I write in my journal over lunch at the Bear Trap Inn, “Maybe I was meant to see this”.
It’s a written record of what I thought walking along Chapel Beach — not another sole in sight. Chapel Rock, the magnificent sandstone tower carved over thousands of years with a tree perched on top, towers at one end of the beach. At the other end, there’s a tipi of driftwood and the upturned waterwashed root. When I walked towards it across the sand it looked like a hunched figure, maybe a witch from a fantasy who I am meant to meet here at the top of the world.
I’m far from the literal top of the world, but that’s what it felt like. A little over a three-mile hike through the woods, past Chapel Falls, and I only see a few other souls along the way. The water of Lake Superior is impossibly blue — turquoise and bright under the clouds. The waves are big and wild in the wind. To get to the beach, I take a log ladder that’s been draped over the sand dune to create steps. I’m all alone. I take my headphones out. I take a lot of deep breaths and walk the length of it.
I have no revelations, no answers, but I think softly, “Maybe I was meant to see this”.
The hike totals over six miles and takes three hours as I meander at the shore, stop at the falls, and gaze out at each overlook I find. I’m glad I brought my hiking stick over some of the elevated and muddy terrains but overall it’s easy, the three-mile stretch on the loop back is nearly flat as it cuts across the swales and circles Chapel Lake. The autumn colors are out of a painting. The air is cold and clean.
I stop at the Bear Trap Inn on my drive back, a family restaurant along a snowmobile route that has bear furs and deer heads decorating the back wall . . . but the chicken bacon wrap I order is excellent and it’s a quiet place to refuel and journal. Before heading back to my bed & breakfast, I drive to downtown Musinsing on a whim and stop in the Pictured Rocks Interpretive Center — a small museum and gift shop — to read about the area, pick up a few souvenirs, and ask the cashier about other hiking stops. I get a hiking map and some more recommendations and she tells me that Chapel Rock hike I did today was one of her favorites.
I wander into a cafe and bookstore across the street and then to the Pictured Rocks Cruises building to scope out adventures for future days before returning to the bed & breakfast. I have a bath, I do love the deep tub here that I can fully submerge in. Then I read by the windows that overlook the lake.
A couple hours later I’m restless again and take myself out for a simple dinner at the The Dogpatch, an old local restaurant my host had mentioned. It’s decorated with dated (maybe not appropriate?) cartoon cutouts and looks like it’s stayed the same for forty years or more. But the service is kind and fast and I sip a local beer and read a book while I eat.
Tonight, I write, and try to upload pictures to this blog with a slow internet connection (giving up on the dozens I took for a later photo dump). I think I’ll play solitaire and listen to something funny until I can fall asleep. It took a while to sleep last night, but I’m hoping today’s 18,000 steps tip the scales in my favor tonight. Tomorrow, I’ve scoped out another hike, a little further away this time, and in the late afternoon I’m planning to do a boat tour of the Pictured Rocks.
With Love,
Natalie