Huron Mountains Tag | Jacob Emerick's Blog

Blind 35 Hills - South Side

Sleeping in through the cloudy sunrise, I woke up on a rocky outcropping west of Big Bay. I had spent the previous evening hiking around some of the hills on the north side of Blind 35, finding plenty of western views towards Ives Hill and even a limited shot of the Keweenaw Peninsula to the north. You can read about those adventures on my previous post (Blind 35 Hills - North Side). This morning it was time to head south and west to explore more of the hills.

South, across Blind 35, to my morning hike

I packed up my gear and headed down the steep slope, trotting and sliding down the pine-covered slope to Clear Creek. Leaving most of my stuff in my car, I set a brisk pace westwards along the road past muddy holes and huge rocks far too large for my small vehicle. Blind 35 continued to degrade, slowly resembling a well-traveled four-wheeler path more than the beginnings of state trunkline. After a bit of walking I came to the bridge over Snake Creek, a small two-lane concrete piece ...

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• bushwhack
• huron mountains

Blind 35 Hills - North Side

West from Big Bay is the Huron Mountain Club, stretching over some of the most pristine land in the Upper Peninsula. An old, abandoned road stretches out towards the club, surrounded by tall, forested hills, before suddenly ending at the property line for the Club. These hills are cut in half horizontally by the road, also known as Blind 35, and range around 1300' in elevation. After a brief visit to some of the northern outcroppings over a year ago, I returned to this area in hopes of finding some good views of Lake Superior and the untouchable Huron Mountain Club property.

Looking east along a steep outcropping

The drive from County Road 510 is not a gentle one. Blind 35, once the makings of a state trunkline, has been poorly maintained for years. My small car lurched and shuddered over the rutted road as I tried to avoid the large rocks and deeper mud pits. The road is interesting to drive on - it is straight and relatively level, and it's easy to imagine this being a paved throughfare straight through to Big Erick's Bridge. However, in ...

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• campsite
• huron mountains

The Ives Exploratory Trip

This exploration turned into the best camping experience I've had in the Upper Peninsula. When I started the hike I was only interested in doing some exploring around Mount Ives area, a large chunk of land I previously thought to be within Huron Mountain Club borders. What I found was a beautiful campsite with captivating views that I eagerly look forward to revisiting.

Sunset over Ives Lake

After a long drive west from Dodge City, I parked off of the Northwestern Road at a gated logging road. I was less than two miles from where Faith, Bryan and I parked for the Burnt Mountain hike, but this short section of road is impassable to most vehicles. Thanks that previous hike I knew there was some logging north of me, so I shouldered my gear and headed up the road. My hope was to follow the recent logging clearings northwards and set up camp once until I got tired.

While the Huron Mountain Club owns both Ives Lake and Mountain Lake (or at least the majority of the surrounding shores), there is a narrow finger of ...

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• campsite
• fall colors
• huron mountains
• old growth

Wetmore Hike Part C - Hogsback Mountain

The sound of crashing waves slowly died away as I headed inland away from Wetmore Beach. Taking the parking lot route out to County Road 550, I was unsure of how I would make it to Hogsback Mountain until I noticed a small two-track across the road from Wetmore's parking lot. It was marked as part of the Harlow Trails. I took my chances in headed westwards along the trail, inland, hoping to find my next climb.

Two bridges along the Harlow trail

The two-track started out wide enough for a small truck but quickly narrowed down after a few fallen trees blocked the path. It crossed a creek flowing into Harlow Lake with two separate bridges, both in disrepair. I was not paying attention to my direction, mostly looking around and enjoying the woods, and found myself heading northwards away from the mountain by the time the trail met up with an old railroad grade.

While the northward trend had taken me away from a direct path to the mountain I wasn't too far from my destination. I headed south down the railroad grade past a tiny ...

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• huron mountains
• waterfalls
• wetmore

Wetmore Hike Part A - Sugarloaf Mountain

Just a few miles north of Marquette is a small collection of interesting locations that I had ignored for far too long. Casting them to the bottom of my list as 'easy tourist' stops, I've driven past the Wetmore area to more appealing remote locations beyond Big Bay numerous times. I rolled into the Sugarloaf Mountain parking lot on a cold, damp morning with an ambitious plan to visit several of these locations in one fell swoop.

Looking north towards Wetmore Beach from Sugarloaf

My first destination was an easy climb up Sugarloaf Mountain. It had been a rough night camping near Diorite, with high winds and freezing temperatures robbing any chance of a restful sleep, and I was thankful for the wide paths leading up the mountain. There are two trails leading up the mountain, an 'easy' and 'difficult' route, and I took the difficult route uphill (I'm pretty sure it's shorter). Both trails were well-trod and easy to follow with stairs built on the steeper sections.

The air was cold and damp with a thin fog clinging to ...

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• huron mountains
• north country trail
• shoreline
• wetmore

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 ...

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• 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 ...

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• 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 ...

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• 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 ...

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• 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 ...

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• bushwhack
• campsite
• huron mountains