Great Lakes Rendezvous: First Draft Trip Plan

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2017.7.6



Last post on this trip, I laid out the bucket list of national parks, monuments, and lakeshores that I wanted to see in the states bordering the Great Lakes. Next step in the process was to research each of those parks, determine what kinds of things we wanted to see and do and come up with a liberal estimate of the number of days we might want to spend in each of the parks. Researching a park requires looking them up in various reference books (I especially use two from National Geographic), going to the nps.gov websites for each of the parks, and looking at the Chimani apps for additional information and ideas. As I research each of the parks, I also collect information about campgrounds, lodging, restaurants, fees, and, important to us, the policies on dogs.



Once we have the bucket list itinerary and, especially, the number of days we think we need to spend at each park, the next step is to lay out the best order - build the itinerary. There are several things to consider. One of them is weather issues. For example, several of our stops on this trip are on the northern boundary of the country. And since we are planning a spring trip for this one, then we have the problem of waiting long enough to avoid snowstorms but also to try to avoid the hot and humid extremes of summer.



In addition to weather considerations, we also have to consider whether there are efficient routes between each of the locations. One of the things I do, using Google Maps, is map the shortest route between each of the parks. That route isn’t necessarily the one we will end up driving, because we might want to take a more scenic route or visit something not on the bucket list, but it does give us a good first cut at what the driving is going to look like. It also tells us where we may have travel issues like needing a ferry or some alternate transportation mechanism. It also identifies where we have some serious inefficiencies, like really long drives between two locations. Clearly, we want to group items together and minimize travel time, unless we have some scenery to see along the way.



Another important consideration is what I call ‘clustering’. That is a big word for a simple concept - if two or more sites are relatively close to each other, then it would be efficient to find a campground somewhere in the middle of those sites and then travel out to each of them. Generally speaking, we have found that the maximum distance that is worth traveling to get to a site is about 50 miles, or one hour. Anything longer than that, then it is probably worth it to change campgrounds. We have to keep in mind, though, that everytime we change campgrounds adds at least a day to the plan. We did identify a cluster of three sites in Southwestern Ohio that suggest a campground somewhere around Xenia.



As I researched each of the Bucket List sites, it became clear that some sites are ‘more equal’ than others. Typically bucket items designated ‘National Parks’ are places we want to fully explore and that means spend several days. That is certainly true on this trip where we have three major ‘National Parks’: Cuyahoga Valley, Isle Royale, and Voyageurs. It was clear to me that each of these parks required at least 3 and up to 5 days at a minimum to really get to know. One of them, Isle Royale, is only accessible by boat (or seaplane) and there are no RV campgrounds there. That means we either have to boat out and back in one day, which gives us about three hours to explore a huge island, or you have to spend one or more nights on the island. Although three hours might be enough time to see a National Monument, it is rarely enough time to really explore a Park! So it seems that we have to spend a night or two on the island. That means we either buy or rent all the gear to tent-camp in the wilderness, or we book a room at the Rock Harbor Lodge. Although camping in the wilderness would have been a lot of fun in our younger days, we aren’t really up for that any more, so we are now looking into reservations at the lodge.



And that appears to be our ‘long-pole in the tent’ for this trip - the puzzle piece we have to resolve first, before we can figure out the rest of them. We don’t know what room availability is going to be next Spring/Summer, so booking the room in the lodge sort of defines all the rest of the trip segments and has to be done first. Once we have good dates for the stay in Isle Royale, then we can put the rest of the trip in place. Voyageurs has a lodge, but it also has campgrounds that we can stay in. Cuyahoga Valley doesn’t have any campgrounds, but their are lots of state and county parks and private campgrounds in the vicinity, so while we will likely need to make reservations there, it won’t be as tough as a room at Isle Royale. (We also realized that if we are going to spend a few nights on the island, we also need to find lodging for the dogs and a place to park the trailer. All that stuff has been noted and we will jump on that as soon as we have firm dates.)



Anyway, the first draft of the Great Lakes Rendezvous Trip Plan has been developed. It is nothing more, at this point, then a list of ‘trip segments’ identifying what we will be doing and how many days we will likely need to do it from the beginning of the trip to the end. At the moment, it is a trip of 4747 miles over 68 days. The spreadsheet takes up six pages at the moment, so I won’t include it in full here, but I will list the trip segments in the order we see them right now. The master plan will have a much more detailed explanation of many of the things we want to see at each park and the highways and roads we will travel when moving between destinations. It also has a list of things we still need to do, like choose campgrounds or make excursion reservations. We can’t do that until we have dates.



My part of the planning process takes a pause now. I turn over this plan to Joan where she fills in with her ‘Rebellion Items’ - things she wants to see in-between my bucket list items. Obviously her stops will add days to the plan, so we need to have those things in mind before we can set the dates. While she is researching her Rebellion list, I will be working on the Isle Royale problem.



Anyway, here is a summary version of the trip plan as we see it right now:



Travel 642 miles from home to Beatrice, Nebraska2 days

Homestead NM (National Monument)1 day

Travel 454 miles to Harpers Ferry, Iowa2 days

Effigy Mounds NM1 day

Travel 301 miles to Porter, Indiana1 day

Indiana Dunes NL (National Lakeshore)4 days

Pullman NM (in Chicago)1 day

Travel 234 miles to Vincennes, Indiana1 day

George Rogers Clark NHP(National Historical Park)1 day

Travel 260 miles to Xenia, Ohio1 day

Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers NM1 day

Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP1 day

Hopewell Culture NHP2 days

Travel 190 miles to Brecksville, Ohio1 day

Cuyahoga Valley NP(National Park)5 days

Travel 457 miles to Empire, Michigan2 days

Sleeping Bear Dunes NL4 days

Travel 264 miles to Munising, Michigan1 day

Pictured Rocks NL4 days

Travel 142 miles to Houghton, Michigan1 day

Keweenaw NHP2 days

Isle Royale NP3-4 days

Travel 180 miles to Bayfield, Wisconsin1 day

Apostle Islands NL3 days

Travel 226 miles to Grand Portage, Minnesota1 day

Grand Portage NM1 day

Travel 226 miles to International Falls, Minnesota1 day

Voyageurs NP3-4 days

Travel 441 miles to Pipestone, Minnesota2 days

Pipestone NM1 day

Travel 610 miles to Fort Morgan, Colorado2 days

Family Time with Sister Missy2 days?

Travel 346 miles to Home1 very long day



(OK! Well, my tabbing didn't port over to the website very well. Sorry for the mash-up. Next time, I will put the # of days first.)

Next draft will have many more segments to include Joan’s contributions. May also have more details based on what we can find out about Isle Royale.

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