Day Nine: Michigami, MI to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (220 mi)

This may have been my favorite day of the trip; for fall color it was certainly without equal.  The yellows were still abundant, but so, too, were oranges, rusts, and reds.  Everywhere we looked it was a calliope of color.  Even before our arrival to the park it was impressive, but inside the park fall was just bursting forth all around us, and at every turn.  Some of the charming, two lane park roads were actually canopied by trees stretching their limbs overhead to create a natural arbor of sorts.  For this Waco boy who seldom gets to experience the season others in the nation call "autumn," it was just spectacular (and I thought I'd already seen some breathtakingly beautiful sights before today)!  I've just flat out depleted all my superlatives.

This entry is a day late due to camping on the shore of Lake Superior last night.  After arriving at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in early afternoon, we had time to do a bit of day hiking (to two different waterfalls) before parking at the trail head and reorganizing our gear for a backpacking expedition.  We had registered with the park rangers (so they could come look for us in the right place if anyone reported us missing!) and were off to Beaver Creek Camp.  After a very rigorous 1.8 mile hike (actually, I'm personally convinced someone moved that decimal over one place and we really trekked 18 miles) we arrived at our destination, the only ones on the beach as far as we could see in both directions.  We felt akin to the early settlers who arrived on these shores many years before us.  When the sun went down and the full moon shone forth in all its glory we could even more easily put ourselves in those predecessors' shoes (or moccasins, as the case may be).  We went to sleep with the sound of waves surging inland all night long, quite a singular camping experience.

That was our first school experience with back backing, and this is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference.