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.
