Hiking by the Hungarian Falls with friends

Lake just above the dam at Hungarian Falls

Last Saturday evening we traveled with friends to the Hungarian Falls, just north of Hancock, near Dollar Bay.

We aimed to hike by the falls before eating dinner in Calumet at Carmelitas, a Mexican restaurant, where you buy chips and  delicious pico de gallo for a buck.  If you want, you can buy a Thimbleberry Margarita, not that we did.

Beginnings of autumn colors

One might wish for a sunny evening, the kind where light reflects against early autumn leaves.  Alas, the skies remained gray and overcast.

Oh well.  I took out the camera anyway and opted to take pictures.

Our friends Deb and Chuck

Deb and Chuck, as some of you might remember, went to our son’s wedding in San Diego last fall.  Almost a year ago already, can you believe it?

After the hoop-la and festivities died down out there beside the Pacific Ocean, the four of us ate dinner together at a lovely restaurant, not that I can recall a single detail of the meal.  I do remember how we sat half-outside half-inside and sighed as we realized the impossibility of eating outside back in the Upper Peninsula for many months to come.

Flush of autumn color

We said, “This is lovely.  Why don’t we go out together AT HOME?”

Thus began our monthly date.  Every single month since last October we’ve gone somewhere.  Out to Carla’s Restaurant, over to our house, over to their house, once to Club Indigo up at the Calumet Theater.

Beside the lake

This month we opted for a hike at the Hungarian Falls.

Barry insisted we had been there before, back in the Dark Ages of our relative youth.

“I was never there,” I swore.

“You were,” he said.

“No, YOU were!” I insisted.

Trail side mountain ash berries

He’s not here to defend his memory, and mine is usually more faulty than his, but not always, so I’m going to insist I’m right.  (Writer’s prerogative!)

He finally remembered going with friends.

I was probably downstate with the kids, visiting the grandparents.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it.

Watch your step. Roots everywhere.

Gosh, it’s funny how as one ages it gets harder and harder to climb cliffs and trip over roots.  Deb and Chuck, our elders by a teeny tiny bit, seemed to do better.  But maybe that’s because I was in precarious positions trying to get pictures to show YOU.

River meander

At one point, attempting to climb up a shelf of rock, I hissed to Barry, “HELP ME!” and he graciously arrived to pull up his decrepit wife.

Gosh, our knees and backs and bodies aren’t quite as agile as they were in our 20’s are they?  The knee-replacement husband did amazingly, I was so happy to see!

Look at the layers of shale in that red rock

The Hungarian Falls were beautiful.

Signs existed that many a party–some with campfires–occurred along the trail. It was not a remote out-of-the-way hidden falls.

We pondered how many people without common sense or apt facilities had plunged to the falls or river over the years?  We hoped none.

I watched my step closely and hoped my companions did the same.

Majestic Hungarian Falls

Don’t the falls look beautiful?

I wondered, as I always do, why it’s easier to stay in our routines and not go outside and enjoy more of the natural wonders that surround us in nature.

Have you been out hiking lately?  Where might you have gone?

Coming soon…

A lovely evening for a hike…