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 If you have never been backpacking  into Michigan's Upper region in  the Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains  you need to do so at least once in your lifetime.  I could not even begin to express how much of an impact that left in my life. No regrets.   Nothing but good thoughts of that  back packing trip.  It was work but it was a lot of fun.  We had to check in at the ranger station before we began our journey of a 3 day backpacking trip   My cousin Art and I  drove up to  a parking lot  in the national state park of Lake of The Clouds. We parked his vehicle there and unloaded our backpack gear.  We  walked  over to the posted  map of the hiking trails and campsite areas of the national park.  We  had gone over the same map at the check in point at the ranger station, but we wanted to be sure of ourselves.  We decided to take the Mirror lake trail then to hike along the Superior trail.

 

That's where our journey would begin.  The trail would take us up into Mirror Lake and back around through the  Superior trail. The trail would lead through  the wild steep forest near famous Lake Superior.  The excitement of the trip was in our blood.  The fun began as soon as I stepped into the forest of that trail.  Art and I had to hike down a steep incline as we started hiking down from the top of ;Lake of the Clouds.  I guess you could say the excitement began as soon as we decided to do this.  I love nature and to be right smack dab in the middle of it brings some special excitement in my soul 

 

 Art and I planned this trip for a long time. Finally the time came to do it. We had our backpacks loaded for this trip. our sleeping bags rolled up on our backs and our tent rolled up on Arts back.  I am not sure what a pack horse would feel like in the old days but this might have been close. We of course traveled as light as possible and we had our survival gear with us in case of a mishap. When your in the boonies where nature is all around you everywhere and the possibilities of running into a problem could accrue you need to plan wisely for a trip like that. So we did.   We brought our Coleman stoves , lanterns, survival Med Kits, backpacking food. freeze dried and the stuff that was not.  Our Mess kits for cooking and eating. Our mini match and strike kit, our knives , burning sticks glow in the dark , take apart fishing poles and small plastic bait boxes, flashlights, talkies. and much more.  We traveled prepared and watched our footing every step of the way. our 1st day along the trail became a long one.  It was fun. but we hiked.  We wanted to make Mirror ;lakes before sundown and set up camp.and eat our dinner.  After what seem to be hours of hiking we finally reached our destination.   If you have never been on one of these trips be advised. There is wildlife out there. You should always be careful  We made some noise along the way even by accident.  The hike was not all easy.  Some of it along the way was rough.  With our packs on and our gear it was kind of tough not to make any noise.  Which is a good way to  not run into a wild bear. To the best of my knowledge the only bears there in  the Upper Michigan's Porcupine Mountains are black bear. But occasionally if encountered by surprise they can react the way you would not expect. There has not been to many deaths from black bears.  However there  has been  a few  in the U.S.  So you always need to have your guard ready. That is why noise can be good in some occasion's when hiking a national or state forest.  Besides what you must remember is that bears like the smell of food.   There were other hikers out there somewhere  who already had their sites set up  With that in mind it only told us that if a bear gets the wind of food and their use to people being around, we were not sure what we could encounter.  So making noise hopefully would be in our favor and keep the bears away from us.

 

. When it comes to food and awareness there are also other wild creatures you have to be alert for when hiking the porkies or any state or national park.. Raccoons are one of them.   Not that they will get to close but sometimes they do. Skunks are another one. However you do not want to get to close to any wild animal. No matter how timid and cute they may look. Sometimes when a wild animal may feel threatened or frighten, even if there is no cause for them to be. They may attack.  Not to kill, but even a slap of a paw or a couple of quick slaps of their paws could be serious.  Wild animals act by instinct,  Their usually afraid or shy of humans    

                                                    

                                                                                                                

 Unless it comes to large wild cats. Such as Pumas, or other breeds. they may attack to feed. We can be easy prey to some of those creatures. Although I do not believe that there are any pumas in the Porkies in the U.P.  The bottom line  is,  be alert where wild animals may be present    When hiking together it may be a good idea to talk along the way or carry bear bells strapped to you. If wildlife can hear you coming it may flee the area before you get there.  Along the way the only wildlife  I  recall seeing was an eagle flying high and some frogs  in a small pond 

 

                                       

But that was on our first day of the hike to Mirror Lake.  We struggled a bit to make good time in order to pitch camp and eat before we were to  crawl in our sleeping bags for the night.  But we made it in time. We first took a breather when we got to our camp site. Art and I dropped our backpacks and took about a twenty minute break. Then we pitched our tent. We then set out our Coleman cooking gear and our small aluminum  folding table.out to set our mess kits on. Art prepared us some beef stew from a bag and broke out a loaf of bread. We were hungry and tired but it was awesome to be out there.  We made up two bags of that stuff and boiled some water from our plastic water tote that Art had strapped to his pack. He was a strong man and always seem to enjoy the challenge of a workout. In which we got along the way.  Our site was along Mirror Lake in the middle of the deep forest. We had instant coffee  Then  Art decided to break out his small breakdown fishing pole and took a jig bait from his small plastic tackle box.  He caught a couple of nice size gills but decided to release them back in the lake. it was getting late and we had to clean up camp. So our decision to clean a couple of fish at that late hour was an easy NO.    Plus again we did not want to attract any bears or raccoons or anything else that would  get a wind of cooked fish.  We also carried canteens with us full of water.  We took a small bit of water from our plastic water tote and we heated it in one of our mess kit pans.  Art brought a small Dawn dish soap container in a sealed plastic baggie.  We washed up our eating utensils and cleaned up the area.  We then took a rolled new nylon rope from my pack and strung our food up in a nylon bag that we toted with us.  We strung the rope over a tree branch by tying a rock to one end of the rope and slinging it over a branch.  We then pulled our nylon bag with our food in it about nine to ten feet in the air,  Just high enough out of a black bears reach if one were to come into camp.  But yet we let it down enough in Case a raccoon were to climb and try and slide down the rope to tear into our bag of food.  A lot of our food was freeze dried and sealed. But we did not wish to take any chances.  So after we cleaned everything and cleared it away for the evening we lit our lantern and crawled in our tent for the night. Art on one side of the tent and me on the other. We each had our sleeping bags. The night got kind of cool but our bags were good for extreme cold weather. So the cool night air did not affect us. I was just getting ready to go to sleep when I saw the dark silhouette of Art and heard the zipper of the tent as he was going out side. I asked him what was wrong. He said nothing so I guessed it from there. Oh! bathroom time. He said yeah. Then I I heard him say. Oh wow!  Whats up I asked..  You should see this sky out here. Well that was it. I had to see that. I could hear the sounds of nature all around us and see a partly lit sky through our tent.   But when I got outside it was breathtaking to say the least.  It was like looking into outer space. The sky was nothing but a huge blanket of stars.  It was like being in another world. A very peaceful one.  It's almost like you could feel GODS Presence. It was stunningly beautiful to say the least.  The moonlight was bright    I have never felt so at peace in my life as I did then.  No words could describe the night. It was nature. Plan and simple. Then and there I decided to help take care of GODS Earth in any way I can..  Needless to say when I crawled back into my bag for the night I slept peacefully. To the sounds of nature.   The next mourning I awoke fairly early. I think about 6:00 A.M. It was great to wake up to the forest.  I crawled out of the tent and breathed in that clean smell of the pines.  I saw the sun still rising but it was daylight enough.  What a nice day this was. I thought to myself. I walked down to Mirror lake and looked around. What a beautiful place.  A clear clean lake surrounded by nature.

.    I know I woke Art up crawling out of the tent . I was just waiting for him to come out and enjoy our camp area, as I was doing.    A few minutes later he appeared.  Want some breakfast he asked. Sounds good. I said.  Whats on the menu. . He said how about some pancakes and eggs.   Sounds good. I said again.  We united our rope from around that big pine tree and lowered down our nylon bag with our food in it.  We lit our double Coleman stove for our eggs and pancakes and lit our single burner to heat our water  for our coffee.  We had enough water in our tote but when we would start running low we would fill a couple of hard white plastic bottles that we had with the cleanest water we could get from the lake.  We would then boil it and let it cool in the shallow of the lake water supported by rocks. Then we would add it to what we had but we would skim our water through a new small handle net that art had with him.  A small minnow net.  It would not be the most sanitary but we could live with it.  The water we had left  was enough for our pancake powder mix.  Our eggs were concealed in a small six pack plastic container that held the eggs firmly in place and closed tightly.

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

     

 

Campers in today's times can have it made when in the wild.. Until supplies runs low.  Or major bad weather were to set in. That could always be a problem. Unless one could seek shelter some where. Although  there were small cabins within so many miles of the hiking trails. They were there and at the  check in points one could actually rent and live like they did in the pioneer days.  In which I thought would be kind of awesome to do some time. Also when you check in at the check in points before venturing into the wilderness you already let the park service rangers know which trails you plan on and about the day you expect to come out. They know when someone is missing to long and that's when they will come in to try and locate you. However it's still a problem that you do not want to endure  We had our breakfast  Cleaned up our gear, and packed up our campsite and  threw it on our Backs. I  had to adjust Arts gear for him a bit and he adjusted mine before we started our Hike to the next site.   Along the way we found an injured man by a river bottom that was bandaged up with gauze and white tape on his foot.  We were concerned and stop to chat with him  .He told us that someone broke some glass in the river and he was wading around in there when he cut his foot.  We asked him if he needed our help because we  would have attempted to make up a  portable frame to carry him out on or wait with him and try calling for help on our talkies .or until  other hikers came along.  But he was in luck.  He told us  that the rangers would be coming back in by him today if he did not check out on that after noon. He was taking a different trail then the one Art and I were on.  Also other hikers would be coming by that way anyway.  We asked him about his camp if he was set up properly. He pointed to a small incline where he was set up and had plenty of supplies with him. So he should of been fairly safe We told him that we would be hiking out tomorrow along the superior trail and we would tell the rangers at the check out point about him just in case. He thanked us and appreciated it but he was  sure he would be fine. We also felt the same way about the situation or we would not have left him there.  As we hiked on we through natures beauty we spotted some wildlife along the way.

 .I recall seeing another eagle along the way.  We also spotted an owl  and  I  do recall seeing a rabbit moving quickly for cover after we hiked on a mile or so.  It would not have been because of the eagle or the owl, because we saw them  earlier on the hiking trail at different times.  I think the little rabbit was afraid of us two hikers  coming through the woods. 

 

                                                                

 I think we hiked  about a couple of miles or so before we came to the mouth of an open bay of water leading into big lake superior. The water was pouring in from a river probably the same river where we found that injured man at. I'm sure it was. The hike seemed more like five miles because we did cross some rough terrain along the way. Some of that was Art and my fault, because we tried taking a couple of shortcuts along the way and got off the hiking trail.  We spotted other hikers along and stop to chat with one group of them. I recall asking Art about how far we hiked. He said he thought a couple of miles. I remember telling him it seemed a little further then that. But he was fairly certain it was only a couple of miles or so.  I remember Art checking our map that we got from our check in point at the station.  We had highlight our route. He said about another mile or so and we can break to make camp. That sounded pretty good to me. That meant that we would be able to have camp set up early enough and have our food early.

     After we reached the shoreline of Lake Superior we decided to stop and rest for about twenty minutes or a little longer. I put my backpack on the ground and started to doze off a bit.  It wasn't for very long when I heard Art talking .I open my eyes to see him looking at a little chipmunk on his leg eating a piece of bread. I looked and asked him. Where did he come from and how did he get our bread ?  As I laughed.  Art said he chewed his way into our loaf of bread. He went on to say that he took a piece of bread out to munch on and left the loaf out . He decided to catch a few winks of shut eye. He did not think it would hurt to leave the bread out for a few minutes or however long it would be. We just kind of laughed as we watched that little chipmunk stuffing his cheeks. It was funny to watch as he stood on Arts pant leg for a few moments. But as soon as we started to laugh the chipmunk decided to scamper off. After that was over Art asked me if I wanted to make camp there or do I feel we should move on a little farther. I said to him. I don't mind either way. Then I asked him if we waited til mourning to hike out how much further do we have to go. Art replied I think its about three more miles north of us. I recall saying that's not to bad.  We must of just hiked a  U  shape then.   He said yeah pretty much. When we hiked in, it seemed a little farther but we started hiking this direction on the first day of camp. Then he asked, you ready to set up camp. Yeah I am I replied back. Lets do it.  After we pitched camp, Art broke out the Coleman burners and asked me what I would want to eat for our one and only meal for the day. I said I don't recall everything we have. What are you thinking ? He said how about some flap jacks. That sounds good I said. He pulled out a little blue plastic jug of mix and added water to one

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                         

 of the fill lines on the little blue container. Then he asked me if I could walk down to the shoreline and fill our two white small containers with water for drinking and fill our canteens also. I said sure . As I walked down from our campsite in which was a little ways off the shoreline I noticed a lot of driftwood and beach rocks all around. It sure was a different world out there. . Art was cooking our meal.. I remember thinking I wonder if a bear would show up from the smell of food. But that did not happen. I also remember not seeing a deer at all on the hike. But that was more then likely because of the noise we made along the way. At any rate. This was an awesome trip. The weather was great so far and things were going well.  We of course had to put up with some mosquitoes but we did have a tick and mosquito repellent with us. I walked back up by the camp and saw a small container of syrup for our pancakes. I just shook my head and chuckled to myself quietly. I remember thinking. Art doesn't miss a trick. What would surprise me, would be if there was anything he forgot to bring. It was kind of funny to me.   After we ate Art boiled our water. Then he poured it back into our jugs and canteens after he let it cool down a bit first. He then asked me if I would mind bringing them down to the shoreline water to cool it down a bit more. I of course did not mind because he was cleaning up our mess. He had enough water left from our tote to boil for cleaning our dishes. I safely secured our jugs of water into the lake shore water with rocks around the jugs. I sat there on the shoreline for awhile because I wanted to be sure that a small tide would not wash our jugs out to sea. After about a half an hour or so I brought them back up on the hill to our camp. The night air would keep them kind of cool. It was starting to get dark  I think I recall saying to Art. GOD must be with us. .Because time is everything, and we time this perfect. Art kind of chuckled and said yeah, as he was putting things away.  I just breathed in that evening air. The sunset was beautiful. 

                                                                              

  We sat around and talked awhile. We did not bother starting a camp fire we just left our double burners on our Coleman stove go for a short time. One of the flames started to flicker. I said, looks like were running low on that bottle of propane. Art said that's OK . I have a spare. I laughed a little and asked him, is there anything you don't forget.  He replied. You don't think I'm going camping on a three day hiking trip without supplies do you? I just shook my head and laughed and said, no I guess not.  As the evening moved in a star filled blanket sky came to life and filled the sky. I thought how beautiful it was to be out here enjoying this. We could see the big dipper and the little dipper in the stars. It almost seemed as if you could reach out and grab them. It was awesome to be upon the edge of the forest and see all those stars and look South of us to see them blanket over Lake Supourior.  It was breathtaking. I said the only thing missing is the northern lights. Art said yeah, and you can even see them up here once in awhile. I know. I already have more then once.  We finally decided to call it a night. I was tired.  I fell fast to sleep.  In the mourning when we got up we packed up camp and had some bacon and toast for breakfast.  We put  some bread in one of our mess skillets and heated it. That was what we called toast.  We started out for our last hike of the trip.  Along the way we  got along an edge of a high cliff.  We got off the hiking trail again and we should have not.  I got to close to the edge of that cliff and stumbled over some tree root and rocks. The weight of my pack caused me to lose my balance. I almost stumbled over the side of that cliff. That could have been tragic for me. I caught my balance and threw my bodywight forward.  It was close. Art said we better take the hiking trail.  Yeah I said with a sigh.  After about an hour or so we finally came to an open area.  It was our check out point. We came out on a to the road.  We still had about a half a mile hike back up to our vehical.  When we finally reached our truck and unpacked all our gear. We started our drive down to our check out point. I saw a small cave on the edge of a cliff . I asked Art if we should check it out. . He laughed and said next time. We made it back to the ranger station where we checked in.  We stoped.. Art gave him the info on our day of check in and what trails we took. We also told him about that injured man we found. He replied oh yeah we found him yesterday. He's fine. Then the ranger s said , you guys said three days, and it was three days.  Good timing he said. I said yeah, Time is everything and we time this perfect.  As we pulled away We just laughed.  I said to Art GOD must be on our side because, and we both said at the same time.   Time is everting and we time this perfect.  On the way back we stoped at a little pioneer outpost store to buy a couple of souvenirs that would always remind us of that trip.

 

 

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Written by :

drr1289