September 20th, Day Two

I woke up to a chilly morning in the mountains... dawn had not quite broken through...grabbing a change of clothes, I headed to the showers and enjoyed a nice hot one. Once back to my campsite, I started a fire with wood saved from the day before and fixed some coffee - two scoops of ground java right in the pan - no filter out here. I took down the tent and packed things up, then sat down with my notes and coffee to go over my plans. Although the campground was offering pancakes and sausage for breakfast, I decided to head on down the road - eating an apple I had purchase at Growing Power market the day before.
There are hundreds of waterfalls scattered around Michigan. I had planned to stop at three different ones on my way north, but ended up stopping at two since time started getting away from me and I still had a long hike ahead of me. The first waterfall was at Chicaugon Falls. I had checked out Google Earth before leaving home and had a pretty good visual of where I was going. The path was off the main road a way and poorly marked. After parking the car, I followed a rough path for about 1 mile and came upon it. It was like those falls that are hidden in the country where you would go with friends for a long hike. Peaceful, unmanicured,unpretentious.
From there I continued west on HWY 2 until SR45, where I turned north. Just outside of Pauling is the wonderful Bond Falls. The lake is huge and probably is a popular place for camping and boating, although it was very low at this time. Access to the falls is along a well maintained boardwalk, which makes it nice for people of all ages and abilities.
Finally I was on my was to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, which sits right on Lake Superior. During the drive I thought about several different options, taking into account time and resources. The trail I wanted to hike most of all is called the Big Carp River Trail, about 9.1 miles long. Initially I thought about setting up camp at the Union Bay campground, which sets at the eastern entrance to the park. I would go hike and come back at night to sleep. As I started doing calculations in my head, I quickly realized that wouldn't work with the time frame I had. The trail started about 11 miles in from the campground, so that didn't make a lot of sense. In the end I decided to load up my backpack with enough for one night and camp along the trail at one of the designated rustic campsites.
Upon arriving at Porcupine Mountains I stopped at the Visitor Center to register for the hike and overnight camping. I purchased a 32 oz nalgene bottle at the store, to carry along with me.
At the parking lot, I loaded up my backpack with all the essentials and filled my water bottle to the brim, after taking a few drinks. The pack looked nothing like the Patagonia catalog or Hudson Trail...nope, this was sure a sight. It was almost 2:30 pm EST when I headed off on the trail.