Headwaters and the UP

Today was rainy and 47 F when we got up, so Travalon and I did not go paddle boating at our resort. We started our day at a coffee shop and then went to 11 am Mass at St. Peter the Fisherman in Eagle River. We had to call ahead to be put on a list, come in the side door, and wear a mask the entire time. Communion wasn't distributed until after the final benediction, so we got it on our way out the door. This is a picture of a statue outside of St. Peter the Fisherman.

Then we drove along North Twin Lake.

And we stopped at South Twin Lake.

We stopped for lunch at Phelps, where we saw this goose standing on one foot on the dock on North Twin Lake.

This was our view during lunch, which was coconut shrimp from a hot dog stand.

Then we drove up to Lac Vieux Desert (doesn't this mean Old Desert Lake?), which is the headwaters of the Wisconsin River. Here is the sign pointing to the start of the river.

There were lots of pretty flowers along the trail, like these forget-me-nots.

And what is this - a quadrillium?

And I have no idea what these are.

And we saw the most exciting flower of all - pink lady slippers!

Here is the historical marker by the lake.

Here is the south shore of Lac Vieux Desert.

And this is the headwaters of the Wisconsin River, where it comes out of the lake.

On the path back, I noticed this pretty purple flower.

Here is the river just as it is starting to flow:

Then we drove across the border to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and we went to Dinner Lake just because the name was so intriguing. The only public access was in this bay.

I took this photo of a great blue heron with Travalon's camera.

As we tried to drive around Dinner Lake (since the map implied that the road went all the way around, although this proved to be a lie), we passed a boggy area with these flowers that look kind of like peace lilies.

Then we drove to the north shore of Lac Vieux Desert, which is in the UP. (The southern half of the lake is in Wisconsin.)

I found this clam washed up on the boat launch. I found a really cool snail shell too, but that photo didn't really turn out.

We drove to Imp Lake because it also has a cool name. It was also a very beautiful lake, with this island in the middle of it.

We also found a single pink lady's slipper, but our photos of it aren't that great, probably because we were getting totally attacked by mosquitos. They even followed us into the car, so I spent a lot of time squishing them as Travalon drove to Watersmeet. It it a small town with some interesting murals.

And the tribal offices of the Lac Vieux Desert Indians, although their village is actually on Lac Vieux Desert. (We thought about visiting but didn't.)

Their high school sports teams are the Nimrods. I guess they are mighty hunters...?

We hiked on the Agonikak Trail that starts in Watersmeet, and there were lots of these interesting ferns along the way, as well as the type I am more used to and some that have long stems almost like a little tree fern.

We passed Duck Creek on the trail.

Then we drove to Star Lake and took a hike in the woods there. We heard a sound like a waterfall and headed that direction, but it was actually the wind blowing through a stand of very tall pines.

Here is a video. If you listen closely, you can also hear the whine of mosquitos now and then. They weren't quite as bad as at Imp Lake, but almost.

We saw lots of the ferns that almost look like little tree ferns.

We also saw lots of lady slippers, including this large clump.

And this single one that a sunbeam was lighting up as if it were a spotlight.

We found a boardwalk to the Black Lagoon, which was very beautiful.

Then the trail split into the one-mile Blue Trail that continued in the woods, and the two-mile Red Trail that went along the edge of the lake. I advocated for the Red Trail and then began to regret it when I saw how steep it was, but there was a cool breeze on it that kept the mosquitos away. Here is a view of Star Lake.

And here are a couple of views of an island on it. First, approaching it.

Then, looking back at it. The tree on the right makes me think of a palm tree, the way it arches over the water.

There was also a very tiny island.

And on that island was a sign, but we couldn't read it.

There was also a very large island, but it was so big that in the picture Travalon took of it, you can't tell it's an island because you can't see the water on either side. We also found this tree that someone seems to have tied into a knot when it was just a sapling.

By the end of that hike, we had gone seven miles, so we were ready for dinner! We ate at a supper club on a small lake that the map appears to call Lake of the Hills, but the waitress told us it was Duck Lake. Which seems appropriate, because we thought we saw a loon, but when I took a photo of it, we could see it was just a mallard. Here was our view during dinner.

Behind the restaurant was this gorgeous rhododendron. It reminds me of the ones we saw blooming all around Blarney Castle on our honeymoon.

On the way home we could see a glorious sunset, but we couldn't stop anywhere to get a picture of it. The rosy light was still reflecting on the Wisconsin River behind our resort.

Travalon went down to fish and caught a little bluegill, which is the first fish he's caught all year. Hopefully he will have better luck back home now that he has broken his losing streak!

Famous Hat