Porkies 2026, Day 7: Big Carp, Marquette, and home

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Big Carp 4-bunk cabin

Friday May 29, 2026: In the middle of the night, I woke up and heard a mouse scratching at the door, then chewing on the wood. Eventually it quieted down, and I never heard the pitter-patter of its little feet on our floor.

When I woke up for good, it was a beautiful bright morning. We had the usual tea and oatmeal, then some more tea to brush away the bleariness in our eyes. Boiling water for the second cup of tea used up the last of our gas canister, which was perfect: Today was our last day in the woods. (We'd brought an additional half-canister of gas just in case, but never used it.)

After breakfast, we promptly packed up, said goodbye to this beautiful cabin, and headed out.

As we walked, we talked about the cabin. Sarah had been skeptical of Big Carp 4-bunk when I first proposed it -- it has no view of the lake, and the trail runs right next to the windows. Now she proclaimed it her favorite cabin at the mouth of the Big Carp (with Lake Superior cabin shortly behind it). The cabin itself is beautiful and well tended. Its setting, although no lake view, is still spectacular: The beautiful Big Carp runs just outside the windows, with its rushing waters and overhanging trees. Certainly her extremely cozy day cuddled up in the cabin didn't hurt.

The cold north wind of the last few days had shifted, and today was working up to be much warmer. The bugs were taking full advantage of that warmth, and this time they were starting to bite. We were leaving the woods just in time, before the buggageddon of June descended.

You can do it, little fishie!

We wove our way around the many blowdowns of the Lake Superior trail and stopped at the Little Carp River bridge for lunch. Here, from our perch on the rocks by the first waterfall, we saw that the spawn was well and truly on. These mystery fish were now attacking the waterfalls in full force, flapping and fluttering and trying to get to the top. We cheered them on. It was still early enough that barely any fish had made it up to the pool above the first waterfall. With many waterfalls and pools above that point, we wondered how far up the river they would make it. 

Much later, after some careful reading of DNR resources, I finally figured out that these fish are longnose suckers. In particular, the red stripe along the sides of the fish identified them as spawning males.

After lunch, we headed south on the Pinkerton Creek trail. This was as easy as ever, but this time we were being chased by increasingly bold mosquitoes. We made record time and escaped the woods early in the afternoon. The bugs weren't the only indication that spring was giving way to summer, because we came out to this:

Pollen, pollen, everywhere

We drove around the park and pulled in to the Visitor Center's parking lot, where a school bus was idling. The Visitor Center was overrun by a class of elementary schoolers, many of them entranced by the table-sized topographic park map in the center of the room. I made my way through the swarm to the front desk and left a few maintenance notes, mostly about the need for replacement log books.

And with that, we were officially done with another Porkies adventure.

End-of-trip selfie, feat. absolutely required bug nets

Of course, we weren't done with the trip. We needed lunch, but our favorite stop -- Bosio Biscuits -- had already closed for the day. Instead, we decided to get a small snack at the Baraga Drive-In, which we had often seen but never stopped at. Our bag of fries and homemade root beer were tasty and just what we needed to make it to Marquette.

On the way to Marquette, we reserved a last-minute room at the Superior Stay (always a favorite), which let us immediately check in and take showers. Even with our mid-week hotel stay, those showers still felt good.

After the showers, we went to the main event of our post-backpacking food tour: We shared a burger, fries, and a beer at Blackrocks. Literally, we split one of each, thinking that the earlier fries had filled us up and we might get ice cream later. As we at. them, we had sat at a... wait for it... cozy table on Blackrocks's patio. We chatted, we read, we ate, we relaxed. As soon as the first shared meal was done, we looked at each other, said "that was amazing", and quickly ordered one more of each. While we waited for our order to be ready, we chatted, read, and relaxed some more. It was wonderful.

After that, we took a quick walk down to the "Girly Pop" store, wandered the streets enjoying the expensive drink, and generally enjoying being clean, well-fed, and comfortable.

We slept well. The next day, we headed south and back into the real world.

Keep reading for some final thoughts...

My favorite window in the Big Carp 4-bunk, right next to my bunk

Final thoughts: This trip did not turn out the way we had expected, but we both still enjoyed it.

Our original idea -- remember that? -- was to take a rest day in each of three cabins. That "2-2-2" plan didn't happen due to the cabins being unavailable. But we loved the rest days at the sites where we did have them, Lily Pond and Big Carp 4. As we continue to get older, we both agreed that this is the way of the future. Well, OK, we're not that old... this is probably also because we -- or I -- feel less and less need to "prove" ourselves by doing longer loops and seeing new places. I've personally covered almost every single mile of Porkies trails, and stayed in nearly every cabin, so I'm happy to slow down a bit now. My goal on future trips is to see favorite places and have the time (and energy) to enjoy being there.

On the other hand, backpacking several miles at night over the rough terrain of Summit Peak was definitely an adventure, and perhaps something worth bragging about... if we weren't doing it because we had been chased out of Mirror Lake by tame mice. Mice have become a bigger problem for me over the past few years. I don't mean that we've encountered more mice -- although certainly the Mirror Lake mice were a new experience -- rather, I mean that I feel more anxious about mice in the cabins, and spend a lot of extra brainpower figuring out how to deal with them. Sometimes that works, as my rock wall at Big Carp showed. Other times, it does not. What is there to do about it? I don't know -- maybe just keep gaining experience.

But speaking of mice: That did show the power of being able to change our route on the fly. On the way out to Pinkerton trailhead on our last day, we talked about using this to our advantage. We could design a trip around in-and-out routes or short loops, where it would be easy to change up our route based on circumstances. That certainly worked well for us this year. 

In the end, any time spent in the Porkies is well worth it. I'm glad we didn't give up on this trip. We ended up finding a new favorite cabin -- Big Carp 4 -- and had some wonderful relaxation. As always, we'll be back.

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Miles hiked: 3.5

Final total miles: 25.2

Final route, with Day 7's route in, uh, violet? Mauve?