BushwhackTag | Jacob Emerick's Blog

Nealy Falls

A short, bumpy drive along the powerline's service road brought me to a dirt four-wheeler track heading south. I stepped out of my car and immediately felt the heat rising from the ground like a swelling pool of water. Grabbing some water and a few granola bars, I entered the green forest on the overgrown track at a brisk pace, not particularly looking forward to this hike through the sweltering heat.

Power lines north of Ishpeming

After finishing my waterfall project several years ago and putting together my waterfalls of the keweenaw area website I began to explore other Upper Peninsula features, like mountains and lakes. I still visit waterfalls if they are along my route or when I'm with curious friends. However, falls started to crop up that I had missed... deep in the Peshekee Highlands, in a remote area of the Keweenaw, or in unexplored reaches of the Ottawa National Forest luring me back to adventurous bushwhacks through unmarked areas searching for the right creek flowing ...

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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 ...

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• 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 ...

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• campsite
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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 ...

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• mulligan plains
• old growth

Weekend on Mulligan Part C - Northern Cliffs

After a full day of hiking yesterday at Deer Lake and Silver Lake Basin I slept in past the sunrise. When I finally woke up and made some breakfast I made the difficult decision to head home early. The original plan was to stay at Mulligan Plains for another full day, going on multiple hikes around the area, but I was running low on water (and energy) and was ready to be done with the high temperatures and bug swarms.

Foggy morning view of Mulligan Plains

However, I did have enough water left for one more hike. I smothered my campfire and headed north along the cliff edge. My campsite was just off of the trail to Bob Lake on the tall cliffs north of Mulligan Falls, so I was just turned north and headed towards Stager Lake. This route offered some excellent views southwards of the plains and a glimpse or two back towards my campsite and the gorge of Mulligan Falls. Once I reached a prominent outcropping on the route I decided to cut west into the woods towards Stager Lake.

Making my way around a few swampy ...

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• bushwhack
• mulligan plains
• old growth
• waterfalls

Eastern Cliff of Clark Creek Valley

Cliffs have quickly become one of my more recent hiking interests. Like mountains, they offer some excellent views of the area, and the sharp relief can make for some interesting routes and rock outcroppings. Good cliffs are hard to find in the Upper Peninsula, thanks to the millennia of erosion gnawing down on the terrain. An unexpected ally can help keep the steep rock face from getting buried by its own sedimentation - flowing water.

Cliffs of Eastern Clark Creek Valley

A river or a creek flowing at the base of a cliff can wash away any sort of debris that is eroded off of a cliff. I've already seen a number of examples: downstream of the McClure Basin (Dead River), southeastern edge of Mulligan Plains (Mulligan Creek), and the deep gorge near Cliff Lake (Cliff River). Mulligan Plains is the most interesting; with steep slopes stretching along the entire eastern wall, it is only the southern half, with Mulligan Creek flowing at the base, that the cliff's steep rock face is exposed. Today I was hoping to find another exposed cliff ...

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Cliffs of Mulligan Plains

The -15ºF air hit me like a brick wall as I stepped outside of my car at Mulligan Plains. Unaccustomed to the cold Upper Peninsula mornings I quickly covered my nose and mouth with a warm scarf before heading down the plowed two-track. The sun's early rays had only just begun showing over the eastern cliffs and I didn't have time to wait for the valley to warm up; there was a long, hard hike before me.

Last summer marked the first time I visited Mulligan Plains without stopping by Mulligan Falls. I had always known that there were other attractions in the narrow valley but had never made a direct effort to see them until then. The main goal of today's trip was to revisit one of these sights: Rocking Chair Lakes. My route wouldn't be an easy one but did a promise some awesome views of the plains. I planned to start near the bridge over lower Mulligan Creek, follow the top of eastern cliffs to Rocking Chair Lakes before looping back to the car, resulting in a 6 mile hike with plenty of vertical distance change.

The first climb of ...

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• cliffs
• mulligan plains

The Last Waterfall Hike

My last hike for the waterfall project was on April 29, 2009. For the last two months I had been on a crazy schedule re-visiting all of the waterfalls I found last summer and collecting accurate coordinates with a new GPS unit as well as finding new falls within my radius to add to my site. Since I was leaving for Wisconsin the very next day, I decided to make this adventure legendary and visit Mulligan Falls.

Mulligan Falls is located northeast of the Silver Lake Basin outside of the remote Mulligan Plains. There are no trails or roads within a mile of the lowermost waterfall, which Faith and I had found last October. I had heard rumors of upper waterfalls, so I set an ambitious route that would take me several miles upstream. The area around Mulligan Creek is cluttered, rocky, and swampy, so I planned on the hike taking several hours.

Bridge over Mulligan Creek

I left early in the morning and made it to Ishpeming around 7:30 in the morning. After stopping for gas and some snacks, I headed north ...

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• mulligan plains
• waterfalls

Red Road Cliffs

Most visitors to the Keweenaw Peninsula will remember The Cliffs by their name alone. A sudden up thrust of stark rocky cliffs stretching from Mohawk past Phoenix along US-41 with towering trees and large piles of poor rock is hard to miss, and for those adventurous enough, rewarding to climb. A variety of waterfalls and old mine ruins are located near this area, and an easy climb yields views from several hundred feet of rolling hills to the south. Far away to the southwest near Marquette is a similar treasure, much less known to tourists and adventurers: the Cliffs of Red Road.

I first got interested in Red Road during a hiking adventure in mid-July 2009. I was driving from Clark Creek to Mulligan Plains along the Dead River Basin (north of Ishpeming) when I glanced to the north and saw dark, towering cliffs. It was far too wet that morning for a side trek, so I pushed off this adventure to late August.

Cliffs of Red Road

There's not much historical information regarding the highlands north of the Dead ...

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• mulligan plains

Superior Mountain Hike

Superior Mountain is a lumpy set of peaks located west of the Mouth of Huron river. Rising from the edge of Lake Superior and sandwiched between Little Huron River and Mount Benison, the mountain has many rocky outcroppings with excellent views of the surrounding area, some over 1400 feet of elevation. This rugged peak offers some of the best climbing and hiking options of the western Huron Mountain range outside of Huron Mountain Club boundaries.

Foggy view from Superior Mountain

Starting on the western end of Little Huron River, a number of rocky outcroppings rise before the large, forested Mount Benison. These peaks do not have official names, but the majority of them are grouped together as Superior Mountain (or Clause Mountain) with the two southern ones as Tick Mountain. While I had visited two tough rocky mounds of Superior Mountain during my Tick Mountain climb, I never attempted climbing the bulk of the peaks. The sheer, south-facing cliffs blocked my usual route from Little Huron Road, and I thought I would have ...

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• huron mountains
• logan