UP's trip to da UP :)

“Woohooo 4 days from now I will be on my way!! :-)
Spending Sat-Mon. in the Sylvania Wilderness area kayaking, leaving there Mon. and driving up to Copper Harbor where I'm gonna stay till Wed somtime.
Will spend Thurs. night somewhere over close to the bridge (Makinac) and drive home on Thur. Have a family campout to go to Fri.-Sun :-)
Anyhoo I know it's kinda short notice but if anyone wants to join me at any time (to do some camping, yakking or just to sit around and shoot the sh#t for awhile) I'll be happy to have the company.....just shoot me an email and we'll work out the details.”

“Wish we could join you UP! Please give us a trip report especially about the Kayaking. I'm anxious to hear about it. Have fun!”

“Hey, Upluver, you'll be just north of me. Don't know my availability, but have you reserved a campsite at Sylvania or plan to do so when you get there? If I knew where you'd be, I might be able to track you down via canoe if I can get away for a day.”

“Thanks lady :)
I'll let ya know how it goes...(IE whether I survive...lol)!
Hopefully I'll have time to get my website up and running again when I get back then there will be tons of pics...I'm a photo nut so believe me there will be lots of them...lol”

“I don't have a campsite reserved yet but if there's any way I can get in touch with ya I'll be glad to let ya know where I'm gonna be as soon as I find out!
I'm gonna try to get up there in time Fri afternoon to get a campsite reserved, spend the night at the car campground and head out Sat morning!”

“I'll e-mail you from my office tomorrow (Tuesday) -- having some intermittent e-mail issues from my home-accessed accounts. Perhaps Friday night for an evening paddle on Clark Lake, if I can get it together. I'm only about 45 miles from Sylvania so a quick run up with my canoe is possible.”

“See. We really are friendly and welcome new hikers!”

“LOL Dhutch!!

UPluver, I hope you have a blast, sylvania is on my "short list" of paddle locations. I cant wait to hear about it.”

“pekka: That sounds like a plan to me :) I'm gonna try to get up there mid afternoon so that should work out great :-)

dhutch1: I never doubted it for a minute! now about that yakking trip on the Manistee??? (I'm officially putting you in charge!) LOL

birch: thanks, and I can tell ya now that it's a GREAT place to go canoe/kayak camping!
Me and a friend spent a couple of days up there last summer and had a blast!”

“Sylvania is a GREAT place. Been there many times. If you get tired of the water, there are some trails around some of the lakes.

Enjoy.”

“UPluver: just sent you an e-mail with some contact info and particulars for Friday at Sylvania.”

“Woohooo I'm on my way!!”

“Watch out Sylvania, TTer incoming!!!!

Better go put the canoe on the truck, I only have like 6 or 8 more hours until UPluver gets to the North Woods.”

“First off, I have finally had the honor of being the first TTer officially met by a newbie. I had a great 3-hour paddle (and running chat) with UPluver on Clark Lake in the Sylvania Wilderness/Recreation Area this afternoon. An interesting way to go on a trip -- wait for the cell phone call, then hop in the truck and move out. For UPluver it was a 10-hour drive, for me an hour -- why I don't get out to Sylvania more, who knows.

An absolutely gorgeous day in the North Woods -- partly cloudy and upper 70s. UPluver already had his camp set up by the time I arrived. Just as I was exiting the ranger station parking lot after getting my day pass, he came driving up from the campground. We proceeded directly to the boat launch and got our respective canoe and kayak in the water.

There was a light wind quartering from the southeast and into our faces, but it wasn't a hindrance to our progress and certainly removed all possibility of bugs hassling us on the water. This was my first chance to try out my new "stick," a pretty narrow- and long-bladed Gray Owl wooden laminated paddle. After a few minutes with my nice ash beavertail paddle, I started the comparison. The new paddle was clearly lighter, and the longer, narrower rectangular blade was very efficient and more powerful in the lake conditions, as I had hoped. I had no problem keeping up with UPluver in his Old Town sea kayak with his double-bladed paddle, which was a bit of a surprise as we set a good, steady pace down long Clark Lake.

Sometimes our conversation distracted us from our steering chores and we'd find ourselves converging, but a j-stroke or sweep on my part and some rudder on UPluver's prevented any collisions. There were a few other canoes on the lake, either coming up from the interior, or clearly headed in to camp. At the take out, a family was packing up from a trip, except for the teenaged son who was headed back out for a 5-day solo. His mom was only slightly fussing over him, but the parents were clearly experienced canoe campers and cool with sending him off -- mom telling the elementary-aged sister that someday she'd get to do the same thing.

We pulled the boats up at the portage to Loon Lake, a beautiful lake where I have canoe-camped a couple times years ago, and walked the couple hundred yards over to get a look at it. Rangers in a canoe that had just exited the portage to come back up Clark Lake had warned us as we approached that the skeeters were getting bad on the portage, but UPluver and I didn't find much to complain about.

Then it was back down Clark Lake for us too. Of course the wind had shifted, so our hope of a breeze at our backs was not to be, and the first half of the lake included a light side wind from the west that required some steering to offset. The second half saw the wind die until just a few hundred yards from the boat launch, when we finally got the tail wind. Better late than never.

After loading the boats, we chatted for a few more minutes, having swapped stories all afternoon of past paddling and backpacking trips, family tales and what our kids are up to (both of us have 18-year-old daughters). Then it was time for me to head home, wishing circumstances would have allowed camping.

Comparing my hour drive to UPluver's 10-hour motorized forced march, I certainly realize how lucky I am to live in the midst of a place so many work hard to visit for just a few days. Today was one of those great days in the North Woods. Lush forested shores surrounding us, pristine and glass-clear water with big smallmouth bass gliding under our boats, fresh air in our faces, and a nice new comrade to share it all with.

I encouraged UPluver to get in touch with the Michigan Mountaineers since he lives pretty close by in northern Indiana. You guys will find him an affable companion. He's hoping to say howdy to Sunshine in a couple days, starting his "who have you met?" list with a couple a Yoopers, which is about as good as it gets!”

“Cool! I'm looking forward to our meeting. I hope you warned him about me Pekka! Hehehe... I'll go easy on him. I'm not sure where we'll be hiking but he's familiar with this area so I'll let him choose. :)”

“I got a call Monday evening form UPluver atop Brockway Mountain, which was the only place his cell phone would work. He was preparing to enjoy a beautiful sunset. We made arrangements for me to pick him up at the campground on Tuesday.

UPluver has been to Copper Harbor and has seen most everything there is to see so I took him out on some old logging roads to the Keweenaw Point. We drove all but maybe the last 1/2 mile. One because I can't drive my car through the beaver damn and two because there are now signs posted that the beach is closed. We parked the car and proceeded to walk out to Keystone Bay. My feet got a little wet walking across the beaver damn. No wild beavers attacked. ;o) We proceeded to the beach. Due to the lack of Summer the bugs weren't bad at all. We got to the beach, I left my mark on some bushes, and we took some pictures of the white sandy beach. We returned to the car to find that no angry land owners had flattened the tires. We took a different route out which wasn't quite so "bumpy" and slow going as the route in. We drove to the damn, hiked to the beach and returned to the campground in just over three hours.

UPlover asked me how many TTer's I've met. Couldn't think fast enough. I replied more than 25 but less than 50. So when I got back home I wrote them all down. Looks like 36 not including pets and children. I posted them on the Who Have You Met page. UPluver can start his list with Pekka and I.”

“Sunny, I can picture the view from Brockway Mtn. Lots of good memories up there! Sounds like a nice time for ya both.”

“I've been out on those logging road at the tip of the Keewenaw once or twice myself. Lots of fun bouncing around!

Wish I would have made time to get up to see the Big Lake this summer. Its so peaceful to sit by the shore and listen to the sounds of the lake.

......”

“Sunny, did you take me to the White House? Didn't it burn down last week? I don't remember which one that was....”

“Yes, I did take you there smiley! It was our last stop and we didn't even finish our beers. I think we hd enough already. :)

They had a benefit for the family last night but I was unable to attend. His fiance lost her son and a nephew this past winter. Her mother is dying of cancer and her fiance just lost his business which was also where she was employed. Very sad.

There's nothing left of the bar except the bathrooms. Burned right down to the ground. They plan to rebuild, though.”

“I read Pasty.com every day, so that's where I heard about it. I guess it was also in the MTU electronic newsletter. What a sad story.”

“Thanks for the update on the UPluver 2004 Nort' Woods Tour. Hope you MMers get a chance to meet him, whether paddling or hiking, and welcome him into the gang.”