Roll with it

Storm with possible hail was rolling into the upper peninsula of Michigan and northern Wisconsin so I decided to spend my first night in my car in a Walmart parking lot in Ashland, WI. Somehow I ended up partying pretty hard and staying up in Hurley, WI. Hurley was the place to get away and let loose for Al Capone and those gangsters back in the day. I acted like I had their bank roll for the night. Sleep in my car was terrible. In the morning when I was brushing my teeth in the Walmart restroom with heavy eyes that knew they didn't get sleep I was trying to remember how much cash I spent the night before.

It was at that point I entered my first low point of the trip.

As the day continued it didn't get better. My third continental breakfast was lousy and Apostle Islands National Lakeshore cost a fortune for ferry and kayak rentals (only ferry that could drop me off at an island to camp cost $50 and doesn't run Wednesdays and kayak rental was $50 for a mandatory safety class which I missed and then $79 for the night). After the previous evening I wanted to keep my wallet cinched so those options were hopeless. Plus the only backcountry camping not on an island was booked. AHHH....

I went to lay in the grass annoyed with the lack of options and thought about trying to fall asleep there - I snapped out of it and opted for a hike to some sea caves. The moment I started the hike my mood perked up...energy level rose and I felt good. Nature is my medicine. Could an hour walk in the woods everyday replace the Prozac millions use? Wouldn't that be a breakthrough - it worked for me - I felt great again...

But it was one of those days - I go to turn on my camera and there's a lens error - it won't turn on - busted camera. My camera luck is terrible - I spent the morning talking to customer service - going to the library in Superior, WI to print forms and then the post office to mail the camera off to Canon. Then I went to go buy another inexpensive camera which I will hope to return for a full refund after getting my use out of it. The fixed camera is being sent back to my mom's and we'll have to coordinate a way to get it to where ever I'll be in two weeks...

I was feeling productive after the new camera purchase so I decided to tackle the driver's window issue - it could only go down a couple inches before coming off track and creating havoc. With the help of a nice guy realizing I was in over my head the window is now fixed - screw back on the door panel and WALA!

Now I'm sitting in a StarBucks in Duluth, MN uploading all my pictures to PhotoBucket for free safe online storage. I'll be driving north to the Boundary Waters to see if I can get cheaper rates to do some kayak or canoeing. A good night sleep will hopefully wash away todays unpleasantness.

On a higher note I did a great full moon night hike in Porcupine State Park in Michigan to Lake Superior through a 400 year old untouched old growth forest - scary as shit actually solo hiking in the dark with a low full moon casting crazy shadows...magazine article said there would be some glow in the dark fungi or at least some fire flys..but nothing!

Now on Central Time.

-Matt

Northern Michigan

This blog was written while camping in "Picture Rock National Lakeshore"

Michigan reminds me of Maine. Visitors are looking for moose, mosquitos are loving you, same types of trees and similar climate. The difference of course are the huge fucking lakes surrounding Michigan on all sides.

I'm at a beach in Lake Superior where the only way to get here is to hike four miles or take a boat. Its enclose in rock cliffs on both sides with a 1/2 mile beach between the two...when I'm standing on the cliffs the rock is 500 million years old. During the last ice age the glaciers acted like the mother of all bull dozers and shaved off 500 million years of accumulated sediment and rock. The "Cambrian Explosion"!!......multicellular organisms were first forming on this planet and I'm standing on it!

I like Michigan immensely. I drove from Pennsylvania's north western corner straight to "Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore" on Lake Michigan. I camped two nights back country...skinny dipped at sunset on my private beach. I was the only back country camper that night and the next day I walked the beach for miles. I survived torrential rains that night. Had my tent collapse in the middle of the storm...had rough weather for a couple days...but spirits were never down.

I raided another continental breakfast - this time a Best Western and they had a waffle maker...JACK POT! I even got to take a hot shower when a nice couple checked out but left their door ajar with the door latch.

Picture Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior is just as grand as the Dunes. Doing two nights along the Lakeshore Trail. About 19 miles round trip....When I was sitting on the beach the second day a small ferry boat disappeared into the cliff. It was pretty weird to see...It reminded me of "The Spy Who Loved Me" when the submarines were swallowed by the freighter ships or in "You Only Live Twice" when the space shuttles fit neatly inside volcanoes. I investigated by walking along the cliffs which led off the beach - eventually when the cliffs turned my ledge disappeared into the water and I was forced to take a plunge - The boat had snaked its way into a small channel between the cliffs about thirty feet across. Sand stone rock hung over my head fifty feet up and I thought that rock could fall in an instant or a million years and no one would be the wiser. I clung to the cliff while swimming back and came face to face with a conglomerate layer of rock nearly 550 million years old - with smooth round pebbles cemented into the rock having to be millions and millions of years older. This kind of shit gets me going man...I love it!

I often make a mental list of places which should be visited at least twice. Chapel Beach in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshre on Lake Superior in Michigan is on that list....

If I "came too" on this beach with no idea where I was my millionth guess would not be Northern Michigan!

I'm loving every minute of this....future blogs will be updated 1-2 times a week, but the SPOT google location is updated a couple times a day. My roughly current location can be found by clicking the link on the right. More photos are on facebook. Cheers everyone!

-Matt

Day 3

It's hard for me to say what has the been the best part of the infancy phase of my road trip: There was the first afternoon where I got on my Dahon (a conversation magnet), met some local youth and jumped 20 feet into a pool beside a waterfall; then that evening I didn't understand the bulletin board to direct me to a non-reserved campsite and scored a lake side spot (needing to be reserved 1 year in advance) lined with blueberry bushes. The people made reservations and didn't show up. Maybe it was passing a pack of 15 Lancaster, PA Amish girls dressed up traditionally speaking Pennsylvania Dutch while seeing 21 waterfalls on a 7.3 mile loop hike in Ricketts Glenn State Park. I think my personal favorite is walking into a Holiday Inn Express continental breakfast this morning at 7:30 a.m. Eat bacon, eggs, biscuits, cereal, yogurt, coffee, milk and bananas and walk back into my car and leave. Some may think me a scum bag for doing and admitting a juvenile move such as this but I feel it pretty genius. The one way to save serious money on this trip is in the food category and I'm going to exploit every resource I have. Today is one of my longer drives - about 8 hours 400+ miles to Great Sand Dunes National Lakeshore. Nearing 900 miles total. Car is running great, but the driver's window has come off track, cannot go down far and gets stuck often between up and down - if it makes it another month before totally falling threw the door and smashing consider a miracle has been performed. I'm excited to explore Northern Michigan and the peninsulas - I've never been up there and its driving my energy right now. Only good news to report!

-Matt

Westard

After much internal debate I decided it would be best not to drive off at 7 o'clock at night after a 2 hour night of sleep. East Lyme day was the culprit for me not getting a REM off but it was oh so worth it.

Since I went solo to Mexico last April 2008..I've been mentally planning this trip...I've told this story to many of my friends, but I'll tell it again because it's a strange and interesting coincidence which has ultimately led to a car filled with my possessions and a desire to become a nomad for a while...

Before I went down to Mexico I happened upon "Legend of the Fall" while watching TV...it's a pretty kick ass movie staring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. I was talking to a friend after the movie about a particular scene when Brad Pitt takes off and travels the world, figures himself out a bit and comes back a better man - its a rather minute scene, but always struck a cord in me. I didn't have the vision of making that happen in my life - in all honesty I didn't think I had the guts to just do it. I mean hell...I have a good paying secure teaching job, coach two sports, and still able to travel every summer. What kind of spoiled idiot am I to just quit all that? So I saw the movie...had the dream..but had no vision.

A couple days later I was flying coach down to Cancun. To quickly avoid that mob scene of tourists, Senior Frogs enthusiasts, and general unpleasantness of Cancun I headed straight to the bus station and went first class (woohoo - cheap in mexico) to Merida - about a four hour bus trip. The bus had TV's on it and the first movie that comes on..a movie that was made in 1994 and this trip was happening in 2008 was "Legend of the Fall". If you don't believe in signs man...well..I do. The seed was planted the vision was realized. I spent 13 months hashing out all the reasons NOT to quit my job and travel the world. Literally every day I thought about this trip. EVERY DAY. I wanted to stay silent about it but like pants too tight..I was bursting at all seams and leaking the information to people here and there....seeing how it would sound when it bounced back. I had to trust my vision and my dream - and I didn't want to look back regretful...

So here I am...ready to make it happen - 13 months of planning, of running through three years of Back Packer magazine, cutting out and organizing the best hikes, of buying camping gear, and $500 worth of topographic maps, of reading books about Mexico and South America and compiling a box worth of books I want to read. I have a plan, but because they change so much those interested in reading my blog will get the story after it happens. I'm no writer, never have been much of an English scholar but i'll do my best to accurately depict how my trip is going. Feel free to comment or not to....

Carpe Diem my friends!