As Falls Tahquamenon, So Falls Tahquamenon Falls, Pt. III

(contd.)

Tahquamenon Falls - Day Three

Abby, ready for adventure.  Everyone woke up earlier than usual today, for we had a serious mission before us:  we were going to hike from our campgrounds to the Lower Falls, and, from there, four miles through rugged country to the Upper Falls.  This was one of the main things I wanted to do while we were up in the U.P., and we were a little apprehensive about undertaking it with two little kids in tow, but Kris and Rita caravanned up to the Upper Falls visitor center and dropped off Kris' van so we wouldn't have to make it a round trip.

Binoculars, cameras, walking sticks, knives, snacks, sweat rags, hiking shoes, and - last but not least - walkie talkies.  The Houghs are ready to roll.

The beginning of the trail to the Lower Falls, as accessed from our campgrounds.

The Smitties

The Houghs

Rita and Abby take the lead.  These two would remain up at the front of our nearly-constant single-file procession throughout the entirety of our hike.

Smitty, Kris and I cycled through who remained at the rear in order to keep tabs on the Cannonball.

Consulting the route map.

The Cannonball claims a walking stick.

Trading trail intel with some elderly folks who were checking out the Lower Falls.

Tahquamenon's Lower Falls.  Took us about fifteen minutes to get there from our campsite. . . not too shabby.

Time for some obligatory pictures in front of a waterfall. . . 

 

After getting our fill of the Lower Falls, we set off on the trail that connects them to the Upper Falls.

Not at all encouraging.

For the first hour or so of the hike, the trail hugged the river, and we were able to stop off for some excellent picture-taking pretty regularly.  The girls had a blast checking out rocks and crap like that in the river bed.

 

This was a definite understatement.

The trail itself had been worn down from thousands of people over the years, so the walking itself wasn't too bad - you can tell park rangers regularly beat back the woods on either side of it, it wasn't obstructed and pretty easy to follow.  The only real difficulty came in the path's rising and falling over hills and ravines.  That, and mud.  There was a bit of mud.

More cairns in the river.

Several tributary streams and patches of swamp crossed the trail, and occasionally we were blessed with wooden bridges.  I don't mind mud, but I really didn't want to wade through a stream.

This stretch of trail here gave Rita some serious anxiety.  It hugged a steep hill on the right side, and dropped straight down about 30 feet to the river below on the left.

We obviously kept pretty close watch on the girls during this part.  They tend to be a bit accident-prone.

We would once and awhile pass by hikers coming from the other direction (such as these non English-speaking tourists who Smitty attempted conversing with unsuccessfully.  The old lady was not a fan of Smitty.)

Taking a much-needed breather/smoke break.

We had to keep the kids - and, to a lesser degree, ourselves - stocked with food and water, as the hike was a lot more labor intensive than we had first speculated.

Getting a little bit Instagrammy with photo filters (disclaimer:  I don't use Instagram.)

Despite the well-cared-for trail, there were frequently obstacles that had to be overcome in order to continue along our way.  The occasional two or three-foot drop, a fallen tree or log, a pit of mud, etc.  Whenever this happened, we adults pitched in to help the kids over.

Worse than the hilly terrain, found farther away from the river in the forest, were the marshy flatlands that hugged the riverbank about half-way through our hike.  It was hot and humid, and there was little cover to shield oneself from the sun.  The insects weren't bad - we had bathed thoroughly in bug spray before setting out - but the heat was brutal.  To make matters worse, the vegetation along these stretches grew into the trail at an alarming rate, sometimes blocking the path entirely.   When passing through, you'd be scratched up and would later find pieces of plants, briar, and weeds stuck to your clothing.

Carrying the Cannonball over a mud puddle.

Crossing another leaning bridge.

Sharing is caring.

Fighting our way through the bushland once again. . .

Not sure what these berries were, but we didn't stop to try them.  Shit's probably poisonous.

Smitty disappears into the wild. . .

Getting close.  Somewhat.

Smitty and I stumbled across this grave marker about twenty feet back from the trail at one point.  Pretty creepy stuff.  I'd like to think no one was actually buried there, though - that can't be legal in a state park, right?  How would you get a dead body all the way back here?  That'd be exhausting.

The Cannonball, to the surprise of no one, wore out the fastest.  We had to start making regular stops about 3/4 of the way through the trail.

This was a pretty cool stretch of trail, here.  The path ran along the crest of a steep hill, that fell away on either side by about a hundred feet or so, winding through gnarled trees and snaking roots.

I was stupid and didn't take a proper picture of this, but that bench you see there sat facing a steep, fifty-foot cliff that fell away about five feet from where Alayna and Smitty are sitting.

The closer we got to the Upper Falls, the more and more stairs we had to deal with.

Abby ponders the mysteries of life.

This tree is tied up like a knot.  It'd be pretty cool to have something like this in your backyard.

Three down, one to go.

Here's a picture of a tree growing through another tree, probably without consent.

As we closed in on our destination, Alayna grew more and more whiney and tired.  Smitty was nice enough to carry her about a hundred years or so, but everyone was so tired and sweaty by that point he couldn't keep it up.

More f***ing stairs. . .

Alayna stopped and recorded a video of this chipmunk, eating what looks like a discarded chip of some kind, which kept her spirits up just enough to help us cross the finish line.

Tired of hiking, but morale still high with this one.

Rita, who walks something like three hours a day, demands to know what the hold-up is.

These alien-looking, creepy-ass mushrooms growing out of the side of this mossy tree.

After hours and hours of hiking through hills, forests, swamps, and riverside grassland, we finally arrived at the Upper Falls.

Two tired, sweaty and hungry girls.

The Upper Falls can be observed from viewing platforms located right across from the trail exit we came out at, but better vantage points were located along the river itself. . .  some 160 steps down a winding stair that hugged the side of a cliff, then a half-mile walk down a planked walkway.  After our arduous hike, NONE of us felt up to it, and only had food on our minds.  We snapped a few convenient pictures of the majestic Upper Falls from where we could see them, then swore we'd check out a better viewing opportunity later in the week.

Camera face-off. . .

Hitting up some restrooms before making our way to the visitor center (which featured numerous gift shops and souvenir stores, a brewery, and a wildlife informational thingy.)

Apparently someone couldn't hold it.  Eww.

Exhausted womenfolk.

Smitty drops knowledge.

There was a 45-minute wait for tables in the Tahquamenon Brewery, but we had our hearts set on eating there (Smitty and I really wanted to sample their beer after that hike), so Smitty and Rita rested on a nearby picnic table to smoke and dry off a bit, while Kris poked around the souvenir stores nearby to check out sweatshirts.  I hung out with the kids while they cooled off with some slushies and I tried a Falls Tannin Ale (it was meh.)

We were eventually seated underneath this giant wolf pelt, which, as you can imagine, went over real well with Alayna.

One of the girls put a flower in Kris' hair (probably Alayna, since she took this pic.)

Gorging ourselves on bar food and ice-cold drinks.  Totally hit the spot, but our server was absolute garbage.  I haven't had a server that bad since that one time Kris and I took the girls to Planet Hollywood back in 2010.  Granted, they were pretty busy, but she never checked in on us to refill drinks or ask how our food was, to see if we needed more beer or pop, etc.  Our bill was about $40, and I gave her a dollar tip.  Hope she spent it well.

Abby, flossing on a tree stump.  After our lunch/dinner, having sat down in air conditioning and stuffed ourselves and gotten off our weary feet for over an hour, we were rested up and ready to check out more of the Upper Falls via another nearby viewing platform. We still didn't have the riverside vantage point in us - we couldn't quite bring ourselves into tackling more stairs today.

Gratuitous butt shot, courtesy of Abby.

(I think Alayna took this.)

Kris has some totally sweet hair going on here.

Smitty had to crouch down so that we could get the Upper Falls in the background, here.

When we returned back to the campsite, everyone more or less zoned out.  Some folks read books, others fell asleep in chairs, I took a nap and whittled down the hundreds and hundreds of pictures I had taken throughout the day's adventure, etc.  It was starting to get dark out when everyone was back up and ready to hang out again.

Always full of energy.  Always.

Snackin' at dusk.

- Brian