Marquette Waterfalls

Whitefish Falls

I spent most of the last two days ignoring TLC’s advice. First up was Whitefish Falls, it was the first of three that I went to yesterday. This one wasn’t very well marked, and the trail needed some improvements. I spent a good amount of the walk having to bend over while walking because there were so many low branches. This marker for the trailhead was a little creepy, and I think the whole walk ended up being a little creepy because of it:

Thankfully it was less than five minutes to the waterfall, so I was able to get in and out pretty quickly:

Au Train Falls

The Au Train Falls are fairly easily accessible because they are directly next to a hydro-electric station, so you can drive most of the way in. These were pretty falls but I expected more water, I’m not sure how they are able to make much electricity with the trickle that was coming through:

Laughing Whitefish Falls

Not to be confused with the regular Whitefish Falls, these were by far the largest of the day. It was about a half mile walk on an easy trail through the woods to get to the falls, with a mini waterfall on the way: Once at the falls, there was a pretty good view from the top: But the best view was down 155 steps to the bottom, looking back up: From the bottom it was tempting not to go back up the steps to slide down the falls.

Morgan Falls

All three falls yesterday were less than a mile round trip from the parking lot for each, but they were spread out, so it was a fair amount of driving in between them. Today, I only had one waterfall on the agenda, but I was able to take a route that added both distance and lots of elevation changes for a bit more of a challenge. I followed the Morgan Creek Loop “Carp Eh Diem” section of the Noquemanon Trail Network, which is a combination hiking and biking trail network in the area: It was about a three mile hike to the falls, between snaking up and down two decent size hills (baby mountains?) and dodging people on bikes, it was a challenging but beautiful hike that ended for me at Morgan Falls: On the way back, I took the easy route: a 1.5 mile dirt road that was just a slow decline all the way back to the parking lot.

Lake Superior Smokehouse Brewpub

Obviously any place that offers smoked meats and local craft beers is some place I’m going to have to check out, and this place did not disappoint. The brisket sandwich was amazing, with an excellent bark, just the right amount of smoke flavor, a home-made spicy BBQ sauce, and a phenomenal pretzel bun. By far the best food I’ve had from a restaurant on this trip so far, and it is up there with my favorite brisket I’ve ever had. The Lake Superior Wheat (ver. 2.1) beer was good too, although there was some room for improvement there at least.