Porkies Yurt TR

“This last weekend was my first foray into winter camping. I have been gearing up for this all season and the time finally arrived.
My buddy Steve and I arrived at Porcupine Mountains State Park in Michigan's UP around noon on Saturday.

After checked in and unloading our pulks we set off around 1:00 and had a nice leisurely snowshoe (uphill) on a groomed trail with the intention
of setting up camp well before sundown. About two and a miles in we started losing steam. We had left Chicagoland around 3:30, drove up and started hiking so we didn't have much in our tanks. Found a nice suitable spot about a 30 yards "bushwack" from the groomed trail.

The snow was pretty deep and we spent a lot of time tamping it down where the tent was going to be set up. We made some food and sat around enjoying the silence.
We then set up the tent and got our gear organized. made some more food/drinks and retired to sleep around 9:00 with the temp at 12. My Marmot "Never Summer" sleeping bag kept me toasty warm all night, had a hot Nalgene bottle in the bag and down booties on just in case though!

The next morning we took our time getting up and doing the morning routine. Didn't hit the trail till almost noon. We had just over four miles to snowshoe and most of it was going to be on ungroomed trail. The temp was very warm in the afternoon (35) and it was sunny. The snow was clumping on my snowshoes and the going was tough as the trail was all uphill until the last half mile. I had to stop at one point and get my mental aspect together. I was huffing and puffing, the weight of the clumping snow was draining me and it was frigging warm. I let the heart rate come down, killed a bag of trail mix and drank a lot of water. I slowly ascended the hill and low and behold as I rounded the top the snow was harder. The sun wasn't on this side of the hill all day and the snow was still crunchy, relief!

Four miles of slow ascent came to an end with the final half mile being steep descent. I was rewarded with the view of the yurt which would serve as base camp for the following days dayhike.
The yurts in the Porkies are very luxurious by backpacking standards. Two bunk beds, a wood stove, a table with chairs, absolutely marvelous. Unloaded gear, ate and we celebrated our arrival with an after dinner drink. The next day we dayhike about some but not as much as we had planned. The long slog through the wet snow uphill the day before had sapped a lot of energy.
We had big breakfast, lunch and dinners to rebuild our energy for the six and a half mile hike out.

Up early and on the trail. The morning was crisp and cold (low teens) with a brisk wind and flurries. The first half mile was up and up and up the very steep hillside. After that we made remarkable time.
Nearly all down hill for the rest of the day on refrozen snow covered in fluffy new snow! The sleds just glided along and we averaged better than two miles an hour on the hike back to the truck!

Great time, great park and the yurt was fantastic. Highly recommend checking the yurts out. Here are some pics, I'll add more as they are edited.

Our pulks


Tent camp night one


moi


Yurt


Inside the yurt

last edited: 2/28/08 9:51:48 AM”

“CR,

Great TR, and pictures. That is a great park. We hiked up there a year ago in September.”

“Groomed trail


The only grooming done here was by us on the way in, lol...


Gitche Gumee
”

“Cool.”

“Great pics. I think yurts are the most awesome things ever! I didn't even know what they were until about a month ago.”