Kathy Reno

I have not posted for quite some time for a variety or reasons. I wrote these two entries last summer, but never posted them. I will do so now. It was a great trip.

Sunday, middle of September 2006

I think I may be the only tourist in town. I arrived in Eagle Harbor, MI this evening about 5:30, having come from Mackinaw City today. It is a quiet burg, with just one street along the shore. My motel (seven units, looks like Carrabelle 40 years ago) is pretty much what I expected. What I didn’t expect is for the parking lot to be totally empty and an envelope with my name on it to be tacked next to the front door. I let myself into a very basic, clean room. It is right on the beach and really pretty cool.
There seems to be no commerce in town this time of year. This is the quiet time here, in between summer and leaf season.
After unpacking and settling in a little I drove up the coast to Copper Harbor. It is a little more lively there, restaurant, gas station and a couple gift shops. I purchased a bag of ice for my cooler, and a bowl of home made beef stew from the gas station. It is cool enough to be sweatshirt weather so the stew tasted very good.
A quiet evening on the shores of Gitchi Gumey.

Monday

I took a leisurely start to this morning. My promised breakfast basket did not arrive so I dined out of my picnic basket. My standard travel fare is crackers, summer sausage, cheese and apples. It all tasted pretty good from the table outside my door over looking the Big Lake.
I headed south along the lake towards Eagle River. It is another beautiful day, sun shining, about 55 degrees. There are a few waterfalls along the way I wanted to see. This area has had quite a drought this summer so they were all flowing, but not as impressive as the pictures.
On the way down the coast there is a huge turreted building, it is the Poorrock Abbey of the Holy Transfiguration Skete, the Society of John. From talking to the man at the lighthouse I learned that this group arrived in the 80’s, kind of a makeshift group and they had trouble finding a sect to accept them. After trying several others, the Ukrainian church accepted them. There are now about 10-12 men who reside there and work the small bakery that is on the property.
This afternoon I went to Copper Harbor and toured Fort Wilkens. It was built in the 1840’s to provide security for the booming copper mining industry.