August 24 – Dave’s cousin Gregg
and his family live in the have been built in the 20’s. After our walk we rewarded ourselves with ice
cream at a new (only two days old) ice cream place. This place had a interesting twist to ice
cream – you ordered whatever flavor you wanted and then you added toppings
(M&M’s, peanuts, cookie crumbs, etc.).
They then put the ice cream and toppings on a large frozen marble
counter and mixed the toppings into your ice cream, giving you a custom made
flavor. To complete the experience you
could have it served in a waffle cone that had been dipped in chocolate and
rolled in sprinkles (Stacie got the last one but Dave isn’t bitter). After the ice cream treat we went back to
their house and continued to catch up on things. Gregg fired up the grill and in keeping with
the custom made treat theme we all made our own shish kabobs. After dinner we said our goodbyes and headed
back to our campground, arriving just before they locked the gate for the
night.
August 25 – We woke up to an empty
campground (funny how places clear out on Sunday) and after a leisurely
breakfast we packed up camp and hit the road.
We headed northeast out of the Minneapolis area and entered
Wisconsin. Our ultimate goal was the upper Peninsula of
While in would be able to find our way back to the
main road) We picked a nice lakeside
site and set up camp. We thought about
putting the kayaks in as there was still some daylight left, but some little
voice told us to start a fire and relax instead. Fifteen minutes later the skies opened up and
it poured down rain (at least we weren’t on the water when it hit). The skies cleared up an hour later and we
turned in for the night.
August 26 – Thankfully there was no
more rain overnight and we woke up to sunny skies. Our campsite was on the shore of a beautiful
little lake and we really wanted to put the kayaks in, but we were now
realizing that our adventuring days were numbered and hit the road. Thanks to lots of signs we found our way back
to civilization from the campground. We
backtracked a few miles because there was an attraction that was closed the day
before and we wanted to see it. The Laona and Northern Railway was
created in 1902 primarily to serve the timber industry. At its height it only had about 20 miles of track
and 50 cars. While it primarily hauled
logs out of the forests, the railway was also a lifeline for loggers and
residents, bringing in food, hardware and mail.
One of the stops along the railroad was “Camp 5”, a logging camp created
in the 1890’s. While the camp was
undoubtedly meant to be a temporary stop while loggers worked in the area, it
was turned into a farm for the logging company in 1914. The farm raised meat, produce and horses for
other active camps in the area. In the
late sixties the logging company that owned the railroad and camp 5 began
making preparations for their upcoming 100th anniversary (1972). An entire Soo Line
railway depot was purchased and was moved 32 miles to become a station for the
railroad in 1965. The farm was turned into a museum on logging and opened to
the public in 1969. A steam trail made
the 17 mile trip from the station to Camp 5.
In 1974 the station was moved to its current location and today the
train makes a 10 minute run to Camp 5.
Both the museum and the railroad are operated by the
Camp Five Museum Foundation, a non-profit organization. While they were getting the train ready, the
first train wasn’t for a few hours and we really couldn’t afford to spend the
time. We tucked the brochure away for a
future visit and hit the road.
We zipped
across what little was left of taking out samples of the rock. They just kept drilling test holes all over
the mountain until they hit a sample that revealed good iron ore. Once the pocket of good ore was located, the
miners blasted new tunnels to reach the ore and extract it. They located a massive pocket of ore that was
the size of a football field and hundreds of feet deep. They worked this pocket until 1945when it
became unprofitable. Our tour consisted
of a half mile “mine train” (it was actually a modified Santa’s Village train)
ride into the heart of the mountain and then a walking tour of some of the
tunnels and a view of the big hole. The
tunnels were just big enough to walk through as their primary purpose was to
find a path to the mother lode. After
the mother lode was located the miners dug a shaft straight up until they
reached the surface and then used winches to haul the iron ore up to the
surface. One interesting feature of the
tunnels is that they were always sloping uphill. This was done so that any water that leaked
into the tunnels would flow out. The tunnels
were inhabited by what the guide called “Michigan butterflies”. The other guests on the tour were fascinated
by this, until they realized that those were bats flying around, not
butterflies. We rode the north pole express back to the gift shop and hung up our
hard hats.
We continued on our way and arrived in St. Ignace on the