Location
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore lies on the northern coast of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, along the southern shore of Lake Superior. It covers about 70 km of coastline between the towns of Munising and Grand Marais.

Route Information
We put in at the Potato Patch Campground (the Potato Patch lies roughly 12 km in from the southwestern tip of the Park.) unconscionably late in the afternoon. From there it was just over a 10 km paddle approximately east-northeast along the shore to Chapel Beach. There we stayed overnight. The next day we pushed just a wee bit further -- about 3 km -- to Spray Falls, before we retraced our route to take out where we had put in the day before.

Our route took us past Mosquito River, where we stopped for lunch on our way back, and the magnificent Grand Portal Point, the arch of which we passed through on our trusty kayaks.

Ranting Prologue
Our late start the first day was due entirely to the bloody-minded bureaucraticism of our kayak livery, Northern Waters Adventures, and of Carl, its owner. I have had good experiences renting kayaks from Mexico on up to Alaska, and indeed elsewhere on Lake Superior. Never have I encountered anything like these people. The basic lack of a customer-service mentality is not the source of my complaint -- indeed, it was almost refreshing in a way, although it was a source of inconvenience. They were aware that we were driving six hours to get there to pay their exorbitant rental fees (and I mean expensive), and yet they did not mention to us us over the telephone when we arranged our rentals that they do not accept credit cards. We ended up cleaning out our bank accounts at an ATM and even then using literally every penny in Matt's car to come up a nickel short (grudgingly, they let it slide).

(Part of the cash problem was the extra $120 to rent four wetsuits for three days which, Carl insisted, he was required by law to impose upon us. We would surely die without them, he explained, and then he would lose his license. So although he had not included the wetsuits in the total he had quoted us over the telephone, part of that total they surely were because he didn't rent kayaks without renting one wetsuit per seat thereof. We stuffed them behind said seats and forgot about them until we brought the boats back. On our return, Carl was miffed that they had gotten sandy back there; we told him he should have kept them warm and cozy in his closet, only we didn't say "closet.")

No, the main problem was the extremely tedious half day of remedial "kayak lessons" we were forced to undergo before Carl would let us take the kayaks out. Six hours' drive to get there, only to be shang-haied for another four hours by the apparently sui generis insurance requirements Carl labored under. Although no other kayak livery has any such requirement -- including, as I say, others on Lake Superior -- Carl was adamant that his insurance required him to have us sitting in a kayak on dry land pretending to paddle while he talked about making a box.

Upon reflection, I cannot say that I recommend renting from Northern Waters Adventures... unless they chance to come under new management.

Trip Information
Matt Elkin, Greg Lauro, and Patrice and I were on the trip.

The painted cliffs of Pictured Rocks are absolutely incredible. At times it was difficult to believe that the markings were natural, with vibrant swaths of vivid colors striping the rockface here vertically, there horizontally, a green stripe crossing a maroon, all overlying the yellow-orange of the untinted rock. Various salts and minerals seeping slowly through the rock and oxydizing in strips are to be thanked for the visual drama the area offers.

Most visitors to the Park take boat rides to view the cliffs, and most of the remainder hike the cliffs, but truly the only way to do it is by kayak. On a kayak one can get right up to the cliffs, and even feel them. That's the way to be touched by the breath-taking, awe-inspiring splendor of the place. That's also the way to get the true, physical experience of the area, for Superior is no tame and submissive pondlet. The sound of her waves slamming the cliffs, and the feel of them throwing you about when you get close in to shore, tells you at a very visceral level exactly where you are. Until you feel the Lake's latent power you haven't really been there.

Matt had cunningly purchased line-of-sight walkie-talkies for us, and so our two boats -- we had elected to rent doubles rather than singles so as to save almost a million dollars per day -- were able to stay in good communication despite the marked tendency of each boat to head towards whatever looked the most exciting regardless of what the other boat was doing.

About an hour from sunset we reached Grand Portal Point and entered the great cave that gives it its name. Within that semi-enclosed space the Lake notches up the drama a bit, and despite our fatigue after a paddle whose pace we had been forced to push to get to camp before nightfall, the adrenalin surge perked us up nicely.

From the Point we got our first glimpse of the gorgeous beach where we would stay for the night. We noted with pleasure that we were to sleep under the canopy of a truly beautiful pine forest. But our pleasure was more than redoubled when we found, after setting up a minimal camp, that the Lake, despite Carl's dire predictions, was as warm as any band of hedonists could crave. (I should note, out of fairness, that it surely does get icy at times, with 32-point-nothin' water upwelling from the depths at unpredictable intervals, frigid enough to chill anyone's bones.) We bathed and frolicked in luxurious comfort until well after sunset, playing with an abandoned diving mask we found, and capsizing one another's kayaks.

On the morning of the next day our first stop was Spray Falls, just a bit further east by northeast along the coast. Here a stream (the Spray) reaches the end of its line at a cliff abutting the lake, and cascades down jes' as pretty as a picture.

We had such a short time in that beautiful place! On the way back, having stopped for lunch at Mosquito River, we decided to prolong our experience with a quick hike to Mosquito Falls, so called. We covered the full 5 or so km loop, but failed to find anything that really deserved the name "Falls". Nice country to walk through, though.

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