As I sit and write the entry for day four I was thinking back to the fun things we did. Then I remembered the true day. We started the day heading to the Outdoor Adventure Program of Michigan Tech to rent Jonas a mountain bike. This itself was an adventure…
First, there is a lot of construction going on in the town right now. So it seems every where we need to go we need to follow a detour. Anyway, the website said the building was at the main trailhead. Well, since we are not from the area, I thought the trailhead was somewhere else. We arrived there and it was apartment buildings. From there I tried calling the number on the website. I kept getting a voice message regarding winter skiing. Thus I continued searching for this office. I found an address on the corner of Townsend and East street. We go there and it is a house that seems deserted. However there are signs out front that state “OAP Parking – 30 minutes”. So we knock and no one answers. At this point I called the University Recreation Number and they forward me to the OAP number and this time someone answers. I ask them where they are and they say “at the trailhead” so I ask for more directions. The people there were not aware of street name the office was on…it is located off a gravel road. On the map, there is a street name but I guess the people working there did not know it.
So now we have finally reached the OAP office. They have a large mountain bike, however their systems are down. They finally just have me fill out something on paper and signing that. Super. Now we spend a half hour getting the bike into the car. We finally get it in and then decide we don’t feel comfortable driving an hour or two with the way the bike fits in the car. So we take it back to the hotel and Jonas is disappointed as he had wanted us to bring his bike with us when we came to pick him up. He agrees to go riding later that day when we return from our adventures.
The original plan was to drive west to go to Copper Peak for Jonas to mountain bike and me to wait there with him while David was going to take Rachel to the Black River harbor area to see a suspension bridge and for Rachel to go swimming. However, this was a two hour drive and we were all grumpy from the morning bike experience. David knew of another place to stop…
Thus we stopped at the O Kun-de-Kun falls. This was a 1.3 mile hike which ended at a waterfall. There was also a suspension bridge crossing at the bottom. However we did not cross it because people had told us that they had been stung by wasps when they crossed. The kids played on the rocks for a little bit before we hiked back to the car.
At this point Rachel was frustrated as she wanted to go swimming somewhere. Jonas just wanted to ride a bike. I suggested we drive to the town of Ontonagon which has a beach and if anyone wanted something to eat they could get something here. Thus Rachel and Jonas had a late lunch and then we found a beach to hang out at for a little bit.
We arrived back at the hotel around 5:40 and Jonas promptly took the bike out to go riding. He gets on the bike and declares that it is too small for him. He is over 6 feet 2. This was the largest bike they had. So we get the bike back into the car and drive back to the OAP center which the website says closes at 7. Once again luck is not on our side. The place closed at 6.
Thus we headed back to the hotel. For dinner Rachel wanted the same thing she ate Friday night, the Studio Pizza. So I went out, picked it up, and returned back to the room. We ate dinner in the room, then went to bed.
Family Vacation Adventures 