08-09-05 @ 9:33 am EDT

Thanks to the people who commented on my last entry! :)

All right, since I know absolutely everyone is FALLING all over themselves wanting to know what happened...

This was my planned itinerary for this year:

Marquette Park--go R. to Crow's Nest Trail
     L. is Anne's Tablet Trail (L. again?)
     R. to Huron Rd., L. to Cass Memorial
     OR:
Take Fort St., turn R. on Huron Rd.
     R. again?, Cass Memorial on R.
From Cass Memorial:
     Turn L. on Huron Rd., to Garrison Rd. (Sinclair Grove on L.)
     Pass tennis courts on R.
     Turn R. on N. Bicycle Trail
     Turn 2nd R. on Lime Kiln Trail
          Lime Kiln on L.?
     Come to Rock Trail, turn back
     Take R. on NB Trail to Rifle Range Rd.
     Turn L., go to Skull Cave--Natural Amph. on R.
From Skull Cave:
     Go L. on RR Rd.
     L. on Sugar Loaf Rd./North Bicycle Trail--SL on R.
From Sugar Loaf:
     Try to go L. on Juniper Trail
     Vista Rock to L. in woods?
     Turn back, to SL
From Sugar Loaf:
     Take steps to Pt. Lookout
     Take R. path to Fort Holmes Rd.--go R.
     Go R. on Morning Snack Trail--explore a bit
     Go L. on Beechwood Trail, take to Garrison Rd.
     Go R. on Crooked Tree Rd.
     2nd L.--Soldier's Garden Trail to Soldier's Garden
From Soldier's Garden:
     Take SG Trail to Leslie Ave., keep going
     Turn L. on Tranquil Bluff Trail
     Turn/keep to R.--NOT Scott's Rd., but TBT (2nd R.)
     Take R.--Eagle Pt. Cave?
From Eagle Point Cave: (explore woods on L. a bit? NE Crack?)
     Turn L., head back Tranquil Bluff Trail, keep L. twice, turn R. on Soldier's Garden Trail, then L. on Leslie Ave.;
     OR: Keep taking TBT to Arch Rock
From Arch Rock:
     Turn R. on Spring Trail, go to shore--Dwightwood Spring
     Take Lakeshore Rd. to Robinson's Folly, check around for Fairy Arch remains
     Head back to Spring Trail
     Turn L. on Manitou Trail to Robinson's Folly
From Robinson's Folly:
     Head L., turn L. on Huron Rd. if possible
     Pass cottages
     On L.--Crow's Nest Trail, down to park
     Indian Dorm?

All right...let's hope this doesn't go on TOO long... >_<

Ma and I went into town first to buy a few postcards, and I wanted to look in the bookstore. I ended up buying three books I've been really wanting to read, Warren's History Of The Ojibway People (actually I hadn't gotten it before because it looked boring online, but in person it looks more interesting), Vogel's Indian Names In Michigan (our library has this but last time I wanted it it was checked out), and Kohl's Kitchi-Gami: Life Among The Lake Superior Ojibway. This last one is actually available online public domain, for free (the original printing, that is), and I was going to print it out, but...this book is like over 400 pages long...it's actually cheaper just to BUY it. o_o Besides, I really wanted a nice paper copy in my hands...nice thick book. These join two recent eBay purchases, Barnouw's Wisconsin Chippewa Myths & Tales & Their Relation To Chippewa Life, and Brown and Brightman's The Orders Of The Dreamed: George Nelson On Cree & Northern Ojibwa Religion & Myth, 1823, as books I would love to get the damn time to read someday. >_< But anyway, back to the island...

We headed toward Marquette Park, and I actually got to check out the insides of the Missionary Bark Chapel--the thing was actually OPEN for once. o_o Inside is an exhibit featuring a missionary and a fur trader, or Indian; it's hard to tell. My photo is woefully blurry because I had to take it without the flash, hence at a slower shutter speed; normally I'm good at this but maybe my hands were shaky yesterday. :/ Anyway, I left there and went to find Ma.

I left the books with Ma in Marquette Park, and she pointed out Crow's Nest Trail. I've never even BEEN in that side of the park before so I had no clue where it could be but she pointed out a little set of steps just barely visible among the greenery. Feeling nervous (it goes up RIGHT beside the fort--and you have to pay to get into the fort), I gathered all my stuff and approached it. It's this set of steps and landings leading up the side of the bluff the fort is set upon, and there are all sorts of funky trees and rock formations along the way! Who ever knew any of that was up there? I thought of Wood's Historic Mackinac, where he described a particularly funky tree known as Big Molar which was supposed to be situated in this area (though Wood never named Crow's Nest Trail). I did spot a very weird tree cemented in place by limestone...I think some island workers had even helped it along by cementing it with REAL cement. It doesn't look like a molar but it is very weird. Then I remembered that Wood named Big Molar as a linden tree (basswood, I think), and I'm pretty sure what I was looking at was a cedar. :/ So...no clue. I did figure that after all this time, Big Molar likely doesn't exist anymore.

I got to the top and found my way to Anne's Tablet Trail. It was kind of twisty and turny up in here but I located Anne's Tablet. This is a memorial set up to the author Constance Fenimore Woolson, who wrote the novel Anne, which was set on Mackinac Island. (They had copies of it for sale at the store but I don't know what it's about other than that, so didn't get it. What puzzles me is a lot of her other work is available online public domain, but I can't find Anne! What's the deal??) The memorial is very nice. There's a big plaque with...either Anne or Woolson (I'm not sure which :/ ) reaching up toward a tree branch. Encircling the little clearing of this plaque (which overlooks the lake) are three little stone benches listing Woolson's written works. The plaque itself has an engraving upon it:

She used to whisper to them to tell them how much she loved them.

"Her old friends."

She loved the island and the island trees; she loved the wild larches, the tall spires of the spruces bossed with lighter green, the gray pines and the rings of the juniper.

Hear the rustling and the laughing of the forest and the wash of the waters on the pebbly beach.

At the bottom of the plaque it reads:

That was rather nice to see. Too bad I could never be held in such esteem as that. :/

Well, it was on to find the Cass Memorial. The paths back here were so twisty and turny though that I wasn't sure where I was going. As I walked along I was puzzled to notice a deep hollow in the ground and then it struck me. Wood's old books had mentioned two spots known as Indian's Council and Indian Frying Pan. One is a natural miniature circular park surrounded by "arbor vitae" (cedar), while the other is an indentation in the ground where heat would gather in the summer. They were both supposed to be in the area of Sinclair Grove, which was right near Anne's Tablet. Well take a look at that! I found a landmark I wasn't even LOOKING for! :D

I found my way to the Cass Memorial and it was eh. :/ Just a wall with a plaque and his picture and some info about him. Blah. I tried finding Sinclair Grove--it's even listed on the 2004 map--but all that I could find in that area was a little sign reading Greany Grove, and a sign saying it was permitted for scout use only or something. :/ Well...so much for Sinclair Grove. I followed my itinerary and eventually made my way to North Bicycle Trail, but I got puzzled as to which way I wanted to go--to keep along the same trail until I reached Lime Kiln Trail, or to turn right on Rock Trail and take THAT to Lime Kiln Trail (it intersects both of them). I was originally going to keep to North Bicycle Trail when I noticed a little annotation "FK" in this area on my map. I'd written that in there in reference to Wood's books. FK? That could only mean "Forest King." According to Wood, Forest King was a GIGANTIC pine tree standing in the woods and acting as a sort of natural marker, telling visitors which way to go. According to Wood it was a VERY impressive tree.

I had last heard reference to it in a Fifties guidebook of mine. Not since. I really doubted Forest King even existed anymore.

Still, I decided to alter my course and head right because it would be easier anyway. I started walking along and looking up at all the pine trees around me. Would I even know what a "Forest King" would look like? I did see some pines that were rather impressive in terms of size, but none of them struck me as being a Forest King. That original description was written almost a hundred years ago, and the most recent one was about fifty years ago. They blew up the Fairy Arch, so why should I think a mere tree would still be around. :/

I sighed a bit, snapping some random pictures. I then looked up to my left and...saw it. o_o Forest King. The tree I spotted then HAD to be the Forest King!

It was this HUGE, GIGANTIC pine tree--of a species different from all around it--standing atop a little hillock, like it was placed there to be conspicuous. Its trunk was wider than any of the others, and when I looked up into its branches, they surrounded it in this HUGE array of spikes, all around the top of it! Just this MASSIVE network of branches twisting every which way! Have you ever seen Princess Mononoke? Remember that Spirit of the Forest or whatever, with those funky weird horns that just go EVERY which way? Well that was EXACTLY what this tree's branches looked like. A great twisting crown of them!

Weeeeee!! I found the Forest King! The Forest King's still alive! WEEEEEE!! ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ I had to step up to it--him?--and touch it with my fingers, look at its grooved and knotted bark. Even its color was different from every other tree around it. I stepped around behind the tree and looked down at its roots to notice something peculiar. Namely, there was either a hunk of rock or of concrete back here, placed in such a way that it held two crow's feathers upright. :/ I poked at this and thought that maybe the feathers had just fallen, but there were two of them, both standing upright as if stuck there, so the chances of them just FALLING that way seem slim, to me. Could be a coincidence, but who knows? Maybe somebody else saw this huge tree and felt obliged to leave some sort of offering of their own.

I didn't have an offering but I did scoop up a few of the needles and a bit of the loam surrounding the tree's base (couldn't even reach earth!), and put them into a bag. Had to save some of this for my necklace! (I'd already picked up a little dried sprig of cedar and put that in it.) I almost didn't do this, as I hadn't had a baggie labeled for the Forest King--I really hadn't even planned to LOOK for it! So I had to go back and label a new baggie, ask the tree if it would mind I took a few needles from the ground, thank it, and leave again. WOW what a tree. It was no redwood, but compared to everything around it, I just KNOW that was the Forest King. And I got to see it. :D

I made my way to Lime Kiln Trail and poked around but never did find the old lime kiln. :( So that was a bust. I passed the old rifle range and what was PROBABLY the natural amphitheater, but I was not impressed; it just looked like woods. According to Wood, "fully 10,000 people" could be seated here and an orator's voice would be heard clearly by all. Eh. I don't buy it. Sorry, Wood.

This was right to the side of Skull Cave. I intended to collect a little rock and a bit of soil from the base of the cave to use in my necklace...but that hope was dashed. For you see, there is now a FENCE surrounding the whole of Skull Cave, for the first time in all the years that I have seen it...it is now officially off limits. :( Last time I was there--back in 2000, I believe--it was still perfectly acceptable for people to climb up into the cave, and go walking out over it. Well, at least, nothing was ever DONE about this. Now there are "Keep off" and "No climbing" signs all over the place, and there is no way to access the cave anymore without jumping the fence...which I was not willing to do. I fully understand WHY they did this...these are natural limestone formations, thousands of years old, and Skull Cave has extra significance as the place where fur trader Alexander Henry hid out during Pontiac's uprising. But still...it's a little AFTER THE FACT to enact this measure now...and while I can understand them sectioning off the top, why the cave mouth itself?? In all my time there I never saw anybody ever deface it, except for a boy who was scratching patterns on the floor with a rock--and big whoop about that! It was just dust. With a bit of sadness and much anxiety I had to settle for collecting a rock and a bit of dust from the trail leading up to the cave, rather than from the cave itself.

It wasn't so much this restriction on Skull Cave that bothered me, as what it entailed. Sugar Loaf Rock was one of my next stops! A giant limestone stack! Would IT have a big fence around it, too--? And even worse, what about Cave of the Woods? I was just there LAST YEAR and it was still open! Will IT be blocked off now, too? I really, really want to return there soon and crawl inside! I love that cave! :*(

Well...there was nothing I could do but go on. -_- I left Skull Cave and made my way to Sugar Loaf Rock.

*whew* I was surprised to find no fence around it! Just the same old stack as always. I was the only one there, so I crept my way up the steep slope leading to it--the same slope I had to crabwalk down some years back, because I was so afraid of falling. I poked around the base of the rock and noticed for the first time all the little holes in it, and how plants are growing out of it! It even looked like someone had once lit a fire in a little hollow beneath it--ggrrr, very much against park rules >:/ . I got a good look at the Devil's Bake Oven, the tiny cave in the side of the rock, which in olden times had a little staircase leading up to it, but that's been gone for ages and ages. I wonder what it looks like inside? Judging by the actions at Skull Cave, I will never know.

It was very simple for me to gather a rock and some dirt from here--the most difficult thing was choosing where from! After I collected this I very easily made my way down--not along the trail I'd crabwalked, but another one which was very short and not too steep at all. That was weird. I'd expected to get like a cat caught up a tree. :/ Well, at least I didn't have to worry about Sugar Loaf just yet, but I still do worry about Cave of the Woods. Let me have my cave!!

I reached Juniper Trail and attempted to locate Vista Rock...but either it no longer exists, or it is so thickly shielded by trees that it's invisible. :( So...that was a bust, too. *sigh* I made my way back to Sugar Loaf and here was accosted by a bicycling couple who were unsure of where they were, and seeing as I was walking along with a pretty resolved look on my face, I guess I must've just looked like I knew where I was going. I showed them my map and they exclaimed over it--"That's the ONE thing we forgot, to get a map!" I did have an extra map in my pack but I got it as a souvenir at a store so didn't want to give it up... :( They mulled over my printout map a bit and figured out which way they had to go; the man spotted my digital camera and exclaimed, "It's a Canon convention going on here!" They thanked me for the help and went on their way, while I located the stairway up to Point Lookout, and started on my way up. -_-

I kept my eyes open in case Vista Rock would show up along the way, but no luck. What there was was little holes in the limestone cliff I ascended, just like little caves, and I took pictures. At Point Lookout I got pictures of Sugar Loaf from above, with the lake in the distance; I got a picture of the point itself, but there was a couple situated there talking, and they weren't showing any signs of leaving so I had to include them in the shot. :/ I wound may way down Fort Holmes Road, Morning Snack Trail, and Beechwood Trail. Wasn't really anything stupendous up here; I had originally intended to "explore" a bit in the hopes of finding a ravine I've heard is up there. However, on reading the description of where this ravine was, I knew it was much closer to the other end of the Turtle's Back and I wouldn't see it over here, so I just kept walking on my way.

I am here resuming the writing of this entry from yesterday. I kept falling asleep in the middle of it! ^_^ So, this is a day later than the previous part. You may need to take two days, literally, just to READ this entire thing.

Let me give a little aside here regarding the "Turtle's Back." According to tradition, "Mackinac" is from the Ojibwa name meaning Great Turtle--there are in fact many stories both agreeing with and disputing this claim, but most seem to say that the actual meaning of the original word, Michinimakinong, is something like Great Turtle, Great Dancing Spirits, or Dancing Turtle Spirits. According to an old legend, there was once a tribe that lived on the island, known as the Mishinimaki (or other variant spellings), who were obliterated by an enemy tribe--all but for two, a man and a woman. A visiting group of local natives, probably Ottawa (a sister tribe of the Ojibwa), stopped by and were told their woeful tale. Following this, the two remaining Mishinimaki fled the island, and were rumored to have become two spirits who still watch over people from the wilderness. I myself have opted for a sort of middle ground regarding all the stories. There very well could have been an ancient tribe called the Mishinimaki, which was killed off long ago. I like to just summarize the meaning of Michinimakinong as "Great Turtle," but IMO the long meaning could be "Island of the Great Dancing Turtle Spirits"! The best of all worlds. ^_^

Well...this is the reason why the highest part of the island, that which includes Fort Holmes and Point Lookout, is known as the Turtle's Back. This bluff was the only part of the island which was above the waters of great glacial Lake Algonquin thousands of years ago. The lake receded over time, becoming Lakes Huron and Michigan, and now the rest of the island is exposed, but this tiny bit was once all that existed above the waves. It is also known as ancient Mackinac Island. Caves which are situated far inland, like Skull Cave and Cave of the Woods, are actually sea caves, and were formed long ago when lake wave action carved away the softer rock within them. Which means that Skull Cave, which rests just at the bottom of the Turtle's Back and at the top of a steep rise, and Sugar Loaf itself, and all of the other island's natural formations, once stood right on the shore of the island! Kind of weird to think of WATER once lapping at all of these inland formations, isn't it...?

I was busily tramping my way through the woods on the Turtle's Back when it occurred to me exactly where I was--on the most ancient part of the island itself. o_o I immediately stopped and looked around me. It just looked like regular old woods, not even the really thick deep kind that I prefer. Younger trees, as the island was long ago practically deforested. Yet during this trip I'd noticed something I never had--almost EVERY dirt trail I wandered showed traces of limestone beneath them. If I looked down long enough, I'd see hunks of the rock peeping out of the soil as I walked over them. I'd never noticed those before. I knew the island was mostly limestone but I never knew it was THAT prevalent. I just assumed all of this was dirt and the limestone was in the formations. I realized I was practically walking along the top of a gigantic hunk of stone and that these very rocks once peeped above the surface of Lake Algonquin so long ago that I couldn't even imagine it.

The wind was gusting in the trees overhead and I shut my eyes briefly. It sounded almost exactly like waves crashing on the shore. I could almost picture this tiny bit of bluff being buffeted by waves in the distant past, everything that would someday be Skull Cave and Cave of the Woods and Arch Rock and Sugar Loaf still being underwater, and not existing just yet. o_o Eerie.

I stopped to take a bit of soil and a rock from here even though I hadn't planned to. I mean, it wasn't even a site, it was just the top of the island. But the thought of how ANCIENT all of this was was enough to convince me to take a little piece home. I then continued on my way.

Well, I reached Crooked Tree Road and started on my way to the Soldier's Garden. This is also known as the Great Garden(s) and was supposedly once used by the soldiers of the fort, though I think also that they had simply taken it over from earlier Indian usage. I do not know if these tales are true but according to Wood there were supposed to be lots of beautiful flowers there now. So I was fully expecting a little opening full of wildflowers. Along the way I passed a smallish clearing which was WAY out of the ordinary on this island, as almost everything is forested! A small plane went over as I watched; that was one thing that marred this whole trip, there were PLANES taking off and landing up the wazoo! I've NEVER seen or heard so many planes on that island. Their engine noises kind of spoiled the otherwise serene NOTHINGNESS of being out in the middle of nowhere. Usually when I'm on the island I can imagine I'm the only other person in existence, but those planes kind of ruined that this time. >_<

I passed an old glove trampled into the road. Reminding me that I am NOT, in fact, the only person who had ever walked this road. If it hadn't been for the frequent little piles of horse manure here and there, I could have easily believed I was the first one to walk these trails in years. I actually had thoughts of going to the bathroom out here (sorry) because THERE WERE NO BATHROOMS ANYWHERE!! >_< The only one along my route would be all the way back at Arch Rock! I really do believe there were all sorts of places I could have gone and no one would have ever known, but fortunately for you, the reader(s), I did not succumb to temptation. I'm surprised I managed to walk so long without needing a break. More on that later. o_o

I finally reached the Soldier's Garden. It was not what I expected. :/ Far from being a field full of flowers, it was just...a little field full of...not much. Just a small grassy enclosure with a foot trail running through it. Hm. So much for Wood. :/ I squatted here and took my first drink of water since starting out...ugh, I was so thirsty! -_- I picked up a crow's feather I found lying right in the trail--I had found another one not that far back, along Crooked Tree Road or Soldier's Garden Trail--as well as a sample and then departed, heading through the "garden." I now made my way to Tranquil Bluff Trail to attempt to locate Eagle Point Cave, which had evaded me my last time there since I had taken Scott's Road and gone by it the wrong way. I wouldn't do that THIS time if I could help it!

It was hard keeping to the right trail because they wind around a lot and there are lots of other trails waiting to mislead you, and they are not always the best at putting up SIGNS to tell you where you are--you usually have to walk to the end and THEN a sign shows up, as if to say, "Oh--oh yeah, you're on THIS trail. Sorry!" >:/ At least it wasn't as bad as the West Bluff. I was utterly confused for a moment when I came to the intersection with Swamp Trail because I hadn't been expecting it, but a look at the map showed me I was headed the right way. Here was a sign with a jumping horse on it and the trail sign naming it as a horse jumping trail. "Most Difficult," the horse sign read. I took a photo of that and intend to caption it with something like, "If you're CRAZY, maybe!!"

I reached Tranquil Bluff Trail. I had taken a section of this on my last trip, when working my way out to Friendship's Altar or British Landing Nature Trail. Just a rocky little thing it had been. Well, it proved to be much the same way out here. I found the little trail that was supposed to lead to Eagle Point Cave and took it. I expected to come to a high rocky bluff wall with a cave facing me, a hole set up high in it, because this was what had been in a photograph an island worker had once sent me. According to him, it had been an unnamed cave he'd found and had "nearly killed" himself trying to access. So of course, I was very nervous of how I would reach it even if I found it. According to another visitor to my site a couple of months back, he'd been surprised not to find any photos of the cave on my site since he'd found it on his last trip. That gave me a bit of hope that MAYBE it was accessible. Eventually I came to a steep drop on my left and halted, confused. The land rose up steeply ahead of me and there were trees growing out of the side of the...rock? I craned my neck and peered down. Yes, rock. A cave.

Oh CRAP that was a steep, steep cave!! O_O

I had come out on TOP of it--just like Cave of the Woods! The cave DID face the shore, NOT inland like I had come to believe. NUTS because in Return To Manitou Island, I made the cave face INLAND!! >_< GGRRRRR I HATE VAGUE DESCRIPTIONS!! This cave IS set way up in the side of the bluff, but facing the shore, and it is COMPLETELY inaccessible from the looks of it. I saw what I believe was the little stairway that once led down to it and it is SO eroded that there's practically nothing there now but a couple of slices of rock, then a very steep sloping drop. Even WITH the stairs, I doubt I could have ever made it down!

From up here, this did NOT look like the cave the island worker had sent me pictures of. But I couldn't really tell, I guess. All I know is now I have to find a way to correct its appearance in my own story! Dumb thing!! I already used that escape card on the Fairy Arch! >_<

Well, I walked around on top of it for a bit, and took what pictures I could, though it scared the hell out of me just to be up there. I could not walk out to the very tip of the overhang, where a tree was situated. I kept freezing and whimpering. I am such a total wuss. >_< I took a sample and then left a little something by one of the trees...*don't tell anyone*...just a teeny note to anybody who happens to find it, hopefully years from now. I put it in a little plastic baggie and placed a rock on top of it. With my luck, it will be carried off by squirrels, or else a worker for the Park Commission will somehow read this, and I will then be arrested and fined. >:/ Anyway, moving on...

So much for peeping into the cave. *sigh* -_- I doubled back and then continued north along the trail, where I had meant to peek around for any sign of the Northeast Crack. This is a crack like Crack-in-the-Island, only smaller I would guess, that is supposed to be in this area; likewise there is a Northwest Crack, but I believe that's on private land now. I didn't really hope to find it though as there's lots of tree cover and I did not want to chance hitting any poison ivy. And I was getting REALLY tired by now--I hadn't eaten all day, and all I'd had that morning was some M&M's! -_- Needless to say I found no Crack, and headed back. I stopped by where I believe Scott's Cave was once located. This is a nice cave that I have seen in only one photograph so far. I can't find any other images. :( It no longer exists, and was supposedly destroyed to make gravel. -_- I heard it was quite a nice cave, big enough to stand in, though honestly if it DID still exist it would probably have a fence around it too!

No Scott's Cave, but I did come out at the top of a high bluff with a trail leading down the practically vertical side. This is the location where I saw the little sidetrail back in 2004, which I had plans of taking up from Scott's Road to Tranquil Bluff Trail in case I didn't locate Eagle Point Cave from there. As soon as I'd seen that rise I would have to take, I promptly said, "I don't think so!!"...and continued on my way along Scott's Road. On Scott's Road I had also passed what I assumed to be the BACK of Eagle Point Cave. Well guess what! I think that was the front after all! >:/ And this was the very same bluff I had once looked UP at a year ago. *shudder*

I took a sample from here in case it was in fact where Scott's Cave once was. Though I do think that cave was situated significantly lower down the bluff. *shrug*

I planned on taking Tranquil Bluff Trail all the way back to Arch Rock to save time since it's less windy than Leslie Avenue. And I went a good ways, too. Until I reached a spot where I noticed that the trail seemed to go virtually VERTICAL ahead of me, and lost hope. I had no idea this trail was so dangerous!! I sighed and turned onto the nearby Murray Trail. I guessed I would have to take Leslie Avenue after all. -_-

Somewhere along either Tranquil Bluff Trail or Murray Trail I located ANOTHER cave! An unlisted one! :D It, like Eagle Point Cave, was situated just beneath the drop to my left, and I could not climb down to see it. But it really did look like an actual cave, albeit a smallish one. How curious! No caves are listed in this area! I wonder if it was simply a cave-in, or unlisted because it's inaccessible--even Eagle Point Cave isn't included on most maps. Wish I'd known it was there sooner, I would have stuck my characters X'aaru and Khiieta in it since in RTMI they were looking for a cave around in that area. ^_^ In the story they ended up further south. Oh well, maybe I can use it for something else.

I reached Leslie Avenue, which is paved, and continued south. It was odd because at some points the land rose on BOTH sides of the road, which was unexpected since it's located along the edge of the bluff. Another thing I noticed was something which I make extensive use of in my writing. In my Manitou Island stories, people are always doing things in hollows--falling into them, climbing out of them, hiding in them, jumping over them, etc. I thought I was just taking a lot of artistic license with something that doesn't actually exist there in any great numbers. Well, guess what? I kept passing hollows up the WAZOO. There had been some impressive ones along Tranquil Bluff Trail earlier, and there were a lot of them here too. Quite interesting! I wonder if any of those hollows conceal collapsed caves...? I tried to locate where exactly my fictional Red Leaf Tribe would live but wasn't certain. Oh well. It was somewhere in this area. Leslie Avenue went on forEVER. _-_ I came to a pretty overlook which I assumed led to Nicolet Watchtower, but it didn't. Also at one point I came up near a steep dirt trail and assumed it must be Tranquil Bluff Trail, touching base with Leslie Avenue. It STILL looked like it could kill people. I kept on the paved trail and decided that twisting and turning was better than tumbling off a bluff any day.

I had been catching glimpses of the lakeshore before now and finally reached Arch Rock--restrooms! Restrooms!! I had been walking from around 10 AM to 4:30 PM without one bathroom break!! How the hell did I do that?? I usually can't hold it more than two hours unless I'm SLEEPING! Six and a half hours without a break? Eegh! There were a few people lounging around here--I could have sworn one of them was Ma, even, sitting nearby, yet it wasn't--not nearly as many as I had expected, but I still felt very self-conscious. I was so sweaty and smudged with dirt and tired! I did take a few requisite shots of the Arch--there were a few people standing out in the water, and a boat--but didn't collect any sample. For one thing, most of the land around the rock is paved, and they recently redid it from the looks of it--very nice. And for another thing I didn't want to walk up to the base of the rock and I didn't want any of these people seeing me. I afterward went to the bathroom and washed up a bit. I exited and looked around desperately for the drinking fountain since I had finished my water! I found a man filling his own bottle at the fountain and waited until he was done. Nobody else was headed for it so I took my chance. I went over to it and...looked around. I couldn't find out how to turn the damn thing on! I even peered under it--no button!! *cries* How did that guy even work it??

I finally thought to look DOWN. Duh. It was a foot-pedal fountain. _-_ I pressed the pedal with my foot, but nothing happened. >_< ! I put all my weight on it now and it let out this horrible noise. It started rattling and thudding and whooshing, and it sounded just like it was sucking up water from the beach 150 feet below. Rattle-rattle-whoooooosshhhh-gukukkuk-whoooosshh-SPLISSHHHH! Water FINALLY started flowing out of it and I drank until I was full. It smelled like chemicals. >_< Blech. At least it was palatable. I stopped drinking before it could turn into a geyser or suck Lake Huron dry or something. o_o

I had planned, here, to take Spring Trail down to the shore and walk northward a bit in the hopes of finding the remains of the Fairy Arch, another formation which was allegedly blown up to provide road gravel. But I was so dead tired. -_- I guessed I would have to save that for NEXT year. *sigh* I really did not think I could make it--even the walk along Huron Road to Robinson's Folly nearly killed me. I kept stopping and gasping for breath, my head swimming, and my arm felt like it was going to fall off; I switched my pack to my right shoulder for a short time, but that just made it worse. Whenever I slipped it back over my left shoulder, it hurt like hell! But I eventually grew used to it. It was the ACHE that drove me nuts. As I've said before, when the pain is in an extremity--a foot, an elbow--I can take it like there's no tomorrow. But when it's in my head, or neck, or shoulder, or torso/stomach/back, I am just a TOTAL wimp. My big toes were going numb for some reason but I could take that and the pain in my knees and hips. But my shoulder was driving me nuts, and I had an awful headache. "I walked nine hours last year," I kept moaning to myself. "It hasn't even been that long this time yet! Why am I such a wimp? Why can't I do that again?" *sigh*

I thought I would never reach Robinson's Folly. I had a false alarm when I THOUGHT I had reached the best overlook the place offered, and I wasn't so impressed as I thought I would be. :/ I'd seen an old antique photo of Victorian ladies perched atop the Folly and there had been a fenced-in overlook there. Wasn't one here. I walked along a bit after taking my sample, however, and found just that, and felt a little stupid. Well, I'll assume that the part I had been on was part of the Folly too, just not the overlook part, so my sample should count.

Let me backtrack a bit to when I was still winding my way toward the Folly. I was feeling gloomy that I would have to cut my visit to the shore short, as I had really been looking forward to dipping my feet in the lake, and listening for the springs, and trying to locate where the Fairy Arch once stood. :*( As I walked along I looked up and saw something that looked like a small dog cross my path. I paused and frowned--what was a dog doing up here? I moved closer and peered into the woods to my left and saw what it really was--a RABBIT! :D It just sat there staring off into space and I smiled at it. It was almost like a sign that it was best that I had cut my shore visit to make my way straight to the Folly. Otherwise, I wouldn't have ever seen the rabbit. Anyone who reads this journal regularly should know what rabbits signify to me so that was pretty nice to see at that point.

Atop the Folly there is actually a sign reading, "DANGER--People Below. Throwing Objects Prohibited." ^_^ *LMAO* There was also a good view of the far end of town and I could see the breakwater and lighthouse. This was my first ever time ATOP Robinson's Folly; I've only ever seen it from below, and it wasn't until 2002 that I actually realized what it WAS. I limped back to Manitou Trail--it opened up under heavy leaf cover, with a fence leading to it, and looked so eerie and inviting--that's what's currently on my desktop. I took this again to Huron Road and was treated to some nice shots of the bluff, grown over with cedars. The Canon captures green so much nicer than the old Polaroid.

I came toward town and had an excellent view of it! I saw some weird squarish projection that looked a lot like one of the fort blockhouses but it wasn't, and I'm not sure what it was. :/ Huron Road leads right past the front of the East Bluff cottages and I was worried that I would be kicked off for trespassing but nobody accosted me. I tried to make my way straight through, stopping only to do the typical fudgie thing and snap photos of the "painted ladies." (That means houses. For those of you who aren't aware, since I take the term for granted, "fudgie" is the northern Michigan term for a tourist of the most annoying, cheesy sort. All those people who travel to the island just to take a picture of the Grand Hotel, and Arch Rock, and snap up some fudge and then go back home without ever even realizing that there is anything ELSE there? Those are fudgies. I hope that I am at least one tiny step above a fudgie in that I at least take the time to REALLY look at the island, though when everything is said and done, I am still a cheesy person taking photos of rocks and houses. >_< I hope the islanders see my site and can grant me a little leeway.)

There were some very nice houses here, much prettier than on the West Bluff! Phhhbbttt! I spotted one I believe I first saw years ago when Ma and I went, and for some reason I neglected to take a picture of it. Back then I remembered it as being purple with columns and silver trim--very gorgeous. However, my understanding of the island's layout was so bad back then that I had thought this was back in town near Market Street or something! (I had also thought that my brother's and my trip past Surrey Hills Square back in 2001 had been way toward the MIDDLE of the island, when in fact it is much closer to town! Cripes, MAPS would have been nice back then. >_< ) Well, now I know the houses are in fact on the East Bluff overlooking the harbor, and this house no longer looked purple and silver. I'm still not sure WHAT its exact color is. It looked kind of darker gray-blue. I'm not sure if it had silver on it. But it did have columns. I'm fairly certain that's the house I remember from before.

There were all kinds of great views of the town from here. It was hard to capture a good shot though because the trees were so tall. I caught sight of a woman in a plain Victorian dress and hat, carrying a basket. :D I was so tempted to ask her if I could take her picture, but I didn't want to bother her--FUDGIEFUDGIEFUDGIE!--so she walked on by. Yes, seeing that sort of thing is normal around here... I located the steps leading down into Marquette Park once again, though I was puzzled because they looked different; I didn't remember having come up at this point. In fact, I hadn't passed any of the painted ladies on my way up at all. :/ Still, it was steps, so I started to take them.

I just got more confused after a few landings and so stopped to look at my map. Below me I saw a STREET and a church! Those hadn't been there before! I then realized what I'd done wrong. There are in fact THREE sets of steps leading down into town, and this one led out onto CHURCH Street--NOT Marquette Park! Nuts! >_< I was so exhausted that I actually considered just taking it, but then I would have to walk down Church Street--no longer state park land--all the way to Main Street, then back up that toward town, and then back up into the park...so tiring!! So with a great sigh I made my way back UP the stairs, back to Huron Street. I think every one of my muscles was crying. -_-

I huffed and wheezed my way past the second set of stairs. All this way I kept hearing insane HOWLING coming from the town and I still do not know what all of that was about. I spotted a horse hitching post painted baby blue with streamers waving from it. And a small white cat on the opposite side of the fence along the road. It looked at me as I approached but when I got right up to it and called it, it just completely ignored me. >:/ *cue Ma's later exclamation of "I think it's related to ANOTHER cat I know!"* Just the day before, I had wondered aloud whether they had cats on the island, seeing as I never saw any stray ones--well, here you go. I spotted one more painted lady which looked like a barn. :/ Then I at last espied the Cass Memorial again *weeping for joy* and the way back to Crow's Nest Trail. I didn't have any stupid people to compete with (on my way up, there had been a gaggle of teenage girls, who somehow didn't manage to get the thought in their heads that anybody might be WAITING FOR THEM TO GET THE HELL OFF THE TRAIL SO THEY CAN GET PAST), but it was just as steep and creepy as before, plus my weight was all off as my pack was still on my right side but I was now going down. Ugh, I hate heights. -_- I made sure to take a shot of the sign right beside the stairs which reads "Climbing Prohibited" -_^ and then made it into the park. GAWD those steps go on forever!! Unlike last year, I didn't have to look long before I found Ma, still seated nearby working on her crafts. She kept asking me things like, "Want to go back into town? Want to go to the casino? Want to go to Dairy Queen?" (She actually asked the second a while later, and the third on the way home.) All I could do was answer with, "No! No! NO!!" I was just so TIRED! And I'd already bought my books so let's just get the hell out of there. No wonder I go to the island only once a year. I think if I went more I would keel over dead. _-_ She started telling me of how a LADYBUG had bitten her (she was quite offended about this) when the fort cannon, perched on the bluff right over our heads, fired and scared the liver out of us. "It's been DOING that all day!" she groused.

"Well, that's what they do," I said. "I just never knew it was quite that...loud...before." o_o

"Well, that was when I decided that ladybug was no longer a lady and so I SQUISHED it!" she finished.

We started packing up our stuff and Ma said, "The next time, I'm going to get some WALKIE-TALKIES!"

"Why?" I asked, innocently enough. "Were you worried?" Cripes, I hadn't even returned until after seven PM last year, and here it was still only 5:30.

"Well, what if you fall down and break your leg?"

"Well, if I do," I said, "then what you do is wait until the last ferry leaves, then go into town, contact the police, and they'll send out a search party for me. Besides, if I fall and get killed here, I fall and get killed here. At least it'll be on the island and I'll go out doing what I like best!" :P

She has since said, now that I've been walking around the past two days like I've just gotten off of a weeklong horse ride, that it's stupid to walk around all day. :( I wish she'd understand that I LIKE walking around that place, no matter how much it hurts later on. I wouldn't do it otherwise. At least it's exercise, too. Why must she say that what I enjoy is stupid? I don't tell her her crafting is stupid. Her going to the casino every week, yes, stupid, but I don't make a point of telling her that every time. When we had first made plans to go to the island, before a thunderstorm arrived at the last minute, she was peeved that I had called it off because "I just want to get it over with!" I understand her not enjoying it like I do, but at least I don't make her walk around with me anymore, and she COULD show a bit more encouragement seeing as this is one of the very few things in life that bring me happiness anymore. :/

Well, I ate my sandwich in the car after the ferry ride home (during which a stupid family of UBER-FUDGIES had been waltzing around filming things and eating ice cream and drinking drinks, the kids yelling and waving around toy rifles--great choice of a purchase, parents!--as they raced back and forth, despite what the ferry captain had said about NO FOOD OR DRINK AND EVERYBODY PLEASE STAY SEATED!!), and when we got home the snotty little Manpuss didn't want to do anything other than sniff my feet. >:/ (My very last photograph, taken a bit later, is of my feet...they are practically black...with clean bands from where the sandal straps had been covering them. Ugh.) I promptly took a bath and washed my hair because I felt so FILTHY!! I still didn't feel clean afterwards. And I think my sandwich had gone bad after all because I had to keep going to the bathroom the rest of the night. -_- And today, the day after, I now have a COLD!! Where did that come from? One of those brats on the ferry, I bet! Anyway, I'm sniffling and sneezing now, but I have a lot more pictures--over 270, I think--and I got to see a few things I've never seen before, plus I got some nice books, and best of all I visited the Forest King. :) So IMO, it was worth it.

Now I'll have to find the time to update my website. _-_ Wish I had more space and a more reliable webhost. The one it's on doesn't even have tech support for when NOTHING'S working! How lame is that? I had to e-mail their ABUSE e-mail to complain to them once how none of their subdomains were working. An abuse e-mail, but no tech support. Cripes.

In UNRELATED news, yesterday in between dozing off I managed to start what is my first new Kemet story in years, just because I haven't written one in so long and the rest of my writing is sucking. :/ It's just a boring little one regarding Ra and Sokar, though I hope to follow it up with a longer and maybe not quite as boring one regarding Sokar and Selket and Apesh, though who knows, with me. Just thought I'd toss that out there.

And that's how my island trip went, so I guess that's that. I hope you enjoyed falling asleep in the middle of this just as much as I did. Not proofed, so any typos you see are the result of a tired brain and/or too-fast typing, and not of stupidity or ignorance.