The Upper Mitten

lakeclouds, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

On one of the earliest Sheeple Migrations I had the pleasure of participating in, the family went North to the Upper Peninsula when I was a wee lad of eight summers. This was our first big trip and was a lot of fun.

We drove along the Great North Road, across the Mighty Mac and into a wonderland. We of course stopped at a few Sheeple Bait Piles along the way, gathering treasures of sea shells, rubber tomahawks, and assorted bric-a-brac to mark our trail. Our first stop of significance was the Porcupine Mountains . Yep, Michigan has mountains and it was so cold you could spit ice cubes. Lake of the Clouds was an awesome site as we headed toward our next stop.

We drove into Copper Harbor and took a tour of one of the copper mines that was kinda scary, with the rickety elevator and the cold, dark mine shaft. We stopped at a Bait Pile and I got a copper pirate treasure chest bank. A real honest to goodness made from copper bank that I still have to this day.

Then we stopped in a little town called Christmas . There was a general store there and out back they had a real live bear in a cage. If I remember correctly, they got this bear when he was a cub after his mother was hit by a car and kept him there at the store until he died many years later. It was quite the attraction and there was a lot of people buying cokes and peanuts and watching the bear. Almost everyone I have ever talked to that took a Sheeple Migration into the U.P., stopped at Christmas and saw the bear. The better 1/2 did when she was a kid in the Fashion Challenged Seventies, just like I did.

Last stop was the Soo Locks in Saulte Ste Marie and we got to check out the locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. It was cool, we even got to watch a ship go through, and of course, got some more Treasures from a Bait Pile.

It was a great trip and a ton of fun. It was cold, it rained and my dad got the Inevitable Cold, but I had so much fun exploring the Upper Mitten for the first, but certainly not last time.