North of 45

Way up on the shores of Lake Superior is Painted Rocks National Lakeshore. We wanted to find out why it's called Painted Rocks. Here's why.



We wish we had more time to explore the coast. There are 7 major waterfalls and some more un-named falls. There is not a road along the coast, but there is a hiking trail, and geocaches. This is a place to come back to with Rich and da boys for a summer vacation. I don't suppose they have stat conferences on the shores of Lake Superior, though.

Here's Munising Falls, a nice 800ft walk from the parking lot.


We've crossed 45 degrees latitude a couple of times on the trip. There are markers for 45 degrees, and markers for halfway between the north pole and the equator.




I'd rather live at the equator. It's too cold for me up here.

Door County

Door County, Wisconsin is that peninsula that sticks up into Lake Michigan. We drove up the east side and back down the west side, stopping at a couple of state parks for walks and caches. Mom had been here in the early 50s with her parents, so she told lots of stories on the way.

Some pretty flowers at the I in Ephraim.


On the trail to a cache.


Can you see the cache?


It's hidden in the log. A girl scout troop maintains this cache. This was my kind of cache. A fairly short walk to an ammo can filled with swag in the woods. I was surprised by the lack of mosquitoes. The weather was beautiful, about 85 degrees and sunny all day.

Horseshoe Island


Many views like this one along the way. The road would go by the lake at some points and back away from the coastline into the woods at others. It was a terrific drive, and I can tick off an item from my "always wanted to do that" list. Drive Door County, Wisconsin, check.

I'm in Wisconsin!

I'm going to the JMP Discovery Conference this week, and am taking a couple of days vacation in Wisconsin beforehand. My mom came with me.

Today was a driving tour of Door County. We stopped a couple of times at state parks to find a few easy caches, and go shopping.

My main goal is finding a Michigan cache. We're in Marinette tonight and will pop over to Michigan in the morning to find a cache. We don't really have a plan after that, probably headed north to do a circle around scenic byways and heading back down. I have to be back in Chicago on Tuesday evening.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.