Katrina Calls and Waterfalls

In the late summer of 2005, when many in the Southern United States were bracing for the impact of Hurricane Katrina, my wife and I were on a camping trip in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We were at Lake Gogebic, which is a beautiful area in the western section of the upper peninsula. We didn't know that there was a hurricane preparing to cause havoc on the Gulf Coast. We were totally oblivious because the radio reception was awful at our camp site and we didn't hear any news until we had been in Michigan for a couple of days.

When we heard about Katrina, we wondered if she was also playing games with the weather where we were. We had checked the forecast before we left and nothing like what we were experiencing was predicted. We were perplexed by what seemed to be an early onset of weather more typical of mid-autumn. It was downright cold some nights and the days were breezy, cool and, at times, rainy. True, we were several hundred miles north of home and the weather does turn colder more quickly in upper latitudes, but this was ridiculous. But we knew better than to whine - after all, we were still a long way from the actual hurricane and we knew others were less fortunate than we were. So we picked ourselves up and did what we could to make the best of things.

We had to head to a few discount stores to buy some clothes because we had packed for summer, not fall. Once we did have decent clothes for outdoor activities, we did embark on some fishing. The fishing was terrible - I caught a baby bass that was probably two inches long at best. It would have made for good bait, but considering that we weren't catching much to start with, I was merciful and put the little critter back in the water. By now, it has been caught by another intrepid fisherman or it is the size of a house. What had been planned as an end of summer fishing trip would need to become something else, so we moved onward in our quest to make lemonade out of the lemons we had been given.

Since we tend to be somewhat adventuresome on our vacations, my wife had looked up other things to do in the area prior to leaving home. What she found was that there were lighthouses in the area. Touring lighthouses is a passion of mine, so right there was something for me to enjoy outside of fishing. However, one effect that the hurricane had was a noticeable surge in gas prices. Gasoline shot up to over three dollars per gallon and we soon learned that this was definitely due to the hurricane. Since most of the lighthouses were quite a distance from Lake Gogebic, we soon had to put Plan C into play - we had not budgeted nearly enough for the kind of gas prices we were seeing to go trekking all over the UP looking at lighthouses!

Plan C was something else that my wife had discovered about the area. She found that the area had several waterfalls that we could go see. While I was disappointed about not being able to tour more lighthouses, I ended up enjoying the waterfalls as well. That is until that fateful day that we went to Baker Falls. The visit to those falls made for one of the strangest highlights of an already weird trip.

Baker Falls was the last waterfall that we visited. Not because of what I am about to share, but because it was the most remote of the ones my wife wanted to see. It took a bit of a drive to get to it, so we had already planned to make that our last stop. We made the drive to the falls, which was on this back road that originally looked like it went to nowhere. There were no signs to mark the way - if my wife had not already Googled the directions, we would never have known how to get there. We finally found the marker that indicated the place we wanted to be - it was basically a cleared place by the side of the road - I think there may have been a utility sign there as well, but that part is blurry now. What isn't blurry is the part of the story I will now share.

We pulled into a the makeshift parking area and got out of the car. In the parking area was one other car. This car, like ours, boasted Illinois license plates. Apparently we were not the only Illinois people that wanted to view this lonely spot in Upper Michigan. We headed up a path that had been beaten down through the tall grass. It took several minutes for us to make it up the path - long enough for us to wonder if we were in the right place. Eventually, we heard laughter and talking. I also soon heard the sound of the falls. We were definitely in the right place - at least as far as the falls were concerned.

We walked a bit further and we could hear the laughter and voices even louder. I was looking through the heavily wooded area close to the stream when I saw a woman, maybe late thirties or early forties. I saw the back of her head and as I walked I saw the rest of her. I could not believe what I saw - it looked like she was wearing a thong at first, but then I realized that she didn't have on that much. She was naked! With her was a man who was already swimming in the stream. He pushed himself out of the water onto the big rock the woman was standing on and sure enough, he was sporting the suit that God gave him and nothing more. We had wandered innocently through the brush and woods to see not only a beautiful waterfall, but also a couple of middle-aged skinny-dippers!

Now remember - it was pretty chilly out - the hurricane had pushed a nice cold air mass to the north and we were dressed in fall clothing - sweatshirts and jeans as opposed to the T-shirts and shorts we had packed. My wife and I were stunned and amused all at the same time. Here we were, several hundred miles from Illinois, looking at two fellow Illinoisans in their birthday suits while we were dressed like Eskimos in training! We contemplated what to do - did we want to let the people know we were there so they would get dressed and let us take the pictures of the falls we wanted? Or should we leave quietly and come back later so these two lovebirds could enjoy their romp?

We decided to make our presence known in as quiet of a fashion as we could. I knew that even though this was a remote place, two Illinois couples had found it - more could be coming. My thought was that these people might not appreciate a bigger audience than just my wife and me, so if we let them know we were there, they could get dressed and leave with a modicum of dignity left intact. We meandered down the path along the stream trying not to be seen and to be seen at the same time.

Eventually, we got about fifty yards downstream and we came to a clearing. My wife was skittish about the whole thing, but I wanted to snap pictures of the falls (and the falls only!), so I poked my head out of the woods and quietly walked out into the clearing. The lady was still standing on the rock while naked guy was back in the water. She was first looking at him in the water, but then she looked up and saw me. There she was, naked as the day she was born, hands on her hips and looking dead at me. One would think she would shriek in horror over seeing a strange man standing there and seeing her unclothed body out in the middle of nowhere. I thought she would either run behind another rock to hide or dive into the water with her significant other. But no - she stood there with hands on hips, leaned toward her companion and must have whispered something about me being there. He pushed himself out of the water again, looked in my direction and walked over to their clothes. I guess modesty had flown away by this time because neither dressed in a hurry and they didn't seem embarrassed. If nothing else, they may have been ticked that my wife and I had caught them, but they never said anything. They just dressed and left quietly. After they were out of sight, I went ahead and snapped pictures of Baker Falls.

When I was finished playing shutterbug, I put my hand in the water. The water was ice cold. We wondered how the man had been able to stand swimming in it. But the question that puzzled us then and still puzzles me to this day - why would two grown people think it was OK to skinny-dip in an obviously public place, one that is even advertised on the World Wide Web? Sure, it was secluded and it was private for them when they first arrived. It seems that they would have known that if they found the place, others might as well. I guess I don't have that much of a sense of adventure after all. Either that or I understand that not many would want to see my naked and not-so-buff body.

The moral to this story is three-fold. First, if you like to tour waterfalls, be advised that you may encounter fellow tourists with a broader sense of adventure than you. Second - if you want to skinny-dip, make sure the place you choose is as private as you would hope it to be. Finally - if you don't want to get caught skinny-dipping, call me ahead of time so I don't show up at the same time. I would hate to spoil your fun - chilly as it must have been - as I did for those other poor souls.