One of the reasons operations like the one in Fayette closed down was the growth of the steel industry closer to their industrial customers. The iron ore was still being sourced from the same area on the West end of Lake Superior, but now it was being carried down through the Soo Locks by big freighters like the Edmond Fitzgerald. I wanted to see the business end of the greatest of the Great Lakes, so I headed back up North to the town of Munising and the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Catching a Break, Going Broke & Pasty Breaking
Proof that you can’t always trust signs: I drove past the “Campground Full” sign at the National Forest Service’s Bay Furnace Campground and asked the Host if the sign was true. The guy said “No, it just means the Campground Host is too lazy to change it.” Kaching! I bagged one of the two open sites, no hookups but that’s normal for the Feds, and the price was only $15 a night. I’d have to run the generator to charge the house battery or run the AC, but that’s why I carry one. Besides, I wouldn’t be staying here long, just enough to do some laundry and take a boat tour.
The next day I doubled back into Munising and wrote a bunch of postcards while my socks went round and round, along with a couple brats who had been allowed to have way to much sugar by their keeper.
Just outside the campground is the town of Christmas; no doubt this wide spot in the road was christened by someone’s hopeful effort to attract tourists. Unfortunately, it seems Trump’s new tariffs are hurting imports from the North Pole, and Old St. Nick has fallen on hard times.
Man does not live by clean underwear alone, and as I had a bit more time before my boat departure, I decided it was time at long last to sample the most fabled delicacy of the UP, The Pasty. Online commentary indicated that a place called Muldoon’s in Munising was serving the Genuine Article, so I stopped in and abandoned myself to the orgy of carbohydrates that is the Yooper’s favorite meal.
Pronounced “Pah-stee” is essentially a small handheld pie, most often with a savory filling. Sweet, dessert versions are seen occasionally, along with a chicken edition, but the Original Recipe contains finely ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, and rutabaga.
Because it is designed to be portable, Pasties tend to be on the dry side, so they are regularly paired with a cup of brown gravy. Other than the fillings themselves and a sprinkle of salt and pepper there isn’t an abundance of flavor to these pies, so the addition of gravy is welcome.
I guess it is the rutabaga that sets the Pasty apart from the pack of non-Yooper meat pies. I like rutabaga, but in this case, the vegetable’s flavor gets lost in what is essentially quite a bland product. However, if I had a backpack filled with warm pasties during a day of snowmobiling the woods of the UP, these little pies would be very appealing indeed.
A Three Hour Cruise: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
I had booked a seat on the sunset cruise of the Pictured Rocks, anticipating better photos from the golden sunsets I’d come to expect at Whitefish Bay. I guess I’d used up my rabbit’s foot scoring a campsite, because on the appointed hour Superior chose to live up to her reputation and delivered a chilly evening with threatening rain clouds. On the observation deck at twenty knots it was about 55 degrees and windy. I’d worn three light layers, but before the end of the tour I was thinking fondly of my heavy coat back in the camper.
All the pamphlets boasted of a three-hour cruise, and the teenage crewmen were all much younger than Gilligan. I kept a sharp eye out, but unfortunately neither Ginger or Maryanne appeared.
The tour narrator kept up a monologue on the PA with factoids about the area history, the geology of the shoreline and canned jokes. My favorite bit was how Superior was so large and deep that to fill it you would need the water of all the other Great Lakes combined plus three more Lake Eries. At the turn-around point of the tour, the Captain takes the boat into a deep cut called Chapel Cove, complete with obligatory “Here goes nothing” patter.
The same company also operates shipwreck tours out of Munising using glass-bottomed boats like they do in Alpena. I enjoyed the trip despite the weather, and I felt like I now had a pretty good understanding of the Upper Peninsula. It was time to break the spell Michigan had cast on me and continue Westward to another state that I had yet to visit.
Next time: Dashing across the prairie!