| We Will, We Will, BORE YOU |
[23 Aug 2004|09:06am] |
All right, I said I was going to blither a bit about that PDF map I found. It turns out that I CAN print the humongo thing out and it's still readable even at page size! VERY tiny print, but readable! Now since it's a map there isn't really much I can blither about, but I'll blither anyway.
Like I said the different areas of Lake Huron all around the island, and the different "points" of the island, all have names it seems. Starting at the little bay you enter when docking at the island, and heading around the island counterclockwise, from east bluff to west, these are:
Haldimand Bay: The bay you enter when the ferries dock.
Mission Point: Not far to the east of this; Robinson's (Robertson's) Folly seems to be on the furthermost edge.
Hennepin Point: North of Arch Rock; there is a picnic/rest area here, I think; at least there's a little picnic table icon on the map.
Voyageur's Bay: Just beyond Hennepin Point.
Point St. Clair: Way, way to the north of that; this looks to be near or on a private plot of land, if I'm reading the map right.
Point aux Pins: The furthermost point from the docks, at the far north end of the island; in my opinion, rather than looking like a turtle the outline of the island from the air reminds me of a howling wolf head, and Point aux Pins would be right at the tip of its ear. But that's just me. :P Point aux Pins, oddly enough, is the one point/bay which ever seems to get significant mention in the guidebooks; at least, it's the only one I've ever heard of having a name before.
Maniboajo Bay: The "Manabozho Bay" I mentioned (Maniboajo is obviously just a different spelling of his name)--this is the little stretch of water just to the south of British Landing.
Radisson Point: This seems to form the southernmost end of Maniboajo Bay.
Griffin Cove: An area not far north of Brown's Brook. (Brown's Brook has its own picnic/state park area. Why the hell--??)
Heriot Point: The area not far SOUTH of Brown's Brook.
Jacker Point: This looks to be the area exactly where Devil's Kitchen is located, and is also a picnic/rest area.
Julia Point: Heading back into town, this is right out front of the Mackinac Island School.
Windemere (or Biddle's) Point: And lastly, this is the little point jutting out to form the west end of Haldimand Bay, and points out toward the Round Island Lighthouse.
NOW...this map includes green outlines of what is state park land, and what is private. They make it extra clear that the historic cottages lining the bluffs are privately owned, as I've always known; likewise there is an actual neighborhood toward the middle of the island, in back of town, which is all private. You know the private houses because they have fences around their yards, and often little signs which tell tourists to keep out. :P I can hardly blame them, knowing my own fear of people seeing me in my own yard; as much as I'd love staying on the island for a while, the thought of LIVING there in a high-tourism area fills me with dread. It must be awfully annoying to have these irritating fudgies always tramping by and taking snapshots of your house. I wonder how often they get asked if somebody can come in or take a look around. The houses there ARE very pretty and well kept--the bluffs are lined with gorgeous Victorian dollhouse-style residences, and the more inland and easterly houses have these beautiful gardens and courts out front--so it just stands to reason the people actually LIVING in the things have a lot of nuisances to put up with.
I still remember the group of Japanese tourists who accosted Mya and me at the restroom area in town, asking for directions to Arch Rock, and all we could do was kind of wave vaguely eastward and say, "That way...you'll know it when you see it, it's a big arched rock." They're probably still looking. >_< Poor Japanese tourists.
Anyway...state park versus private land. This is what's frustrating me about this map. What is bugging me is that many of the roads and trails start out on state land, pass THROUGH private land, then come out again into public land. And then there are roads entirely on private land, and THEN there are private roads themselves. I have no idea how this works. I'm assuming that the roads and trails that pass through private land are accessible to tourists, just so long as you keep to them and don't wander off into people's yards and such. And the roads that are listed as private (there are a few), I'll assume you are just not meant to go down, period--go somewhere else. It's the trails that AREN'T listed as private, yet are contained entirely in the private areas, that bug me the most. How does one go about dealing with those?? Do you keep away from them? Some of these roads and trails which either pass through both properties or are contained entirely within private land yet aren't listed as private seem to be like the only ways to get through such areas or to get from one public road to another. How do you use them without trespassing?? I would very much like to access some of these areas, but I do not want to be a bothersome fudgie; I want to be a well-behaved fudgie. (I'm going to be a fudgie no matter what I do! I may as well be a good one.) Case in point is the deal with Lover's Leap and Chimney (Sunset) Rock. Yes...THOSE two again. (*Few readers remaining groan, "When will she ever give up??"*) According to this map, if I'm reading it right, which I admit I might not be, BOTH of these are listed on public state land! At least, Lover's Leap is surrounded by the same area of green that surrounds the very public Devil's Kitchen, and Chimney Rock is likewise surrounded by its own green area. I had thought both of them were on private land. The last I heard of Chimney Rock, the state was negotiating to purchase it from its private owner to put it back on the tours. Did they actually do that already? It's got this little bitty area of green around it, and looks to be surrounded by the private land that makes up Hubbard's Annex and some private roads... (Speaking of, it looks like there's a park area at Hubbard's Annex...and I thought HA itself was public. But there's no green there. I dunno, I'm very confused.) In any event, the two rocks are surrounded by green. AND they both appear to be located right next to this...well, I'm not sure what it is. It's designated by brown parallel slashmarks. The same symbol used to indicate stairs, though it's surrounding the entire island and it looks to be on the bluff, so I'm guessing it represents either boardwalked or elevated roads as well. Whatever this thing is, its name seems to be West Bluff Road and it seems to start near the Grand Hotel; it goes all along the west bluff, slightly inland near Heriot Point, then back out again, and then it goes inland and appears to vanish near Maniboajo Bay. Likewise there's a similar-looking road (the same one?--there are so many names I can't be sure which one it is) that seems to start nearby not far from Grand Hotel property and heads to the east bluff, going all along that and then more inland the closer it gets to Point aux Pins; it looks to closely follow part of Scott's Road (Scott's Cave Road) and Tranquil Bluff Trail and others at points, like a parallel road. Since it goes further inland than the shore road I'm assuming it's elevated up on the bluff; there IS a road up there, out front of the fancy houses.
Why expend so much energy trying to describe this damn thing? Because it looks like it passes RIGHT behind Devil's Kitchen, Lover's Leap, and Chimney Rock. Well. Right in FRONT of Chimney Rock, I guess. They look like they're so close you couldn't miss them from this thing, though of course looks can be very deceiving; I'm pretty sure the shore road is the only means by which to see Devil's Kitchen, and there is nothing but private land behind it. (There's supposed to be a spring there. There's even a spring, "Darion Spring," listed not far inland from Brown's Brook, on private land. Why list it on the map if nobody can visit? *pout* :/ ) I'm wondering if this West Bluff Road or whatever offers a view, however paltry, of these landmarks. I'll be damned if I've ever been able to see them, whatsoever! Lover's Leap used to be a big part of the tours, but that was very long ago and...maybe the lake receded a lot or something, but it's certainly not visible from shore anymore! I've only ever seen it in old etchings and such. Yet the map seems to list it and Chimney Rock on public land, and this road passes through private land and right past them. I wonder if anybody can walk along these roads and look. And there are lots of OTHER roads that are iffy, and things listed on this map, that look as if they should be public yet I can't be sure. Like that Darion Spring. And the little Cow Path, which is just within private land. I could do very well to keep out of people's yards, and keep off the roads clearly marked private, but what about nonmarked roads on private land, and roads that pass through BOTH? And landmarks that appear to be private? It's a very good map but I'm beyond confused. I do not know tour etiquette as well as I thought I did. I could make a bad fudgie. :/
And there are so many things I want to look for, yet they are all over the place and I don't even know if I could exactly even FIND them (witness my futile search for all those sites in 2002!--I succeeded in finding Gitchi Manitou only because it's on the shore, and seem to have found Robinson's Folly only by accident, and I wasn't even sure what the hell it was!), that I don't know if I'd have near enough time to go looking. Or energy. -_- My stamina is not what it used to be. No matter how much I love a place, I tend to get cranky the further into the day it goes, since I go without sleep. And that can make looking for even the most elusive landmark very irritating.
I thought of making a list of "wanna-see-it"s, but like I said I'm confused, and I'm very bad at trying to organize things like that. You would not BELIEVE how many trails and roads and landmarks they can squeeze into an island with a dinky eight-mile circumference!! >_<
Well...there are more things on this map I could talk about, and planned to, but this is getting annoying, and I'm quite sure I've tired anyone out. I know I'm starting to bore myself, at least. Talking about a map is a lot different from LOOKING at one. And doubly irritating is the fact that the legends aren't complete and I have no clue what all these little yellow numbers mean. Where is the rest of the frigging legend already!
This has not been proofed because I am way too bored to even try, and I want to try to do some scanning. Yes, more scanning. Of old tree and autumn photos this time. After those, LOTS of sunsets. *sigh* I'll be lucky if I ever put together another journal again.
Speaking of journals, did you know that Skew 2003-2004 is over half done already? Yep. I accidentally accessed the size stats a week or so back (I've been trying to avoid looking at them--I don't WANT to know how long my entries are--just the other day I AGAIN had some dumbass at OD stop by an entry just to comment, "Wow, you have a lot to say! Bye!"--do you want me to stop by your diary and, if it's pink, say, "Wow, YOUR DIARY IS PINK! Bye!"?! Then SHUT UP ABOUT THE OBVIOUS!!--I KNOW I have a lot to say, because I SAID it, moron!) and saw that it's currently over a megabyte. And it's only been about a year now. Probably not too long before I'll have to start Skew 2004-2005, if I keep posting gargantua entries like this and most everything else I ever post. And what sucks is I had only just remembered by heart the item number of this version of Skew: Seven, plus three fives like in a fake phone number, plus the first two numbers of the item number of the old Skew--one and nine. 755519. Almost obsolete already. Grumble.
Oh oh oh, ONE more thing before I forget! On one of the sites describing the wildlife of Mackinac Island I discovered that one of the most common and most welcome animals to live there is...the bat! I never even knew that! Lucky Charm! ^_^ What a weird coincidence that was. I've never even seen a bat on the island before, though I guess it makes sense--lots of caves, and I don't seem to get bitten by mosquitoes too much when I'm there. Hm.
I guess that's all for now. Tar...
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