Sometimes It Doesn't Seem Like it's Worth the Effort

But you'll never know unless you try!

Monday, August 8th - - After leaving the Keweenaw Peninsula, I headed south (really, the only direction I could go from there!) and, after a few hours, entered Wisconsin. My sojourn in Pure Michigan had come to an end. A beautiful place, but honestly, I was tired of the humidity - I was hot and sticky during the day and cold and clammy at night! Some place with a little less humidity was in my forecast.

My stay in Wisconsin would be brief – one night and parts of two days traveling across the uppermost tip and along the shoreline of Lake Superior. A quick check of the map and I saw that Copper Falls State Park was just a few miles across the Wisconsin state line, southwest of the town of Ironwood. I arrived at Copper Falls early in the afternoon and secured a very nice campsite.

I had gotten some information about trails when I checked in and the lady at the desk told me about two popular hikes. One of the hikes was to an observation tower. Now, she didn't explicitly state that there was a nice view but it was somewhat implied. You know, it's an observation tower so there “has” to be a good view. She did state that there was a flight of stairs with a few steps involved along the trail as well as at the tower itself. My knees do much better on the way up stairs than they do on the way down, but, I thought I could handle what she described. After a short walk along a relatively smooth trail, uphill, I came to this:

It didn't look so bad. Wide steps and each one wasn't very high. Onward I went. This is the view looking down from the top.

And this is what awaited around the bend...

At the top of that stairway was more of the uphill path. And then, this:

I figured, what the heck, I'm there. Might as well go for it. And this is what I saw from the top of the observation tower.

And this is the view in another direction... I think you get the idea!

I'm sure that in the fall this would be absolutely gorgeous. Maybe even in the winter or the spring when there are no leaves on the trees. Maybe then you could actually see the surrounding countryside. But in the summer? Not so much.

Not all walks or hikes are going to give you spectacular views. But each one does give you an appreciation for nature and this amazing world in which we live. It's not the destination that matters, but the journey itself, and what happens along the way. So I tell myself when these things happen, which thankfully, hasn't been too often.

I took it slow and easy on the way down. Yeah, the knees were hurting some by the time I got back to the bottom. But once back on level ground the pain eased up and I continued on to another little hike.