Run west to Munising

Monday, June 5 -- Grand Marais to Munising (42 miles)

We started the day with the intent of running all the way to Marquette, but weather intervened and we ended up settling for Munising. We filled up with diesel and were underway by 10:30. We had a lovely ride for the first hour or so, passing the Grand Sable dunes just west of Grand Marais (which are part of the Picture Rocks National Lakeshore), but again with a lot of haze and poor visibility. It is hard to appreciate the scale of these dunes. They are about 400' above the water level. Look at the trees to get a sense of scale.

Just past Grand Sable we passed the Au Sable Point lighthouse, which was built in 1874 and automated in 1958, but is still active.

About ten miles past Au Sable Light we ran into a fog bank. Visibility was probably just a few hundred feet, so we slowed down to 10 mph and kept a close eye on the GPS and the depth finder. We rode along like this for about an hour when all of a sudden the sandstone cliff at Grand Portal Point emerged from the fog. It was rather dramatic. We were a couple hundred yards offshore and in over 30' of water. 

Over the next couple of miles the fog cleared and we had some pretty nice views of the famous Pictured Rocks along the shoreline leading southwest towards Munising. 

The waves were picking up all this time, and by now we had one-footers coming out of the NW. Even though it was early afternoon, we decided to give up on Marquette and pull into Munising instead as we were tired (running in the fog is draining) and didn't want to spend another three hours slugging into seas which would likely be building. 

Munising proclaims itself to be the gateway to the Pictured Rocks area, which it probably is, but it still isn't much of a town. One traffic light, a few bars and restaurants, lots of sports outfitters and such, a good local hardware store, but no decent grocery within walking distance. (There was one but it closed last year.) We spent the afternoon exploring the town, this didn't take long then doing some chores and reading. For dinner we found a gourmet wood-fired pizza place  located next door to a local brewery and both proved quite satisfactory. 

In this photo you can see Craunological II tied up towards the end of the town dock. Three of the half dozen or so Pictured Rocks tour boats are tied to the inside of the protecting breakwall. The shoreline with the Pictured Rocks is off to the right and Grand Island is to the left. This is looking roughly north. 

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