Pictured Rocks Trip Report

“Ok- the trip report is delayed as i was on vacation. Now I need a vacation from my vacation as being the "fun uncle" is quite exhausting.

Important thing learned from this trip: Don't count on new tt's to actually show up, especially when hiking in one direction b/c you will have two cars, including theirs.

Anyway, Pictured Rocks is gorgeous with lots of payoffs along the way. The trip ended up with 3 of us, me and my friends Jonnah and Lizz. The weather was perfect all three days.

Pictures can be found at the following: http://community.webshots.com/album/393748682aLcSxA

We started the hike at Chapel Road and hiked past Chapel Falls and Chapel Rock. Chapel Rock quickly introduces you to the scenery for most of the western half of Pictured Rocks= Large Rock formations, huge cliffs and clear, cold water.

We continued West along the lakeshore trail to Mosquito Beach where we camped on Friday night. Bugs were a bit bad by the water here but not bad at all at camp. Here we met Phil and Renee from the Detroit area who were doing the entire Pictured Rocks area and had been on the trail for most of the week. Hopefully they are future tt's.

On Saturday we slept in and took our time getting on the trail. We hiked to Miners Castle where we had dinner as water would be scarce the rest of the trip. There is actually a visitors center here with bathrooms and running water. After dinner we made our way to the Cliffs campground, which despite its name is not directly overlooking any cliffs. Phil and Renee joined us that night and Cliffs has a communal fire pit where we enjoyed the company of some college kids from Iowa and some crazy Michigan kids from the lower pennisula. At one point a guy came walking into camp with no shoes on with a full pack and when I asked, "Did you just walk from Miiners with no shoes on?" he replied, "No, I ran." OK then, he has tougher feet than I.

Sunday we got on the trail about 10 and hiked to Sand Point beach where the chill of the water didn't keep us from jumping in and swimming for a while. Phil and I hiked the rest of the way to Munising falls to meet Jonnah who had taken a wrong turn. Phil and Renee were nice enough to give us a lift back to Chapel Road so that I didn't have to hitch hike (see above comment about new tt's not showing up). Had a good lunch in Munising with everyone but only 1 or 2 pasties were ordered.

All in all a great trip and I look forward to doing the whole picutred rocks trip (42 miles) in the future. We ended up doing about 22 miles.”

“Nice pics and report. Great that you found a ride.

Thanks for sharing!”

“Nice pictures BFB! Glad you had a good time.”

“Sweet report!

I was supposed to do the whole trail a few years ago but everyone backed out at the last second.

You plan the whole trail in the future, I will join you if I can.

Nice pictures too!”

“Nice report BFB, looks like you guys had a great time. Im headed to Pictured Rocks next weekend to do the entire trail. How was the condition of the trail? Were bugs an issue? How did you like the cliffs campground (scenic, etc..)?”

“Trail was in great shape. The bugs were only a small problem near the water at Mosquito Beach but not at Mosquito camp. The Cliffs campground is ok, really just a cleared area with a few camp spots (no seperation) and a communal fire pit. Good for meeting people but it is misnamed as there are much better Cliffs then where the trail breaks away from the cliffs to this campsite.
Enjoy.”