Nomad Adventures

Today started off with a cool discovery – a Luna moth was flexing its wings outside the campground bathroom. And it just got better from there – our boat tour from Rainy Lake Visitor Center cruised past several eagles’ nests and we saw some eagles nesting and several eagles flying too!

It was a great day all the way around, finished off with a homemade chocolate coffee ice cream sandwich from a local bakery.

But tonight the winds shifted to be coming from the north and the sky hazed over with the smoke coming down from the Canadian wildfires. A sad reminder of climate change hitting close to home, and another reason why I feel so compelled to experience the wild places that are still unspoiled.

Today was our first day visiting Voyageurs. We’re camping at a resort on Kabetogama Lake (pronounced cab ah TOE gah mah) which is a short bike ride away from the Kabetogama Visitor Center for the national park. I got my first passport stamp for this trip which was exciting, and we learned about the French explorers and traders who traveled through these waters and portaged between them to bring furs and other goods along the waterway. They were small men with 90 pound packs and the Hudson Bay Trading Company hired only people who couldn’t swim, so they would always stay with the canoes and cargo. We learned the waters between these lakes flow north. Tomorrow we head to another of the 4 visitor centers (Rainy Lake) and take a boat tour that includes a visit to a former gold mining camp.

I got to have a couple of long bike rides today and a walk on a forest trail where the mosquitoes and black flies were really hungry. 5 of the buggers nabbed me, but I got them all. And the lake calmed down as evening approached, so I took out one of the resort’s recreational kayaks for a peaceful paddle.

All told, an amazing and memorable visit to our first national park on the itinerary.

Today we left Wisconsin around 8:30am and headed northwest toward Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota. Somehow the 226 mile trip took us 6 hours, but that may have been because of a provisioning stop along the way.

I’m excited that we’re now in a campground where we’ll stay for a whole week. The travel days hauling the camper are not among my favorite things. And I’m not even the one driving. Ray has been complaining for a week now that he doesn’t like the short stays and is worried about getting burned out on it. To be fair, it’s a lot of work loading & unloading. And for me, I am not a relaxed passenger. Driving in cars is probably the most dangerous thing any of us do, statistically speaking, and when the truck and camper drift onto those rumble strips at the edges and middle of the highways, it surges my adrenaline. So we arrived in Minnesota a bit whipped out.

But it got me thinking about these creature comforts, these favorite things that we brought with us. Like my hammock. And books. And my Nemo Stargazer chair. And my goose down comforter. A small Turkish rug Rhian gave me that warms my feet when I get up from bed. Dark roast coffee with oat milk creamer in a ceramic mug made by my brother. Books. Ebooks. Audio books. Olive the dog. And finally, finally, time in my life to enjoy all these.

There were lots of other favorite things I gave up to get here, but letting go of all those THINGS made me feel lighter and made room for the possibility of travel and adventure, and truly those are at the top of my list of favorites.

Yesterday marked one full week on the road on our nomad travel adventure. We’ve learned a lot in a short time and already had some great experiences hiking and biking and touring. Here’s some of our stats so far:

• Visited 2 states
• Spent $410 in gas
• Visited 2 state parks and 2 national lakeshores
• Traveled approximately 811 miles (odometer ending at 3246)
• One ding in the new truck
• 2 mosquito bites and one black fly bite
• Lost 1-1/2 pounds
• Averaged 9368 steps per day, 4 miles per day walking
• Great biking on paths in TC and downtown to St. Ignace, with Olive riding along behind almost like she enjoyed it!
• Read 1 paperback, 2 e-books, and finished 1 audio book while driving (Nick Petrie, Peter Ash series, book 1)
• Experienced good weather overall, no rainy days but cold and windy in Munising
• Lessons learned:
• Double-check the black tank lever is shut before uncapping the cap at the dump (learned that the hard way – quite the shitty experience!).
• Double-check the sides for obstacles before pulling out of the site.
• Make sure to pack food for travel days to avoid the “hangries” since it’s not always easy to find a place to pull in at a restaurant when you’re hauling the camper.
• Stock up on fresh veg and supplies when in bigger towns, as the small shops in the boonies charge an arm and a leg and don’t have much selection.

Today we hiked on some trails along Pictured Rocks. We didn’t kayak them as we originally planned as it was still quite a cold day. I guess we should be grateful for the cool temps as they kept the black flies away!

We enjoyed the hike to Munising Falls and also to Miner’s Castle. And the trails there are part of the North Country National Scenic Trail. We saw several people who were backpacking along NCT, which, at 4800 miles, is actually longer in its entirety than the Appalachian Trail. I was inspired meeting an older couple who had so far backpacked 30+ miles of the trail, and they had only taken up backpacking 2 years ago. She told me it was a trip to Isle Royale National Park that got her started and one is never too old to start a backpacking adventure.

Not every day is going to be a winner, even when we’re visiting amazing places. Today we had difficulty getting out of the site at Straits state park and later found a big dent in the side of our brand new Chevy pickup. We’re talking new as in one month old. And it isn’t going to be easy to get body work done on the schedule we’re traveling.

But we’re here now in Munising, where I had planned to see Pictured Rocks by kayak, but it’s very cold and windy. I think we’ll go to plan b and hike the trails instead. Only one more night here then it’s off to Apostle Islands. Hoping kayaking will be better there!

We explored St. Ignace today, partaking of the local delicacy known in these parts as Pasties. A local told us the best ones were at Lehto’s, so we loaded up Olive on the e-bikes and headed downtown. Our pasties made a great breakfast, and we continued our downtown tour by visiting the Indian Museum.

Later at the campground Olive and I took a hike down the trails and saw some beautiful wildflowers.

Dinner was fresh whitefish from the local fish market grilled over the campfire.

One of the best things about this life is the chance I now have to stop and appreciate the little things, like the smell of the blooming lilacs and the fresh breeze off the lake and how nice it is to sleep in until 9am…

Today was a travel day as we packed up our site in TC and made our way north over the Mackinac Bridge to the Straits State Park. This was one site on Ray’s favorite list, but it proved challenging to get backed into our site. But the struggle was well worth it – this is a beautiful park right on the lake with a great view of the bridge.

So I have always had a wandering adventuresome spirit, which you might expect from a woman who met her husband while on a dive trip to the Caribbean, but why set off on a national park adventure? Why sell off our home, car, boat, and even my beloved baby grand piano to become travel trailer nomads? The inspiration came from an article I read about an ideal map to visit all the national parks. From there, we started making retirement plans that included buying a 26 foot travel trailer and hitting the road.

Since then I’ve been inspired by the stories of people I meet in person and online, who are living their best life on the road. Like the 70-something woman I met today as we were dumping before leaving TC. She lives out of her motor home, traveling the country visiting relatives and wintering in an Arizona town called Quartzsite. She said it’s RV heaven there – free camping on BLM land. I may just have to add that to the itinerary!

Another cool thing I heard about was to visit Custer SD when they are doing the buffalo round-up. Since SD is becoming my new listed state of residence, perhaps I’ll have to add that one to the list too.

Today we explored more of T.C. on our e-bikes. A 6 mile jaunt mostly on the paved Tart Trail took us downtown to Little Fleet where we had delicious pot stickers and wood fired pizza. I even enjoyed a slushy Miami Vice cocktail that was very refreshing. At Little Fleet, Olive whined when we left her at our shaded table to place our orders and some nice folks at a neighboring table tried to reassure her that we’d be back soon.

We struck up a conversation with them, and as often happens, “where are you from?” is a natural opening question. Now that we’re nomads, the answer becomes a bit more complicated. Turns out that Sandy Britton, our table neighbor, also harbors dreams of hitting the road to see the wild and beautiful places, but she doesn’t have a partner to travel with. By the end of our conversation though, she felt more inspired and started talking about how it might still be doable for her.

I hope Sandy finds the inspiration to make the nomad dream a reality. There’s something to be said for having every day be a holiday. So far I’m approaching this adventure with wonder and awe and I know there are amazing memories to be made.

We made the most of our adventure today by starting off in the morning kayaking on the state park beach on the east arm of Traverse Bay. The water was great – nice and calm. Olive didn’t appreciate being left at the campsite for the hour and a half we were gone, as she managed to wrap herself around a few trees, leaving very little rope to move around. Apparently, despite our best effort to move her obstacles, she still managed to find them! So when we went back to the beach for some additional swim time we left her in the air conditioned camper. Looks like she’ll be confined to quarters when we need to venture out, unless Ray puts up her playpen.

Olive was getting a little smelly and dirty from all the sand and dust at the park (it hadn’t rained in ages) so we took her to Pet Supply Plus where our friend google let us know there was a self-serve dog wash! Ray and I are not very good at that, but we managed to get her nice and clean, and we sure appreciated the aprons they supplied that kept us (mostly) dry.

We had a nice bike ride then capped off our day with a trip back to the beach to see the sunset. Tonight the sunset was a little disappointing – it was swallowed up in haze before it hit the horizon. But still brilliantly orange and beautiful.