Weekend fun in the U.P.

[Northern Explorer]

Saturday, February 23rd

My wife and I headed out Saturday to the ice caves near Eben, Michigan. It was a nice sunny day with the temperature in the lower 30's. The caves are formed by a trickling cascade of water running over a cliffs edge. The cliff has a large undercut and you are able to walk behind the frozen sheet of water.

Directions: From US41 turn east on M94, go 12 miles to Eben Junktion.

 

[Northern Explorer]

Sunday, February 24th

Today we went for a hike along the Sturgeon river in Baraga County. Look for the rest stop about 3 miles north of the 141 / 41 intersection. There are three small waterfalls along this stretch of the river. My waterfalls book describes this area as “the Grand Canyon of the U.P.” I've been to the Grand Canyon so I thought that was kind of funny. Nevertheless the scenery is well worth the hike.

Most of the river was frozen over so this was my best picture of one of the falls. This is the smallest of the three.

Old bird nests are easy to spot this time of year.

 

[Tucson T4R]

Wow, now that is a cool thing to experience. Thanks for posting. :clapsmile

 

[Northern Explorer]

I decided to get off the beaten path on the way back home. I turned in on a road called the Peshekee Grade. This is a road that I have been down in the summer time but never all the way back to Marquette. We past a nice hiking trail along the way called the McCormick Track. The McCormick Track is a three mile trail leading to White Deer lake and the former site of the McCormick family retreat. Read more about it here. (Page 44 and 45) http://books.google.com/books?id=JZ...ts=dh0RDEqkZ8&sig=fqy7VbG0qieg7I_GlxkvxRVbomQ
Didn't have time for the hike today.

We drove as far as the road was plowed. The road turned into an unofficial snowmobile trail and I could tell that nobody had been driving down it. I was temped to keep driving but with only one vehicle and no winch I decided not to. We turned around and looked for an alternate route. We ended up finding another road heading in the direction of Marquette. I haven’t seen the movie into the wild yet but this made me think of it.

Picture on the road

We followed the road to a spot where they were doing some logging. At this point I had to turn around and head back. While backing up I rammed the back of my truck into a thick, broken off branch that was sticking out of the snow bank. It left a nice deep scuff mark in my tail gate. I’ll have to have the body shop put that one on my tab. All in all it was a great weekend.

 

[Haggis]

Awesome pics! I bet it was kind of eerie behind that frozen wall of ice. The hemlocks and rock outcroppings remind me of some of the terrain around here.

 

[SOAZ]

Saturday, February 23rd

My wife and I headed out Saturday to the ice caves near Eben, Michigan. It was a nice sunny day with the temperature in the lower 30’s. The caves are formed by a trickling cascade of water running over a cliffs edge. The cliff has a large undercut and you are able to walk behind the frozen sheet of water.

WOW! Great pics. That is amazing. It looks like it just stopped in motion!

 

[suntinez]

Amazing pics, thanks for sharing! Just imagine how that ice wall would look with the sun streaming through it. The snowy bird's nest is cool too.

 

[MountainBiker]

That is awesome! Almost gives me a reason to visit my Michigan homeland in the winter... Almost!

 

[adventureduo]

Wow those first few pics are jaw dropping! Thanks for sharing!

 

[computeruser]

Nice pics and write-up, as usual!!

Y'all UP folks should put together a list of places that should be seen, good places to pitch a tent away from the RV/campground crowd, and roads/trails/grades/paths that should be driven.

 

[opie]

Nice pics and write-up, as usual!!

Y'all UP folks should put together a list of places that should be seen, good places to pitch a tent away from the RV/campground crowd, and roads/trails/grades/paths that should be driven.

I agree B...then we can add it to our list.

Northern...great pics....Do you save your routes in your GPS? Track log....

 

[upcruiser]

Nice shots! I'm planning on taking Dana out to the ice caves next week when I get home. McCormick tract is a great area. I actually prefer it in the winter because you can ski into it (or snowshoe) and not see another soul, or for that matter have another sole in the entire area the whole day. Great place to escape to. I got a chance to ski into it last month and saw not a track nor any signs of people the entire day. Sturgeon River falls is awesome in the fall with the colors. There are some cool little spots you can get down into that's off the beaten trail there when it isn't cover in ice or snow. Thanks for posting the pics up.

 

[JeepN95YJ]

I agree B...then we can add it to our list.

Northern...great pics....Do you save your routes in your GPS? Track log....

That would be awesome! I agree about your great pics.

My wife just told me last night that she wanted to go to MI. I immediately started thinking about a trip to the UP.

Jerry

 

[Northern Explorer]

Sorry, I haven't saved any routes on my GPS.

Maybe upcruiser and I can amass a list of links to our U.P. adventures/write-ups.

 

[upcruiser]

Uhm... yeah, I'll have to start working on that. I use my GPS (which is pretty old and lousy) fairly rarely. Hoping to pick up something better this summer that might allow me to get a bit more into logging waypoints, etc.

BTW, I got out to the ice caves today, really cool. I don't think they will be around much longer this season, seems like there are some big stress cracks in them already.