Michigan's UP

Looks like my small group is going to bag the plans for Maine this fall and finally run pout to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, been wanting to see this area for years.

Anyone have a sweet camp location they wouldnt mind turning me onto? Looking for east of Marquette to the point, sand beach would be nice but not absolutely necessary.

Remote and far from others is the goal here, anyone want to hook me up? I'll be searching at EXPO and OverlandUP but figured there has to be some good info here as well.

Here are just a couple off the top of my head John.

http://porcupinemountains.com/?gclid=CN7LpM7Kj7ACFeUBQAodZyNJow

http://www.uptravel.com/pictured-rocks-national-lakeshore-112/

http://www.uptravel.com/waterfalls-of-the-u.p.-59/


Also, I am not sure when you are planning on going, but if it is late september-early Oct. The fall colors will be in full effect! If you are up there around that time, within an hour of the UP is the Ashland/Bayfield/Mellon, WI area. Apple Fest is kinda of a cool, delicious day thing, Copper Falls (waterfall) ect.

I'm a leaf peeper Jake... fall foliage is always a major scheduling factor on fall trips.

Maybe the water wont be TOO cold to have a swim.

C'mon, turn me onto your sweet secret spot so i dont have to get lucky or worse, work for it....

<chuckle> You've never been to Lake Superior before, have you? It's always cold.

The locks at the west end are neat if you're interested in that sort of thing.

The iron locks? Last ones in the US iirc, and that area around Copper Harbor looks like it holds alot of gems..

Cold is fine.. just not too cold. Like bergy cold..

It appears i'll have to head further west than i thought i'd need to. Most good stuff i'v found is beyond Marquette and closer to the Keweenaw.

Beautiful area i'm seeing in pics, more so than i had originally thought. Gonna need to read up on Great Lake fishing, all i have is UltraLight gear, son has a few flyrods. Be nice to catch dinner one night.

Borrowed pic..

My dad just moved to Michigan and took a long weekend to the UP recently. He said I'd love it up there. I think that'll be next year's vacation.. I'll be really aching for a road trip by then.

So I'll be watching to see what you do, John.

<sigh> must retrain fingers. EAST end, at Sault St. Marie.

I thought I had some pics from Labor Day a couple of years ago, but I don't seem to have them online. Still, from colors 4 years ago: http://chixjeff.dnsalias.net/Keweenaw_2008/

XJLI said:

My dad just moved to Michigan and took a long weekend to the UP recently. He said I'd love it up there. I think that'll be next year's vacation.. I'll be really aching for a road trip by then.

So I'll be watching to see what you do, John.

Click to expand...

Where did Dad move to? I'll bet he's right..

Been wanting to do this for so long, but it's not actually "on the way" when running 80 westbound for example..

Where along the Keweenaw was that Jeff? Those last few, is that the "missle sight"?

Midland. Him and my stepmom both work for Dow and that's where HQ is.

Hers a site i found with some good info...

http://www.someyooperbeach.com/advice/

Gotta give credit to a few of the local guys and their board here.. quite a few you'll recongnise from EXPO.

www.upoverland.org

IMG_3539 through IMG_3570 are near Eagle Harbor, northern part of the west side of the Keweenaw. The rest are from the top of Brockway Mountain, the harbor is Copper Harbor. I don't have any shots from the missile site. The firing ring arc & concrete pad are all that's left. You can get out to it with a Civic, but it is well beyond the end of the paved road.

They have been fighting a fire up there the past few days, one of the camping areas on Superior was burned. Two Hearted River camp.. gone as well as close to 100 buildings.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/duck_lake_fire_recap_and_what.html

That's pretty unpleasant. Not too surprising, there's been a lot of forest mismanagement over the years. I do remember a lot of years ago when Seney burned, the smoke came down to where I grew up in the Lower Peninsula. I hope that it gets controlled quickly.

OverlandXJ said:

C'mon, turn me onto your sweet secret spot so i dont have to get lucky or worse, work for it....

Click to expand...

Hmmmm? Lol

Porky Pine Mt Park is way cool. I backpacked it 30 some years ago. Beware the no see-ums. Lake Superior is cold, not as cold as snow melt, but close.

Fred said:

Porky Pine Mt Park is way cool. I backpacked it 30 some years ago. Beware the no see-ums. Lake Superior is cold, not as cold as snow melt, but close.

Click to expand...

The Porky's had been on the radar for years.. as is Pictured Rocks.

Lets see what happens with the fire out there.

In other news.. i'm headed to Montana tomorrow.

I just finished looking at your Montana pics and really enjoyed them! I know of quite a few places in the UP, but one that is really cool is the mouth of the Huron River NE of Skanee which is NE of L'anse and NW of Marquette. It is a super beach with dispersed ON beach camping! No facilities of any kind, but right on the beach. Big Eriks Bridge State Campground is inland a little and kind of a cool camping spot also on the Huron. If you poke around you can get a Jeep to the East side of the Huron on the Lake Superior Beach too. BTW, I've been in Lake Superior a number of times this year already and it's been OK. On the third I dove in off a sailboat by Superior and it was actually warm! At least the top 2' or so were. Prior to that I dove in at Ashland a couple times and it was a bit chilly there. A friend of mine was just up to a cabin in the Porkies and said the water was pretty warm there too! Oh yeah, my folks were on the beach by Silver City on the 4th and said the water was pretty nice there too. So, perhaps you'll not freeze up immediately if you make it to Lake Superior this summer/fall? I know of a couple cool beaches up in the Keweenaw too, but one has been closed to access from land. You can still get there by boat though I believe. It is off the tip on the south side. The other is a pretty cool county park I think about half way up the peninsula on the west side. OH, they PAVED the old dirt road between Munising and Grand Marais in the recent past, so it's super crowded and like a freeway in there now. However, east of Grand Marais there is still a sand road with at least one camping place along the beach. Hmm, there is a cool glass bottom raft on a big spring along US2 somewhere by Manistique I believe that's worth checking out. Drummond Island off the extreme east end of the UP has some interesting places to wheel. There is even an offroad park out there I believe. Jeff

Jeff, thanks for the clues. I had read about Mouth of Huron.. it's on the potential list. BTW.. just uploaded the last of the pics.

Hopefully i can still make this trip in a few months, the unexpected Montana trip (5 days notice) kinda hit me in the pocket a bit.