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HIKED RAINBOW FALLS TRAIL Smokey Mountain National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2026

This memorable trail we last trekked in October 2020 and found a GoPro camera in the stream of water flowing down from the falls. Due to peak season in the park, we were lucky to find a parking spot about .4 miles down the road from the trailhead. A mile back before we parked, we spotted a mother bear and a baby cub foresting for berries near the roadside. Another sign said just under 3 miles to the falls. The sign at the trailhead warned hikers about feeding bears. By the time we hiked a side trail then up to Rainbow Falls and back, we hiked about 9.1 miles. The first part of the ascent, LeConte Creek ran parallel to the trail on the right side. The trail was rocky with lots of tree roots but scenic through the thick forest with the sounds of the creek. The elevation gain was 1,500 feet from the trailhead to the Rainbow Falls and I really felt it the last half mile. A tip to hikers, there are two small waterfalls just before reaching Rainbow Falls so don’t turn around too early.

The 80-foot-tall Rainbow Falls is huge and beautiful. There are slippery rocks on the left to climb closer so be extremely careful.

Near the end of the hike, I heard a something in the woods to my left and saw black, hairy bear. About fifty yards later I got a clear picture and video of the bear.

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ORVILLE WRIGHT HOME Oakwood, Ohio

Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Debbie Miller

Date: September 23, 2026

As part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park, Hawthorn Hill is the landmark mansion of the world’s first pilot, Orville Wright. Tours of the mansion, a National Historic Landmark, are through Dayton History/Carillon Historical Park. A shuttle bus took us from Carillon Park to the mansion, and a guide escorted us room by room throughout the two-story home providing engrossing history and anecdotes about Orville, some of his famous guests (including Ronald Reagan, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Charles Lindburgh), and artifacts in the home. Construction on the mansion began in 1912 and was completed in 1914. Orville Wright lived here from 1914 until his death in 1948.

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WORLD’S LONGEST PORCH Grand Hotel, Mackinaw Island, Michigan

Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: September 8, 2026

Built in 1887, this incredible porch is 660 feet long in front of the Grand Hotel overlooking the traits of Mackinac and Lake Huron. The porch is lined with red geraniums, American flags, and countless comfortable, white rocking chairs. We had just finished bicycling twice around the island (eight miles per lap on Lake Shore Drive) and rested on the porch taking in the beautiful view of the green grounds, pool and Mackinac Bridge in the distance. Unless you are a hotel guest, it costs $12 per person to gain access to the porch. Is the man in the rocking chair (Photo #5) a famous movie star?

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HAUNTED MISSION POINT RESORT Mackinac Island, Michigan

Investigation Team: Dave Miller  

Date: September 8, 2026

I remember the Ghost Hunters TV Show back in 2011 devoted an entire show investigating here so I stopped by this beautiful resort. The two ladies at the front desk referred me to another staff member who related some paranormal information. The ghost investigation focused on a former student named Harvey as well as voices and footsteps allegedly in the theater room and possible sightings of a little girl on the balcony. 

The resort itself has some buildings that were constructed between 1955 & 1965 and have over 240 rooms or suites, an outdoor swimming pool and six restaurants & eateries.

We were bicycling around the island and only had a few minutes so the best investigation I could do was a quick EVP near the theater and outbuilding but got no responses.

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BIKED NORTH CENTRAL STATE BIKE TRAIL Mackinaw City, Michigan

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: September 8, 2026

After bicycling around Mackinac Island twice we caught the Shepler’s Ferryboat back to Mackinaw City. Once off the ferry, we biked downtown past a few historical boats that were docked, headed south and connected with the North Central State Bike Trail which leads to Cheboygan.  We didn’t bike the entire 16 miles to Cheboygan but biked about 7 miles out and then back enjoying, once out of town, the cooler forest area on both sides of the path.

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BIKED MACKINAC ISLAND Mackinaw Island, Michigan

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: September 8, 2026

We biked several miles from our campground to downtown Mackinaw City and boarded the Shepler’s Ferryboat. The 20-minute ride across the Straits Of Mackinaw took us to Mackinac Island. Once we exited the ferryboat with our bicycles, we skipped the touristy downtown shops and set off for the 8.2-mile bike ride around the island. The perimeter loop bike trail along Lake Shore Drive is completely free of cars as the entire island is bike friendly. Other than other cyclists, you occasionally passed a horse-driven carriage or wagon and had to steer around lots of horse poop. For some odd reason the state park elects not to attach poop bags to the horses (they say it is too stressful for the horses) so poop is everywhere. We met and talked to two full-time poop cleaner-uppers whose entire day job is to sweep up poop and place it on their horse-pulled wagon which, you guessed it, will also poop on the road.

Once out of the scenic downtown area, most of the flat ride gave us incredible views of Lake Huron, rock arches, distant land and islands, the great Mackinaw Bridge, seashores and many birds (mainly gulls). We enjoyed the loop so much that after lunch, we did a second loop and then ascended through the middle of the island past old cemeteries, the small airport, Fort Mackinac, the Grand Hotel, forests and other sites. 

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HIKED HEADLANDS INTERNATIONAL DARK SKY PARK Mackinaw City, Michigan

Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: September 7, 2026

This county park sits along the Lake Michigan shoreline west of Mackinaw City. The site has a visitor center with restrooms and a gift shop. Outside is a semi-circle amphitheater where people can sit or lay down and view the stars and Milky Way. Rosie lay on a blanket and enjoyed the dark sky overhead. We were only permitted to have red lights in the dark sky viewing area, no white flashlights or cellphones. We enjoyed a short hike on the Frog Pond Trail followed by the fascinating one-mile Discovery Trail consisting of various discovery stations spaced out along the route. Each station had signage with information about a planet, cultural information and indigenous artwork.

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MACKINAC BRIDGE, Mackinaw City, Michigan

Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: September 7, 2026

This suspension bridge that connects the Upper and Lower peninsulas Michigan. The five-mile-long bridge (26,372 feet) spans the Straits of Mackinac, a body of water connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

The length of the bridge’s main span is 3,800 feet (1,158 m), which makes it the third-longest suspension span in the United States and the longest suspension bridge between anchorages (or total suspended length) in the Western Hemisphere. When it opened in 1957, it was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world measured by the main span between towers.

The bridge is also one of only three segments of I-75 that have toll booths.

Driving south from the upper UP on Labor Day, we were delayed as the bridge was closed from 6:30am to 12 noon for the annual Bridge Day Walk which drew 34,000 participants.

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GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK MUSEUM, LIGHTHOUSE Paradice, Michigan

Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: September 6, 2026

Located at Whitefish Point along Lake Superior, it contains historic buildings, artifacts from shipwrecks and the bell from the SS Edmond Fitzgerald wreck.

In 1861, the stone tower was replaced with the present steel tower by the order of President Lincoln. 

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HIKED CHAPEL FALLS LOOP TRAIL Munising, Michigan

Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: September 4, 2026

After kayaking 10miles on Lake Superior along Painted Rocks National Seashore, we beached our double kayak on the sand dune shores of Chapel Beach, jumped out and began hiking. A guide led us on the four-mile hike on Chapel Falls Trail. The trail ran parallel to Lake Superior, and a quarter mile later came to Chapel Rock, a famous sandstone spire, with a 300-year-old white pine growing on the top. Its roots stretch all the way across an open gap to the mainland for nourishment. As legend has it, the rock was the location where Native Americans and settlers first learned the Catholic faith.

After Chapel Rock, we hiked about two miles inland through the thick forest along Chapel Trail, which meanders along the Chapel River. We eventually came to Chapel Falls, a 60-foot-tall cascading waterfall, one of the most remote and spectacular falls in the UP region.

The remainder of the hike was a 1.5-mile-long journey through old maple forests sprinkled with beech trees and white pines. We then piled in a Paddling Michigan van for the trip back to the kayak office.

Afterwards, we stopped in Munising, and I ate my first pasty (Photo #5), a traditional, handheld baked pastry filled with meat and root vegetables. It is an iconic cultural symbol and signature comfort food of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (the U.P., where residents are known as “Yoopers”). It was very dry (later I found out Yoopers add ketchup or gravy) and Rosie didn’t like it. I found it very filling but somewhat bland without a topping.