Adventures with Big Blue

[campfire]

Alright, U.P. trip is in the books and it's time for another trip report!
We headed out Wednesday morning about dawn and drove up the Shore road to Manistique. It was a wet morning. Really wet. My rain gauge measured 1.5" of rain in a very short time (most of that fell during 8 violent minutes). Haven't had a good thunderstorm like that since I moved up here, usually things are just gentle and drizzly. The important part about this is that we weren't done packing the truck and had a bunch of stuff that started the trip drenched (tarp wasn't set up yet). Silly me trusting a 0% chance of rain forecast.

Pics from the coast road. My Silver Lake flagpole is still on the front of the truck.






We drove past the state fair in Escanaba.




Manistique is an odd town. Like most small towns in this area, it's dying off as jobs and people leave (often in that order). The primary industry was a paper mill that has closed (though some folks are trying to restart it). Aside from that, there's not much here. Even their prison is abandoned. But they do have a few neat buildings. Here is a brick water tower.



And they also have their lighthouse.




But the prison is just creepy. Prisons aren't generally warm and inviting, but the overgrowth gave it a sinister look. And the door in the razor wire was casually propped open. I could see a horror story unfolding here.

 

[campfire]

When we were ready to head out we contacted Dave to arrange a rendezvous. He told us that Luke was broken down on CR448 and he was diverting to make a rescue. I looked at the map and found that the road in question was quite close to Manistique, so I turned North to meet Dave as he traveled South. This sign might mark the official start of the trip.



Though it was still a pretty nice road.



When I found Dave he had already picked up Luke & Heather (who were walking out), so I circled around and followed him back to the start of this logging trail.



Here he pulled the Maiden off and we headed out to tow Luke's rig out from its resting place. I got stuck in the back, which sounded fine until I realized that Dave had removed the rear seating to make room for camping. Oh well.





And in a flash we were roaring through the back country.





View out of Dave's rear window.



Hitching up and turning around.





And heading out. This time there was no need for crummy rear seating.




We broke a tow strap, but had no other issues. We got back to the clearing just a minute or so before this logging truck rolled in. I'm glad our combination rig didn't meet his combination rig out in the narrow parts.





Luke tried winching himself up onto the trailer, but wasn't able to pull himself up the ramps while pulling himself downward. So Dave hooked on (at a happier angle) and they winched toward each other.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

What happened to Luke's truck?

 

[campfire]

With Luke's rig loaded up, we headed to Munising to deliver it to a shop. Fuel pump sounded funny and the engine had no power. Luke wanted someone with proper tools to drop the tank rather than doing it in the middle of a forest.





When we reached M-28 we crossed this rail line. The short section at the left seemed lonely.




Unloading just outside Munising.



We then headed downtown (if Munising can be said to have a downtown ) for a Pasty dinner. While we wrapped up (:P), the shop called Luke to say that the tank, when dropped, was light. Really light. Turns out Luke hadn't actually filled it when he had been thinking about filling it.

We loaded the Maiden back up and hit the road in the direction of the setting sun. Go West, Young Man!

Munising Bay.



I lead the group out of Munising.



Coming into Marquette. Very pretty coastline.



I hadn't seen this view on a blue-sky day before. Pretty.



In Marquette we drove through downtown while the others headed straight for Walmart.



And then we headed out again, Luke in front and Dave in back. This was the normal order for the rest of the trip, as Luke generally controlled the route and I didn't want to be last if some piece of camping gear fell out of my open bed. Turns out that the occupants of the Blue85 don't like following the smelly diesel, either.

Here is Teal Lake near Negaunee. Today it was more blue than teal.








And then the clear blue sky rained. Welcome to Yooperland.




Pretty sunset colored the sky.



Our camping site for the first night. Adventure Mine just outside Greenland.


Enjoyed some campfire time and got ready for the adventures that were just starting.

 

[campfire]

What happened to Luke's truck?

Fuel delivery issue (low pressure). Turned out there was no fuel to deliver. Fuel was added to the tank, and pressure magically returned to normal.

 

[campfire]

The next day we got up and enjoyed breakfast in our clearing. Plenty of room at this site.



Warming up breakfast.




@AgDieseler sneaked into this shot.



Luke's camping rig in action. The bins slide out from under the bed, but the rear of the bed platform also flips up on piano hinges. So he can access the gear from either direction.



The campsite sits a short walk from the mine office. Biking and hiking trails snake through the rocky woods.




Adventure Mine uses two of these Pinzgauers to haul tourists around.



Their small wooden tour office building sits inside the foundations of a much larger hoist house.



The tour starts in the basement of said hoist house where the regional mineral deposits are explained.





And then we headed out to "Heidi" for our ride through the woods.



We drove past several building ruins and gated mine shafts.




This one has its rails exposed to show the angle of ore removal.




This adit was our dark destination.


Inside we got the basic mine tool lesson that I've now seen at least 5 times. But it's well done.




Here's a nose-shaped piece of copper hanging out of the wall.

 

[campfire]

The adit ended atop a cliff at the far side of the mine. Really neat view. As with so much of this trip, pictures don't even begin to do it justice.




The mine was 48* inside, so I carried an extra T-shirt to throw on in case I got cold (in shorts). The extra shirt was the only piece of CK5 gear available for a group photo.



Back on the other end, this diagram shows the levels of the mine. We took the shortest of their 4 tour options, but their cooler tours are hours-long climbing/hiking/rappelling adventures. The museum didn't choose the mine's name, but it fits quite well.




Luke & Dave contemplated installing this winch, but couldn't think of a place suitable for the bulky thing.



We then packed up and hit the Bill Nicholls trail North toward Houghton. I visited sections of the BN last year in my tiny Saturn, but what it found impossible the trucks rolled over with ease.





Crossing the highway. 5 seconds of pavement and then back to the trail.



Here is the M-38 entrance to the trail. This is the section that leads to the Firesteel Trestles.



We stopped on the second trestle for a photo shoot.

 

[campfire]

We found it impossible to get a group shot with my short rig hiding behind their tall ones, so we turned around headed back across the trestles in reverse order. Much easier to see the short guy that way.











I sure wish someone had brought a quad-copter to show how high the bridge is. It's really something. Wifey headed a little ways down into the gorge, but we didn't wanna stop long enough to hike down to the bottom.



Here's a picture from last summer, when we hiked about half-way down the gorge of the first trestle. Can't see the full height, but it gives an idea.

More shots like that here.

 

[streetrodchev]

Moar pictures

 

[campfire]

Moar pictures

Did you click the link?

 

[campfire]

We then reversed course and headed KindaSortaMaybe toward the Porcupine Mountains. It was a lazy, wandering course. I had a bunch of fun, but I'll admit I didn't actually follow the map very well this day. I mostly just followed Luke and enjoyed the route.



Active mining operations near Rockland.




Old Victoria was our next stopping point. One of the many mining ghost towns, this one has a few preserved buildings.






The few houses that are left are so small compared to what used to be here. And this is one of the preserved sites. Many others have simply ceased to exist in any fashion.

 

[campfire]

We headed on from there and hit the trails again.






We followed these power lines to a swampy section.



Time to lock the hubs and see how deeply the rigs sink.



Turns out he sank in more than he anticipated. I looked for a route around it, but nothing seemed feasible (it's wedged between rocks to the left and standing water to the right), so I streamed through the mud and joined Luke on the far side.





And then he looked further down the trail and found this gully. Doesn't look bad in the picture, but it was steep and narrow, and we didn't have much confidence in the trail at this point (it looked abandoned, we didn't know whether it actually continued out to the next road/trail or not). So we turned around and went back through the mud hole.




Here I am working my way back out of the mud.







I think one of the guys got a film clip. But all I have is lame pictures. Here is Luke working his way through it. Not a big challenge for his rig. And I think the Maiden was bored the whole time. If anyone was gonna get hung up it was certain to be me.






Heading back out in reverse order.

 

[campfire]

And then we continued to get turned around. We went back out to the "alternate route." I didn't notice it at the time, but the sign does say "winch may be required."



The alternate route took us smoothly back out to a road. Which we then traveled down looking for 2 or 3 other fruitless routes. We came to the end of the power lines and found there was no path and a cliff dropped down to the road. So we wouldn't have made it out that way anyways. But a couple of routes turned out to be trails (legally speaking, a Michigan state trail = no full-size vehicles allowed, state route = open to anything; I have a habit of calling everything a "trail" ).






Turning around one of several times. 8 miles into this route we found it gated off.



We then headed down to the Porkies. Where we found no fuel. Dave's thirsty big block needed fuel, so we all turned around and backtracked 9 miles to White Pine. And then came back to the Porkies.



They stopped at a station with no diesel fuel. This became a pattern along the trip. No. Diesel. Fuel. INeedStinkyFuel.



It actually wasn't a problem, Dave was burning fuel at least twice as fast as I was (I'm guessing three times), and I carried 40 gallons vs. his 30 gallon tank. Fuel was never a problem on my end. Which doubtless contributed to the gas station selection.



And then we rolled back down to da Porkies. Pretty waters, pretty waters.




We then drove out to one of the outlying "outpost" campsites. Distance was something like 15 miles (can't locate it on the map, so I'm not fully sure). Once we got out there we found that we had to drive back to the ranger station to register for camping. So we headed back to the park headquarters again. Same pretty water.






And then we drove back yet again to the campsite. We did enjoy hot showers while we were back at the modern campground, but I'm gonna agree with Luke here when he says that "anywhere worth camping is free." Organized camping is just more headache than dispersed camping, methinks. Good thing this was our only organized campsite (unless you count the clearing at Adventure Mine).


But overall, during this lazy, loopy day we spent all day in the rigs and burned oodles of fuel just to move about 40 road miles away from our starting point. It was fun.

 

[GWeakland620]

Looks like a blast!

 

[AgDieseler]

Great photos and of what looks like a fantastic adventure.

AgDieseler sneaked into this shot

I see what you did there.

David

 

[campfire]

Looks like a blast!

Definitely was. And this is only day 1 of the trail time.

 

[campfire]

Great photos and of what looks like a fantastic adventure.

I see what you did there.

David

 

[TREA18]

Great write up. I can't wait for day 2.

 

[campfire]

Camping at the edge of the Porkies. In the rain, of course.






Dave slept in the back of the Maiden. Bed is rolled up in this shot. This spot was usually occupied with gear and the spare tire. So each day he had to load and unload the gear to convert into camping mode. Less work than we had with our tent, but quite a bit more than Luke had with his dedicated camping rig. Dave also had to unload the tire & gear each time he needed fuel. Which happened often, we all got good at moving that heavy thing up and down.



Luke used the pop-up canopy & tarp combination to keep us all dry during our rainy-night campfire time (though the campfire got wet).



After packing up, we headed back, yet again, to the tourist end of the Porkies (I think we headed through the same intersection 5 times during this trip ).





We followed the tourist road to the touristy Lake of the Clouds. Why the name? Well...the mountains here extend above cloud height. And there's a lake. I guess it makes sense, eh?

Beautiful mountains. Not a Colorado amount of elevation (overall), but a happy amount of elevation change.





Cool bridge. This area has lots of hiking trails, but this wasn't a hiking trip.





I love watching the clouds roll in off of the misty sea. Lake Superior sits just a few miles from here.

 

[campfire]

My truck consistently felt short.



The folks were kind enough to pick a diesel-friendly filling station. Good thing, I had used half my fuel by this point. I only had 20 gallons of fuel left!



Wheels censored so @beags86 doesn't have a conniption.



@GWeakland620, this station has had so many tourists trying to prepay for gasoline that they posted this sign to remind folks that this region doesn't typically do that.