Copper Falls State Park

We have spent time exploring a substantial number of State Parks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the past few years. Copper Falls State Park is probably our favorite. It may have been the time of year with the cool temperatures and the colorful foliage, but the quality of the campground and trails and the beauty of the area are spectacular. Copper Falls is not on one of the Great Lakes which was the feature we first valued, but it is close enough (e.g., Bayfield) and the other features more than compensate if you need big water.

The following link offers a much larger collection of images. If you are connecting from a computer, you should be able to view the collection as a slide show.

Copper Falls State Park photo collection

Worker Shortage

 I am a coffee shop junkie. Coffee is part of this addiction, but I can make high quality coffee drinks at home. I enjoy the ambiance of coffee shops and I particularly like the shops that are not part of a chain. The different clienteles interest me. I also enjoy writing in coffee shops and my shop time has suffered in the pandemic. Sometimes, I can sit outside. If the sun is not too bright, I can even write. 

There are three coffee shops within about a block and a half in Bayfield, WI. We have visited this small committee on the big lake several times so I have been in each more than once. 

We made it to Bayfield at about 10 which is prime coffee shop time. It was a Monday and none of the shops were open. The first shop had a large container out front with a stack of paper cups, sugar, etc. and a jar for contributions. I could see an employee sitting inside the shop who later came out to bring more cups as business was brisk. There was a sign on the door that they would not be open on Monday or Tuesday because they did not have enough staff. I wrote the first post on this trip sitting in front of this coffee shop using my phone as a hot spot. I had no clue what the password was.

The shop next door was closed with a sign on the door and no coffee outside. 

The third shop was closed, but we did find it open after lunch. We bought a couple cups of coffee and I asked the older lady about the situation. She said they were an ice cream shop, but people kept asking about coffee so they added a pot. I asked about the problem finding help and she said that only old ladies are willing to work. There was a tip jar on the counter with a sign that said "College fund". I asked the lady who was about my age if she was saving money for college. She said no, I might have to get a tattoo. This seemed a bit strange, but some folks have unusual expectations when it comes to entrance requirements. 

Mushrooms - Edible or Not?

 We viewed many different types of mushrooms as we walked the trails of Copper Falls State Park. The park must have been host to the type of trees that mushrooms love. We have friends that are mushroom experts. They collect and eat what they find.

Cindy send some of the pictures we took to Natasha and her response was don't touch. 

We weren't actually tempted to eat what we observed, but her warning did make me curious. The vastness of the Internet is a wonderful thing. I searched for poisonous mushrooms of Wisconsin and found a picture guide to some of the specimens I should avoid. 

Beginner's guide to the mushrooms of Wisconsin - this would be the source for me

Digital Nomad

 

I saw this guys for three straight days working in the same trail head parking lot. You can't see it very well in this image, but his jeep is equipped with solar panels and a satellite antenna. I finally decided I needed to have a conversation.

"Is that a satellite antenna on your roof", I asked.

"It is for Star Link", he responded.

"I have seen you working here for three days", I said. "I am guessing you are a writer or a programmer".

"Software engineer", he said.

I have heard both job titles and I am not certain how they are different.

I asked whether he had worked remotely for long and he said that this has been the case for a while. I said I had heard about people who lived the digital nomad life style, but he was the first I had met. He said he likes the combination. He said he is based in Colorado, but was working his way across the country to Maryland to visit friends. I asked whether he worked as an independent or for a company and he replied that he was employed by a company that let him work in this way.

He looks like my stereotype of a programmer. When I asked about his vehicle he said that it was has "latest build". What a programmer thing to say. 

Another of the cool experiences you have on the road.

Discovery

 The thing I like best about travel is discovery. It might be people or nature or in this case the things people do who live a different life than me. We are not that far from our lake home, but the lives of the folks living on a Great Lake is obviously quite different. The communities in this region have many old buildings obviously constructed in a much more affluent time. I am guessing these reflect the boom in timber and shipping. The lakes continue to be important for recreation and tourism and smaller versions of the industries that populated what have now become smaller towns.

So, I spend a good deal of my time on a small lake. Fall is the time of year to get the boats out of the water and pull the docks. We pay to have our pontoon taken out and stored because the process requires a larger trailer than we own. Taking the boats out in Bayfield, WI, is a much different and I am guessing costly process. Owning one of these boats would require I sell our lake home and I am not certain how I would pay for storage, maintenance, and  moving such a boat about. This is a different life style than has been our experience, but you can see how it contributes to the local economy. We watched the equipment needed for such a process in action yesterday.

 I had to throw this photo in for my techie friends.  It is a bench that I am guessing was fabricated in a local shop that combines a comfortable seat for viewing the harbor, solar panels, and the storage system necessary to power USB outlets for charging phones. It looks brand new. I seldom carry a USB cable so I could not try it out. Someone thought they had identified a need and went to work to provide a solution. I wonder about the life span of the equipment. The solar panels would be good for multiple seasons, but I wonder about the outlets in the weather. I hope the city buys several more of these units and at least the locals will figure out that charging stations are available for their use. Unlike our campground, Hayward has cell towers so phones work. 

Third Season

 I am a fan of a location that allows you to experience all four seasons. The same temps and same look year round just seems boring. This is not to say that some seasons are not more enjoyable than others. If you have four seasons, you have winter and winter in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin get long, cold, and dark. I do cheat a bit and bug out towards the end of January to spend a couple of months in Hawaii. I see this as the reward for growing old and being able to take such liberties.

Fall is my favorite. The temps are cool and the air seems pure without the higher humidity of summer. These are perfect conditions for me as heat and I are not on good terms. This is the season of harvests and brilliant color. I enjoy taking photos of the leaves even though they likely look about the same as last year. Great colors against blue skies and reflected in still ponds and lakes. Others agree. A friend of ours wanted to schedule a business trip to Duluth/Superior last weekend and was unable to book a motel/hotel room in the area – too many tourists wanting to take in the peak of leaf season.

We are camping this week in order to explore the same area. Campgrounds are full despite most parks shutting off the water to campsites and closing toilets. Camping without hookups would not be my preference, but we are self-contained and can deal with most inconveniences. This will be the last trip of the season and it will be time to get the camper winterized. 

I am cross-posting this to my travel blog [https://grabetravels.blogspot.com) because I am traveling We are camped for a few days at Copper Falls State park which is fairly close to our lake home in Wisconsin. Various leaf photos are likely to follow as well as whatever else we can find. Just sitting around the fire this evening reading Wolfman written by our friend Stan Trollip. 

McLain State Park and Home

 We just returned home and I have the wifi connection I need to upload a few final pictures. Spending time in this region would be a good experience for those politicians doubting the need for Internet infrastructure improvements. A good part of the time we had no phone reception. These were taken in the during our stay at McClain State Park (Michigan). Perhaps the nicest park as for as accommodations go, but not the nearby attractions of Door County.

We took advantage of our opportunity to eat fish. I guess that is what you do around the lakes. The fish shown is perch - I ended up not being as big a fan of white fish. I do like smoked fish and we purchased some to bring home. I took the image of a guy stoking the smoking tent. He seemed the perfect image for this work and this region. A few minutes after this picture was taken a pickup loaded with wood used by the smokers was rear ended right in front of us. No brakes so the driver must have been distracted and did not see the truck stopped to turn in. Driver of the pickup hit the steering wheel and was taken away by ambulance,

The Bridge

 It is claimed that the Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world at 8614 feet. In comparison, the Golden Gate is 6450 feet.  The bridge opened to traffic in 1957 replacing ferry traffic between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace (our camping site). The deck is built to move from side to side up to 35 feet in high winds. The bridge has its own website providing bridge conditions, warnings to high-profile vehicles, and live video. https://www.mackinacbridge.org/  The website provides monthly traffic stats and offers an insight into just how much the tourist industry in this region has been affected by the pandemic. 

Michigan's Upper Peninsula

 This peninsula is just across the lake, but very different from Door County. There is less of a touristy feel to the general area, but the State Parks are more crowded. Today we did some shopping and what we purchased was a combination of local cuisine and traditional tourist goodies.

Pasties

We get pasties when we are in this part of the country. If you have not tasted a pastie, it reminds me of a Swanson Chicken Pot Pie, but handmade and more expensive. You pay for the ambience, but Bessie's Pasties are the real deal. Only the chicken was available, but I prefer it to beef anyway. 

Smoked Stuff

We visited a smoked fish store and purchased smoked white fish and lake trout, smoked jerky. and some really great stuff to spread on crackers. 

Fudge

Fudge is the tourist's staple, but it is still a must buy.

Time to sample the fudge and then a nap. 

Green Bay Packers

 We are transitioning from our location in Wisconsin to a location in Michigan. We are in St. Ignace which most probably know as the place you board the ferry for Mackinac Island.  In doing so, we drove around Green Bay and through the city of Green Bay (without any confusion this time). This got me thinking about the Packers. Were they named for the City or for the bay or was it a matter of the city being named for the bay and then the Packers for the city. I searched for the history of the Packers, but did not find an easy answer. The Packers were named for the Indian Packing plant and the appropriate decision was made to name the team the Packers after considering the Indians. 

Go Vikings.

Door County

 Door County, Wisconsin, strikes me as one of those places that decided the big money was in tourism. The original revenue sources - probably lumber, fishing, and maybe specialized agriculture - became the base for coffee shops, lots of camping areas, boat tours, fancy dining facilities and guest accommodations, some golf, fudge shops, and wineries. The limitations of the land translates as scenic beauty and the lack of industry allowed the other original sources of income to become tourist attractions.

Door County seems to encourage the development of cherry orchards and wineries often on the same farms. I did not inquire regarding this combination, but diversification is good. I tend to think of the type of cherry being harvested while we are here as the main ingredient for cherry pies (with ice cream if possible). Too tart of the tree. I did really like the cherry donuts and the cherry salsa with chips. I am not a wine snob so whatever tastes good to me I will drink. We sampled the summer wines and purchased a couple of bottles. I make the effort to explore good coffees, but while I have had great wines in great locations (e.g., South Africa) I have just not made the same effort to evaluate what I am drinking. 

One more thing. Tourist destinations are just that because they attract lots of people. This seems to be the way things are everywhere this year. 

Eagle Tower

This is one of the more ambitious projects I have encountered in our time in State Parks. This is the new Eagle Tower. It was built to replace the original Eagle Tower that had to be taken down in 2016. The friends of Peninsula State Park decided they would replace the tower that had to be removed with a tower that was more accessible. I suppose they decided an elevator missed the point of an outdoor experience so they came up with this design - a long ramp allowing those in wheel chairs or using walkers to reach the top. We did see one lady with a walker coming down on our way up. The view from the top was impressive especially when captured as a panorama, but the structure itself was what captured my attention. I wonder just how much money was required to purchase the wood columns required in the construction. 

Note to self and others - update maps

Our trip to Wisconsin’s Peninsula State Park was supposed to take 6.5 hours. I was driving pulling the rPod so 7.5 would have been more realistic. Everything went well - we loaded up and departed without incident. The only problem we encountered was getting through Green Bay. I thought I had mastered traffic circles, but these had two circle lanes and one continuation lane. The extra circle lane was intimidating. It is bad enough if you are using the continuation lane to watch for someone coming from one circle lane, but the additional lane was more than I could process safely. We did navigate the many roundabouts without a problem. The difficulty was that the sections of the intersecting highways must have been redone since our car GPS system was loaded and we made multiple passes without finding how to get to where we wanted to go. An hour lost and much stress. Cindy came up with a solution - turn on avoid expressways. This left us with older roads and a longer route with many stoplights, but a workable solution. Update your maps,

No wifi in the campground except at the concession stand which I have yet to locate. I also can’t get a cell signal which kind of makes the emergency phone number in the camp brochure of little value. Cindy has one bar and gets text messages. Maybe she can send a text if we have an emergency. 

Desperate wifi people