Three Easy Days of Walking to Escanaba: October 30-November 1, 2009
October 30, 2009
Day One
It was raining as I left Becky and John’s house at about 8 am. I had left most of my gear at their house to lighten my load. Old Route 28 led back to Route 28 itself and it wasn’t long before I reached the roadside park by Deer Lake. In 1988 I had camped by the lake. An incredible sunset had painted the sky with a deep orange. A bat had swooped down and brushed the lake surface, causing ripples that spread slowly across the lake. Mars had been a small red dot in the sky, as the planet was at its closest to Earth back then. It had been a magical place to camp. As the rain fell, on a grey October day, the place felt different. ‘No Camping’ signs were posted by the lake. It felt as if I was in a different world now.
Beyond Deer Lake I phoned Amy Wilson at Marquette General Hospice in Escanaba. Amy was ready to pick me up about 30 miles north of Escanaba on Monday, which meant I had three easy days walking. All was well.
Without the weight of the pack it took me seven hours’ walk to reach the junction of Route 28 with Route 41. Route 41 would take me south to Escanaba. As I walked I remembered that Charlotte Loonsfoot, who had made me a sandwich in her car by the roadside, had said that the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was shaped like a jumping deer. Escanaba was positioned at the shoulder of the deer and Ironwood at its snout. Michigan would soon be at an end for me… and that was a good feeling.
A strange park, sign posted as Laakanen Land, appeared before me. On the roadside were painted white footprints of a dinosaur. They led to a giant green dinosaur sculpture made from gaudily painted pieces of scrap metal. It was a strange place. As I stood looking at the dinosaur, a truck pulled up, with three men inside. They asked me about the walk and it turned out that one of the men had been helped by hospice when his mother had died. I gave the men cards with details of the National Hospice Foundation website. They wished me luck and drove off.
Interviews with Channel 6 and 10
The rain eased, but as Lake Superior appeared again to my right the wind picked up. A roadside park by the lake shore was just ahead. It was good timing, for, as I walked towards the park, a van emblazoned with ‘Channel 6 News’ pulled up in front of me. A young man called Scott interviewed and filmed me, first at the park by the lake shore, then walking on down the road towards Marquette. Yellow sand, pine trees, and the silvery gray expanse of Lake Superior were the backdrop to the interview. I encouraged the people of Marquette to support Lake Superior Hospice. Once Scott disappeared I stopped to eat a pasty that Dorothy had packed into a plastic bag for me… it was good.
I had just finished a snack at McDonalds on the outskirts of Marquette when Becky arrived. It was a short drive to the hospice office. There I was met by a young girl from Channel 10 news. The reporter was very young and very apologetic, but did a good job of filming and interviewing me and Becky. The two television interviews would air that night, telling people what I was up to as I headed south to Escanaba.
Visiting Lake Superior Hospice
At Lake Superior Hospice there was lasagna and salad to eat. It went down easily, which probably meant that I was making up for all the calories I’d been burning up. I was introduced to the staff at Lake Superior Hospice. There was one woman called Sarah, a nurse’s aide. As we were talking about her long hours working she said she didn’t feed her kids. What she meant was that her mother fed her kids while she worked from 10 pm onwards through the night, or up to 10 pm, but it made everyone in the room laugh all the same.
October 31, 2009
Morning Walk
Saturday dawned and Becky was feeling unwell and stayed in bed. I hoped it wasn’t swine flu. My cold was now completely gone and I didn’t want to pick up anything else. John cooked me eggs and bacon and drove me back to the junction of Routes 28 and 41. We arranged for him to pick me up at midday from where I’d walked to on Route 41. This was good, as there wasn’t much in the way of towns between Marquette and Escanaba.
As John left it was raining again. My feet were soon wet in my New Balance running shoes, but I was feeling good all the same. I passed a sign about the U.P. 200 dog sled race. With it now nearing November snow should soon be on its way. As if to echo this thought I saw a formation of geese, flying in their traditional energy saving V shape across the sky and heading south. As I watched them a second group of geese, who looked like a total rabble, flew off towards the east, I decided snow wouldn’t come just yet.
I listened to my CD player and sang along to songs. As I did this a truck pulled up in front of me and I felt slightly embarrassed. A man who was dressed like a hunter rolled down his window and I walked over to talk to him. His name was Rich. He had seen me on the television and had a newspaper with a story about me in it. He got me to autograph the newspaper and handed me a cup of coffee in a Styrofoam cup. He also gave me a donation for the Lake Superior Hospice. I shook his hand and thanked him for stopping.
By midday I was close to the small town of Trenary. John’s truck pulled up ahead of me and I was soon heading back into Marquette. When we got back to John and Becky’s house Becky was feeling better. We had a late lunch or early dinner.
The food was antelope that John had shot out in Wyoming on a hunting trip. It had been cooked as a ‘French dip’, sort of like a thin soup that you could dip bread into. It was good. Both John and Becky hunted and had trophy heads on the wall of the house and in a pole barn a few miles from the house.
Afternoon Walk: “Powers of the Air”
After we had eaten, Becky drove me back to the roadside by Scott Falls, where I had been a couple of days ago. On a rocky outcrop by the shore of Lake Superior, just where I had seen the two bald eagles, there was a carving of the face of a Native American, called ‘Powers of the Air’. The carving in the rock had been made in 1820 by a French trapper who was working as a guide for Lewis Cass. Cass was on an exploration trip that would ultimately take him to the source of the Mississippi in Minnesota. My journey would take me to within 20 miles of where Cass had found the source of the Mississippi.
The carving in the rock could now barely be seen, but a replica of the original carving was mounted on a sign close by. The trapper had made the carving after he heard Powers of the Air sing a song telling of how all the men of the Grand Island Ojibwa tribe had fought in a battle against the Sioux.
On a quiet Saturday afternoon, standing by the shores of Lake Superior, it was strange to think of all that had taken place there less than two hundred years ago.
November 1, 2009
Becky dropped me at the spot where I had walked to the previous day. Just beyond a small town called Skandia, I saw a black shape by the road side. I moved closer, cautiously, and recognized the shape as a young black bear. It was probably about a year old, with a small snout, and had been killed by a car or truck. It was sad to see it lying by the roadside.
As I walked on, I looked into the woods and swampy ground to either side of the road, wondering if the cub’s mother was close by. I had another pasty in my pack and wondered, too, if the smell of that would be of interest to any bears that were in the area.
At a roadside park I ate the pasty and drank some water. A couple drove up in a pickup truck and gave me a donation for hospice: they, too, had seen me on television.
At around midday a woman from Lake Superior Hospice called Terri picked me up from the road, close to a building that was signposted as ‘The Old School House.’ Terri drove me to a bookshop in Marquette. There was a book signing there from 1 to 2 pm. On a quiet Sunday afternoon four couples came into the book store. I talked to them and sold three books.
