Hiking Category | Jacob Emerick's Blog

Northwest of the Silver Lake Basin

Finding my way back to the small campsite on the Dead River, where it enters the Silver Lake Basin, was more difficult than I had planned. A maze of logging roads, mostly impassable in my small car, wound their way from the Peshekee Grade (north of Champion, MI) past Wolf Lake Road and over to Wildcat Canyon. While this area is within Kennecott's planned 'Wilderness Road', a proposed route from Republic up to their mine on the Yellow Dog Plains, it currently has few good roads and is all but impossible to navigate. After an hour of logging roads, I finally reached the campsite and parked near the firepit, more than ready for my hike.

Firepit at campsite along the upper Dead River

Earlier in the year I had embarked on an overly ambitious route around the entire Silver Lake Basin. There are several really interesting locations along the northwest shoreline that I skipped during that hike out of sheer exhaustion. Today I was going to revist these spots. While I only had a few hours of daylight left, my planned hike included ...

• Tags:
• north country trail
• old growth
• silver lake basin
• waterfalls

Cascade Falls

The parking lot for Cascade Falls was surrounded by a warm green mugginess after the morning's rain. It was easy enough to find, just off a well-maintained forest service road, mere minutes from Norwich Road. I stepped out and quickly put on a jean jacket and baseball cap in anticipation for the black flies that love this area and weather. A well defined and blazed footpath led away from my car into the deep green woods.

Early fork on the Trail to Cascade Falls

I didn't do much research on this hike beforehand and was surprised to find a fork in the path after a few minutes of walking. A sign for 'Bluff Trail' pointed to the left. Unable to turn around from a promising name like that I headed left. The climb was short and steep and I soon found myself on top of a rocky outcropping with views to the south and west.

Trap Hills to the West

Green Ottawa Forest stretching to the South

The views of the Trap Hills to the west were pretty amazing. I've heard good things about this rocky area of the ...

• Tags:
• north country trail
• ottawa national forest
• trap hills
• waterfalls

The Numbered Lakes above Red Road

Nestled north of Red Road and between Mulligan Plains and the Clark Creek Valley, the numbered lakes are perched almost 300' above within thick and wild highlands. Lake 8, 2, and 3 (going from west to east) are each around 10 acres in size with shorelines ranging from deep rocky outcroppings to shallow wetlands. There is no road or easy path to any of these lakes, even though there is an old open cabin on Lake 8. I had visited Lake 8 several times before, but today I wanted to see all three of the numbered lakes on a single grand adventure.

Looking south on Lake 8

Ever foolhardy, I made the mistake of spending the night on the north side of Lake 8. The Mulligan approach involves climbing the 300' up an overgrown four-wheeler trail for a mile around fallen trees and deep pools then bushwhacking a few hundred yards through a small marsh. By the time I reached the lake both my gear and I were soaked through thanks to the all-day drizzle. I rolled out of the tent early in the morning clad in already wet clothes shivering in the ...

• Tags:
• huron mountains
• mulligan plains
• old growth
• peshekee highlands

Winter Visit to Cliff Lake

Cliff Lake is a small body of water nestled against the southern flanks of Mt. Benison, located halfway between Big Bay and Skanee. There are two main routes to Cliff Lake: follow Cliff River north from the Northwestern Road past Forty Foot Falls or break off of Erick's Road where it meets Little Huron River Road and head east. Since I decided to tackle this adventure in early March, when Erick's Road is one of the few plowed drives in the area, I chose the latter.

Ice Covered Cliff Lake

I was excited to jump out of the car after four hours of early morning driving, even if the forecast had lied about the sunny day. Thick flakes of fluff drifted lazily on my car, parked near the sharp northward bend of Erick's Road. I grabbed a few extra jackets for layers and headed southeast past the 'Private Drive - No ATVs' sign. This road was also plowed (surprisingly), making the first bit of my hike an easy walk.

After passing several cabins in the first half mile I decided to cut north. Cliff Lake wasn't my only ...

• Tags:
• huron mountains
• snowstorm

Mount Arvon

Mount Arvon is the highest point in the state of Michigan. At 1979' above sea level (1380' above Lake Superior), it slowly rises out of the Baraga County forest on the northern end of the Peshekee Highlands. I had avoided visiting this mountain, more interested in the rocky outcroppings of the Huron Mountains to the north and east, but I finally gave in with a combination of curiousity and convenience.

Mount Arvon peak

After searching for an upper drop on the Ravine River (which doesn't exist), I continued south and west on Ravine River Road. This remote logging road slowly winds it's way up the northern face of the mountain to within a 1/2 mile of the peak. The drive was pretty neat, with a small creek cutting a deep gorge right off the edge of the two-track, and it did most of the elevation gain for me. The road made a sudden stop after a sharp right turn, so I parked my car and headed bast the rock-and-concrete barricade.

Road barricade at Mount Arvon

The two-track up the mountain remained ...

• Tags:
• huron mountains

Canyon Lake and Burnt Mountain

Time had taken it's toll on the Northwestern Road. Faith, Bryan and I bounced up and down in the Jeep heading east from Big Erick's Road through large potholes and deep ruts. I had driven on this road only a few years ago in my Ford Taurus, but there was no way I would risk a car on it today. We finally pulled up to an overgrown two-track about a mile past Cedar Creek in the thick wooded valley between the northern Yellow Dog Plains and Huron Mountains.

Rain had dampened the vegetation along the path and all three of us were soaked after a short distance on the two-track. We were on our way north to the fringe of the Huron Mountain Club's southern boundary, using a maze of logging roads along the way. The first road we were on had not been used for years, but we were surprised to stumble upon a fully active logging operation up ahead.

Logging south of Burnt Mountain

After walking down the wide, sandy road past numerous stacks of logs we cut off to the left. If I had known about the active logging operation we probably ...

• Tags:
• bushwhack
• faith
• huron mountains

Huron Mountain View

A bright pink-orange glow lit up the side of my tent early in the morning. I jumped out of the sleeping bag and my breath was taken away by the fiery view over Lake Superior. Caught in Wisconsin traffic on my drive up last night, I had climbed Raven's Nest near Little Huron River late at night through the dark and could barely make out the surrounding view in the rising moon's light. Now, with the sun's rays blazing across the landscape, the rocky top offered 270° vistas, including a direct shot at the beautiful sunrise.

Fiery sunrise over Lake Superior

Today's morning hike didn't give me much time to delay, though. I only had a few hours before some friends would be meeting me at Big Erick's Bridge. Ducking into the brush on the north side of Raven's Nest I struck east towards the Huron Mountain Club's property. There are a few hilltops covered in scraggly brush that had potential views of Huron Mountain, Howe Lake, and Rush Lake on the verge of their property (all three of these are within the Club).

Hoping to get some ...

• Tags:
• bushwhack
• campsite
• huron mountains

Haystack Mountain

Of the three volcanic plugs in the Ottawa National Forest (see an earlier post aboutOttawa volcanic plugs), I enjoyed Haystack Mountain the most. It's relatively remote, virtually unknown, and involves a short but challenging hike. A recent trip to the Upper Peninsula brought me close enough to the mountain to stop by for a quick climb.

South from Haystack Mountain

Parking my car at the gated two-track off of Lake 13 Road, I quickly hopped the steel gate and waded through the tall grass. There were a few raspberries scattered along the track to sweeten the trek and none of the thistles that had plagued previous visits. Familiar with the area I took the right fork without referencing my GPS. According to older topo maps this fork in the road eventually loops around but I knew from my last visit that the right fork simply ends after a short distance.

The summer undergrowth was very thick in the woods. I struck a bearing roughly 30° to ...

• Tags:
• haystack mountain
• ottawa national forest

Hills Lakes

I woke up early with the sunrise, still sore from yesterday's hiking. Dressing quickly, I rolled out of the tent and started a small fire. The coffee didn't take long to make and I was soon standing on the shore of the northern Rocking Chair Lake, watching the sunrise over the tall eastern hills and enjoying the warm aroma and taste of the brew.

Without much forethought I had spent the night halfway up Mulligan Plains on a small DNR campsite. My plan of sleeping on the southern terminus and hiking to these lakes in the morning had backfired thanks to recent logging activity. I was still debating on heading south to follow the southeastern cliffs of Mulligan, but the tall hills and trees to the east beckoned me. After gulping the rest of my coffee I started east to new territory with false bravado - I was heading straight into some of the thickest woods on this side of Superior.

Sunrise over the Northern Rocking Chair Lake

The southern Rocking Chair Lake drains north to the one I was camped on, and so my first ...

• Tags:
• bushwhack
• mulligan plains
• old growth

Cookout Mountain and the Hidden Falls

There is a small mountain and tiny lake located on the western end of the Trap Hills right off of M-64. A blazed trail leads up from the road to the mountain, passing near the lake, before it heads south to the North Country Trail. Known by locals as Cookout Mountain and Weidman Lake, this area first drew my attention during a winter waterfalling adventure.

Snow covered Weidman Lake

Starting in a muggy mid-morning summer day, I climbed the trail from the road and soon came to a tiny trickle of a creek. White rectangles nailed on the trees continued across the creek and up the next hill, but I turned away from this path and started heading upstream. The undergrowth was not particularly thick, but the creek had a most annoying twisting route within a tiny valley that forced me to repeatedly cross stagnant pools of water and mossy rocks. Attempting to cut straight paths parallel to the creek quickly led me astray, as it was difficult to make it out the creek's path from more than ten feet away. so I continued upstream along and ...

• Tags:
• ottawa national forest
• trap hills
• waterfalls