Yooper Troopers, Pt. III

 (contd.)

The morning of the Fourth of July.  Kris, Rita and myself tend to get up earlier than the girls and, most notably, Smitty.  Getting coffee and breakfast around so that folks could graze while they waited for the one, single bathroom at Duane's to become available was how we spent most mornings. 

The pantry.  Fully-stocked.  Never short on food, this group.

The weather was supposed to be stellar today, so we decided to revisit the beach at Ontonagon for the late morning/afternoon before checking out a few different waterfalls in the surrounding area.

Smitty, once again, brought along his sun shelter that he had purchased on our previous Sausage Pad adventure.  Gotta make sure your gingers are well-cared for on the beach, folks.

I'm a snappy dresser on the Fourth, kids.

We bought a set of cheap balls from a Family Dollar-ish store to toss around on the beach, and they ended up being a much bigger hit with the kids than we thought they'd be.  After an hour or so, the Bos family - minus Mitch and Drew - met up with us and their girls, Audrey and Maddie, joined in.

Smitty emerges from his ginger shelter to join the fray.

The adult women briefly got their feet wet, but couldn't deal with the cold.  I, honestly, felt it was kinda refreshing (I only got up to my waist, though.)

Maddie, Abby and Audrey.

Alayna engages in a non- phone-related activity for once.

Kelli and Kris

In the late afternoon, after about three hours on the beach (during which I spent nearly the entirety of my time in the icey water, throwing a ball to children), we decided to head in to town to grab some ice cream.

(Just in case you were curious.)

Ice cream break.

After saying farewell to our Midland friends, the Bos family, we loaded up into the van and left Ontonagon for Bond Falls, a nearby waterfall that was supposed to be pretty awesome.  Along the way, Smitty and I decided to detour about ten minutes in order to check out 'Old Victoria,' something a sign was advertising that we had noticed while driving past it twice the previous day.

After driving up a mountain (yes, seriously), we discovered that Old Victoria was the remains of a mining settlement that had was now little more than six or seven remaining, log cabins.

When we got there, a grizzled old woman who was, oh, probably in her mid-80s, greeted us in the doorway of the 'visitor center' (if you could call it that), located in one of the old cabins.  She was pretty gruff and clearly not happy to answer tourists' questions, so after a little back-and-forth with her we went off on our own. 

These cabins would belong to a miner, a wife (who, according to the old lady that kept watch over this place, had it 'way worse than the miners, because they got to spend all day in the cool mines while their wives had to slave away in the hot kitchen'), and, like, sixteen kids.  F*** that.

Kris signs the guest book inside one of the old cabins.

Our stove is slightly fancier.

Upstairs bedroom that would sleep, say, a dozen children.

Heading back downstairs.

I bet this thing was a bitch to clean back in the day.

Smitty in full-on tourist mode.

Pictures showing some of the original miners and their families that lived in Old Victoria over a hundred years ago.

So, creepy but totally true story: after a half an hour or so of checking out old miners' cottages, we got back into the van and drove away from Old Victoria and farther up the mountain for a couple minutes (the old woman had told us there were more cabins you could see from the road.)  On the brief way up, along the side of the road back in the trees, you could make out dozens of rotting cabins and stone foundations among the pines.  After deciding we had our fill of decrepit cabin-seeing for one day, we were ready for some waterfalls, and we turned around and began to head back down the mountain.  

We had only been gone from Old Victoria for, like, four minutes really - not long at all - and as we passed the site once again on our way back down the mountain, we noticed the old woman's car (that had been out front when we originally showed up) was no longer there.  She had been in the middle of eating when we got there, so clearly she wasn't packing up and leaving any time soon.  We hadn't passed her on the way down the mountain, so she wasn't following us on our way up.  This meant she had to be going down the mountain ahead of us, but Smitty - speeding with his trademark lead foot - didn't see anyone ahead of us for miles, and no roads forked off from the one we were on.  The old woman completely disappeared.  We all agreed that she must've been the ghost of some miner's grumpy-ass wife, who still haunts the ruins of the town of Old Victoria today.

Old bunkhouses that miners used to frequent after a night on the town.

Some river, I don't know.

After driving about twenty or so minutes, we finally reached Bond Falls.

A rare moment of two sisters getting along.  Documented.

These falls surprised us with how big they were - totally not expecting Tahquahmenon-sized falls as we walked from the parking lot to the trails.

Frickin' HUGE.  If we made any mistakes this trip, it was hitting up these falls first - all waterfalls we saw afterwards would be held to Bond standards, and would subsequently fail in comparison.

Got a lot of pics of people in front of these falls, folks - be forewarned.

Don't tell me my business, sign.

Another pic of Abby in front of a waterfall.

You could follow these falls farther up the river - every hundred feet or so there were another set of falls, it was pretty awesome. 

Water break.

Houghs in front of a waterfall.

Rita and Smitty in front of a waterfall.

'MERICA

More waterfalls on our way up the river.

We'd trudge along up this stone pathway, which ran parallel with the river about twenty feet or so off to the side, and walk over to it whenever there were falls or something scenic.

Lots of cool rocks and boulders to check out along this trail.  You could tell that the river used to run much wider back in the day, and had smoothed out, tossed about, and worn down all the major rock formations in the area.

Of course Abby had to climb every, single one. . .

More 'falls video

Not sure what's happening here.

Call me crazy, but this here looks man-made to me. . .

At the top of the trail, there was another parking lot, with yet another warning sign at the trail head.  Michigan parks and rec services doesn't mess around, I guess.

After reaching the end of the trail, we decided to turn around and head back down the hill.  Along the way, we snapped a few more pics of folks in front of waterfalls.  You know, as if we didn't have enough.

Back at the base of the hill.

Kris and Rita

Sans kids.

Heading back to the van.

On the way back to the house, Smitty pulled off the road where a roadside park was located.  From the park, there was a 100-yard sidewalk that ran along a river, and at the end of which you could sorta see some more waterfalls.

Some bridge, I don't know.

Another bridge (a trestle bridge, for trains.)

See that white froth there in the bottom center of the pic?  Those are waterfalls.  Apparently somewhat decent ones (not quite Bond-level, though), but you have to descend a pretty steep slope and then hike quite a ways to get an okay look at them.  None of us, by this point in time, had that in us, so we decided to head back to the van instead.

Hooray.

Back at Duane's rental, waiting for dinner and playing some Guess Who?

After dinner, we figured we should have a fire out back.  It fell to Yours Truly to make that happen.

Abby, having trouble with her camping chair.

Finally broke into my Upper Hand sampler case.  This one was pretty good for a hot, summer evening.

Hanging out, playing partner-games that Kris keeps on hand for such occasions (think Newly Wed Game, etc.)

Seriously.  This kid.

- Brian