Heading Home

On Wednesday morning we packed up and got ready to head out.  Before we left, everyone wanted to take one last quick look at the lake.  It couldn't have been a more beautiful morning.  Hardly a cloud in the sky - and for the first time, no fog either!

We all enjoyed doing "our thing" one last time at the shore.  I took a billion pictures.  The kids roamed as close to shore as possible and Mike waited for me while taking in the scenery and watching the kids.  He's a multitasker by trade.

It seemed crazy that only the day before we could hardly see the other side of this little bay because of all the fog...

I like this picture of Mike.  The only thing that would have made it better was if he'd actually been looking toward the sun.  But he wasn't reading my telepathic messages to turn around.  I guess he thought one of us should keep an eye on the kids playing on the shore.

We started wondering how deep it really was right off the edge...around Split Rock we had learned it was 700 feet deep only a few hundred feet out.

Those white things, we realized, were the rocks jutting out.  They didn't look to be anywhere near the surface.  At 40 degree water temp, we didn't think it was a good idea to look closer.

The kids climbed one last time on "their rock".

I was really surprised at how much the kids just loved sitting by the shore or walking around it.  I honestly think if we had said one day, "We are just going to sit here all day," that they would have been totally okay with that - if not thrilled with the idea.

So while we were all definitely tired and slept well at night (despite Mike's best snoring efforts and us me tossing things at him to make him stop) it was a really relaxing vacation, which was one of the goals.

And we definitely left our mark.  Remember that bench?

Mike carved our initial into it the night before leaving.

Jake was thrilled to see that it was still there the next morning.  We assured him it would be there for a long time to come.

Split Rock

After that excruciating fishing hike, we weren't done with the day's fun.

Split Rock Lighthouse is conveniently located between Tettegouche Park (where we fished) and Gooseberry (where we were camped).  We stopped on the way back to camp to see Split Rock.  Previously, every time we drove past it and saw it from the road someone would always yell, "There's Split Rock!" or "There's the lighthouse!" 

"Hey look, kids...there's Big Ben."  That's what it always reminded me of.

After our exhausting hike, we got to Split Rock with a little time to kill before going on the tour.  We occupied our time:

The tour was not what I expected, but not bad.  It was informative and short.  I thought we'd be taken through everything but not so.  They explained a few things about the lighthouse and it's history, but once it was time to actually head into the lighthouse, they sent us on our merry way. 

It's the 100th year of the lighthouse so I imagine they've had quite a bit of visitors.  We were all quite surprised at how small the lighthouse actually was.  Very deceiving from pictures.

We walked through one of the three houses for the lightkeepers and then headed down a path which led to approximately 195 steps to the lake.  After our hike all I could think was how awful that climb up was going to be.

But the view was pretty cool:

And pulling out my Ansel Adams again...

Maddie and Jake had another round of walking around rocks on the lake's shore. 

There's a book out for the 100th birthday that contains photographs from different angles.  I can see where the photographer was intrigued by the subject.  After hearing some of the history of the building and the people, it's an interesting subject to play around with.

But some other subjects are cuter than that tiny little lighthouse in the distance.

Further along the shore there were piles and piles of rocks that people had assembled.  Jake was inspired.

He created his own artwork.  We tried to guess how long his creation would last along the shore.

We thought maybe in a couple years we should go back to visit and see if it was still in one piece.

Fish Tales

Talk about some tall tales...

Or long ones as this vacation tale is becoming.  But here I go, pulling out the slides again for our company.

On our second full day of vacation we decided to go fishing.  Mike talked with someone in the visitor center who told her that the best fishing between the parks (there are several in the area) was Mic Mac Lake in Tettegouche Park which is about 25 minutes from Gooseberry.  We headed out early in the morning bringing not only our fishing gear, but our lunch and dishes as well. 

We got to our destination and pulled everything out.  We had been told that it was going to be a 1.5 mile walk into the actual lake but not that big of a deal.  Everyone carried something with Mike hauling the giant backpack filled with all our dishes and food.

This was the longest 1.5 miles we've ever tackled.  Because I didn't take pictures of the actual walk up, I have taken the liberty to draw a map for you:

No joke.  This wasn't a casual 1.5 mile hike.  It was steeply uphill.  And when we got to one point Maddie saw a sign that said, "Congratulations!  It's all downhill from here!"  On the way down Mike said, "I'm not even excited that we are heading downhill.  I know on the way back I just have to climb up it."

40 minutes later we got to our destination.

There are cabins in this area that people can hike their gear into and stay at.  Cute cabins.  I'd have to permanently live there to make that hike worth all the camping gear.  But we found these two docks.

While Mike baited the lines, the kids tried to find the fish.  They were slightly discouraged when all they found was minnows.

But we started fishing and not much was happening.  Mike and Maddie headed around the bend to look for a second dock we'd heard about.  Jake and I kept fishing and hoping.

Pretty soon Maddie came running onto the dock yelling, "I caught a fish!  I caught a fish!" and Mike followed to tell us to follow them back to the other dock where it was a little easier to get everyone on the dock.

Jake announced that we were not allowed to leave until all of us had caught at least one fish.  I didn't think I'd ever see home again.

But, the morning and afternoon sailed by and we each caught our fish.

Perch.  Mostly Perch.  Tiny fish, but a fish none-the-less and everyone was excited when their lines started pulling.

Maddie still refused to touch the fish.  She loved catching it, but once it was out of the water, she wanted no part of it.

And finally I knew that we were all allowed to go home...at some point.

We cooked our soup and fished only a little longer before deciding we wanted/needed to start our hike back.  It looked like this:

It felt worse.

Maddie and Mike walked a lot of this together.  He whistled and she had to guess the tune.  Or they talked.  Either way it was a good view from where I stood and I couldn't help think that I hope she knows how lucky she is to have him by her side!

Yes.  I get sappy on ridiculous hikes.

This was the view from near the top.  Near.  We'd already passed the summit and still had a ways to go.

Kudos to Jake.  Mike and I hadn't realized that his shoe had a giant hole in it.  So did his sock.  He only had to stop a couple times for the rocks in his feet.

And honestly, both kids did pretty awesome on this hike.  Mike said this is going to be one of "those stories" that goes down in history in this family. 

"Remember when we went fishing...and we had to hike uphill...both ways?" 

Sadly that won't be an exaggeration.

Lake Superior

After dinner on our second night, we finally decided to take a walk to see Lake Superior.  The kids were very excited to see it.

See that tiny little bit of water in the distance...lower right?  Above that is all fog.  That's pretty much what greeted us from far away: fog.  We got to see the water, but we had to be right on the edge of the lake.  Very eerie! (And it wasn't even that lake!  HA!)

Mike and I loved the picnic tables...handmade during the 1930's when the rest of the camp was built.

All this fog didn't stop our exploration though.  The kids loved climbing all over the lava rocks and exploring the massive water-filled holes.

  

They both loved this particular rock - it was a bit trickier to climb on top of - and once up there they saw that there was another divet completely filled with water which made it even more precarious!

We did make it down to the shore and Maddie and Jake were so excited to feel how cold the water was. COLD! The information we read said the water temp averaged around 40 degrees!  We kept warning them to keep their feet dry - we only had so many pairs of socks and only one pair of shoes per person!  They pushed that warning as far as they could...

A little further along it was interesting to see how this inlet hardly had any fog compared to the larger expanse of the lake.  It was also crazy to me that in all the years since this "barrier" had been built that it hadn't been redone.  This is all that separated someone and a 20-30 foot drop into rocks.  Honestly, I was okay with it - I can't imagine a giant fence here.  But in this day and age of "safety precautions" and lawsuits, I expected a lot more. 

We explored a little further along...

We thought this bench was great.  It was in such a neat spot to look out over the inlet area and so peaceful.  And so old.  As much as carving might be something to not teach your kids, it was neat to read all the old "inscriptions".

This bench will make a comeback in future pictures.

Anyway - we walked down around and into the lower part of the bay area and the fog started rolling in.

We watched a guy pile these rocks on the edge of the larger rocks.  We couldn't believe that the crashing waves didn't wash it away. 

It was getting really chilly and dark so we started to head back to camp for the night where we sat around the campfire and took turns answering questions of each other.  When we asked if the lake or the falls were more impressive the kids decided the lake was the best part of the day.  I was surprised by their answer. 

Happily surprised.