We made quick work of breakfast and packing away the tent and our gear on Wednesday morning.
We had to be in Munising by noon to make sure we didn't miss our reservations with the
transportation service that was going to take us to our starting point. When we arrived in Munising,
we parked in the lot near the National Park Service building and went inside. The NPS ranger
reviewed our itinerary, went over the seven
leave no trace principles of being in the backcountry,
explained to us how to best prevent and possibly deal with the local bear population and then gave us
our backcountry permit. We spent the last 20 minutes filling our water bottles and making last minute
checks. The Altran shuttle bus arrived on time at 1:00 p.m. and took us to our starting point near
Little Beaver Lake about a 20-30 minute drive away. The last several miles of the drive was down a
dirt road that was just barely a few inches wider than the shuttle bus itself. There were trees
on both sides of the road edge which would have made it impossible to pull off to the side had
another vehicle been traveling in the opposite direction.
We got off the shuttle and immediately began our hike which started in dense forest and cool shade.
Having never hiked through bear country I thought this might be a good place to see one. I kept a
watchful eye toward the horizon all around us and also at the trail for signs that bear may be in the
area, but I didn't find anything interesting. A short time later we emerged from the trees into an
open, grassy field dotted with an occasional tree. We hiked through the field a short distance and
eventually came to the edge of Beaver Lake. By now the sun was high in the sky and there was a
gentle, refreshing breeze whisking through trees. The view was nice and it was getting hot so we
took off the backpacks to take a break. We walked out into the lake for a while looking for a good
spot to do some fishing, but soon gave up the idea of catching any fish due to the very shallow water
which extended quite a way out into the lake.
We eventually resumed our hike toward the Coves group camp area which was our stop for the night.
We again headed back into the forested area of

the lakeshore and found the trail to be relatively
easy. A short distance from the Beaver Creek camp area we used
a nice a-frame log bridge to cross a river that emerged from
the woods and flowed into Lake Superior. Just downstream from the bridge was
a big log jam that choked the river to the point that it was not possible to
see the river below all the weather-worn dead trees. About an hour later we
arrived at the location where we expected to find the Coves camp area, but
to our dismay, it was nowhere to be found. We were both ready to call an end to the hiking because
we were ready for dinner, but we would not be able to do that until we found our camp site. We felt
sure we were in the right area but we did not find any signs that confirmed our thoughts. We
decided to split up and look for the camp area. After approximately 15 minutes of hard searching, we
finally stumbled across the group camp area. We both agreed that the camp area and other places of
interest were not as well marked as they had been on Isle Royale. As a matter of fact, we did not
even see a sign anywhere near the Coves camp that would have directed us off the main trail. After
we set up camp I spoke to another hiker who told me that she too felt that things were not very
clearly marked.
We chose to have some Velveeta shells and cheese for dinner along with a couple other foods. Since
we needed to refill our water bottles and get water for dinner we decided to just stay down by the

lake. We hung our toothpaste and the food we were not going to use from the bear
pole nearby and then took our dinner, pots, water bottles, stove and the water filter
down to lake and began to filter our water. When we finally had enough water we
fired up the stove and waited for the cold, Lake Superior water to come to a boil.
While dinner was cooking I stopped to talk to another hiker who was filtering water
from the lake. She said she and her boyfriend had just finished a several day hike
at the Porcupine Mountains on the western side of the Upper Peninsula and then
came to the Pictured Rocks for another hike. She said they had not seen any bear

here, however, the Porcupine Mountains were supposedly well
known for its bear population and they apparently found out the hard way. When
they returned to their vehicle at the end of their hike they discovered that a curious
bear had been there before they arrived. They had inadvertently left a roll of
sweet tarts in the center console between the front seats. The bear smelled it from
outside, broke out the window and tore up the inside of their car in an attempt to
retrieve the sweet smelling treat. Apparently there was another vehicle that
suffered a similar fate except the bear walked all over that vehicle and dented up
the roof and hood. We ate dinner on beach, cleaned up the silverware and dishes
and then relaxed on the sand as the sun began to set and the cool air blew in off of Lake Superior.
It was a relaxing end to the day after the hiking.

Prior to leaving for this trip Ken checked the
Space Weather web site for the
most up-to-date solar forecast. The most recent data predicted a decent
amount of geomagnetic activity for this latitude. Since the temperature was
dropping steadily and there were no clouds in the sky it appeared as though
we may have a good opportunity to see the northern lights. We set the alarm
on my watch and woke up at 1:00 a.m. since the northern lights

seem to be
more prevalent after local midnight. We slowly made our way through the trees and
down onto the beach with the small amount of light being produced by a mini maglite
flashlight. We had to dress in a couple layers of clothes because the night air near
Lake Superior was rather breezy and chilly. When we arrived at the beach we
immediately discovered thousands of points of light mixed in with ghostly shades of
red and green light dancing across the sky to the north just above the pitch black
lake. We brought our cameras just in case we were fortunate enough to see such a
sight. For the next hour we took numerous pictures at various settings and exposure
lengths in hopes of capturing

what we were seeing. Just as we were becoming too
cold to continue we could see the horizon becoming brighter off to the east
above the treeline; it was the moon rising. I managed to get a nice picture of
the treeline, the northern lights and the moon just as it was appearing over the
top of the trees. After this final picture we returned to the campsite and went
to sleep for the rest of the night.
Miles covered today: 6.0
Total trip miles: 15.5
Day 4
This page last updated on 02-25-2016 @ 11:22 AM