So, as mentioned, the 16-year old and I went Up Nort' to Da U.P. this weekend to close up Mom's cottage for her.
It was peak color, unfortunately, sunshine was hard to come by for most of the day Saturday. Still, I think these give you a good idea of what we saw.
Here's a few shots of what it looked like across the lake:
I took a few shots on the way out and back, but like a dummy, I forgot to set my shutter speed up higher so there's a bit of motion blur.
Pretty as it was, it was a little cool.
The sun started to peak out a little before suppertime though. That gave John and I enough time to take a quick spin up to "the bush" to capture some nice images.
These next pictures are from where I used to ride my 4-wheeler just a short hop from my Mom's house. If anyone ever wonders why, at the age of 48, I still miss "home" and will ALWAYS say I'm "from" the U.P. of Michigan (though I've been in Wisconsin for nearly 22 years now), this is a big part of the answer.
Sunday morning we saddled up and headed back to Wisconsin. We got a later start than I like (7:30 a.m. Eastern) but that was on purpose. We had driven up late Friday night and the deer-count got up to 15. I wanted to make THIS drive in daylight. (Technically it was only 14 live ones. #15 had just been hit a few minutes before we got there and looked like a pinata "after" picture. There was some discussion and we felt that since he gave his life in such a messy fashion, he deserved to be enumerated.)
The morning's sunrise seemed to be trying to remind us who was truly King of Beautiful Colors, but later relented - perhaps recognizing that the trees deserved a couple days to show off without being up-staged.
South of L'Anse, we would encounter the harbinger of things to come.
John had just started napping, but I had to wake him up for THIS guy.
These were not telephoto shots. That big guy was right up by the side of road. I'd seen him from a distance a few times before over the years, but I'd never been this close. It's amazing how big they are. He seemed to consider challenging me (and I considered hitting the gas and getting out of Dodge) but then appeared to think better of it and faded back into the woods.
I've got a few hundred shots taken through the (somewhat dirty) windshield. This is the general flavor. You can see the colors fade a bit as we head south.
If we had stopped everywhere that had something worth taking a picture of, we'd probably still only be halfway home.
If you ever want to see it for yourself, peak color is typically right around the second week of October. We definitely hit it during peak color. In a week or so, it will be nothing but barren sticks poking up and pine trees.
I realize this post got pretty long, but I hope you all enjoyed it. It is IMPOSSIBLE to capture in a few pictures what it's really like to be there. The air is crisp and the smell of wet, fallen leaves seems to penetrate everything. If I had to make a list of the things I miss about the Copper Country, Fall Colors would be in the Top 3.
