Ontanogan, Michigan

Great wildlife was seen in Copper River Falls State Campground. A porcupine walked right past our campground, we saw and heard Loons on Loon Lake, and had lots of deer walk right past our campsite. There are definitely advantages to staying in state parks off the beaten pathway. The hiking is much better also. But it was time to move on. So we drove all of 90 miles across the Wisconsin border into Michigan.

We are camped at the mouth of the Ontonagon River in Ontonagon, Mi. Ontonagon is a thriving metropolis of 1,700 people. It’s located on the south shore of Lake Superior. This community is known for its great fishing. Lake Superior has nice sandy beaches (?) or shoreline that people use for swimming and sun bathing. Lake Superior is huge-hundreds of miles across. It seems strange to be looking at such a large body of water and it’s fresh water. There are no crowded beaches here.

We took a drive about 20 minutes to the west to tour Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. It’s a gorgeous old hemlock forest that runs right down to Lake Superior. This area was known for its copper mines but they are no longer worked. The only inhabitants in the mines now are bats.

We sampled the local fish fry. It was very good. This morning we walked into town and had breakfast at the local bakery. Ontonagen has 3 restaurants, one of which is the bakery, one grocery store, and one flashing light (not a stop light). There are a lot of Finns in this area and I was happy to see Pannu Kakkua on the menu. It was okay but not nearly as good as yours Susie M. (For the non Finns in the group, they called it a Finnish pancake, but it’s really a cooked custard.)

Thank goodness the weather has taken a turn for the better. It’s been in the 70’s the last few days and we even had to use blankets while sleeping last night. Today, Sunday, we are even getting a little rain. Now if the rest of the country could only cool down.

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