The Big-Sea-Water - Miners Castle to Miners Beach

Here's a map of the area I'm in right now, mostly I plan to stick to this section while I'm here.  Munising Tourist Park and the town of Christmas are pictured at the bottom left.  I plan to try to get to Grand Island on Monday if the weather looks good.

Before heading back to my crowded overflow tent site the other day I drove out to Miners Castle for the obligatory sunset view.  It's a pleasant half hour drive from Munising Tourist Park to the site, and since I was a few hours early I took the path to Miners Beach.

Walking along the North Country Trail is always fairly easy going but there is a hill to navigate down to the beach.  If you're wearing sneakers like I was just take your time.  Flip flops not recommended!

The birch bark lit the path, the breeze occasionally stirred past their trunks, the sandy path muffled my footsteps and for a while I felt like I had the woods and the Big-Sea-Water beyond them all to myself.

Miners River makes its way along the path as you get closer to the beach and is a good place to catch Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass.

Where the river meets Lake Superior I ducked through a tunnel of bushes that were just starting to bloom, enjoying their sweet fragrance and thankful they weren't attracting any bees...

As I emerged onto the sand I saw blueberry bushes lining the top of the dune!  The ones in the woods weren't even starting to make berries yet but the sun makes a difference and I stopped every few steps to grab another 5 or 6 ripe ones as I made my way along.

I skipped the beach for the time being and continued along the North Country Trail, seeing great views ahead down Miners Beach.

Once I finally made my way down there I soaked up the sun and sounds of the water hitting shore.

Heading back I passed families splashing in the waves and strong young men hauling kayaks out of the water.

Once I got caught too close to the water I gave it up as a lost cause and just walked in the water where the sand was firmer.  Before heading back up to Miners Castle I had to stop and empty the sand out of my drenched shoes though.

Even with my dallying I was still a bit too early for that late day light at Miners Castle but after all that walking in the sand I was ready to call it a day.  For comparison, here's a shot with my iPhone:

And here's one I took from the same spot in 2014 with my DSLR:

I sure miss my camera.  At first it was nice not carrying around the extra weight, but I'm starting to appreciate that it's worth the sacrifice to get the shots I want!