James’s Blog

The water level at Lake Superior is about 10 inches below normal and near its recorded historical low. At least the NOAA chart above doesn’t look quite like Bush’s approval rating just yet. Who knows if this is due to global warming or some sort of natural cycle, or if this even matters in the long run, but the look of the landscape has already been affected. The effect is probably most pronounced near the Mosquito area.

Mosquito camp, 2004

Mosquito camp, 2007

That’ll reduce the mosquito problem at Mosquito! More comparisons after the jump.

Continue Reading »

There were few takers for a long-haul hike, so there are now alternate plans for a shorter hike. Since everyone around me seems to be born in the midwest or lived here for years but have never been to Lake Superior, I feel a Pictured Rocks trip is in order.

I have been there 5 times now (see pictures from Trips 1-3, Trip 4, Trip 5; I’ve uploaded more pictures) and know the place pretty well. A map is available for reference. Here’s a possible itinerary.

Day 1: Drive to Lake Superior from Chicago (about 7 hours); camp at the western part of the park or stay at a motel.

Day 2 (and 3?) Explore the western portion of the park, including: Miner’s castle, the Chapel rock, Grand Portal Point, Spray Falls, and nice beaches. Move camp to Hurricane River.

Day 3 or 4: Explore the eastern side of the park, including the Au Sable Lighthouse, Log Slide (and running down it), shipwrecks, and more nice beaches. Drive home afterwards.

The plan is to do this a bit before or a bit after Pride, possibly weekend of June 15 or June 29. We’ll probably leave on a Friday or Saturday evening and come back early the next week. Depending on people’s schedules, there might be different arrival days at the park.

I’m seriously thinking about another Lake Superior trip this summer. The trip will be 7-10 days. Here are some ideas.

First choice: Isle Royale National Park.

Park info: Maps are here.
User fee: $4 per person per day.
Camping permits: Individual parties, 1-6 people, will receive their backcountry permit onboard the National Park Service ship the Ranger III or when they arrive on the Island at the Rock Harbor or Windigo Visitor Center. There are no fees associated with this permit. There is a $25 group camping processing fee for each permit issued to a group, 7-10 people. Groups must reserve their campsites in advance of their trip.
Lodging: Rock Harbor Lodge is the only place on the island. $190-310 per night.

Getting there: Drive from Chicago to Houghton, MI (7.5 hours), then take Ranger III to Isle Royale.
Ranger III fare: One-way fare $54; Group rates (7 or more) $47
Ragner III schedule:
June 2 through September 13
Houghton to Rock Harbor on Tuesdays and Fridays, departing Houghton at 9:00 a.m. EDT
Rock Harbor to Houghton on Wednesdays and Saturdays, departing Rock Harbor at 9:00 a.m. EDT.
The leisurely ride to Isle Royale takes 6 hours.
Houghton Lodging: Super8 Motel. About $75 per night.

What to do: 4-7 days of backpacking, the rest dayhiking/kayaking/canoeing.
List of rental prices is here; about $30-40 per day.
National park page of other activities.
Detailed hiking itinerary will be decided later, but I’m thinking about a trans-island hike (30-40 miles one way).

——————————————-

Second choice: Pukaskwa National Park. I have been there before, but would like to hike the whole Coastal Trail this time.

Park info: Maps are here.
Fees are listed here. About CAD 6 per day, capping at 5 days.
Frontcountry camping: about CAD 23 to 25 per site night.
Backcountry camping: about CAD 9 per person per night, capping at 7 nights.

Getting there: Drive from Chicago to Maraton, ON (12.5 hours). Then take a “water taxi” to the trailhead. This will probably be pretty expensive; details available at National Park.

What to do: 6-8 days of backpacking on the Coastal Trail (about 60 km). Here’s a rough trail map with vastly underestimated hiking time. Possible to visit Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore during the same trip.

I’ve been avoiding this since the creation of this website, but I’m going to begin putting some old travel pictures (prior to summer 2006) up on the web. It’s for bragging rights, and also for keeping track of some of the details that I’m starting to forget.

I’m beginning with Madrid, Spain. An anecdote: I ate lunch at the Santa Ana Plaza, and took the following picture.

I was very excited to see the NY Times Travel Section mentioning the same locale a few months later.

(Denis Doyle for The New York Times)

Landmannalaugar region, Iceland [WaPo article] [Gallery].

This guy, Matt Harding, seems to enjoy quite a bit of fame on the internet. I find the video quite touching, actually. It seems he might be a tad weary of the attention from the video.  Whatever his intentions were when he started this idea, in the end, he created a beautiful thing when disparate corners of the world were united through one silly little dance.