09:00 - 11:00 a.m.

Day five of our field methods course begins as we leave the Keweena Peninsula for the southern shoreline of Lake Superior. Our destination today is the first nationally recognized lakeshore in the United States: The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Extending more than 40 miles in length, our entire day will be used to explore a variety of topics from our TiG coursework along this shore.

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

12:00 - 01:00 p.m.

Munising Information Center and Munising Falls Interpretive Center - A quick stop at the centers will allow us to get an excellent overview of the geology that makes up the lakeshore and how that geology has been manipulated by the forces of wind, wave and ice. It will also provide information on the Hiawatha National Forest.

01:00 - 05:00 p.m.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore - The unique properties of this lakeshore provide the students with many spectacular examples of TiG material and natural beauty. The lakeshore extends for more than forty miles along the southern shore of the Great Lake of Superior. The lakeshore gets its name from the variety of colors displayed on the face of its cliffs. Minerals in the running water, such as manganese, copper and limonite, cause the colors to be stained on the rocks and provide visitors with miles of spectacular colors to view.

We will see Miner's Castle and how the shoreline has been eroded over time.

We will see many examples of arches and discuss their formation...

and their destruction.

We will see examples of crossbedding...

and even a bralluvial fan.

Due to the exceptionally large size of the Great Lakes, we will also see some large dunes during our day. Some of these dunes will be along the shore, while others will be further inland: further evidence of some of the historically geologic processes occurring in the region.

Also during the course of this day, we will talk about the aquifer properties of the eastern part of Upper Michigan. As I spoke about in the Geology/Hydrology page, the Jacobsville Aquifer runs under much of this area of the peninsula along with the Cambrian-Ordovician Aquifer. We will discuss how this ties in or compares to the Crystalline-Rock Aquifer we discussed on Day 4.

05:00 - 06:00 p.m.

Dinner at a local restaurant.

06:00 -07:00 p.m.

Review of day's activities. Preview of next day's activities to include a weather discussion with interpretation of satellite, radar, surface and upper air analysis to reinforce some of the material from our Meteorolgy courses.

If the opportunity presents itself, we will make another attempt at identification of planets, constellations and other extra-terrestrial phenomenon before bedtime.

Day 6