A DAY OF REST & RELAXATION

Monday, July 13 – A DAY OF REST & RELAXATION.......yeah, right! Our intentions were to have a relative low key day of relaxation here in Hessel, Michigan. We stopped at the tiny town market for a cup of coffee and a muffin which was a good start for being casual.

From there, we headed to the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville, MI. This small 2-year college offers an degree in boat building. This is a non-profit educational center teaching the art and craft of traditional and contemporary wooden boat building.

They provide a comprehensive course of study in the methods, materials, and professionalism required of today's wooden boat builders. The first year prepares the student for a career in the wooden boat industry. The second year is geared to advanced boat building and the construction involved in a modern yacht. They have been in existence since 2006 and have over 90% job placement. They actually don't have enough students to fill the job opportunities. This upcoming fall they already have 20 of the 24 slots filled, three being girls and one guy coming all the way from France.

Two boats they just finished this past term.

Marsha makes sure the job was done right.

The first projects that the students work on is making a stool and a tool chest. Paul is admiring the wonderful work this student did.

State of the art workshop.

Paul is drooling. He would love to have a shop like this.

Marsha couldn’t get over all the 100’s of clamps they had.

One of the old wooden boats.

They also offer workshops in metal casting, building your own Northeaster Dory, Paddle Making, Pram building, building a Dinghy, Knots & Rigging, Kayak building, Marine Finishes, Photography and building your own paddle board. So if you're looking for a way to spend several weeks this summer, come on UP North and build yourself a boat! If you can’t build one, at least take the tour. It is very informative.

On the way home, we stopped at a couple gift shops, a Northern Spruce furniture store, a saw mill, and decided on taking a hike in the William B. Derby Nature Preserve. So much for a casual day of rest and relaxation.

The Derby Nature Preserve is a 200-acre preserve located right in Cedarville, MI. It includes a 3.5-mile loop trail that travels along the inner Les Cheneaux channel shore. This trail is a beautiful hike through fairly level terrain. It loops through a dense forest of predominately Northern Spruce trees. The trail is made up of the spongy material left over from falling spruce needles and is nice to hike upon but be careful of the Michigan limestone sticking up through the needles and especially the Spruce roots that frequently reach out to trip you.

This delicate fern grew all along the forest floor.

After that casual morning, we eventually returned to the RV to relax for the remainder of the day. On Tuesday, we head north to Saulte Ste Marie, MI, so stop back and travel along with us.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

PAUL GOES DOWN MEMORY LANE

Sunday, July 12 – We started our sightseeing day of Cedarville, MI, at Ang-Gio's Restaurant for a delicious North Country breakfast. We both felt it was very good especially the tasty fresh eggs and sausage. They have homemade bread too!

We then stopped at the cabin once owned by a close friend of Paul. When Paul fished here it was a small 4-room cabin that has recently been remodeled into a fairly sizable home. It is still in the original family, but one of the grandsons has taken control and did some significant upgrades. It appears that it probable now exceed two or three thousand square feet. The owner is an architect, and he certainly used his training in redesigning the cabin. Beautiful but just not the same old cabin!

The middle section was the original cabin. The windows have been replaced.

After that bit of nostalgia, we headed about 25 miles east to the Village of Detour. This little fishing town sits on the shore of Lake Huron and the St. Mary's River. Some readers may have heard of Drummond Island, one of the largest islands in Lake Huron. A destination for hikers, ATV enthusiasts, snowmobile riders, fishermen, and other outdoor adventurers. Paul and his fishing friends frequently filled their coolers with Salmon out of the river.

St. Mary’s River. Drummond Island on the left.

We walked around the marina to check out the boats. Fishing must not be too good yet because there weren't many fishing boats at the docks or in the river. We did notice the Mayflies are beginning to hatch. They were hanging on many of the docks. We did see a couple large ore freighters sailing up the river to Ste. Saulte Marie and onto Lake Superior.

We also were able to get a shot of the St. Mary's Lighthouse. Not the typical “New England” style lighthouse, but it serves the purpose of marking the river for those large freighters.

A bit foggy today.

It was a little difficult to find, but we found Dennis' deer camp. Another friend of Paul's. Can't live in the U.P. and not have a deer camp or fishing camp.....LOL.

We stopped over to extend our stay here at the Hessel Casino Campground (total of 3-nights). There is a short trail loop here at the campground that goes up into the back country. After dinner, we put on our hiking boots and went exploring. With a little bug spray, we were just fine.

Someone has a deer stand.

There are lots of tall birch trees in this area.

We meet a few friends along the trail.

Interesting growth on many of the trees.

We are going to have a campfire tonight and mainly relax tomorrow. We do have a couple spots of interest to checkout, so stop back and enjoy the North Country.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

PAUL’S OLD FISHING GROUNDS

Saturday, July 11 – We had a short trip this morning of less than 30 miles from St.Ignace, MI to Hessel, MI. One of Paul's fishing buddies had a cabin a few miles down the road in Cedarville, MI. We are spending a few days in the area to share old memories of Paul's fishing days with the gang.

We are again at a Kewadin Casino campground. This is a much smaller casino. The campground is located in the woods across the street from the casino. Paul recalls that is was once privately owned but evidently the casino took it over. The sites are gravel and the roads are gravel. Most of the sites are for small RV's or tents, but they do have about a half dozen pull thrus. We are the only RV in the campground. There is a group of tenters way back in the woods at the other end of the campground here for some four wheeling on the snowmobile trails.

Our site is very long (about 100') and has full hookups, 50 amp electric and sewer but no water. I mentioned to the fellow working at the casino check-in desk that we probably would only stay one night since there was no water. He offered to run a hose (about 200') from a rental cabin for no extra charge. WOW! He even had one of the workers bring us a load of free fire wood. How's that for being accommodating and treating the customer right! All this for $10 per night.

This is how far they ran a hose for our water.

We are way out in the country (Can't figure how a casino out here can stay in business but it was busy this afternoon) so it should be a great night for star gazing. We were lucky to get the satellite dish to find the satellite. Being this far north the elevation is only 32 degrees, nearly on the horizon.

All the years that Paul fished up in this area, he never had the famous Michigan Pastie. Bob, How To Love Where You Are And Eat Where The Locals Eat, suggested we have our first one at the famous Hessel Bakery. They advertise they sell the best Pasties in the North. A Pastie is much like a pot pie. It's filling is some sort of meat with potatoes, and vegetables. It is then baked in a pie crust shaped like a calzone. Thanks for the great recommendation Bob. The Pasties were delicious.

We don’t normally take pictures of our food, but this one is for Bob. Marsha had chicken; Paul beef.

We toured downtown Cedarville in about five minutes this afternoon. Bought a couple gallons of spring water at the only grocery store, bought a hose repair coupling at the only hardware, and had a couple beverages at two of the FOUR bars.

The very busy main street in Cedarville.

Tons of marinas here in Cedarville.

Main attraction at the hardware store. Yes, that is a real moose.

One of  Paul’s favorite bars, Bumpas’.

The bar is in the shape of a boat.

Internet service is marginal at best up here. We stopped outside the library hoping to get WIFI – nope! We headed over to the school searching there – nope! Maybe at the Chamber of Commerce or the Visitor's Center – nope! At the last bar we stopped at, what did we find.....WIFI, and it's only a couple hundred yards down the street from the campground. Gotta love small towns UP North.....LOL.

Stop back as we continue searching for Paul's youth. This is turning out to be a “bar crawl”, but we are having a good time and loving the beautiful weather.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!