Sept 29, 2011 Michigan John’s birthday the 28th

We headed toward Iron Mountain Michigan. Saw a few sights  along the  way.

cow with a lake painted on him, an albino deer

Chipmunk rapids, don’t sound very scary, The bus at Rivers bend RV park in Iron Mountain

fall foliage, John hiking in fall foliage

More fall foliage. We were in Piers Gorge. John read that there were some hairy rapids there on the Menominee River. There are 4 rapids, pier 1, 2, 3,4

this is Pier 3, a class IV rapid. It is basically a waterfall with a 10 foot drop. the first  photo is where John decided he would come down it, and here is scouting it

cool light, maple leaves

reflection of the colors in a pool by the river, Welcome to Norway, Michigan

the worlds largest steam engine and a glider used in WWII to silently fly troops and equipment behind enemy lines. The wood parts were made here in Iron Mountain.

For his birthday John wanted to boat the gorge. Here he is carrying his boat up river.

and here is the run.

The other rapids were smaller, a class III and a II. I of course had to take the photos. Someone needed too. Even though I also wanted to run this. . .  NOT.

a timber rattler. They say they live in the trees and can drop on you. This is the only we saw and it was on the ground. Do not climb poison ivy—DUH! he sign was by Fumee falls

Fumee falls, The Dickenson county jail

Sue at Sue’s Beauty  Boutique and the bat viewing area. The supposedly have a million bats that come to hibernate in this mine in the winter. They come in August. They come out at sunset to feed. I saw the bats coming out of Carlsbad at sunset once. It took an hour for them all the emerge and it was beautiful. Iron Mountains bats must be shy, we only saw 5.

The bat cave, John of course had to go to the chamber of commerce and ask if Robin was in the cave(of batman), We did see a nice sunset there.

 

I took John to dinner at an Italian restaurant. John wanted to go there because the sign said Chicken, Ribs, pasta and snowmobilers. We didn’t see snowmobilers on the menu. The next day we saw that the sign had a tiny welcome in front of the snowmobilers.