Lucy Toth, left, and her friend Jenni Bashaw pose for a moment near the Lake Superior shoreline at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Alger County last September. (Lucy Toth photo courtesy 8-18 Media director Marnie Foucault)

I went with my mom’s friend Jenni Bashaw, and we hiked at Pictured Rocks near Munising. We hiked from Miners Castle to Chapel Rock, and that’s where we stayed the night.

It was beautiful and also really tiring. We saw cool rock arches, parts of cliffs that had collapsed, and cool cliffs that looked like they had paint on the side, but I’m pretty sure it was just oil or some kind of rock.

The hike was a little over 10 miles, but it didn’t feel like it. It was like, you look at that cliff, think “Oh, that looks cool,” and then the next thing you know, you’re standing on it.

Jenni and I saw a waterfall coming out of the side of the cliff, and we were standing on a big rock over Lake Superior. We actually hiked near Lake Superior most of the time.

This is part of the Lake Superior shoreline, including one of its famous arches, at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Alger County as seen by 8-18 Media reporter Lucy Toth last September. (Lucy Toth photo courtesy 8-18 Media director Marnie Foucault)

Jenni made a joke about telling my mom (after we finished the hike) that the hike was mostly one of us going “Ooh, look, look, look it’s a red mushroom!” — just to be clear, we actually did see red mushrooms — and the other saying “Oh cool!” the whole way.

After a little bit, we hit a fork in the road, and there was a post in the middle. There were numbers on the back of it, so we just went to the left, and it led to a small beach where the trail ended.

So we walked back and discovered that on the front of the post it said North Country Trail and then an arrow pointing to the right. So it was right in front of our faces, and we were clueless. It was hilarious.

We kept walking along the trail, occasionally stopping for snack breaks.

Once we got to Chapel Rock, we set up our tent. It was so relieving because we hiked a little over 10 miles and my feet were starting to hurt. You had to make reservations there, because you can only camp in certain places.

What we didn’t know was that you made a reservation in a certain camping area. So we set up our tent in camping spot 3, I think. Then, after we got all set up, four women showed up and said they had reserved this area. Jenni and I looked at our reservation paper and saw that we had reserved a different camping spot.

The women offered to set up their tents in our camping spot, but when they went over to look, they came back and said the area was too small for two tents.

So instead of taking our tent down, they offered to help us carry it to our actual camping spot. It was only, like, 10 yards away. It was actually really funny.

The food we packed was really, REALLY good. Jenni said food tastes better when you’re really hungry. All you had to do was add hot water to the dehydrated food bag, mix it around until all the water was absorbed, and bam, you had food.

Jenni had a water filter, and we were right by Chapel Creek, so all we had to do to get water was go down to the creek and filter water into water bottles.

I forgot my pillow at home, so I just bunched up a blanket and used that as a pillow. Jenni woke me up at 6 a.m. and said, “Lucy, there’s something out there splashing in the river.” We were right by the creek, so it was really loud.

I thought it was a bear, but no, it was either an otter or a beaver. I didn’t see it, but Jenni said she saw it swimming away, but couldn’t make out if it was an otter or a beaver. Then we played a card game called cribbage and didn’t go back to bed until that night.

My mom picked us up that day somewhere around Beaver Lake.

We hiked about six miles to get to where my mom was picking us up, but when we got there, she wasn’t even there yet.

We waited for awhile, played some card games, and then my mom finally pulled up in the car with my dad and brother. She had packed us snacks and drinks, and I was so happy because I was starving and running out of snacks.

It was awesome to go on a trip like that, but it was also very awesome to have a pillow again.

Lucy Toth, 12, has three fish, a dog and two cats. She loves to dance, ride horses, snowboard and play video games with her friends.