Twigs & Swigs No. 6 – SBHT & LTI

Sleeping Bear Dunes seems to get all of its love during the warm summer months. But spending a winter afternoon skiing through the snow-covered hills with some great company, followed by a satisfying meal at Little Traverse Inn, is pretty tough to beat. We began our afternoon on Leelanau County’s Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, a 4.2 mile trail from Glen Arbor to the Dune Climb. The trail will expand to 15 miles this year and will eventually be 27 miles in length.

It’s groomed for both skate & classic skiing, but it’s open to all uses, including snowshoeing & fatbiking. Our group consisted of people on skate & classic skis as well as snowshoes. In fact, a park ranger stopped our snowshoer to let him know that snowshoeing was allowed and if anybody stated otherwise, they could head over to the ranger station. Bravo, Mr. Park Ranger!

The Trail’s Facebook page is a great resource to keep up on trail conditions and grooming schedules. If you’re into fast hilly skiing then I’d suggest sticking to the VASA, you won’t find much elevation change, spandex, or crowded parking lots on this trail, just a casual good time.

Just a short jaunt north on M-22 will land you at Little Traverse Inn for some post-ski sustenance. Their menu features both English and Indian food, and they have a wonderfully strong beer selection, including 3 firkins at all times. But it isn’t the food that draws me to Little Traverse Inn, it’s the atmosphere. There’s a certain comfortable joviality there, highlighted by the owner’s broad smile and the constant stream of sports (rugby if it’s on) on the television that hangs over a beautiful wooden bar.

The restaurant is broken up into different rooms so chances are your group could end up having a wing to itself. It’s a great place to spend a leisurely few hours eating, drinking, & visiting with others, especially if you love bacon & candy.

Da Yoop – Part Deux

Queue part 2 of the UP tour (you can find part 1 here).

Unfortunately the amazing weather we had at 12-Mile Beach didn’t last. What do you do when it rains for 5 hours while camping? Pretty much nothing:

So after eating, and drinking, and drinking, and drinking in the rain for most of the afternoon, the rain let up a tad. So we busted out the cameras and played around a little bit with some nighttime photography.

Our reprieve from being wet didn’t last long. The rain came in heavy and sideways for most of the night, finding every weakness in our tent. This made for a very hasty pack-up the next morning in search of “dryness,” aka, our hotel room in Marquette.

We couldn’t however resist the short hike down to Miner’s Falls on our way westward for a photo op (yes, that’s me at the bottom of the picture looking for my can of industrial strength, cancerous bug spray that fell out of my pack and down 200 feet of slippery rock).

Miner’s Falls

Arrival in Marquette meant a hot shower and warm, dry clothes. We had game planned for a short nap after the sleepless night in the monsoon, but there was too much to do and see! One of the must stops in Marquette is Presque Isle Park, 5 minutes along Lake Superior northwest of town. There you’ll find some commanding views of the Lake as well as some cliff jumping.

Lake Superior from an advantaged viewpoint in Presque Isle Park

Lake Superior from Presque Isle Park in Marquette

We were coincidentally in Marquette the same night as UP Beer Fest. Let the fun continue…

UP Beer Fest is hosted by the Michigan Brewers’ Guild every September in Marquette, right along Lake Superior in beautiful Mattson Lower Harbor Park. It features over 50 Michigan breweries, local food, and live music. This was my first time attending, but I’m already planning next year’s trip up for it.

UP Beer Fest

The beer fest actually ends at 6, which was great because it gave us a chance to check out some of the great spots to grab a drink and a bite at in Marquette.

Post beer fest stops included, Ore Dock Brewing Company, Black Rocks Brewery, Das Steinhaus for dinner, and then a nightcap at the Northland Pub inside the Landmark. Both Ore Dock & Black Rocks brew some great beer. Black Rocks doesn’t have a lot of space to hang out, but they’re currently doing construction on their new facility. Ore Dock on the other hand has 2 levels with tons of seating and typically has live music on the weekends. Both are worth checking out when you’re in town.

Dinner at Das Steinhaus consisted of traditional German fare. I wasn’t even sure what I had, but it was delicious. They just opened in August, but both times I’ve been there it was packed, a sure sign of success.

I’ve been to Marquette more times than I can count, and many of the evenings out end at the Landmark. I’ts old, creepy, and awesome. They always have a good draft beer selection, but we usually end up drinking spirits or cocktails. I can’t explain this, but it just feels right (until the next morning).

Needless to say, an evening out in Marquette was a great way to end our UP tour.

If you’re interested in heading up over the Bridge, I highly recommend having a game plan on where you want to go and what you want to see. There’s a ton of amazing sights in the UP, but it’s a huge place and I wouldn’t suggest just heading up and “figuring it out.” In 5 days we traveled almost 900 miles, but we knew exactly where we were going each day and how far it was to get there. Also, your phone may not work in many areas, so might I suggest buying a gazetteer. I have one of Michigan and it has a lot of the dirt roads we traveled on it for easy navigating. And my last piece of advice – it is almost always colder in the UP than in the LP. Bring warm clothes!

Special thanks to my travel companion and photographer Jason Helbig for contributing photos to this post.

Please enjoy this photo of a waterfall.

Munising Falls

Da Yoop – Part 1

As somebody who lives “up north” in the eyes of most Michiganders, I try and head up north myself at least a few times a year, meaning the Upper Peninsula. I was lucky enough to recently have a week in September off from work and headed across the bridge with a buddy and a car full of gear (aka beer and encased meats) for a tour around the eastern UP. Here’s some shots and a brief recap of our trip.

Here’s a visual of our approximate route:

View Larger Map
We drove close to 900 miles in 5 days (in a Prius, relax hippies). That’s an average of a little over 3 hours in the car each day. When put that way it sounds kind of awful, but driving around in what feels like the middle of nowhere has a great sense of adventure to it.

We headed up late in the afternoon from TC to near Grand Marais to set up camp and hit the sack before an early morning back in the car. That first morning was a trip directly to the Mouth of the 2-Hearted River. I’d only been here once before and that was before the Duck Lake fires in 2012 so I was very curious to see how the area was recovering. Some of the growth is coming back, but there was some damage to the campground and the general store near there was completely destroyed. Driving through the burn zone was definitely both fascinating and depressing. I’ve never visited a wildlife area after it was ravaged by fire. The picture below gives a sense of how surreal it was; both beautiful and a reminder of nature’s devastating power.

2-Hearted Burn Zone

Finally we arrived where the 2-Hearted runs into Lake Superior. This is one of my favorite spots in the world. It’s incredibly remote (it’s billed as the most remote campground in the UP. IN THE UP!) and after the long, winding drive down dirt roads, you feel like you’ve arrived at the end of the world. The magnitude of Lake Superior is amazing and the silence is rejuvenating.

Unfortunately, we didn’t camp here this trip, but just wandered around the beach for a bit before heading onward. We also got buzzed by a Bald Eagle, but didn’t have the cameras at the ready. So that kind of sucked.

2-Hearted River running into Lake Superior

2-Hearted River merging with Lake Superior

Next up was a quick stop at Tahquamenon Falls on our way back to Grand Marais before attempting to find a campsite at 12-Mile Beach in Pictured Rocks.

Lunch at Lake Superior Brewing Company in Grand Marais was a must, but not before making a phone call real quick at what has to be the only remaining phone booth in the state.

Phoning home

Sustenance!

Everybody I know that’s been to Lake Superior Brewing Company raves about it. I’ll be honest, it looks like your typical hole-in-the-wall UP dive bar. In fact, I’ve been to Grand Marias numerous times but had never stopped at LSBC for that exact reason, you can’t even tell if it’s open for business until you walk inside. But once you head in you

realize why it has such a great reputation: good food, decent beer, & friendly service. The food at LSBC is your typical bar fare, but it’s really well done, especially when it’s the last meal you aren’t preparing yourself on a camp stove for a few days. I had fried fish and it was dusted perfectly with batter and lightly fried. They typically have 3-4 of their own beers on tap. The blueberry wheat was quite refreshing. You can count me in now as another advocate for this place as a must stop when passing near Grand Marais.

Next stop: Pictured Rocks

After our resupply we headed straight to 12-Mile Beach in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and set up camp for a few days. This ensued:

The view from our campsite (yeah, seriously!)

We had perfect weather for the first part of our trip, low 70s and sunny with a light breeze. If you haven’t been to 12-Mile Beach then you’re missing out. The campground is up along a bluff overlooking Lake Superior. But due to its beauty, it’s very popular & I’ve had a few trips where we had to resort to “plan B” because it was full. But if you can snag a spot I definitely suggest staying for as long as you can, the landscape is second to none.

Sunset over Lake Superior

Part 2 to be posted shortly…stay tuned!