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Dying sunlight filtered lazily through the tall bare trees. A recent heavy rain had soaked the area, leaving the earth soft and giving, the air thick and cool. I trudged up a slope between deep eroded channels and peered ahead in search of my destination. The day was slipping away and I didn't have…
Snow plummeted from the sky. The large lake-formed flakes didn't swirl or drift like normal, like they were designed to do. They cut through the woods on a stiff breeze and tumbled onto the leaf-covered ground. At first the flakes melted quickly on the warm ground. Then, steadily, a thin white…
A two-track led east and I followed. There was a much more ambitious route to my right that climbed rocky hills and pushed through thick woods, one that promised sweeping views of Cliff Lake and the eastern swamp, but I stuck to the track. Snow had been falling for the last few hours, soaking 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…
Migisy Bluff sits south of Marquette Mountain, a curving ridge that stretches from County Road 553 east to Harvey. There are several spurs of exposed rock that poke south along the length, the most prominent one sitting on the far east and promising excellent vistas of Lake Superior. Near the…
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…
A warm spell was a welcome change from the freezing cold temperatures of the Upper Peninsula's winter. I had gone on a few hikes through the winter, most in subzero temperatures, and today's mild temperature were a pleasant reminder that spring was around the corner. Driving most of the way in the…
An unseasonable warm gripped the Marquette area. I stepped out of my car in short sleeves and looked around curiously at the snow drifts piled up against the woods. I was parked just north of Sugarloaf Mountain at an old gravel pit. There were no signs marking anything special here but I was one of…
For the past four years I've hiked the mountains east of Big Erick's bridge during the snowy months. This annual pilgrimage started with a hike up Bald Mountain with Cory back in 2009 that was shrouded in a thick February blizzard. Sometimes I stick close to this mountain while other hikes stretch…