All about trees and plants: Mackinac Island

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Sabtu, 24 Oktober 2015

Mackinac Island - Michigan

Mackinac Island is located in Michigan, in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

Mackinac Island is about 8 miles in circumference. An 8-mile road follows the island's perimeter, and numerous roads, trails and paths cover the interior.
More than 80 percent of the island is preserved as Mackinac Island State Park.

A unique local ordinance prohibits the use of any motor vehicles on the island. The most common means of travel are foot, bicycle, or horses. Certain exceptions include emergency vehicles, snowmobiles in winter, and golf carts for on-course use only. Most tourists come to the island by ferryboat.

Mackinac Island is also famous for the many fudge shops on the island. The island has a very large industry making fudge in a traditional manner, creating them on cold marble slabs.
Mackinac Island is a fun place to visit every few years, especially in the off season.

Mike happened to see a special coupon for the Harbour View Inn back in July, so we picked out two nights in October to spend on the island.

We started near Grand Haven, Michigan and spent a night at the cabin in Manistee County. The clouds were great with lots of blue sky. There was beautiful scenery along the 265 mile drive.

We ended up having four of the best days, weatherwise, that you can get in October in Michigan.

Barn along the way...

We chose Star Line Ferry, with their Hydro-Jets that produce a distinctive 35' roostertail spray, to cross 8 miles from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island.
We did bring our bikes, it's $8 to bring them on the ferry and about $6 to$8 PER Hour to rent bikes. If you are able to bring your own bikes, you can save a good bit of money and you have the convenience of transportation whenever you go somewhere.

Round Island lighthouse

This is where we stayed, Harbour View Inn. We had a nice room, very clean, and a yummy breakfast was included each morning.

Harbour View Inn

We rode our bikes around the island twice, stopping at all the interesting places along the way. We walked the British Landing Nature Trail, the Lakeshore Nature Trial, we pedaled to the interior of the island to find Eagle Point cave, we saw Arch Rock, Fort Holmes, and visited the U.S. Post Cemetery.

Looking up at Arch Rock

Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island

Our nineteen year old bikes, refurbished by our son.

U.S. Post Cemetery.

The best part of our bike ride was cutting across the island on the British Landing road, it goes down hill, and it was late in the evening so no people were around. We flew down the road topping off at 23.6 mph, that was fun.

Both nights, there were beautiful sunsets.

Sunset from Mackinac Island looking towards the Mackinac Bridge. The colors in the sky were so vivid and beautiful it was difficult to turn away and ride back to the inn. So I have many pictures of sunsets.

One night the sky looked like it had been highlighted with a pink marker.
We took a late afternoon ferry to Mackinaw City where our car was parked and drove all the way home. This was a great trip.

Kamis, 15 Oktober 2015

Mackinac Island in October

Mackinac Island covers 3.8 square miles in land area, it is in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

We stayed three nights at the Inn on Mackinac, a very nice Bed and Breakfast on the island. Mackinac Island is certainly a tourist destination but things start to slow down on the island in October. There are also numerous trails on the more remote end of the island where you can hike and not see another person.

The Inn on Mackinac

They don't use cars on this island, so we bring our bikes. The first thing we do is take a ride around the perimeter of the island which is just over 8 miles.

There are caves, and forests, and swamps on the island. This photo above and below shows Arch Rock.

We visited some swamps along the way and found Fringed Gentian, but since it was cloudy the flower wasn't open. Still pretty.

This duck was sitting quietly in the calm back edge of a swamp.

The sun came out the first night we were on the island, but all four days were rainy, cloudy, or overcast. Still we never got soaked by the rain, but later we did get soaked...

The day we left the island there was more sun but it was cooler,
~ 55 degrees F. We use the Starline Ferry, they provide free overnight parking. We hopped on the ferry - it looked something like the one in the picture below.

We...or maybe it was just me that wanted to sit up on top. Mike wasn't so sure. And, an employee did warn us that we would get wet sitting up there... But we were so high above the water, right? Like I said we didn't get soaked by the rain but we did get soaked on our 20 minute ride to Mackinaw City. Ice cold water pelleted us several times, it was windy and so cold. Maybe that part wasn't really fun.

Back to the car to drive the 5 hours home (wet). I was hoping the sun would stay out so I could get some nice pictures of the trees in their autumn colors. Ten minutes later it was pouring rain. The windows were wet, very difficult to get a good shot of trees along the way. But the sun did pop out and I decided to just enjoy the beauty. Some of the trees just made me say, "Wow!" The colors are so vivid. Every fall it amazes me!

Another fun adventure!

Rabu, 23 September 2015

Great Northern Adventure

Mike and I left home for six days on a Great Northern Adventure, mostly to check out Bryan's Canada cabin. We decided to stop off at Mackinac Island and be tourists.

We stayed overnight on the island at Inn On Mackinac, a five story Bed and Breakfast. I really liked it there, it was very clean and comfortable. Ryan rented us an alcove room (for only $50) and it was perfect.

Inn On Mackinac

We rode bikes, toured the shops, ate pizza and carmel corn, then watched the sun set just near the Mackinac Bridge.

There was a quaint movie, filmed on the island, "Somewhere in Time (1980)" starring Christopher Reeve, on TV at the inn.

In the morning we had a delicious breakfast at the inn then off on the ferry to Mackinaw City, here we stocked up the cooler before heading into Canada.

The scenery along Trans-Canada Highway 17 was rocky, with many small lakes and waterfalls, surrounded by fir trees. I was on this highway years ago, I didn't remember it. Before long, great views of Lake Superior are there until you near the Wawa area.

We continued to highway 519 (~200 miles north of Mackinaw City Michigan), the nearest town to the cabin is Dubreuilville Ontario. We traveled 8 miles down a gravel road to find the cabin waiting for us.

Bryan's Canada Cabin

Magpie River

We went on a 3 hour hike through bear and moose infested woods! Oh MY! We saw large bear and moose tracks along the trail.

Trail we hiked.

Along the trail

Later near here we saw a moose at the edge of the road.

Yup that is a very real wild Canadian moose along Highway 519!

And I'm sure you are wondering about what wildflowers we saw. Well many of the same kinds we see here, also lots of Fireweed everywhere, most still blooming, and some gone to seed with white fluffy down.

Fireweed

We kept seeing bunches of a small flower I thought was a lobelia of some sort. After consulting "Wildflowers in the Field and Forest" by Steven Clemants I found this flower wasn't a lobelia but an European Eyebright.

After our hike we decided to pack up and drive to Saute Saint Marie, Ontario to catch the Agawa Canyon Train Tour. We were on this train tour 34 years ago. The colors of the leaves were already changing, nice scenery.