Color Tour
What a fall Michigan has had! In September we had a record 12 days in a row over 80 degrees which is more like southern California than Michigan. We made the most of the warm weather and enjoyed our convertible every day since we were too busy to get to our cabin until mid-October. We were worried that most of the color would be gone by the time we arrived. As it turned out, all that warm weather delayed the color this year so we arrived at the cabin for the last 2 weeks of October, just as the color was peaking!
We drove the local roads to enjoy the sites and even a cow...on a leash!
Even though we are surrounded by incredible views, I started a quick plan to go on a 1 day fall leave viewing road trip to see even more. We really enjoyed driving through Sault Ste Marie Ontario – aka the Soo - this past Spring so the plan was a round trip back to the Soo in a long 1-day drive. Looking at the weather forecast, it appeared that we were about to have 2 days of sunny, clear weather, perfect to enjoy the “pop” of color splashed across the landscape so we moved the start of the road trip back a couple of days and the more I thought about it, the more the trip grew. We learned this past Spring that the Soo was settled by Italians and has some very good Italian restaurants, but we didn’t have time to visit one I thought we should fix that and, of course, if we are going to eat dinner in the Soo and the weather was going to be this good it only made sense to spend the night 😊 and make it a 2 day road trip, right??
Day 1 – Thursday, Oct 17. Bright sunny day, 68 degrees, just perfect for a color viewing. Since I added another day to the trip, instead of driving straight to the Soo, with our additional time, we drove through Petoskey and then Michigan’s famous “tunnel of trees” along Lake Michigan. It was incredible and driving on a Thursday meant there was almost zero traffic too!
As we crossed the Mackinaw Bridge, instead of staying on I-75 to the Soo, we drove east to Cedarville and then north to the Soo on 2 lane “country” roads.
We were curious if Canada celebrated Halloween and as we arrived in the Soo, it was very obvious that they do! Also, we went to a local grocery store and picked out 2 bags of “Canadian” Halloween candy. 😊 Yes, they had traditional “American” candy as well. As for our dinner? It was great AND we left the restaurant to a Super Moon.
Day 2 – Friday, Oct 18. Incredibly, the forecast was right and yet another bright sunny (cloudless) day and even warmer, 70 degree day. Now that we had a whole day to get back to the cabin, we decided to drive the Lake Superior shoreline to White Fish Point. The views were incredible and the color spectacular. What we learned on this drive is while the upper part of the “mitten” of Michigan has a large number of trees that turn all shades of red and orange (probably maples) the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula has many more tress that turn all shades of yellow (probably birch and beach) so while both drives were gorgeous, they were quite a bit different. Following up on what seems like our road trip “theme of 2024” , we saw 3 more lighthouses (including the famous Whitefish Point) along the drive. If Whitefish Point seems familiar to you, it is likely because of the song “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” as the song references “The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her” . From there we went to both the lower and upper Tahquamenon Falls (2nd largest falls east of the Mississippi). Neither Chris nor I had been there in decades and really enjoyed walking the trails on what could only be described as “the prefect fall day”
At this point, the forecast had been updated to say that Saturday was also going to be yet another perfect day so, heck, our 2 day road trip just became 3!!! We took a more scenic drive back from the falls via Newberry and the Lake Michigan shore line and booked a room in Mackinaw City. For dinner we had the UP classic, Pasties!! If you don’t know what those are, you should look them up, a great history and a surprisingly good meal.
Day 3 – Saturday, Oct 19. Amazingly, yet another sunny day and 77+ degrees! We had all day to drive back the 2+ hours back to the Cabin so we drove all country roads through Cheboygan and Gaylord. The colors were back to reds and oranges again. We went to TreeTops resort in Gaylord where you can look out over all the ski runs and golf courses. What a view!
Day 4 – Sunday, Oct 20. Yes the road trip was over but the amazing weather was not. Yet another perfectly sunny day with a high of 78! No way we are staying in the cabin so we drove to Lake Leelanau to an estate sale and then had a picnic on the Boardman River in TC where we could look out at the swans, seagulls and over a dozen Sand Hill Cranes! What a day!
Day 5 – Monday, Oct 21. OMG it just doesn’t stop. Sunny and 81!!! We drove around Torch Lake and had another picnic at the north end of the lake and then came back and started organizing stuff to prepare to close up the cabin. This included, for the first time ever, I raked some of the yard around the cabin. The leaves were crazy dry so hauling them on a tarp to the back of the lot was easy and I had to tell myself, each of my 3 tarp loads were loads I would not have to do next spring!
Day 6 – Tuesday, Oct 22. One last day they say, yet again sunny and 72. It never gets old, so we drove around Torch Lake and had another picnic at the north end of the lake and then came back and continued to organize the closing up the cabin. Surprisingly, the area I raked yesterday were almost as covered with leaves as they were before I raked. But, you can’t stop me! I raked them again!!! 2 more tarps that I hopefully won’t have to move next spring 😊
We finished our last nice day with a walk out to Lake Skegemog and then the sunset.
Day 7 – Wednesday, Oct 23. It’s over. Rain and 51 as a high today. The total for this "road trip" was around 650 miles. Well, we definitely took advantage of the 6 glorious days we had. So, now we are inside getting caught up on all of our emails and I am writing this update. Later today? Laundry! Woot! Woot! We plan to stay another 3 to 5 days before we return home. Not sure when our next trip to the cabin will be, but with this strange weather, could be sooner than we think.