PAGE SIX: Day Two. Part Two

July 9, 2025

Afternoon and Evening

After setting up my tent and taking a quick break, I took off on my bike again. I had to explore the town of Big Bay. Big Bay is located on a big bay, but Big Bay is not a big town. It only has about 400 people, so I'm not sure "explore" is the right word. Paris and Chicago are cities to be explored; Big Bay can be seen with a quick bike-thru.

I know it's an exaggeration, but I've been calling Big Bay "the Edge of America" because it fits in with my EDGE theme. But the fact remains that Big Bay really is at the end of the road. A bike rider can go no further without riding his bike into cold Lake Superior and trying to pedal to Canada.

What I learned during my Big Bay bike-thru today is that the town has the appearance and aura of an Alaskan outpost. The buildings are what we architecture buffs like to call, "Minimalist Arctic Chic."

Cram's General Store is the only source of gasoline, groceries and other essentials in town. It even has a hardware section, a laundromat, and a restaurant. It also has a cannon on top. (This wasn't in my original notes, but just now I wondered if the cannon was installed to defend against all the terrorists and fentanyl pushers that, according to our president, are invading the U.S. from Canada.)

This confirms my "end of the road" claims.

I have to believe Cram's General Store drove this place out of the gas station business.

I'm not sure if that's a smokestack or a lighthouse.

The Next Segment

Toward the end of last year's U.P. journal, I discussed the book and movie, "Anatomy of a Murder." Instead of linking you to that page, I'll provide a quick recap.

In 1952, a murder was committed at the Lumberjack Tavern in Big Bay.

An attorney from Marquette County defended the accused murderer.
The attorney wrote a book based on the case.
The book became a best seller.
The famous director, Otto Preminger, made a movie based on the book. He enlisted some of the top actors of the time to star in his movie--Jimmy Stewart, George C. Scott, Lee Remick, and Ben Gazarra.
The movie was filmed entirely in Marquette County--mostly in Big Bay and Marquette. It was released in 1959 and received several Academy Award nominations.
Sixty-five years later, I named it as one of my favorite movies of all time in a journal called, "ME & The U.P."

Anyway, most of the buildings shown in the previous sequence of photos were used during the filming of the movie. To his credit, Preminger chose to use authentic locations rather than Hollywood studio sets. Good decision, Otto.

[An aside: I could not help but laugh at the sign on the front of the Lumberjack Tavern. "Murder free since 1952" has got to be one of the best marketing campaigns ever.]

************

After riding through the Big Bay metro area, I continued on around Lake Independence. I hoped to be able to look back and get some good pictures of the Huron Mountains from the opposite side of the lake where I was encamped. It ended up being a ride of failure. It was a torturous ride through view-blockers and mosquitoes. It might have been different had I felt edgy enough to trespass on private property, but since I'm losing my edge, I am unable to show a single lake and mountain photo.

The only redeeming part of that wasted ride was the deer sightings. I saw at least ten deer. Two of them were cute spotted fawns.

I've got to tell you, I was happy to get back to the Perkins Park Campground. I was tired, sweaty, thirsty, and anxious to get down to some serious writing and sketching.

The first thing I had to take care of was the sweaty thing. I'm here to tell you that no shower on earth could have felt as good as the bandana bath I gave myself. It involved nothing more than wiping down with cold water from the campground spigot and air-drying in the hot sun. The only more luxurious bath would be to take a dip in the lake. I did that too.

Soon after cleaning up, I was ready to express myself through my art. I was thankful to have a picnic table. For sure, I love wild camping in the wilderness, being miles away from other people, not being worried about check-in or check-out times, and enjoying a total immersion into The Church of the Great Outdoors. On the other hand, in all my years of backpacking, I never found a campsite that had a surface as hard and level for writing and drawing pictures as a picnic table. That's why I'm here at Perkins Park.

If you show up at almost any campground on a weekday and ask for a site in the tents only area, there's a good chance you'll get some scenery and privacy. The RV sites are further back in the woods.

While working on my journal, I was interrupted by a dude who asked, "how are you doing sir?"

"Oh, pretty good. How about you?" I responded.

"I'm good too. Have a blessed day, sir." The "sir" business made me a little uncomfortable, but I let it go. I wanted to say I was already blessed by The Church of the Great Outdoors, but I let that go too.

Then I heard a loud argument coming from the RV area. A loud woman's voice and a loud man's voice seemed to be arguing over a campsite. Damn, I wouldn't have to hear THAT shit if I was wild camping in a secluded grove of pine trees. If I hadn't been mellowing out with some warm beer at my own site, I might have gone over there to mediate the situation.

I finally got to start walking around the park. I didn't get very far before I came across a co-ed beach volleyball game. It was fun to watch. The players weren't professionals by any means, but they knew what they were doing. And there was a distinct smell of marijuana in the air.

When I got back to my campsite, I noticed my privacy had been invaded by a trio of women who I estimated to be in the 20-to-25 year age group. I didn't have to eavesdrop because they were pretty loud. I could hear they were mixing up a batch of margueritas and had wine as a back-up.

It took them a while to set up their large tent. It took even longer for them to start the fire upon which they were going to cook their skewers of hotdogs.

It was all pretty amusing. Less amusing was my own descent into edgelessness. For a guy who claims he loves complete wilderness and tries to avoid human contact, I sure have written a lot about people--campground fights, blessings from Bible thumpers, stoner volleyball games, and campground neighbors.

It was time for me to make dinner. Like an old backpacker, I started my camp stove, boiled water, and poured the boiled water into the Mountain Home food pouch. It was chicken fried rice. I generally like freeze-dried backpacker meals, but this one was not good.

It's nice to know I could have saved it for 30 years. Maybe I would have like it better in 2054.

I ate my dinner and frequently looked out on my view of the lake. It was beautiful.

It was beautiful until my camping neighbors crashed into the lake and spoiled my view. How dare they? For the most part, I averted my eyes and looked over to another part of the lake.

The view I had while lying on my back on the picnic table.

There are only two options to get from Big Bay back to the civilized world:

1) Turn around and ride the paved Highway 550 from Marquette you came in on, or

2) take the gravel option--County Road 510.

After so many stumbles, the only way I'll be able to restore my edge is to ride the longer, hillier, gravelier, option. That's what I'll try to tackle tomorrow.

BONUS MATERIAL

Here are a few Anatomy of a Murder pictures, taken after I got back to Marquette.

The Feeshko and I saw this retro poster of "Anatomy of a Murder."

This is the Marquette County Courthouse. The original murder case was tried here, and the trial scenes for the movie were filmed here.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	7
Comment on this entry	Comment	1

Karen PoretThis was a real UP story! :)
Reply to this comment
1 month ago