Backpacking Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

🥾 Pictured Rocks Backpacking | 42-Mile Thru-Hike – Part 1 In this episode of Bacon and Backpacking, Sara and I head to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to begin the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore thru-hike, hiking from the Grand Sable area west toward Munising. This trail follows the Lake Superior shoreline through beaches, forests, cliffs, waterfalls, and some of the most unique scenery in the Midwest. We’re also covering the practical side of planning a Pictured Rocks backpacking trip, including campsites, permits, shuttles, water, trail conditions, and what the backcountry campsites are actually like. Overview 🥾 Roughly the first 27 miles of the trail 🚢 Exploring the remains of century-old Lake Superior shipwrecks 🏕️ Benchmark & Chapel Beach backcountry campsites 🪨 Chapel Rock and the beginning of the famous Pictured Rocks cliffs 🌊 Swimming in Lake Superior 🎒 A look at some of the backpacking gear we brought 🪰 An absolutely ridiculous number of biting flies 🌅 Lake Superior sunsets from camp Despite being a 42-mile thru-hike, Pictured Rocks is remarkably approachable. Around 20 miles into the trip, we still had less than 400 feet of total elevation gain, making this one of the easiest long-distance backpacking trails we’ve done. Of course, "easy" doesn't necessarily mean comfortable. We somehow managed to hit the Upper Peninsula in *October* and still get absolutely destroyed by biting flies. Apparently, Michigan hadn't gotten the memo that bug season was supposed to be over. By the time we reached Chapel Beach, though, we were getting into the scenery Pictured Rocks is famous for—rock formations, Lake Superior views, Chapel Rock, running water near camp, and an incredible evening on the beach. 🎒 MY COMPLETE GEAR LIST https://www.packwizard.com/s/2Xw5wRv 🗺️ DOWNLOAD OUR PICTURED ROCKS GPX FILE https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mFQm... The GPX includes our hiking route, campsite locations, and trip data so you can load it into your hiking/navigation app when planning your own Pictured Rocks trip. If you enjoyed the video, *hit the like button and subscribe* so you don't miss **Part 2**, where we continue west through the most dramatic section of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Thanks for watching! — Travis *Bacon and Backpacking* #PicturedRocks #Backpacking #PicturedRocksNationalLakeshore #MichiganBackpacking #UpperPeninsula #LakeSuperior #ThruHiking #Hiking #BackpackingAdventure #Michigan