North Shore of Lake Superior

Our arrival at Black Beach Municipal Campground, a great campground, by the way, seemed routine until we had done all the exterior set up and opened the door into the trailer.  This is what we found.

I have a very set pattern of preparing for departure, including securing the the refrigerator doors.  But, we had stopped and Zina had requested some apple with caramel dip.  After I had prepared the snack, I forgot to secure the door.  I was SO sad that I had made such a mess and destroyed some of our equipment.  First of all, the fridge door is glass and it now has cracks running through it, the worst of which David covered with duct tape. My canning jar of yeast broke spilling yeast and glass everywhere, a bottle of syrup leaked, the Brita water reservoir cracked, and the milk shelf from the door broke.  The syrup, water and yeast mixed to make yeast glue.  David, Myra and I worked to get it all cleaned up.  We had a simple dinner of hamburgers and then relaxed to calm down about the disaster.

Friday was a great day to just enjoy our rocky beach.  The North Shore of Lake Superior is spectacular and I wished we had more time to relax and enjoy it.  We mostly hung out at camp.  Will and I headed into the small town of Silver Bay for supplies.  The hardware store, where I was able to obtain everything I had thought to have to get at Walmart, and the grocery store were just separated by a small restaurant.  The whole town gave the feeling that everyone knew everyone else.  They were having a town celebration called Bay Days.  I had been waiting for an opportune moment to turn the Costco quantity of ingredients into enough spaghetti sauce for a few months!  Then we ate the spaghetti for dinner and got everyone to bed very early in preparation for our early morning.  The early sleep was interrupted by the Bay Days Firework show that sounded like a bombing!

I was questioning my decision to visit the least visited National Park, Isle Royale, a pristine rocky island 22 miles from the mainland shore of Lake Superior, when I had to arise at 5:30am and get the family in the truck by 6:15am.  There was a lot of grumpiness but we made it to the ferry by the 8am check in time.  The boat was much smaller than anticipated.  Everyone was crammed on benches, a few in the cabin and the rest outside in the cold.  I think there were a total of about 50 people.  We were allowed to board in the order that we made the reservation.  We were very lucky to have booked early so we were able to ride in the cabin.  The benches were padded but narrow making them not very comfortable for our 1.5 hour trip.  I think I would have enjoyed riding outside with Myra and Will but Zina was resolved to ride indoors (and probably with good reason.) It was supposed to be rainy on Isle Royale but the rain stayed away until the very end of our 4 hour stay.  The island is beautiful.  If a person wanted to get away from it all, it would be a great place to be.  It felt still and relaxing.  We began our visit with a ranger lead nature hike to be introduced to native flora.  It was a fun hike.  Then we hiked along the lake for about a mile out and then back.  So beautiful.  When we returned we grabbed some drinks at the small store and ate our sandwiches out of the rain under the eaves of the store.  We got one more ranger program about the island’s animals.  Then we reboarded the boat.  Once again I wanted to sit outside but Zina insisted on inside.  And, at the moment she prefers to stay with me.  Poor David ended up on the side of the boat where the waves came over the edge so that he was soaked by the end of our ride.  Myra & Will, who were on the deck at the back of the boat, were also pretty damp.  Zina and I were perfectly dry.  There was really nothing to do on the boat except converse with the fellow passengers.  I am still trying to decide if the effort was worth it. It was certainly beautiful and peaceful but so was all the wild area where we were.  There were several people on board who were getting a stamp on their National Park Passport.  We got back to camp by 5:30pm, in time to make some bread and eat grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner.  

Silver Bay, MN – As soon as we opened up the door to the trailer, we knew that something was wrong. The fridge had somehow flown open and flung its contents all over the trailer. We spent about an hour cleaning up the mess and then had burgers for dinner. It was an eventful first day in Silver Bay. On Friday, I did my school and then went to the beach. The beach was very rocky, but we still had fun and made a rock figure. (Not a stick figure) After this, we went and got the rest of the family to come to the beach. We played for a few hours at the beach, went grocery shopping, and made an ungodly amount of spaghetti sauce to eat for the next 10 millennia. We went to bed very early that night in order to get up at 6 to go to Isle Royale. Isle Royale is the least visited national park. That means that it is a lot easier to experience the peace and solace that comes with being in nature. We got some breakfast once we got to the island, and then went on a nature hike with a ranger. We were trying to find all of the different flowers on cards that she had given to us. We found all but 1 on the hike and managed to find the last one on a trail that she had recommended. After listening to another ranger talk about all of the species on the Island, we said goodbye to the ranger and hopped back on the boat. That was essentially all that we did in Silver Bay; see you in Royalton! Next: Royalton, MN. Overall Rating: 8.2/10.