Over the holiday weekend, Sarah, the dog, and I decided to change pace a little bit and spend our time up north in DeTour Village in the Upper Peninsula versus our usual Old Mission Peninsula visits. I knew I was going to be game with no issues, but I commend my wife on giving up the cushy cottage for that of a tent, in a weather-risky part of the state. But the weather forecast held true and we had a beautiful weekend. We showed up around 3 pm on Friday afternoon – it was in the mid to low 60s and windy, perfect for setting up camp without breaking a sweat. After camp was all taken care of, we went four miles down the road to Sune’s IGA and stocked up on groceries and beer for the evening and morning.
When we arrived back to camp, I was pleasantly surprised by the neighboring lot next door. I was curious if they were still doing it, but every July 4 they pack as many people into their lot and have a grand time camping all weekend. I had met them all back in 2003, the last time I as there for a July 4. Since the lot was always vacant, I didn’t want to startle them so the three of us went over to reintroduce ourselves and to my surprise they greeted me by name. I was pretty shocked. I’m awful with names, let alone after eight years. They were great to have around; they kept to themselves and invited us over one night for a camp fire – there was about 20+ people around it and it was a nice change of pace for the night.
Saturday morning we woke up to warmer weather but it was still cloudy with a nice haze. We made scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage, and french-press coffee; perfect. I had heard the village did a farmer’s market on Saturday morning’s so we went and checked it out. July is a little early for produce in the UP so as I suspected the only produce available was lettuce, haha. It was a little more like a craft show/bake sale combination. We chatted with some locals and bought a bag of homemade salt water taffy and called it good. After taking a nice long walk around town, to the harbor, and back to Sune’s for lunch and dinner (who says you can’t do New York Strip Steak on a camp fire?) supplies (and more beer) – and just as we got back to the lot around noon, the skies broke and the weather turned sunny and 80s for the remainder of the weekend. The wife grabbed her bike and did 32 miles on the coastal highway M-134 and I got started moving rocks (explained later).
DeTour is home of the DeTour Passage. It’s the entry point of St. Mary’s River which takes you to Sault Ste. Marie and onto Lake Superior which it borders Canada, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. It’s estimated that upwards of 20 freighters a day pass through DeTour. With the lock systems throughout the great lakes, shipping vessels from all over the world (or Salties, as the locals call them) come through here. Any ship you see could have come form any corner of earth, via the St. Lawrence Seaway out east or the Gulf of Mexico via the mighty Mississippi and up through Chicago. The DeTour Passage is a super highway for freighters, and I must admit I’m like a little kid when they go by. Oh Oh, there’s another one! Another interesting feature is you can’t really hear them when they are close by, it’s a matter of the acoustics on the water. You hear them as they crest the horizon, but not when they are close. Also, DeTour Village & Township is a small peninsula surrounded by the river so when a ship north of town blows its horn, you can hear it from our location.
I spotted this freighter as we awoke to a haze on Saturday morning.
Pan fried sausage, New York Strip and sweet corn on the cob over an open flame, french press coffee, fried egg sandwiches with toasted bread.
My friend Brian and I had taken an over-night trip up here in April to do some maintenance on a few trees and land and I snapped a few pictures with my phone. It was misting and low 30s; not conducive of bringing out my good camera (but great for my first time sleeping in a tent in the low 30s). The above and below photo is of the same island. Though the above is taken during a bit of wind at six am, I still think it’s amazing how different it can look. The island intrigues me and I enjoy being curious about it. Some day I’m going to get myself a kayak up there and go explore it. As far as I know it’s vacant and no structure has ever been on it. I want to go find out for sure.
There was plenty of napping going on. Yes, that’s Sarah cocooned into a camp-hammock on the left.
I guess if you’re going to have to do dishes in a lake, this is a decent visual to do it by…
July 3 – late morning freighter from the west, looking out from our pathway where trees become beach.
The image of a freighter is a bit of an icon in DeTour and they have fun with it however they can (surprisingly, their high school mascot is a Raider). Every fourth of July weekend, the day before the parade, they do a variation of a soap-box derby; freighter races. They have divisions for children, men, women, and mixed. A few folks commented it was a down year as there were only three freighters and they were shared amongst all divisions. It was a pretty good time to watch. The “over-all” winning team was Team Canada and their boat I.M. CAN”EH”DIAN II. The last race of the day was the mixed. It had been a pretty uneventful few races and the crowd was somber – but not for this race. It was intense, they were all running neck and neck, rubbing elbows, but once again Team Canada won, and then their freighter exploded at the end. The crowd went nuts.
Below, is the Passage Keeper. He is now part of local lore and is a beloved member of the community. I apologize but I do not recall the type of tree he is made out of, but as his second life he is only a few years old. He’s made out of a 150 year old tree that was struck by lightening a few years ago; the owners of the tree commissioned a chainsaw artist to come up and create him, he’s roughly 10 ft tall and takes about $500 in annual maintenance. The city as a whole helps raise the money for the owners. Did I mention it’s a great little community?
After the races we head back to the lot and start an amazing beach day. Entrance/Exit to the beach. It’s sort of hidden when nothing is there; it reminds me of the invisible bridge over the crevasse in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. With DaCoda sitting there it’s obvious, just like the bridge!
To give you an idea of the ship’s size, I’m roughly about 2.5 miles from the DeTour Reef Light which stands 83 feet out of the water. The freighter is probably a half mile to mile further than that.
Forgive me for this next series of photos of Sarah in the water. She was having fun and I was making sure to document as well as possible (plus I really like the shots) – her swimming in Lake Huron. She was under the impression that it would never get warm enough to do so, and the UP was not hot enough to be in a swimsuit. She was so convinced, she never put on sun screen….
By the late afternoon, early evening when the skies started to turn near cocktail hour, she started to take note of what had happened, ha ha! As I write this post, she’s in the bathroom peeling her skin as efficiently as possible so she looks okay in a dress for a wedding we’re attending tomorrow.
It’s like bird watching. But it’s freighters.
I posted this photo on Facebook yesterday. I absolutely love it. I love all the expressions, the colors, the setting, the gaze, the posture but most importantly, the mood. This image is why I love this place.
I’ve often bragged to others that have not seen a UP night that they are like nothing they’ve ever seen before. Sarah grew up watching the skies on Old Mission Peninsula, which are fantastic, but just don’t compare to the open nothingness here. What you are seeing here is the Milky Way, looking due south. It’s so bright it casts a reflection on the surface of the lake. I’ve done nothing really to manipulate this photo. It’s a 30 second exposure on a 2 second timer @ f/4.0, ISO 1600, manual focused balanced on a large rock with small rocks acting as a support. The red lights and glow were not visible to the naked eye. I’m not sure what they are – logic is not working for me. Land is roughly 31.5 miles south. Can I see radio towers from that distance? Are they shoal lights similar to DeTour Reef Light? Some type of atmospheric refraction from the sun off to the west? Either way, I’m pretty happy how this image turned out. I’m not sure if that is a satelite or airplane in the lower right of the sky. Sarah and I sat out there for 30 minutes and counted 6 legitimate shooting stars. Same setting in the below photo except f/3.2.
Monday, July 4th | DeTour Village Independence Day Parade.
It was awesome. I don’t really do parades, so I’m not sure if this is normal or not. But it seemed like the rule was this: If you’re cute, a child, have a goofy or unusual vehicle (including snowmobiles), or an old tractor, you were in the parade. I counted 13 large tractors and a few small ones. Per the norm, candy was flying like crazy and all the kids were going nuts scavenging for it. They were actually throwing dog treats too. My pup got a few. A lady next to me caught one and fed it to DaCoda, and he even went up to a “float” (a guy in an Recumbent bicycle with a dog in an enclosed trailer) and took it right from his hand. It was sweet! Everyone in town was really great and friendly. The couple we stood next to has been coming to DeTour for the Holiday for years. This was their first “empty nest” year and they were texting images to their son who was stationed in Hawaii.
Here, Sarah demonstrates proper beach form. Note the hand on the bottle. Also note her t-shirt, protecting her from the sun. If you look closely you can see DaCoda in the foreground hiding behind a large rock.
I thought these two photos worked great together. It almost looks like DaCoda saw the spider, freaked, and jumped on a rock to escape. But he didn’t, he was just trying to get a better look at me out in the water. The spider sort of freaked me out. I had never seen one like that before; thought it was some sort of Peter Parker spider. I googled it when we got home, turns out it’s just a basic Goldenrod spider. No harm no foul.
Here, DaCoda demonstrates his ability to conceal himself in camouflage -or- his attempt to stay cool by crawling under low hanging branches out of the sun.
As you may have read in my DeTour postings, I’m really passionate about this land. I’m working hard on it for it’s future and my family’s future; extended and immediate. There’s a history there and I want to carry it; there’s a future there and I want to build it.
So here is the beach, I’ve been working on it for a long time. The wife has passionately dubbed the Detour lot as “The Quarry” and I kind of like it. People seem to name their retreats/cottage/summer homes and they all sort of have a cute story attached. i.e. Sarah’s cottage, “The Wayfar” – when her mother was a child and they went to the cottage, it was super far away, or way far away from home. So it became known simply as The Wayfar.
These before/After photos, I think, accurately show why it will now be known as The Quarry. We’re constantly “mining” rocks, removing them, having people come get them (anything happens on Craig’s List), building tables/benches, collecting, etc. After a while of moving, I noticed Sarah was getting a bit OCD with the removal and she agreed that it’s addicting, haha. It was at this point she was thinking to herself she was mining in a rock quarry. It may stick!
In both photos I am looking out of the tree opening to the beach, looking Southeast. It sort of does it justice, but it really is no substitute for the real thing. The first photo was taken in April when I went up there with Brian, you’ll notice roughly three phases. The left side I cleared around 2003-2004 and made the rock pile right to the right of the path. That pile is about mid-thigh tall. You’ll notice the far right side is the start of a second pile and a second clearing begun. That pile is on the property line. At the end of that pile, notice a large piece of pinkish granite. That rock is about 24″ tall and round & decent to sit on. Notice the height of that rock compared to the pile. The third phase is in-between the two walls. As soon as I completed the original wall I regretted not taking it all the way to the property line as I knew someday I would need to move it. This section was also pretty full of weeds. My original section actually does a pretty good job of staying clear of weeds. These varieties seem to thrive on the rocks at can be pretty easy to pull depending on the surrounding rocks. Once we get the whole beach cleared of weeds, it will hold off well and will be easy to maintain.
In the second photo you’ll notice several new things. No weeds. No original wall. A row of “decorative” rocks dividing the new beach. The far right clearing much better. Clear definition of “beach.” Please also note that large piece of pinkish granite in the far right corner and how the rock wall is now taller than the rock, and compare that to the top photo. Removing my original wall took quite a bit more time than I anticipated (plenty of fun interruptions though (swimming, drinking, freighters etc. Get your mind out of the gutter)) and took much of the “removal” focus of the weekend. The right-side path along the decorative rocks and the far right cleared section is quite clean at this point. It is more sand than it is gravel. I’de say about 98% done. My original clearing to the left is not as well cleared as that and I would estimate is 86.482% done. The middle section is about 50% done but that original wall is gone, along with the weeds and it looks great. Again, the photos may not show it, but the after looks soooo much better in person. This clean-up really helped with a visualization of what this lot is capable of. Combining the ‘new’ beach with the ability to swim (which we’ve never done up there before – not a weather thing, just never had an opportunity to), plus all the work Brian and I did back in April, has completely altered the perspective of The Quarry.
My original section is roughly 15 ft wide and about 25 ft from the tree line. The overall size is now roughly 45 ft by 25 ft (perfect for a few sets of bags or horseshoes). Once this section is perfected, I want to move the remaining 5 ft on the left all the way over to the rock wall – this will give me exactly half of the frontage cleared. Once that half is done, we start to move closer to the water, starting at the far right edge (it’s easier to not walk over the rocks while carrying rocks). In my 50% section there are about 10 large rocks that we could not get out of their hole. I need a larger pry-bar. Once those are out, they will easily roll over to the wall to get us 100% clearage. My original section is actually quite comfortable. We sat in chairs all weekend there and Sarah laid in the sun on a sleeping pad and was comfy doing so.
Clearly more work to do yet, but I just wanted to show and share. It’s a different sort of “rehab project” compared to the work I’ve been assisting on all summer, but it a rehab none the less and we’re having fun with it.
Last documented freighter of the weekend.
After we got everything packed up for the trip home, we decided to head into town to get a real meal – so we went to the Mainsail for mushroom swiss burgers. There’s just something about a greasy burger after you get out of the woods. When we were done eating it was just about 30 minutes from the start of the local firework show. Sarah had to be to work at 7:30am the next day. We decided there was no difference in getting home at 2:15 am or 3:15 am – so we stayed for the show and it was worth it. I didn’t document any of it but I was very comfortable. One of the reasons I gave up on firework shows so long ago was the awful crowds of people and struggle to find a camp-out area. We had no such problem – the show was on Frying Pan Island on the west edge of the channel, and immediately on the shore was a grassy park next to the botanical garden. We parked about 50 yards away, walked to the field, picked from countless areas, and set up camp. One of the reasons I didn’t document was because I was nervous the reaction of my dog. He hates fireworks but I couldn’t leave him in our car with all the gear in it and his unknown reaction. But he did just fine. He shook like mad during the show, but crawled between the chairs and just dealt with it.
This last photo is the last I shot. It was on our way out of town just a few minutes, it was one of the last cars I saw on the way back to GR. With the new moon showing, it was sort of a fitting final photo of the night.
This is a quick little video from my phone back in April. It was shot at about 7 am, in a hazy mist and wind storm. It’s simple but dramatic. I love this land and how diverse it can get from one season to another. The second video is from this weekend; it documents the area a little better than some of the photos, plus sound always helps when it’s beautiful out! The last third of this video is basically the same angle as the first video. Sorry for the really shaky video – clearly not my forte.
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