Bartell

In Michigan, being outdoors can mean comforting on a beach or getting lost in the wilderness. Among the hidden places described below will let you do both. Listed below are three areas that you've not seen in magazine articles and guide books.

Michigan Outside - Waters

The Manistee River can be floated by you from Baxter Bridge (the following crossing down from Hwy 131) north of Cadillac, all day without seeing a house or a street. The majority of the route is in the Manistee National Forest, where you can camp without permits. The Manistee isn't a river packed with interesting rapids (at the least not with this stretch). It is a river for relaxing.

A couple of years back, we used to park where Road 17 crosses the river, and walk upstream with a little day pack loaded with treats, water, a saw, hatchet, and rope. By early evening we'd build a raft of dead trees cut to size. We used these hours flying back again to the automobile. We called it Tom Sawyer Day, and on six of those trips I have never passed another canoe or boat on the water.

Michigan Outside - Beaches

Probably you have heard of or gone to the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore (and the dunes), and the other exotic areas over the east side of Lake Michigan. They are lovely, and I highly recommend them, but what if you'll need a beach to yourself? Head north, to the Top Of Peninsula of Michigan.

From Highway 2, a few miles east of Rapid River, turn south on County road 513. Follow it until it splits, and take the road to Wilsey Bay. Where the path first concerns the water, it is a public access point. Leave your car or truck here and walk a mile to the end of the street, and then along the rocky beach past the last home (remain below the high-water mark and it's appropriate to walk past private property).

Just after dark house you enter the Hiawatha National Forest for another seven miles of beach. The last time I camped out there, I never saw a person in two days. I followed clean black bear tracks along the sandy beach, and later explored the ruins of a classic cabin one day. There are number roads in to this area, and ATV's aren't permitted. If forested wilderness is wanted by you, just walk away from the beach - and observe for wild blueberries in the forest clearings when it is August or September.

Michigan Outdoors - Actually Hidden

You'll want a topographical map because of this one. In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, north of Ishpeming, there's some wild and difficult country. Driving out of Ishpeming, you'll wind through rugged lakes and woods. An hour north, on a sandy path, you'll arrived at a lake with two-hundred foot high cliffs on one other side. I promised friends not to get more certain than this, so you'll have to work a bit to locate it.

Carry on a bit further, before road gets too difficult or the puddles too serious. Park the car and locate a wood to cross the small stream on, then head uphill (you might need both hands to move up the wooded hillside). Beyond and on top of the cliffs and mountains there are two lakes, merely a thirty minute leave, surrounded by way of a rugged wilderness, and without path planning to them. My buddy had a bass on the point in five seconds the first time I took him there. All the best! cpr my career