Lower Peninsula Michigan: Tuesday, Summer Solstice, 2022 | |
I found this Radio Shack in downtown Rogers City. I thought Radio Shack was kaput, yet here was this store. I went in just to gawk. Sure enough, it had all the old electronic pieces hanging on a big peg board. The shopkeeper admitted that the Realistic brand stereos were gone, but everything else was still going. | |
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Our BW host told us about the bike trail from Rogers City to 40-Mile Point Lighthouse. It follows the Lake Huron shoreline, so that was enticing. Up by Presque Isle are a bunch of inland lakes that also looked inviting. And finally, next door to the Harbor View Lighthouse is Thompson’s Harbor State Park featuring miles of wild hiking trails. With only one day in the area, which do we pick to explore?
We flipped a three-sided coin and came up with Thompson’s Harbor. OK, there aren’t any three-sided coins, but it was kind of an eeny-meeny-miny-moe sort of thing and we randomly picked Thompson’s Harbor.
The name Thompson’s Harbor State Park sounds official. It did look pretty cool on the Gazetteer Map. It turned out to be insanely crude for a state park. Being wild and primitive isn’t a bad thing, but the access road was a bad thing. There were pot-holes the size of moon creators and trenches as deep as the Grand Canyon. When we finally reached the end of the road at the Lake Huron shore, we were accosted by black flies and mosquitos. This was only the second time all vacation that insects were a problem.
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The long rugged road into Thompson's Harbor State Park was much like the crappy backroads we encountered in Utah. | |
Check out the beak on this guy. There was a whole family of these birds. By the time I stopped the van, got out my iPhone, and slowly crept up, only this bird was left. These water-filled ditches were full of polliwogs. Every time I tried to shoot a photo the polliwogs found a ledge to hide under. I wonder what happens if the ditches dry up? | |
At many rest stops, parks, overlooks, etc. were these Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Trail signs. Many of them depicted shipwrecks. Some told stories of old-time shipping boats. Other listed nearby lighthouses. I especially enjoyed the shipwreck ones. They made me want to bring snorkel gear next time we come. Some wrecks were in 20' or less water, and the water is very clear. | |
So, this was Thompson's Harbor. Hmm, a lot of white limestone rock, but that's it. | |
Beautiful flowers at the end of the road. After a couple of photos, the bugs literally flew us out of there. | |
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It was Plan B - the bike trail. The bike trail starts in Rogers City, a sister city to Alpena in that it, too, is industrial. Coming in from the south, we saw a giant hole in the ground. It is reportedly the biggest limestone quarry in the world.
Rogers City is small, around 3,000 people, so the downtown is small. It does have a Nowicki’s Sausage Shoppe, home of the $2.99 brat. By the time we inched our way out of the Thompson’s Harbor access road and found our way into Rogers City, it was 11:30 am - lunchtime. With the restaurant prices we have been seeing, $2.99 looked like a bargain. I figured at that price, the brats will be miniature. I was wrong. They were huge, and they came in many varieties. I chose cheese and jalapeño. Wanda picked the Reuben. With the condiment bar, we built our own mega-brats.
Nowicki’s claims to have been around since 1917. They have three locations: Gaylord, Alpena, and Rogers City. They process wild game including venison, bear, caribou, wild boar, goose, and bison. I don’t know where you’d get caribou or wild boar, but if you did manage to get either one, you could let Nowicki’s make sausage from it.
I noticed that there were several elephant statues in town, including one prominent elephant in front of Nowicki’s. I asked the counter-girl at Nowicki’s what the significance of the elephants were. She shook her head and replied that the elephants have always been around and she never gave it a thought. A Google search came up bupkis. It is still a mystery.
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One of several elephant statues in Rogers City. Elephants were clearly "a thing" here, yet I couldn't find any info about them. | |
This was my Nowicki $2.99 masterpiece. | |
All kinds of tempting pickled sausages, eggs, and bologna. I could have purchased one of each, but at $20 a jar, I'd need to take out a mortgage on our house. I approve of their generous use of jalapeño and habanero. | |
This is a photo of the original service building that Nowicki's Sausage Shoppe now uses in Rogers City. I remember these old service stations when I was a kid. I also remember those great late 1950s cars with the fins. | |
The bike trail starts on the south end of town next to a baseball field. Going through town, the trail is part sidewalk, part back road, part densely wooded tree-tunnel path. It is poorly marked and we lost track of it several times and had to backtrack. Once we got north of Rogers City, the trail was easy to follow and gorgeous. | |
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Forty-Mile Point Lighthouse is only an easy 9 miles away. After parking the bikes, we walked a short path to the lighthouse, past a half-dozen giant RV rigs in a parking lot labeled “for lighthouse volunteer caretakers”. It seemed significant that it took six or seven families to run a lighthouse.
The lighthouse grounds were spectacularly gardened. The lighthouse was beautifully restored and sure enough, it was swarming with volunteer guides armed with all kinds of lighthouse knowledge. At the top of the lighthouse was the treasure - the fresnel lens. The volunteer at the tip-top said that the coast guard is just itchin’ to automate this lighthouse by putting in a modern light. This old-world light is tricky to maintain. We were urged to sign a petition to keep the old Fresnel lens as is. We did.
We also learned that the tip-top volunteer just started his month-long stint. He is a full-time RVer and volunteers at a campsite once a year just to do something, anything, to stem his boredom. I have never felt bored on our adventures, but we only go out for two to four months at a crack. Having a home base to return to is nice.
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We parked the bikes a good half-mile from the lighthouse. The hike through the mossy trail would have been enchanting if not for the bugs. If we kept a swift pace, they weren't so bad. | |
Another in the series of Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Trail signs. This one is obviously about Michigan lighthouses. There are 129 lighthouses in Michigan. It seems like we've seen half of them on this trip. | |
Each lighthouse has its unique features. This one had a square tower, at least on the outside. | |
I admit that I got carried away on the spiral staircase photos. I just liked all the curving lines. | |
The fresnel lens - the holy grail of restored lighthouses. They are fragile and cost up to $15,000. Modern automated lighthouses don't use them anymore. Although the county owns the lighthouse and surrounding property, the Coast Guard owns the fresnel lens. | |
Some of the artwork hanging up at this lighthouse. | |
Just an antique book that was on a coffee table. The title caught me eye. | |
As Michigan is so good at doing - furnishing an old restored building with awesome period pieces. I believe that most, if not all of this stuff, was donated. | |
The basement was set up as a laundry room. I remember my parents having an old ringer-washer much like the above Maytag. I got my fingers caught in the ringer many times. | |
There is a shipwreck in 16' of water just a couple hundred feet from shore. I couldn't find a spot to launch our kayaks - damn. | |
The 1912 steamer Calcite was scrapped in 1961. The pilot house was brought to the 40-Mile Lighthouse to set up for visitors to tour. | |
The lighthouse is owned by the county. They utilize volunteers to keep the place maintained. | |
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Sadly, the flies were biting badly even at the lighthouse. They weren’t an issue on the bikes, so we quickly returned to the trail. Again, the biking was less than 20 miles. We had plenty of daylight left after loading our bikes back into the van. We drove on to Cheboygan.
With a population of 5,000 and no limestone or slate quarries, it was a bit more touristy than Alpena and Rogers City. I noticed that the downtown Cheboygan Brewery had outside seating and free popcorn. I dragged Wanda in, got an amber lager, and oodles of popcorn. Supper was taken care of.
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Another one of Michigan's pot dispensaries. We didn't check this one out. One was enough. | |
Examples of Cheboygan murals and artwork. | |
I had my barley soup at the Cheboygan Brewery. | |
It was another terrific day. Perhaps the best part is that we beat the bugs! | |
Just a couple of photos at rest stops along the highway back to camp. | |
Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum. | | | | |
