Old Growth Tag | Jacob Emerick's Blog

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.

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 face on the...

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• Tags:
• old growth
• bushwhack
• cliffs

Rocking Chair Lakes

Perched high above Mulligan Plains are the two small Rocking Chair Lakes. A rustic camping site of the Escanaba River State Forest, these lakes offer scenic views and a peaceful escape for the adventurous. Ever since I first visited Mulligan Plains in the October of 2008, I hoped to have the chance to visit the lakes, and I got my chance almost a full year later.

It was a cool, rainy July morning in 2009 when Logan and I headed to Mulligan Plains after a night of camping on the Yellow Dog Plains. While the official route to the lakes involves driving up County Road AKC, I doubted my vehicle could make it more than half a mile on the poorly maintained route. I headed up the unnamed but well-kept county road on the west side of Mulligan Plains and cut over on a convenient driveway near the lakes. As the plains are only two thousand feet wide or so, this route got me close to the start of the trail without damaging my car more than necessary.

I had to double back to find the remains of County Road AKC as...

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• Tags:
• logan
• mulligan plains
• old growth
• campsite

Clark Creek and Island Lake

Due to the rugged nature of the Peshekee Highlands, the Dead River's upper reaches are quite unique. From its headwaters in the McCormick Tract, it drops over 400 feet before reaching Silver Lake Basin, the first of five reservoirs along the Dead River. The surrounding land doesn't drop as quickly as the river on its route to Lake Superior, with the deep river valley surrounded by soaring cliffs and towering hills. There are two interesting tributaries flowing from the north that drop several hundred feet before joining with the Dead River: Mulligan Creek and Clark Creek. On a hot, humid day in July of 2009, I decided to visit the Clark Creek area to hike along the creek and its wide, deep valley near the Dead River Basin.

I took a long, but personal favorite, route out of Ishpeming along Deer Lake Road. This road is really curvy and busted up, but it offers amazing views of Deer Lake Basin and the wilderness surrounding the Dead River Basin. Unfortunately, I did get stuck behind a logging truck on its route to...

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• Tags:
• logan
• huron mountains
• old growth

McCormick Tract

Located north of Champion, the McCormick Tract is a 16,850 acre wilderness in the Peshekee Grade. Originally owned by Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaping machine, the land was donated to the USDA Forest Service in 1967 and is now available for the public to enjoy. In July of 2009 I visited the south west corner of the tract along a historic route to the old camp on White Deer Lake.

Starting from the Peshekee Grade, which follows the old Iron Range & Huron Bay railroad grade from Champion up to Mount Arvon, I parked at the access area with some fellow hikers. The small parking spot had a restroom as well as some informational signs and maps. There is no trail markers allowed on the McCormick Tract, so it was nice to get a short refresher from these maps. After crossing the bridge over the Peshekee River, we followed a well-worn path northeast towards White Deer Lake.

While the trail was easy to follow, the rain-covered, thick undergrowth soon had us soaked. For the first mile or two, the trail was surrounded...

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• Tags:
• logan
• peshekee highlands
• old growth
• ruins
• faith
• ottawa national forest

The Mulligan Area

There are several important pieces to the 'Mulligan Area' of Marquette County. Mulligan Plains is a long, narrow valley pointing from the western end of the Dead River north to Pinnacle Falls on the Yellow Dog Plains. Emptying the large and wild Mulligan Swamp into the Dead River is Mulligan Creek. Along the creek is a series of relatively unheard of waterfalls collectively called Mulligan Falls. All of these are wrapped around Silver Lake Basin, the uppermost dammed basin along the Dead River, located on the edge of the Peshekee Highlands.

The Peshekee Highlands are a large, expansive, and rugged plateau just south of the Yellow Dog Plains. The elevation here is surprisingly high, usually around 1600 feet above sea level. Much of the plateau is swampy and sprinkled with lakes; the hard rocky outcroppings make it difficult for the water to drain out regularly. This area also has mineral wealth, with numerous abandoned gold and silver mines throughout the plateau. Almost two-thirds of the highlands are located within the McCormick Tract and Craig Lake state parks, and the remaining portion is too rugged for regular traffic, making it the whole area exceedingly difficult to visit.

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• Tags:
• mulligan plains
• waterfalls
• peshekee highlands
• old growth