Hiking, web development, best practices, and general awesomeness
There are plenty of waterfalls in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan… and Jacob has been to a lot of them. Starting in the summer of 2008 he has visited over a hundred different drops from the sandstone tumbles of the Ontonagon rises to the worn canyons in the Huron Mountains. He even has an entire website dedicated to waterfall adventures!
Coming down the north side of Tortilla Peak was a hundred times easier than my climb up. A few simple hops over jagged rocks and then a long, clear chunk of bedrock sloped gently away. Man, this approach would have been a breeze. I looked back a few times at the peak, now bright under a rising…
Flowing south from the iron mining highlands of Champion and Negaunee, the Escanaba River spends most of its length trickling through swamps before emptying into Lake Michigan near Escanaba. It has three main branches, the middle and east ones meeting up at Gwinn and the west some ten miles…
As my circle of waterfall exploration expanded away from Houghton over the years new thorns appeared on the horizon. At first the thorns, the more stubborn waterfalls that eluded documentation and trails, were still on familiar land. Madison Gap (or Eliza), Upper Sturgeon, Ravine River - at least I…
Dry August heat rushed at me as I stepped out of the car. It was supposed to be cooler, with a slight north wind off the still-chilled Lake Superior waters, but the temperature near Wolverine didn't want to cooperate. I organized my gear and gazed up at the tall poor rock pile, the first of many,…
The last leg of the Chapel Loop is a relatively easy jaunt from Mosquito Beach back to the trailhead. There are two possible paths, one on each side of Mosquito River, with the longer western option darting over to Mosquito Falls before looping back up. Of the three sides of the lopsided triangle…
Finally. After years of neglect and false starts the Waterfalls of the Keweenaw site has a new look. It was my first website, predating this blog by several weeks, though I haven't touched it in close to five years. It was about darn time that it got a fresh coat of paint.
So what is this site?…
The road wound and bucked like a living creature trying to lose me in the wooded hills. I cruised along, keeping a modest speed, trying to be mindful of the posted limit while being anxious to get started. This was my first hike of the day and the drive from Appleton had been long and dark. I neared…
As I discussed in a recent post about my 2013 plans, I've started working on my waterfall site again. This was my first large-scale side project, outdating my blog by a few months and including over a hundred waterfalls and 50-odd journal entries. The website included driving directions, photos, and…
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…