Vacation! 1st-5th Tenting in the U.P.

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tomcatjones

Active Member
that is about all we've finalized so far....

the Gf and i need help on ideas for destinations and i know there are alot of you guys from the U.P. -it's been awhile since i've been up there but have no tented it.

thought about seeing kitchikipi and Tahquamenon again...

kind of looking more on the rustic side - plus with late planning that is probably the better thing, lol.


ps... also looking for hash on the trip if any is floating around, could be nice to meet one of you guys.


and might as well all throw your own vacation plans/ideas down in the thread too!
 
gladstoned

gladstoned

Well-Known Member
I actually just went through Anderson Lake campground in gwinn a few hours ago and it was pretty full. It is good you are thinking rustic cuz that is how you will find nice site during fourth.
 
kindone

kindone

Active Member
WE like to go to the mouth of the two hearted river, rustic campground is nice and usually not overcrowded, I've never been on the week of the 4th of july though. The fires hit some of that area pretty hard but from what I understand the campground is open.
 
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purklize

Active Member
Check out the Harlow Lake cabins near Marquette. The lake itself is beautiful and at night you can see the reflection of the Milky Way on the water, and sometimes northern lights.

Some places you'll want to see: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore by Munising (you CANNOT miss this)... http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jensenl/visuals/album/2006/pictured/

Wetmore Landing, Hogsback Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain, Presque Isle, the Dead River... all beautiful places within a few miles of Marquette. There's a spot at Wetmore Landing where you can get away with camping. It was really popular with college kids. The place is known as "Hidden Beach" so maybe you'll be able to ask for better directions once you're there. It's tucked behind some massive sandstone cliffs and takes a bit of climbing (or a boat) to get to, but it could hardly be more worthwhile.
 
kindone

kindone

Active Member
I will be headed near Marquette at the end of july if anyone wants to let me in on any of the cliff diving spots I hear of in that area.
 
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purklize

Active Member
Presque Isle has an area known as the "black rocks." It's volcanic rock and there's a fairly large (15-30ft) cliff that leads to Lake Superior. Beware though - the water is colder than you can even imagine. First time I dove off there it was a 95F day and I couldn't wait to jump in - the second I hit the water my whole body seized up and went into convulsions... took a few seconds for me to regain control and be able to swim. The surface temperature rarely breaks 41F.:bigjoint:
 
kindone

kindone

Active Member
I swim in Gitchi every chance I get, she'll scrub your soul clean if ya let her. The last two years have been the warmest I remember in the 20+ years of going up. Big difference in walking into the shallow water from the beach and plunging into deep deep water from a cliff. You don't have to go very deep and the temp drops fast.
 
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purklize

Active Member
why i wanted to avoid the pictured rocks - she's never seen them before, but im not sure i want to bath in superior EVER again
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LOL... that is understandable.

You don't have to swim though... it's a gorgeous hike.
 
abe supercro

abe supercro

Well-Known Member
lmao. That sounded dangerous... It's a real shocker. After the body adjusts and numbs some you can swim for a little bit. Shallow bays actually heat up later in the summer.

purklize said:
Presque Isle has an area known as the "black rocks." It's volcanic rock and there's a fairly large (15-30ft) cliff that leads to Lake Superior. Beware though - the water is colder than you can even imagine. First time I dove off there it was a 95F day and I couldn't wait to jump in - the second I hit the water my whole body seized up and went into convulsions... took a few seconds for me to regain control and be able to swim. The surface temperature rarely breaks 41F.:bigjoint:
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purklize

Active Member
lmao. That sounded dangerous... It's a real shocker. After the body adjusts and numbs some you can swim for a little bit. Shallow bays actually heat up later in the summer.
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No doubt, I just sank like a rock for the first few seconds!:eyesmoke:

You're right - I have been able to swim for a while, but it took flailing around with every inch of my skin in great pain at first... and then yeah, you go completely numb after a minute and it's all good... first stage of hypothermia. :lol:

It actually takes a lot longer to drown in Superior than a warmer body of water. The drop in your body temperature slows down all the chemical processes within, which results in a slower rate of usage of oxygen and a longer time to die. People have survived after being submerged for 30 minutes before. But you gotta be careful when you take them out, because if they warm up to fast, they'll enter cardiac arrest.

Lake Superior keeps people. Forever. Where do they go?
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Straight to the bottom. The water's so cold that bacteria can't thrive, so the bodies don't ever bloat up with gas and return to the surface and wash up on a beach.
 
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tomcatjones

Active Member
well we decided to not to go to the UP on account of fuel costs and we figured we'd rather have more spending money.

but the trip was fantastic, the girl had never seen the Sleeping bear dunes so we decided to head out that way - couldn't find the forest campground we were looking for and as it got late we drove back to one we saw near interlochen - Lake Dubonett, i have never heard of it and it was a great secluded place, with like 50 sites all rustic. after an hour or so of us setting up the storm came and it lulled us to sleep, lol

1st day we drove around the lake Michigan cost and hung out at the dunes, beached it. 2nd day we hung out in traverse bay on the beach and at one point got to play with legos which was pretty sweet. they had a lego creations place open to the public to just "share the love of lego" as the guy put it. travelling across vacation spots for the summer 6 weeks in each area. then fireworks on the bay were a cool sight.

rested up, camped the next night as well and then we saw the new movie "safety not guaranteed" at the state theatre - good movie recommend it to all.
 
kindone

kindone

Active Member
Sounds like a good time, I took the wife and kids to sleeping bear weekend before last and had a blast. We stayeed at the D H day rustic campground and it was real nice, right on tha water. Way too many people for me though, the place has turned into quite the tourist destination since I used to go as a child. No childhood in Michigan is complete without a trip to Sleeping bear though.
 
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tomcatjones

Active Member
kindone said:
Sounds like a good time, I took the wife and kids to sleeping bear weekend before last and had a blast. We stayeed at the D H day rustic campground and it was real nice, right on tha water. Way too many people for me though, the place has turned into quite the tourist destination since I used to go as a child. No childhood in Michigan is complete without a trip to Sleeping bear though.
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that was the 1st choice, D H Day - but they were filled up for the week of the fourth.

and with us medicating the less people the better.

the place we ended up wasn't even half filled, but i had never ever heard of lake Dubonett before, boating and fishing kind of lake, not the one i want to swim in.
 
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