Fall Adventures in Northern Michigan

I am sure I have mentioned this before, but I'll say it again...Fall is not my favorite season.  While I can appreciate the beauty of the Fall colors, mainly I see it is as a season of endings as everything goes into it's Winter's rest.  But I live in Michigan, one of the most beautiful places to experience the Fall color.  Normally in October, the girls and I take a road trip outside of Michigan so I've been able to experience Fall in many places, and other than New England(mainly just Vermont and New Hampshire), there aren't many places that rival the Autumn beauty right here at home.  

I know when most people think of experiencing Fall color here, they think of the UP or the Northwestern Lower Peninsula around Sleeping Bear Dunes, Petoskey, and Traverse City.  I've experienced the Fall colors in the UP on several occasions over the years, and can honestly say that they are spectacular.  The Lake Michigan coast is also beautiful, I am sure, but during Fall colors, it is far too touristy for me, so I have always avoided it.  But with the pandemic raging on and my travel this year limited, I wanted to find a way to make the most of the color season and visit some new places.  

So I decided to head away from the crowds toward the Northeastern Lower and Lake Huron.  This is not an area where I have spent much time, so I thought it could be a great overnight trip where we could stay away from people and still enjoy the woods and lakeshores of the Great Lakes State.  

So one rainy Sunday morning in late October, I left my house early, picked up Vanessa, and headed North for two fun-filled and very long days exploring areas unknown.  As we work toward visiting the most beautiful place in every Michigan county, visiting all of the Michigan State Parks, and finding a geocache in both every county and every State Park, this trip was going to be a great way to visit several counties that I don't normally visit and see some new and interesting things.

Our first stop with the Rifle River State Recreation area near Lupton.  The weather forecast called for rain most of the day and it was raining when we arrived, but we were prepared for the weather and ready for some adventures.  We drove through the area and made a couple of stops at some scenic spots before stopping, getting the girls out of the Jeep, and hitting the trails for a walk.  Maddie was doing well that morning and we were able to take a nice walk through the woods, despite the rain.  This is a beautiful area and I can see why it was named the most beautiful spot in Ogemaw county.    

Before leaving, we got our customary picture in front of the State Park sign, and then hit the road for Muskrat Lake, the most beautiful spot in Oscoda County.  We arrived at Muskrat Lake as a downpour started, so we left the girls in the Jeep, jumped out for a couple of quick pictures, and continued on our journey.  I'm not sure why this particular spot is considered the most beautiful in the county, but as I've discovered on this journey, beauty is very subjective.  It was a pretty spot, but not as stunning as some other places on the list.  But we can say we've been there!

Our next stop was Atlanta, Michigan's Elk Capital.  We only saw one Elk on this trip though...and it wasn't alive.  We ordered lunch from the Elk Crossing Cafe and walked around town while we waited to pick it up, then hit the road for our next destination a short distance away-Clear Lake State Park.

When we arrived at Clear Lake, the rain was falling pretty steadily so we parked the Jeep with a view of the lake and ate our lunch sitting right there.  The food was pretty good and the girls were happy to watch us eat in hopes that they might get a little treat, and of course they were not disappointed.

After we had eaten, the rain slowed a bit, giving us a chance to get out and explore a little.  We found a cool geocache and took a walk out to the beach so the girls could stick their toes in the water and get a drink.

I bet if it hadn't been such a gloomy day, this lake would have been beautiful.  I can see why it would be considered the most beautiful spot in the county.  With the gloominess, rain, and so many other stops still to go, we didn't stay long before loading the girls in the Jeep to adventure on.

But not before our State sign picture.  I am sure Peaches is thinking "why doesn't mom just let me explore some more?"

We journeyed on with our next stop at Ocqueoc Falls, the only waterfall in the lower peninsula.  I have been here on a couple of occasions,  but since we were in the area, I knew we had to take Vanessa to see them too.  The rain had slowed by the time we reached the falls so we were able to get out to walk around a bit and grab a couple of geocaches before continuing our journey.  

We had finally completed our journey through the three counties: Ogemaw, Oscoda, and Montmorency, that are on the interior of the Northeastern Lower Peninsula, we were now heading for Great Lakes views and I couldn't wait!

We had several stops in Presque Isle County, the first of which was P.H. Hoeft State Park.   This park is just outside of Rogers City with beautiful views of Lake Huron and it was the northern most stop on our trip.  I bet during the Summer months it is hopping, full of campers enjoying the Lake and surrounding area, but it was fairly quiet while we were there. 

As we left, the rain really started to pick up so Maddie stayed in the Jeep while I made Peaches get out for the State sign picture.   I'm pretty sure Peaches wished she could have stayed in the Jeep too, as she kept looking for a place to hide.   She's a real trooper, though.

We also made a quick stop at the Thompson's Harbor State Park before continuing on to the New Presque Isle Lighthouse.  We walked around the Lighthouse grounds and could feel the temperatures starting to drop as we neared sunset. 

I especially enjoyed this view of the lighthouse as we headed back to the Jeep, our long day nearing it's end.  It had been a cool, rainy day, but that was okay because we had had a good day of adventures,  had seen many beautiful places, and had enjoyed being out in the northern woods.  It was now time to head into Alpena for the night.

We arrived at our hotel after dark and after we settled in, we ordered Mexican take out which I went to pick up while Vanessa stayed in the room with the girls.  There were lots of festive Halloween lights around town, so I had to stop for a picture.  

After a busy day, it was nice to end it in a our room with the girls watching me eat dinner.  I looked forward to better weather and more fun on day two!

We woke up to cool temperatures on Monday morning, but the rain had stopped and the sun was shining, so it was going to be a great day!  Before leaving Alpena, we visited Island Park and Wildlife Sanctuary.  This is right in town, but is a lovely area and we enjoyed a nice morning walk on the trails there.

Next we started our travels South on US23 and would spend most of the day on this road along the shores of Lake Huron.  I was most excited about our second stop of the day, a place I had been before and one of my favorite State Parks; Negwegon State Park.  This park has hike-in rustic campsites and amazing Lake Huron views.  It is quiet and peaceful and one of the best places in the lower peninsula to take the dogs to a Great Lake, in my opinion as least.

I had only visited the park once before and that was a Summer trip, but it was just as beautiful as I remembered it to be.  The most striking thing for me is just how quiet it is, especially when the Lake is still.   It isn't easy to get to and has no real amenities, which makes it a less visited spot, and that is fine by me.  It is just a magical place and I look forward to visiting it again and again.

We walked along the shore enjoying the sunny day and lake views and even found a couple of geocaches.  This was one of my favorite geocaches of the whole trip.  Peaches wasn't that thrilled that I made her sit for a picture because she had to stop running.  She got some quality off-leash running time on our way back to the Jeep though and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed this stop.

On the drive out of the park, we had to stop for this picture...after all who doesn't agree with this?

Driving along on our way toward our next stop, we took a small detour when we saw signs pointing us to the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse.  How could we not stop?  After all, who doesn't love a lighthouse?  A bonus was the sign informing us of the presence of Petoskey Stones along the beach here and there was no way I was going to stop Vanessa from looking for some stones.  I now have my first official Petoskey Stone (which was not found by me).  It only took 50 years of living in Michigan to get one.  Thanks Vanessa!

Next we headed onward to Harrisville State Park, the most beautiful place in Alcona county.   This is a tiny State park with a small beach area and a very small trail which we decided to explore.

I was happy to find a second, small, walk-in entrance to the park with a park sign right along our walk so we grabbed our picture here before turning around and heading toward the beach.

Technically, dogs aren't allowed on the beach here, but it is off-season and there weren't many people around so we made a small exception so we could explore the beach before heading back to the Jeep and continuing southward.

We headed South to Oscoda before cutting inland to visit the Lumberjack's Memorial and Iargo Springs.  The views were beautiful at the Lumberjack Memorial.

Once at Iargo Springs, we needed to walk down 300 steps to view the Springs themselves, so off we went.  Maddie doesn't do that well going down stairs, but her walking buddy was happy to help her down so she could explore with us.

I'm pretty sure Peaches would have run right down if I had let her.  But I'm a mean dog mom and made her stay with me.

Once down at the bottom, I was not disappointed that we had me the trek down there.  This is considered the most beautiful spot in Alcona county and I can definitely see why.

While we were down there, we sent Vanessa off through the mud and muck to locate a geocache which I would never have been able to get to with the girls.  For a while there, we weren't quite sure where she was, but she successfully found the cache and returned to continue our walk, much to Peaches' relief.

Peaches and Vanessa took a quick trip up the 300 steps while Maddie and I took our time and we got one more picture of the amazing view before loading up the Jeep to continue our trip.

One thing I definitely noticed was how much better the Fall colors were closer to the lakeshore than they were inland.  Some of the areas had some pretty stunning views, but I bet they had been even better just a week earlier.  It was still some really gorgeous scenery, even if it was past peak.

At this point we had made it through 7 counties visiting the most beautiful spots and grabbing some geocaches along the way.  We had seen and experienced a lot, but we weren't done yet.  The next county we would visit on our way toward home was Arenac County, but unfortunately for this trip, we wouldn't get to visit the most beautiful spot in the county because it is Charity Island, and we had no way to get there.  But we did make a stop where we could see the island in the distance.  That would have to do on this trip.    

We had hoped to make it for a short hike at Tobico March in Bay County as our final stop, but the GPS sent us in a funny direction and we didn't officially make it into the park.  We were along the edges of the Marsh though and we found a nice spot to stop and grab Vanessa's first Bay County geocache.    Luckily this spot is close enough that we can visit on a future trip.  

It was approaching dusk and we had completed our journey through 8 new counties, saw many beautiful sights, and enjoyed a lovely Northern Michigan Fall adventure.  We made one quick stop to grab some take-out dinner before we headed home happy and ready for our next adventure!

Beginnings, endings, and new friends

October was a crazy month!  The day after we returned from our trip to the Keweenaw, I had the opportunity to bring in a new foster, Melanie.  Melanie is a 9 month old puppy who came into my local county shelter as an owner surrender due to too much energy.  I am thankful for the two people at the shelter who reached out to me to see if I would be interested in bringing her in to my home.  After all, she's a beautiful GSP puppy and I've been wanting a puppy for a very long time.  But the timing just isn't right for me to bring home a new permanent family member now, so I was happy that ISR agreed to let me pull her from the shelter and foster her until she found her new home.

What I expected was a crazy, out-of-control youngster with little training, but what I got was a typical young GSP with lots of energy and lots of love to give.  Melanie is snuggly, fun-loving, sweet, and adorable.  With a little time and patience, she's really become a pretty good little puppy.

One worry for me when bringing a youngster in the house is always how Maddie will handle it.  But I forget just what a trooper she is and how much she loves having new friends, especially if they will snuggle with her.  Melanie has been very gentle with Maddie, and while on occasion she will try to get Maddie to play, she backs off when Maddie is not interested.  She's been very sweet with my old girl and learned quickly that Maddie loves to share her bed.

Peaches, on the other hand, is not always thrilled to have a new dog enter her domain.  She'd prefer to have her mom, her toys, and her space all to herself.  But after a week of hiding and trying to avoid the new pup, she finally gives in to her strong desire to have someone to wrestle with her and will become friends with our temporary residents.  She still doesn't love having to share her mom or her space, but at least she will play and run and enjoy having a friend for a short time.

While Peaches and Melanie can play and have the stamina to go for long walks every day, Maddie is slow and prefers a short meander most of the time.  So whenever I can, I like to take her on small outings by herself.  My nephews Cross Country meet at Uncle John's Cider Mill in St. John's seemed like the perfect mom and Maddie outing.  She got to see grandma and grandpa and get love and attention from strangers while spending time outside with me.  I always love the time I spend with her one on one and this was no exception.

The girls have also settled in to my work-from-home routine, even Melanie has learned to lay down and relax in the office with me.  I enjoy having my furry co-workers nearby especially when they all snuggle up close together.  I have a feeling this Winter will include even more snuggles during my workdays.

Each evening, after a long day at work, I was happy to get out and check out the Fall colors around the area.  I tried to find different places to walk the girls so we could see as much of the Fall colors as possible.

While the sunsets where earlier each day, most of our walks happened near dusk.  I think that makes from some even more beautiful scenery.

Fall is always a great time for a walk in the woods or in the grasslands, especially with a GSP.  The girls love all of the smells of Fall and I love to see how happy they are to be out exploring.  

All of the color were exceptionally beautiful this year and I really enjoyed them.  While I don't love Fall, I do find the colors beautiful and appreciate living somewhere that we can experience the Fall season.

And as I mentioned,  I just can't get enough of these three during my workdays.  They all just want to be wherever I am.  It can be frustrating at times, but mainly it's endearing.

We also continue to find new trails near home this year.  Places I have never been, some I wasn't even aware existed.   I've really enjoyed all of the new places we've found to explore and look forward to exploring even more.

After spending so much time at home, most nights I try to take the girls away from home for our daily walks, but sometimes it's just easier to walk around the neighborhood.

And even close to home, I have been able to appreciate some great colors.  These are two of my favorite trees in our neighborhood and I love seeing them put on their Fall show every year.

While my days are filled with work, we enjoy the chance to get outside at any opportunity and I enjoy our walks no matter where they take us.  Plus with a puppy in the house, I'd get no rest if we didn't get in a good walk and sniff session every day.

As the sun sets earlier every day, more and more of our walks during the week have been around the neighborhood, so I was happy to see that the tress were full of color.  It makes me sad to see them turn color and slowly lose their leaves in preparation for our long winter, but I do enjoy the show, and I know that their long winter's rest will lead to the beautiful show that they put on in the Spring as the new leaves bud and many of the trees along our walk give us beautiful Spring flowers. 

But for now, I'll just enjoy the current show and all of the beauty it provides us on a daily basis.

In order to prepare for adoption, Melanie has taken a few trips to the vet for shots and checkups, and of course she also had to be spayed.   I've been through this with several fosters, and all of my own girls, and I must say that Melanie took the whole situation the hardest.  She was so miserable and pathetic and would just lay on the dog bed and moan.  She especially didn't enjoy having the cone on, but needed it to keep her safe from licking at her stitches.  I didn't make her wear it always, but whenever I put it on her, she was such a sad girl.  I was worried about her recovery and keeping her calm for 10 days, but she did very well and has healed nicely.  I know she's happy to be able to run and play again!

I was also excited to get back to doing a little volunteer work at the Animal Shelter again this month.  I joined a group of volunteers taking shelter dogs to a local Halloween event with vendors handing out candy to kids at the fairground.  I spent my time there with Tims, the adorable little guy pictured below.  It was nice to be out at the shelter and I was reminded just how much I love those silly dogs.  Tims was actually adopted later that same day!

I thought these old gas and oil cans turned into jack-o-lanterns were pretty adorable.  They were at the table of one of the vendors, a repair shop, that was handing out candy at the event.

After volunteering, I came home to get the girls and take them along as I ran several errands, with my ultimate goal to end the day with Maddie back at the fairgrounds so that she could partake in the Halloween event fun too.  

Maddie loves Halloween and she knows whenever she puts on that costume, fun is about to ensue.  This year, due to Covid, our normal Howl-o-ween in Old Town did not happen, and I didn't want Maddie to miss out on Halloween fun because of that.  The event at the fairgrounds had limited times when dogs could be there, but I was happy to see dogs could participate.  

We showed up at the end of the day at 5pm and many of the vendors had already left for the day, but we weren't going to let that stop us from having fun.  We walked the grounds, she met some people and dogs and got some love, and she even got a couple of treats.  It was the perfect Halloween event for a little old lady and I loved seeing how happy she was.

I hadn't planned on taking Melanie and Peaches in for the event, but after returning to the Jeep with Maddie knowing how quiet and empty the fairgrounds were, I decided that I'd take them for a quick walk around too.  While they didn't have costumes and didn't get any treats, I think they enjoyed it none-the-less.  It had been a successful day!

The next morning, I decided we needed a little adventure so the girls and I took a road trip to the spot where the borders of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana meet.  It was a chance to see some of the final Fall colors in Southern Michigan and visit a quirkily little spot that not many other people visit.

I tried to get a picture of all of us with a foot in all three states, which wasn't very successful.  I did get a picture at this marker in Michigan that tells about the spot though.  We did a little driving around the country roads of Ohio and Indiana before heading home.  It was a short little adventure, but we had a great time.

During her time with us Melanie has really settled in nicely to our routine.  She's learned some patience and continues to learn and grow every day.  She's a sassy little girl with an adorable personality and an even cuter face!  She loves to run and play all day, enjoys our walks, car rides, and adventures, and then settles in nicely each night.  She loves to snuggle and she even likes to sleep in...as long as she can be snuggled right up against you!  While I was really unsure about how things would go having her here with us, I have to say that I've been very pleasantly surprised.  She's a sweet little girl and the family that adopts her will be very lucky, indeed.

On October 28, Melanie had her final booster shot at the vet and officially became available for adoption.  She even sat nicely enough for me to get her picture while we waited for the vet staff to come take her inside for her appointment.  

On Halloween morning, we took a geocaching adventure with Vanessa and checked out yet another new to us place that isn't far from home at all-McNamara Landing at Burchfield Park.  This park hasn't always been dog-friendly, but I was glad to see that had changed.

What a beautiful area for a walk in the woods.  Plus the weather was nice too.  We walked over two miles that day, which is quite the feat for Maddie these days.  But she always seems to do better when she gets to walk with her favorite walking friend, Vanessa.

We had a great time enjoying the outdoors, but Maddie was definitely done when we got back to the car and we headed home to prepare for any trick-or-treaters we may get. 

Maddie is such a good sport when it comes to wearing costumes!

This year the girls were superheroes-Spider Girl, Super Girl and Bat Girl.  Melanie didn't last long in the costume, but I was glad she let me dress her up for at least a short time.  She was pretty adorable!

Maddie also enjoyed our pumpkin carving tradition and got some pumpkin snacks while I carved.  Peaches and Melanie preferred to be outside enjoying the weather.  I love saving the pumpkin innards to puree and add to the girls food for the week after Halloween.  This year I got so much that I actually froze some for later.  

We only got one trick-or-treater that night, and she didn't show up until 7:55pm, but I still think we had a great Halloween and tried as much as possible to keep as many of our traditions alive during this unique year.  

Also, I know some of you are aware, but all of you are not, that unfortunately on October 28, I was in a car accident.  I was driving to meet Bryce and Katelyn for a walk with the girls when someone pulled out from a stop sign and hit my Jeep.  Luckily, it was in a low speed limit area and she had stopped at the stop sign before pulling into the street and hitting me, but the impact sent my Jeep onto the sidewalk and into the fence in someone's yard.  

Melanie made a horrible screaming sound on impact and Peaches crawled into my lap shivering as we sat there and I made the call to 911, but we were all okay.  I even think Maddie may have slept through the whole thing...the advantages of bad eyesight and bad hearing.  It was a scary situation made worse by the reaction of the owner of the car that hit me, but we all walked away unharmed.  We were close enough that the girls and I could just walk home and that is exactly what we did.  We needed a little fresh air and an opportunity to walk off some of the adrenaline.

It was a whirlwind couple of days after the accident getting my belongings out of the Jeep, dealing with the insurance company, and just trying to figure out next steps.  I was happy that Bryce stopped by the house to take a walk with the girls and me before he left town to head back home to the UP, it's rare that we see him down here anymore.  I am thankful for Vanessa's help in getting my stuff out of the Jeep and taking me for some adventures to get my mind off the whole situation and also for the additional adventures that she's taken me and the girls on over the last 10 days.  The girls are appreciate of the car rides with her!  I'm thankful for Chastity, who rescued me when I forgot my garage door opener in the Jeep and had to go back for it.  

Sadly, the Jeep is totaled, but I keep reminding myself that all that matters is that the girls and I are okay.  This was the first time in my adult life that I have been in an accident...I've never had anything like this happen to me and it's been a learning experience; one I hope to never have to go through again.  I will miss this little Jeep of mine.  We made some really good memories in that Jeep.  She was my very first Jeep and I was so excited the day she became mine.  I always wanted a Jeep and I'll have another, but she'll always be special.  She's hauled all kinds of dogs all kinds of places, got us to Alaska and back safely, and has just taken us on so many adventures.  She was a good little Jeep and she kept us safe until the end.  

Fall is always a tough time of year for me, but I always try to make the best of it.  This year seemed even tougher than normal, but I've enjoyed the amazing Fall colors and I have really enjoyed watching Melanie settle in to our home and seeing her personality reveal itself.  She's a fun little girl and we're enjoying having her here.    

In the next blog, I'll share our quick adventure to Michigan's Northeast coast and some more Fall fun.    Thanks for following along on our adventures!