Chapel Beach to Beaver Creek

Trip Overview

In April we booked a motel room at the Beach Motel in Munising for Thursday night 6/6/2019 and reserved and paid for a camping spot for Friday and Saturday at Chapel Beach Campground. Drove from Detroit to Munising on Thursday arriving in 6.5 hours. We scoped out Sand Point and Miner's Beach and decided to launch at Miner's Beach. Used a two wheeled bike trailer to haul the kayaks and gear from the van to the staircase that leads down to the beach. We had been apprehensive about kayaking for the first time on Lake Superior given the water temperature was only 40 degrees F. and had packed wetsuits, drysuits, as recommended, but the forecast proved to be perfect and we had dead calm conditions when we launched. Paddled to Chapel Beach with a short stop at the Mosquito Beach for a snack. There is not much sand at this beach and we had one carbon fiber and one fiberglass kayak so we had to be careful landing on the sandstone. Chapel Beach was a true sandy beach, so no similar issues there. We planned for four hours of travel time from Miner's to Chapel Beach but it only took us 3 hours including the stop. Flat water and no headwinds made a difference I am sure. Set up camp then hiked to Chapel Falls in the afternoon. Muddy trail but the view of the falls was worth it. Next day more perfect conditions, sunshine and flat water so we paddled to Spray Falls, then to Beaver Creek. Went swimming and hiked the Beaver Lake loop before returning to Chapel Beach campground. Sunday was predicted to have more wind and rain later so we packed up camp early and headed back to Miner's Beach. Wind was offshore so water remained flat and sun shined on us for the paddle back. Trip time back to Miners was 2.5 hrs. That night we slept soundly indoors while the rain poured down outside. Total distance paddled was 25 miles and we hiked about 10 miles to see the various sites. Could not have written a better script for our three day adventure on Lake Superior.