Backpacking: Pictured Rocks Lakeshore

Curtis and I left the kids with my parents for 4 days so we could go on a trip just the two of us. (It was our first trip together -- we never got a honeymoon or anything.) We went backpacking in Pictured Rocks Lakeshore National Park. It was along Lake Superior on the upper penninsula of Michigan. The trail pretty well follows the coastline for 42 miles. We hiked all 42 miles in 4 days, carrying our 25-40 lb packs the whole way. It was quite the workout, but the scenery is beautiful. There was pretty much a great coastline picture at every turn. After a while, we just got tired of taking one picture of the coast after another. Here's just some of our pictures:

Walking the trail. And no we didn't hold hands the whole time, we were just having fun with the timer on our camera. It kinda looks like we love each other though.
ha ha ha

Here's the Au Sable Lighthouse. Surprisingly, there were a bunch of shipwreck remains right on the shore under the lighthouse. They must have forgot to turn on the light on those occasions or something. You can't tell, but we had to stand out in the rain to get this picture.

Here's the Hurricane River that runs right into Lake Superior.

The third night we were alone in the campground and the campground was full of mosquitos. So we went down to the beach and spent most of the evening there. It felt really good to walk around in the sand barefoot.

This is "Chapel Rock." Had to take a picture there because it is one of the landmarks people go to see.

It was so cold this morning. But we still managed to get a picture at the Miner's Castle. Although this is just shoreline.

Don't look down! There were many places where, had I passed out or slipped, I would have fallen right off the cliff. You can kind of see the colors on the rocks, that's why they call it "Pictured Rocks Lakeshore National Park."

Curtis is doing some filtering of the water. No we didn't pack enough water for 4 days, we drank water from nature. Ooh exotic! And thanks to the filter, we didn't get any diseases.

Curtis GPSing! Even though the trail was pretty much idiot-proof. You have no idea how much we used the GPS. Whether it just be for the time, or to give us an idea of how much farther we had to go. You have no idea how happy we were when it started measuring in feet rather than miles to the car.

Pretty beach shot. This was the first day about 3 miles into the hike. It was actually a perfect day for hiking. Not too hot, not too cold and absolutely beautiful.

Little waterfall. We had fun taking pictures with the timer on the camera. Using downed trees or even our packs to set the camera on.

Curtis looking rather 'studly' if I do say so.

The trail wasn't always flat and easy. There was mud to manuver around. Trees to walk across. Hills to climb. Sand to scramble through. Cliffs to avoid falling off.