Brocation 2026, Pt. III

(and now for the thrilling conclusion. . .)

The troops rallied fairly early this morning, having taken it fairly easy the night before (compared to the previous night at any rate.)

The Pro, Big E, and Big Balls discuss the day's itinerary while we wait for my two roommates - who move considerably slower than the rest of us - to get down to the lobby.

While we waited for Tom and Steven, I decided to hit up the bathrooms and found these unusual bathroom stalls. Can honestly say I've never seen stalls like this before in my life.

On the road, around 9:15am.

Our first stop of the day was Oswald's Bear Ranch, which I haven't been to since we took the girls here (with Rita and Smitty) back in like 2018.

Nothing like housing a gift shop in an industrial-grade pole barn. . .

I wouldn't want to ride motorcycles up here, what with all the bugs flying around and everything. You'd be absolutely covered in filth after a short ride. I'm not that hardcore.

They charge visitors by the carload, so we only paid something like $30 for all of us, which was a fair rate considering this entire place is just looking at rescue bears behind chain link fences.

Pretty bossy around these parts. . .

Looking at bears from the observation deck (I think this enclosure housed the juvenile - but full-grown - males.)

It was hot as balls today. It would suck to be giant-ass mammal wearing a thick, heavy fur coat with zero shade to speak of.

I've long believed that I would handily fight a bear, provided I was armed with like a foot-long Bowie knife or something along those lines. The other guys, having heard me proclaim this before, are skeptical, but I've since clarified that I could fight a small bear. When we saw the baby cubs (like the one shown here) I was confident I could f*** this thing up 100%.

The schools must not be that great up here in the U.P.

Looks. . . pleasant.

I could NOT fight a bear this size, though.

These guys wait around the perimeter of the enclosure, waiting for tourists to feed them apples (that you have to purchase here, of course.) We didn't feed any of them, though.

We walked around the far edges of the ranch, which turned out being far bigger than we had expected.

I don't think bears usually sit like this, it was kinda weird.

They keep the new additions off in the distance there, before they have their spirits broken (I assume.)

Yes, they actually have a bear cemetery here. Not sure what rites bears are given up on their passing - do they know if bears are Catholic or Protestant when they die, how is that determined?

This dude has the right idea.

Tom, Mitch and Lon Dog educate themselves.

Catching some shade in the gift shop.

I could take this bear. No doubt about it.

Loading up the van before heading out to our next destination of the day.

Our next stop was Grand Marais, but it was a bit of a drive, so we broke up the trip by stopping off at one of these roadside lake-viewing spots that you see all over the place up here.

These new ramps are a lot nicer than the crumbling, wooden staircases you used to have to use back in the day.

There were lots of people walking around looking for rocks everywhere we stopped, and here was no exception.

Mitch and the remains of an old dock of some kind.

Lake Superior (again.)

Checking out rocks. When in Rome. . .

Showing Lonnie how to skip rocks.

Tom takes a crack at it.

Showing folks how it's done.

Steven and Tom

Continuing on our long drive west. . .

. . . to Grand Marais.

This building nearby where we parked was being renovated, and I noticed that the name of the insulation wrap matched the name of one of my buddy's characters from our DnD campaign. I texted this pic to our thread and he confirmed that this is where he got the name from. Mystery solved.

Erik wanted to have lunch at this brewery that he frequents regularly while he's up here with his buddies trapping in the winter.

Typical U.P. decor in this place - all these bars tend to look the same after awhile.

The local beer was pretty generic, as far as craft beers go, but not terrible.

Dead animals over the bar. Pretty standard for up here.

I got this panini which was awesome, but I only hate half of it - the other I saved for my dinner later on in the day. Definitely comes in handy having a small appetite.

Holty continues his ongoing 'joke' trying to get pictures of me taking pictures.

I'm a supporter of this initiative.

After lunch, we loaded back up into the van and began to snake our way back towards the casino.

Of course, like any Brocation we've undertaken, this drive home was broken up with multiple stops. Our first stop on our return journey was at one of the U.P.'s many waterfalls.

This one was fairly close to the side of the road, but you had to descend down a long staircase to get down to it.

Reaching the viewing platform (not sure what I'm lecturing folks about here.)

Sable Falls

Continuing down to the river, where we'd then hop on a trail to walk about a half-mile to Lake Superior.

These trails are pretty easy, though, so a half mile was nothing at all.

Sable Falls empties into a stream that runs out past these large dunes into the lake.

Like most other beaches we visited up here, it was littered with driftwood.

Mitch points out a nearby dune and challenges folks to climb it. Tom considered it for, like, fifteen seconds.

As epic as the falls are, the water was pretty tranquil where it empties out into Superior.

Wouldn't wanna walk barefoot on this beach, that's for damn sure.

Tom cools off his dogs.

Don't mess with me, children.

Steven contemplates life on a local piece of driftwood.

Lonnie almost ate shit crossing a makeshift bridge across the stream. That would've been hilarious.

Mitch takes zero chances.

A coward wrote this.

Back in the van, Lonnie manages to catch himself a lil' nappy-poo. Again.

We stopped off at this bar, initially for a beer but it ended up turning into several.

Not much to look at, but the music was decent and the final game of the World Cup was on so we holed up here for awhile.

Pretty bad-ass urinal if you ask me. . .

Watching soccer (f*** what the rest of the world calls it.)

I was more than a little excited to see half of the Electric Mayhem performing at the halftime show (but where was THE OTHER HALF?)

Steven fell asleep at the table. We're at that age these days.

The Kings were here.

The next stop on our journey back to the casino had us going off-road down a narrow, sketchy dirt trail in the woods. The kind of place you don't come back from.

More than a little sketch.

Parking in the middle of the woods. Why not.

Checking out the remnants of an old mining camp, with only a solitaire, stone chimney now remaining.

That little alcove must have been where the fire was set. I assume.

Ole timey bricks.

Looking up the old chimney.

Erik fords his way through some ferns on his way back from a piss break.

Back on the trail back to the main road.

An old sign by the side of the road, marking the entrance to the mining camp.

Back in Sault Ste Marie, after a lengthy drive (here showing the bridge to Canada.)

We tried to go to this bar for dinner, but it was closing ('cause it was Sunday), so we decided to pivot and try somewhere else.

This bar, too, was closing soon (again, 'cause Sunday.)

Third time's the charm.

The inside of this joint was pretty cool looking, and we nabbed ourselves a couple of tables at the far end of it.

After perusing the limited menu, some of the guys just grabbed some quick snacks - we didn't end up hanging out at this place long.

Hear hear.

Lonnie and I, brawling on the sidewalk after leaving the bar. This happens a lot.

Heading towards another bar on the quest to find some food.

This Irish-ish bar fit the bill.

Dinner at long last.

AI slop is being used more and more for mundane crap like menu signs these days. I'm funned out with it.

View of the bar from our table at one of the front windows.

Bathroom graffiti.

After an hour or so, having gotten the other dudes some dinner (and having watched the first 45 minutes or so of Speed), we decided to hit up the infamous Pickle's once again, seeing how it was close to the casino and on our route back.

We got a table this time, and the place was more crowded than the previous time we had been here.

I had hit a wall with drinking beer all day, so I grabbed a rum and coke from this place instead. When they brought it out I asked for more ice and the waitress was busting my balls a bit for it. Mitch joking asked if they had a sippy cup I could use, so they obliged and brought one out for me. Doubling down, I poured the rum and coke into the sippy cup and drank from it all night long. They also brought out paper and crayons, and I made good use of this as well (the pictures I drew of my fellow Kings are definitely NOT appropriate for viewing, so I didn't upload any of the pics for public viewing.)

While I was showing off my art/crayon skills - and thoroughly enjoying my sippy cup - Tom and Steven occupied themselves with a couple games of pool

Tom gets himself a big boy beer.

We continuously ran into this Rachel lady throughout our weekend - first at our initial Pickle's stop, where she was waitressing, then the next morning at the casino when Lonnie, Mitch, Erik and I had breakfast, then again tonight where she was just hanging out. By this point she was super familiar with us and - totally wasted - hung out with us for a solid portion of the night. I won't bore you with the details of her hours-long tirade, spanning multiple topics that were definitely brow-raising - but it suffices to say that chick was an absolute train wreck. But it was highly entertaining.

Turning in at the end of another long day of adventuring. In the morning, we'd slowly pack up and head off back south towards civilization, without anything noteworthy befalling us. Another successful Brocation in the books, folks - we'll have to wait and see where adventure leads the Kings of the Hill next summer. . .

- Fin -