the wandering spot

MI Upper Peninsula road & hiking trip

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Our first trip to Michigan Upper Peninsula was very nice and relaxing. 1180 miles of driving, 65 miles of walking in total plus a few miles in canoe.

Second part of our trip focused on 4D/3N 29-mile backcountry hike in ☞ Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. When we arrived the night before, we knew weather front with continous rain would be coming through just on the first day of hiking. Very patient ranger at  ☞ Porcupine Mountains Visitor Center was able to change reservations of all campsites for one day later and found us a spot at Lost Creek Outpost CG (recommended) for the extra day. We were waiting the bad weather out. We drove to Lake of the Clouds overlook – the view was completly blocked by wall of fog, and we walked a short loop around long abandoned Union (copper) Mine in light rain. It rained pretty much the rest of the day. Our new canopy gave us decent protection. We killed time cooking and relaxing, showered (again) in the evening. It all worked out very well. The rain passed during the night and we had nice, mostly sunny weather for the rest of the trip.

The first hiking day was quite easy 7.5 miles along Little Carp River (dry crossing) all the way to the Lake Superior and then along the coast to our campsite. We left our car at trailhead parking lot and ate early lunch there. Despite late start we had enough time to soak (quickly, although it was warmer than we expected) in the lake , cook dinner and end the day with camp fire. Great campsite right on the lake shore and away from others, beatiful sunset, very calm weather — no wind at all. Bear pole (to hang food) was quite a ditanstance away and completly bent – probably a motivated bear could get to food.

Next day was another 7.5-mile hike: to and then upstream Big Carp River. First half of the hike was along the river (with wet crossing) and then we walked on top of high escrapment with the river meandering in the valley below. We camped on the edge of the escrapment – beatiful location, although very close to trail (trail was pasing through “cooking and dining” area). Joanna wanted to camp right on the edge, but Piotr was affraid of possible strong wind (didn’t come) – so we camped a little back near trees, but still open to cliffs. Many spots to choose. Piotr hung our food very high on a tree – far from trunk, far from ground. We had great views when hiking this day and from our camp: looking backwards we could see at some points Lake Superior (we came from this direction) and looking forward we could see Lake of the Clouds. Forest on the hills was still very green with only a hint of Fall colors. Sunset was colorful. In the morning the valley was at first filled with fog coming from Lake of the Clouds, which than disappeared quickly as the sun was coming up higher – magical.

On the last two days in the backcountry we hiked 8.5 and 5.5 miles. We started by walking on the escarpment to the Lake of the Clouds viewpoint, hung our backpacks on a tree and continued for a while on the high trail above the lake. We came back to collect our backpacks and walk down to the river lake outlet. We hiked back up on the other side of the valley through hills and wetlands to Mirror Lake. Before we settled in our cabin, we conoed across the lake and Joanna went for a swim near a rock outcrop there. We started fire in wood stove to heat the cabin and cook dinner. The cabin was very nice and it came with a canoe – the main reason to stay there. With sunny, warm and calm weather next morning, we decided to spend a couple of hours canoeing slowly around the lake. The hike back to our car was easy, passing beautiful Lily Pond and some wetlands. We arrived at Presque Isle CG quite early (nice location but sites cramped next to each other), after a short stop to view Manabezho Falls. We collected a big bunch of firewood in nearby forest, dipped in the lake on stony beach just below the campground, dinner and camp fire.

In the morning, we walked a loop from Presque Isle (red) Beach, east and west river trails around multiple waterfalls. We then drove to the end of passable side forest road and spent some time exploring Lepisto and Iagoo Falls – the most remote on this trip. Started driving 430 miles home in the afternoon.

MI Upper Peninsula road & hiking trip

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This time around we were organized a bit better and mostly packed the day before the trip. Still driving 405 miles to Beaver Lake CG in ☞ Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was slow. Piotr was tired and we had to stop multiple time for short breaks, sometimes in nice spots along Lake Michigan. We traveled in this part of the Upper Peninsula north of Green Bay for the first time. We arrived at small Little Beaver Lake CG, forested but with sites close to one another, quite late. We had reservation, so it was not a big deal. Next morning we were ready for our first hike: 8.5 miles around Little Beaver Lake and Beaver Lake, down Beaver Creek to Lake Superior, west along Twelvemile Beach towards Spray Falls (though did not make it that far), returning to Little Beaver Lake and our campground. We were learning how to cross-over between the trail running on top of the cliff and sandy beach. And we were adding miles (throughout this entire trip) hiked on North Country Trail, our favorite. Water in Lake Superior was surprisingly warm and had intense, changing color. Our pictures do not lie – it looked like a tropical sea, not a northern lake. In the evening we moved to Upper Hurricane River CG for three nights.

Next morning we drove to Chapel Falls trailhead and walked 10.5-mile loop to Mosquito Falls and Mosquito Beach, Grand Portal Rock, Chapel Beach and Rock, Chapel Falls. Beatiful views of the clifs and turquoise water. Many people, but this was Memorial Day weekend and great weather. On the way back to our campground, we stopped for a short sunset walk on Twelvemile Beach near Lake Superior (Sulivan Creek) Overlook.

Day four, we drove very short distabce to Huricane River parking lot and walked 9 miles (return) to Au Sable Light Station, investigating ship wrecks clearly visible close to shore, than continued to steep Grand Sable Dunes (log slide point), returning the same way and finishing the day at sunset on the beach near Huricane River outlet. During lunch time at the Sable log slide we discussed extensively rolling down the slide to the lake shore, but did not do it.

The following day, we drove 230 miles to Porcupine Mountains after visiting Miners Beach and two short breaks on the way to walk to Munsing Falls and Canyon Falls. We enjoyed sunny and mild weather the first five days of the trip and we loved the scenery. It would be nice to backpack the whole lenghth of Pictured Rocks Lakeshore, but we were late to planning and happy to score any campsites at all.

We arrived quite early at ☞ Porcupine Mountains Visitor Center to check-in for one night at Union River Outpost CG. We had to come back next morning to get backcountry permit, but a bigger problem was brewing: serious rain sweeping through the area the following 24 hours. We spent the evening preping for the multi-day hike, packing and waterproofing our backpacks, eating extra calories and taking extra long shower at Union Bay CG. The rain came late next morning.