Hiking, web development, best practices, and general awesomeness
Most of the mountains in the Upper Peninsula follow predictable ranges. There's the long Keweenaw Ridge that stretches from Copper Harbor southwest past Ontonagon, old Huron Mountains from Marquette to Alberta, and Gogebic and Escarpment out to the west. The majority of my hikes owe their geography…
Roads that lead east from Big Erick's tend to lose their name. Sure, there is Ford and the Northwestern, two roads that are difficult to define as they twist and fork over rocky and pitted ground. There's one road that I've always called Erick's, the one that leads past Bald Mountain and along the…
There's not a whole lot to the town of Toivola these days. Sure, it has a cool name (how much more 'Yooper' can you get than Toivola?). The access roads to Misery Bay and Agate Beach are here too, leading northwest from M-26. Other than that, there is little left to the once-thriving logging town…
Once, on a very snowy spring afternoon, Faith and I followed the East Branch Huron River from Erick's Road all the way to Big Falls. The hike was a challenging one. Located in a deep gorge for most of the route, the river twists and turns suddenly and does not offer much in the way of a river bed to…
Big Pup and Little Pup Creek are two fairly typical creeks in the Huron Mountains. Little Pup, the smaller of the two, starts right above the hairpin curve on County Road 510 and is only a few miles in length. Big Pup Creek is much more ambitious, almost twice as long and stretching far west towards…
Soft, cold rain drizzled down around me. I was attempting to cross Lower Silver River Falls, a waterfall near Skanee, MI that I've visited at least a dozen times (and even proposed to Katie at). The river was higher than normal and the rocks were wet-slick, making a crossing tricky and dangerous.…
Rising up like a large, gnarly growth, Mt Benison stretches from Mountain Lake to Little Huron River and from Howe to Cliff Lake. Similar to Ives Hill far to the east and Superior Mountain just to the west, Mt Benison is not a simple peak with a distinct shape or defined outcroppings but a whole…
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…