (I was out there a few years ago), but if you look at Minnesota State Parks you'll find it.
And if you like to swim but aren't so sure about cold water, bring a wetsuit. With a wetsuit, Lake Superior would provide fine swimming in August. Without, well, you might be chilly. When I was in Duluth (for a conference, actually) it was unseasonably hot, and I went running one day along the lake and then just had to jump in to cool off, it was so hot. But that's not typical.
The upper Midwest is a nice part of the world! Have a great time in your travels!
Joy
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Joy Hecht
and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon
For musings about life and the vanadventures:
http://users.rcn.com/jhecht/gypsy
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:::-----Original Message-----
:::From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
:::Of Stephen Steele
:::Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 1:16 AM
:::To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
:::Subject: Circumnavigation of Lake Superior
:::
:::We are in the planning and scheduling stages of a Westy camping trip from
:::Ohio then North around Lake Superior in August.
:::
:::Any advise or notable stops that any of you care to mention?
:::TIA.
:::--
:::Stephen
:::Chillicothe OH
