Circle Tour - Day 2

I made my way last night to Lake 7 campground in Hiawatha National Forest, northeast of Rapid River.  I was greeted by the camp hosts who offered firewood and ice, neither of which I needed (no time for a fire and no cooler).. They said they come up from Texas every summer to work as hosts.  But wait a minute, I said.  In no way is that a Texas accent.

They are transplants from Scotland, it turned out.  We talked about Aberdeen, Gairloch and then got on the subject of ghosts.  There are more ghosts in Scotland than anywhere else, I said.  I had been to Culloden which reeks of spectres and Glencoe, where the Campbells massacred the MacDonalds is ghostly, too.

The hostess told me that the MacDonald corporation tried to sue a restaurant near Glen Coe, but it was owned by real MacDonalds and The MacDonald, the laird, stepped in.  End of lawsuit. After all, couldn't HE sue MacDonalds?

Lake 7 is another one of those lovely little lakes.  The sand beach stretches half way around it.

I took a dip just as the sun set. 

There was one problem with the campground.It was almost full.  It is July and that means family gatherings and beer parties.  At 12:30, drunks were shrieking behind my tent. In the next site, the guy ran his generator all night long. There were yapping little dogs everywhere.   Quiet time in the national forest starts at 10:00 pm. but you wouldn't know it.

I was tired enough to get a good night's sleep but at 6:30 I was up and at 8:00 on the road again. 

I didn't use Gary's GPS but was doing my usual zen driving.  Today it wasn't working.  Shortcuts turned into logging roads which intersected with more logging roads so I was going in the wrong direction much of the time.  That is when I discovered general stores. Not only did they have maps, they also had cell phone and wi fi coverage of a sort, and always.....Jilbert ice cream. Ah, zanzibar chocolate is whatever wayward soul needs.

I finally found my way to the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, 95,000 acres of habitat, established in 1935 by Roosevelt.  (Remember when politicians did good things?)  One of the species in danger that found a refuge here is the trumpeter swan, the biggest of the swans. The tundra swans we see in Shiocton are nothing compared to the trumpeters.

This is the best I could do with my little camera.  I couldn't catch a pair of swans with their three cygnets, but their future is assured because in several locations I saw dozens of swans . . . as Gary says, swanning about.

A ranger let me look through his telescopic lens to watch an osprey tend her young, but this was the best I could do for a photo.

Finally, I needed to find a place to write this blog.  I spotted an ice cream parlor and inside was a teenage boy.  You can trust a teenage boy dishing up ice cream.  I asked him where I could go and he directed me to the back of the community center.  So here I am on a picnic table behind the center overlooking Lake Superior.

Tonight, another campground.