upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
Dana and I decided to make a trip up to the Keweenaw peninsula Friday to get out of town and do some sightseeing. We began the trek in Marquette and traveled to the end of the road northwest of town in the village of Big Bay. This is where the pavement ends. The party consisted of Dana, myself and Poki the adventure cat.
Big Bay is a town founded from logging and had an old mill where Henry Ford produced lumber for the original Ford vehicles. It also is the home of the Huron Mtn Club, a super exclusive club of families with old money that owns then entire tract of the Huron Mtns and some of the most beautiful country in the lower 48.
Our plan was to cross from Big Bay over to the town of L'anse via the AAA road. A dirt road that becomes very unimproved in sections that crosses roughly 40 miles of the most remote territory in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It crosses just south of the Huron Mountains as you traverse west from Big Bay to L'anse. A couple of miles in we pulled off to check out the Gobbler's Nob overlook, a rocky outcropping that looks out over Big Bay and Lake Independence as well as the Lake Superior shoreline. It is a short spur really but with some rocks on the upper portion makes for a touch of technical driving. After snapping a few pictures, we resumed westward.
For the most part, the drive across the AAA was uneventful. You slowly climb up from local sea level (Lake Superior @550ft above sea level) to around 1,500-1,800ft in elevation. The first half of the road, the portion in Marquette county is in great shape and even lacked the annoying washboard surface that comes as more vehicles travel across it in the summer. This is a seasonal road that normally has a 5 foot plus snowpack in the winter season. Basically there is a 5 month window where it is passable to motor vehicles, the other 7 months it is a snowmobile route. Mead Paper owns huge tracts of forest acroos this region and the route took us across quite a few clear cut areas as well as the proposed site of a very controversial Sulfide Mine that has been seeing alot of press lately.
The mine would be situated at the headwaters for several rivers including a couple that are natural habitat for the coaster brook trout and other nowadays rare species. Its a sad thought to consider a mining operation going into this spot along with the vehicle traffic and dangers to the local waterways that would exist as well.
As we crossed into the Baraga county portion of the route, the road became rouger. We went from cruising comfortably at 40mph on a smooth somewhat sandy surface to washouts, old corduroy road surface, and mudholes with rocks strewn about. Eventually the surface improved as we came closer to civilization on the other end. Its funny, as practically everytime I do this crossing I seemingly end up coming out is a slightly different area as there are numerous interstections of trails, non of which are marked. This time, thanks to my GPS that I hadn't had previously, we came out the way I intended near the village of Skanee which is about 10 miles via pavement down the coastline to L'anse.
From L'anse we drove North on Highway 41 up through the twin cities of Houghton and Hancock. We were now on the Keweenaw peninsula which is long finger of land that extends north up into Lake Superior close to 80 miles. The majority of the upper peninsula was originally settled by Europeans due to mining for various metals such as silver, gold, iron ore, and copper. Copper was the big one in the Keweenaw. It is locally referred to as the copper country and old mines, settlements, and even intact old steam hoists are still seen around the peninsula.
We contineued north to the old town of Calumet. We bought some food supplies here. Calumet was once a booming town. In fact it was at one point the main contender for becoming the state capital. After the mining boom though of the 1800's and early 1900's much of the town population moved away. The old streets of the downtown are lined with empty businesses and old buildings, many of which were made from the local sandstone and have cool architectual details to them. Its nice to see that local conservancies and other groups are chipping in to help restore portions of the town and historic buildings.
From Calumet we continued on pavement up the peninsula. We worked our way along the western coast in an effort to catch the sunset from. It was a very clear evening with a crisp breeze blowing in off the lake. We worked our way through the small towns of Eagle River and Eagle Harbor. We pulled off at a beach for short break and to let the cat do his business. Some of the beaches along this stretch of road get some good surf breaks. With the nature of the peninsula being so far out into Lake Superior, there are great opprotunities for big fetch in every direction but South really so usually, if its windy, you can surf somewhere on the peninsula. I didn't bring my kayak so we weren't really hunting down waves. We did bring the canoe though but thats no fun in the waves.
From Eagle Harbor, the next stop was Brockway Moutain. A low mountain that rises just over 1,000feet above Lake Superior and overlooks several inland lakes and the town of Copper Harbor. We reached the overlook on the top of Brockway just in time to catch the sun in its crimson splendor ready to slip down below Lake Superior to the west. Perfect timing. We basked in the view before driving down to Copper Harbor, the northernmost outpost of the peninsula and the state of Michigan.
After grabbing a nice meal at a local pub we continued out towards the tip of the peninsula. Once you leave Copper Harbor, the pavement ends but fortunately for adventurous souls, there is a series of dirt roads, logging trails, and atv trails that extends out all over the tip region of the peninsula. From Copper Harbor, it is an additional 8 miles of undeveloped country to the tip. Our goal was to camp out at the fartherst most point at a great little camping spot. As soon as we reached pavements end though we noticed a pickup loading up people into the bed. I assumed the worst. To our displeasure we followed the truck on our exact route to the spot we were planning to camp. We figured some local highschoolers were throwing a huge end of the year party out where we wanted to camp. As the trail meandered though we passed Shaettner Lake (the lake I wanted to canoe in the morning). The island was alit with torches. Apparently there as a big get togther here which was where the truck in front of us was heading, not to the coast where we were planning to camp. Wheew! We pulled out of the thick forest onto the open clearing where a nice campfire ring awaited us. The winds had died down and the lake was fairly calm here. With no moon in the sky, and being so far from any source of light pollution, the stars were some of the most brilliant I've seen. It was stunning to put it shortly. Dana prepared a fire while I organized the truck for sleeping and eating.
I hadn't gotten around to modifying the bed yet as it still is a one person shelf basically with storage beneath. I took the bunk and I laid out a ridgerest on the floor of the truck for her to sleep. After having a nice campfire and doing the whole roasting marshmallows and smoars thing we called it a night and turned in. With our eastern facing coastal camping spot I got to witness a splendid dawn with light streaming up over the horizon around 5:30am. After walking around the shore for a bit and making some food we packed stuff up and hit the trail.
Our goal was to head back to Copper Harbor to refuel the rig, then back track and follow the route around the tip of the peninsula to the village of Bete Gries. We made a side excursion to Lake Managanese where we hung out on the beach for a bit enjoying the breezy 75 degree day. It just felt nice. I mentioned earlier that we wanted to paddle Shaettner Lake. Well, as we were leaving our campsite and driving along a bluff overlooking the lake, it became apparent that this was not to be. The "party" we saw last night was more then that. There was a HUGE gathering on lake that included a dozen or more boats...with motors and the works fishing, etc. We later found a trail where everyone was parked and managed to drag in the boats and launch them. They had huge panel tents set up and even a trailer with porta johns dragged in!! Never did find out exactly what was going on, might have been some sort of fishing derby.
Well, we continued on our trek. The road was pocked with washouts, rocks, and mudholes. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I heard a loud, metallic clunk from under the truck. Instantly I assumed that my fresh new front axle just suffered the same demise as my old one. I proceeded along gingerly, and kept getting a god awful clunking. I stopped and looke under the truck at the front axle but couldn't see anything obvious. I proceeded further. At this point I realized that turning back would be farther out of our way then proceeding forward to make the next stretch of pavement in another 9 miles or so. After more listening and slow driving I realized that the sound was coming from the back, not the front. I found some nice dry ground and looked under the back. Ah HA! A rear sway bar mount bracket on the frame had given up its will to live. The sound was the metal on metal from where the bushing was. Wheeeew! To say I was relived is a great understatement as the notion of ripping apart an axle that far from anything (50 miles from the closest auto part store) with the aggressive black flies was not appealing. I managed to bandaid up the mount with duct tape in an effort to quiet the racket.
We carried on back at our normal pace and ended up back to pavement after some wrongturns on logging roads. The GPS showed none of the trails we were on so I had to use it as a source of making sure the route we were on took us in the general direction we wanted to go.
Now we were along Lac LaBelle (can you tell that the original European settlers here were French?). We pulled off on a beautiful stretch of sandy beach on Lake Superior here. Our intention was to relax for a bit and pull the canoe off and paddle up the shoreline a bit. This side of the peninsular was glass calm and the sandstone cliff's north of the beach were beckoning to be explored. That was the plan at least. Let me tell you about the flies. Giant, biting flies that did not mind the taste of bug dope one bit. The beauty of the calm, windless beach experience came at the expense of some eager insects looking for a meal. FYI, June is a rough month for bugs in the north country. So, we bagged the paddling outing as neither of us felt like suiting up in long sleeves and pants as it was too warm. Bummer about the lake earlier, and bummer about this missed opportunity.
From here we trekked up Mt Bohemia. For those not in the know, this is the most formidable ski hill we have here in the midwest. 1,000 vertical feet of some really hairy terrain, replete with cliff bands, tons of glade skiing and annual average of snow somewhere in the 400 inch range. What's really cool is that there are just 3 lifts and yurts that creat the day lodge. No developments other then a few little cabins that can be rented. We drove up a trail that took us up to the top of the area and took in the view. On a clear day you can see clear across the Bay the ~60 miles towards Marquette and make out some of the local features. Today was too hazy though.
After heading back out onto the road we decided to check out one more site. We pulled into and old cemetary at the base of the old Cliffton mines. Its a site with graves from the early-late 1800's that basically had a forest grow up through it. The feeling is very eery with this dark dense grove a trees that grows up through the lot which is littered with old stonetomb stones, some of which have remment remains of wooden tombstones.
We headed back south to Calumet and had a great dinner at a historic old bar/grill. The interior was fairly untouched since the 1800's even featuring a giant old mural painting over the bar. VERY cool and great food too.
Our original plan was to cross back to Marquette on the AAA road/trail system again and bypass the higways farther south traverse of the region but by this point it was getting late and we wanted to make it home by the 9:30ish sunset in Marquette. So, highway it was. Still some great scenerey made better with the late evening sun that cast long shadows and washed everything in a reddish tone. We're hoping to get back up there again soon and catch some more areas that we didn't have time for on this trek again soon.
Here are some images from our outing.
1. Dana and Poki on Gobbler's Nob
2. Coming down Gobbler's Nob
3. Poki meets a turtle on the AAA
4. Sunset from Brockway Mtn
5. Driver's eye view from Brockway lloking north.
6. Poser shot on top of Brockway.
7. Manning the lookout
8. On the shore near our camp site
9. ""
10. Trying to quiet the broken swaybar mount
Big Bay is a town founded from logging and had an old mill where Henry Ford produced lumber for the original Ford vehicles. It also is the home of the Huron Mtn Club, a super exclusive club of families with old money that owns then entire tract of the Huron Mtns and some of the most beautiful country in the lower 48.
Our plan was to cross from Big Bay over to the town of L'anse via the AAA road. A dirt road that becomes very unimproved in sections that crosses roughly 40 miles of the most remote territory in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It crosses just south of the Huron Mountains as you traverse west from Big Bay to L'anse. A couple of miles in we pulled off to check out the Gobbler's Nob overlook, a rocky outcropping that looks out over Big Bay and Lake Independence as well as the Lake Superior shoreline. It is a short spur really but with some rocks on the upper portion makes for a touch of technical driving. After snapping a few pictures, we resumed westward.
For the most part, the drive across the AAA was uneventful. You slowly climb up from local sea level (Lake Superior @550ft above sea level) to around 1,500-1,800ft in elevation. The first half of the road, the portion in Marquette county is in great shape and even lacked the annoying washboard surface that comes as more vehicles travel across it in the summer. This is a seasonal road that normally has a 5 foot plus snowpack in the winter season. Basically there is a 5 month window where it is passable to motor vehicles, the other 7 months it is a snowmobile route. Mead Paper owns huge tracts of forest acroos this region and the route took us across quite a few clear cut areas as well as the proposed site of a very controversial Sulfide Mine that has been seeing alot of press lately.
The mine would be situated at the headwaters for several rivers including a couple that are natural habitat for the coaster brook trout and other nowadays rare species. Its a sad thought to consider a mining operation going into this spot along with the vehicle traffic and dangers to the local waterways that would exist as well.
As we crossed into the Baraga county portion of the route, the road became rouger. We went from cruising comfortably at 40mph on a smooth somewhat sandy surface to washouts, old corduroy road surface, and mudholes with rocks strewn about. Eventually the surface improved as we came closer to civilization on the other end. Its funny, as practically everytime I do this crossing I seemingly end up coming out is a slightly different area as there are numerous interstections of trails, non of which are marked. This time, thanks to my GPS that I hadn't had previously, we came out the way I intended near the village of Skanee which is about 10 miles via pavement down the coastline to L'anse.
From L'anse we drove North on Highway 41 up through the twin cities of Houghton and Hancock. We were now on the Keweenaw peninsula which is long finger of land that extends north up into Lake Superior close to 80 miles. The majority of the upper peninsula was originally settled by Europeans due to mining for various metals such as silver, gold, iron ore, and copper. Copper was the big one in the Keweenaw. It is locally referred to as the copper country and old mines, settlements, and even intact old steam hoists are still seen around the peninsula.
We contineued north to the old town of Calumet. We bought some food supplies here. Calumet was once a booming town. In fact it was at one point the main contender for becoming the state capital. After the mining boom though of the 1800's and early 1900's much of the town population moved away. The old streets of the downtown are lined with empty businesses and old buildings, many of which were made from the local sandstone and have cool architectual details to them. Its nice to see that local conservancies and other groups are chipping in to help restore portions of the town and historic buildings.
From Calumet we continued on pavement up the peninsula. We worked our way along the western coast in an effort to catch the sunset from. It was a very clear evening with a crisp breeze blowing in off the lake. We worked our way through the small towns of Eagle River and Eagle Harbor. We pulled off at a beach for short break and to let the cat do his business. Some of the beaches along this stretch of road get some good surf breaks. With the nature of the peninsula being so far out into Lake Superior, there are great opprotunities for big fetch in every direction but South really so usually, if its windy, you can surf somewhere on the peninsula. I didn't bring my kayak so we weren't really hunting down waves. We did bring the canoe though but thats no fun in the waves.
From Eagle Harbor, the next stop was Brockway Moutain. A low mountain that rises just over 1,000feet above Lake Superior and overlooks several inland lakes and the town of Copper Harbor. We reached the overlook on the top of Brockway just in time to catch the sun in its crimson splendor ready to slip down below Lake Superior to the west. Perfect timing. We basked in the view before driving down to Copper Harbor, the northernmost outpost of the peninsula and the state of Michigan.
After grabbing a nice meal at a local pub we continued out towards the tip of the peninsula. Once you leave Copper Harbor, the pavement ends but fortunately for adventurous souls, there is a series of dirt roads, logging trails, and atv trails that extends out all over the tip region of the peninsula. From Copper Harbor, it is an additional 8 miles of undeveloped country to the tip. Our goal was to camp out at the fartherst most point at a great little camping spot. As soon as we reached pavements end though we noticed a pickup loading up people into the bed. I assumed the worst. To our displeasure we followed the truck on our exact route to the spot we were planning to camp. We figured some local highschoolers were throwing a huge end of the year party out where we wanted to camp. As the trail meandered though we passed Shaettner Lake (the lake I wanted to canoe in the morning). The island was alit with torches. Apparently there as a big get togther here which was where the truck in front of us was heading, not to the coast where we were planning to camp. Wheew! We pulled out of the thick forest onto the open clearing where a nice campfire ring awaited us. The winds had died down and the lake was fairly calm here. With no moon in the sky, and being so far from any source of light pollution, the stars were some of the most brilliant I've seen. It was stunning to put it shortly. Dana prepared a fire while I organized the truck for sleeping and eating.
I hadn't gotten around to modifying the bed yet as it still is a one person shelf basically with storage beneath. I took the bunk and I laid out a ridgerest on the floor of the truck for her to sleep. After having a nice campfire and doing the whole roasting marshmallows and smoars thing we called it a night and turned in. With our eastern facing coastal camping spot I got to witness a splendid dawn with light streaming up over the horizon around 5:30am. After walking around the shore for a bit and making some food we packed stuff up and hit the trail.
Our goal was to head back to Copper Harbor to refuel the rig, then back track and follow the route around the tip of the peninsula to the village of Bete Gries. We made a side excursion to Lake Managanese where we hung out on the beach for a bit enjoying the breezy 75 degree day. It just felt nice. I mentioned earlier that we wanted to paddle Shaettner Lake. Well, as we were leaving our campsite and driving along a bluff overlooking the lake, it became apparent that this was not to be. The "party" we saw last night was more then that. There was a HUGE gathering on lake that included a dozen or more boats...with motors and the works fishing, etc. We later found a trail where everyone was parked and managed to drag in the boats and launch them. They had huge panel tents set up and even a trailer with porta johns dragged in!! Never did find out exactly what was going on, might have been some sort of fishing derby.
Well, we continued on our trek. The road was pocked with washouts, rocks, and mudholes. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I heard a loud, metallic clunk from under the truck. Instantly I assumed that my fresh new front axle just suffered the same demise as my old one. I proceeded along gingerly, and kept getting a god awful clunking. I stopped and looke under the truck at the front axle but couldn't see anything obvious. I proceeded further. At this point I realized that turning back would be farther out of our way then proceeding forward to make the next stretch of pavement in another 9 miles or so. After more listening and slow driving I realized that the sound was coming from the back, not the front. I found some nice dry ground and looked under the back. Ah HA! A rear sway bar mount bracket on the frame had given up its will to live. The sound was the metal on metal from where the bushing was. Wheeeew! To say I was relived is a great understatement as the notion of ripping apart an axle that far from anything (50 miles from the closest auto part store) with the aggressive black flies was not appealing. I managed to bandaid up the mount with duct tape in an effort to quiet the racket.
We carried on back at our normal pace and ended up back to pavement after some wrongturns on logging roads. The GPS showed none of the trails we were on so I had to use it as a source of making sure the route we were on took us in the general direction we wanted to go.
Now we were along Lac LaBelle (can you tell that the original European settlers here were French?). We pulled off on a beautiful stretch of sandy beach on Lake Superior here. Our intention was to relax for a bit and pull the canoe off and paddle up the shoreline a bit. This side of the peninsular was glass calm and the sandstone cliff's north of the beach were beckoning to be explored. That was the plan at least. Let me tell you about the flies. Giant, biting flies that did not mind the taste of bug dope one bit. The beauty of the calm, windless beach experience came at the expense of some eager insects looking for a meal. FYI, June is a rough month for bugs in the north country. So, we bagged the paddling outing as neither of us felt like suiting up in long sleeves and pants as it was too warm. Bummer about the lake earlier, and bummer about this missed opportunity.
From here we trekked up Mt Bohemia. For those not in the know, this is the most formidable ski hill we have here in the midwest. 1,000 vertical feet of some really hairy terrain, replete with cliff bands, tons of glade skiing and annual average of snow somewhere in the 400 inch range. What's really cool is that there are just 3 lifts and yurts that creat the day lodge. No developments other then a few little cabins that can be rented. We drove up a trail that took us up to the top of the area and took in the view. On a clear day you can see clear across the Bay the ~60 miles towards Marquette and make out some of the local features. Today was too hazy though.
After heading back out onto the road we decided to check out one more site. We pulled into and old cemetary at the base of the old Cliffton mines. Its a site with graves from the early-late 1800's that basically had a forest grow up through it. The feeling is very eery with this dark dense grove a trees that grows up through the lot which is littered with old stonetomb stones, some of which have remment remains of wooden tombstones.
We headed back south to Calumet and had a great dinner at a historic old bar/grill. The interior was fairly untouched since the 1800's even featuring a giant old mural painting over the bar. VERY cool and great food too.
Our original plan was to cross back to Marquette on the AAA road/trail system again and bypass the higways farther south traverse of the region but by this point it was getting late and we wanted to make it home by the 9:30ish sunset in Marquette. So, highway it was. Still some great scenerey made better with the late evening sun that cast long shadows and washed everything in a reddish tone. We're hoping to get back up there again soon and catch some more areas that we didn't have time for on this trek again soon.
Here are some images from our outing.
1. Dana and Poki on Gobbler's Nob
2. Coming down Gobbler's Nob
3. Poki meets a turtle on the AAA
4. Sunset from Brockway Mtn
5. Driver's eye view from Brockway lloking north.
6. Poser shot on top of Brockway.
7. Manning the lookout
8. On the shore near our camp site
9. ""
10. Trying to quiet the broken swaybar mount
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