It's about time I brush off the 8 plus months of dust that this old blog has accumulated. And what better reason to do so with tales from a good old fashioned show-shoeing adventure in the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
The Porcupine Mountains are located roughly 274 miles north of Milwaukee and overlook the greatest of lakes, Lake Superior. The trip begins at a park and ride in Green Bay, Wisconsin where my cousin Paul scooped up his brother Joe and Myself. Joe and I were attending the Green Bay Packers game against the Seattle Seahawks. In this particular game the Packers clinched a NFC wildcard spot. I won't go too much into detail but I will say that we celebrated this accomplishment far too aggressively with smuggled in elixirs.
The game ends and we hit the road at roughly 6pm hoping to arrive at our destination as quickly as possible. I managed to catch some Zs on long ride and before I knew it the time was 11pm and we were at the doorstep of the great Porcupine Mountains (it was dark and I could only see the violent waters of Lake Superior on the way in). We took our car as far as it could go and parked it by a road only open to snowmobilers. The three of us repacked our bags and got suited up for a 5 mile night hike.
We hiked 4 miles up the snow-covered road that was lit by the moonlight before we reached our trailhead. We took a couple of pictures before attacking the untamed trail down to the shore of Lake Superior. We hiked for about a mile before deciding that setting up camp was in our best interest. The winds off of the lake were bitterly cold and we managed to find some protection nestled amongst pine trees about 100 feet inland.
The first order of business was to pack down an area of snow to set up our tent. We did this with our snowshoes and it went quite efficiently. Next we set up our four seasons hardcore mountain tent. When I purchased this bad boy of a tent back in my boy scouting days I had aspirations of busting it out in the craziest conditions that Mother Nature could offer me. I imagined I would be laughing inside as I lay comfortable and warm. Although the inside of the tent was paradise compared to the outside, it was still frigid as an icicle sword (mother nature won this round).
It was sometime after 3am when we were all settled into our sleeping bags and despite being overly exhausted I couldn't pass out. I was as comfortable as one could be keeping in mind the circumstances, but for whatever reason sleep wasn't happening. I think I managed to fall asleep eventually but before long it was time to get ready for a full day of hiking.
Waking up in a place completely transformed by light was an incredibly warming sight. The snow, the trees, the lake. It was an invigorating site to wake up to. It took us quite a while to hit the trail and we had only a couple of hours of sunlight before we had to break out our headlamps. The goal of the trek was to successfully conquer a 25-mile loop through the park finishing at our car after 3 days of hiking. We wanted to be about 13 or 14 miles in by the end of the day.
With several feet of snow below us we weren't able to move with great speed. Our mile times were roughly 2.5 to 3 miles an hour. We all had one layer of thermals on below our lightweight snow pants and jackets. It wasn't enough layers just to stand in the cold but when you're moving like that it's plenty.
Eventually we found our stopping point for the night. It was about an hour since the lights went out in the forest and once again we assembled our tent in the dark. Joe and I immediately crashed in our sleeping bags while Paul melted us some water and cooked us dinner. Paul's wife Ashley put together a delicious pasta dinner for Paul to make us that night. I was exhausted and eating that pasta was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I was pounding cliff bars all day so eating hot and tasty food was a dream.
After dinner we played a game of cribbage. In the end I stole a win from Paul and Joe managed to limp across the skunk line coming in a distant 3rd (sorry buddy, you know how I love to rub it in). It was about 10pm at this point and once again sleep was not happening. I wasn't the only one this time with Paul and Joe struggling to crash. Not cool.
The next morning it was colder than I can describe. We had our tent well vented and our moisture still managed to freeze on the inside of the tent. Most of my gear was wet after waking up and I was wearing my last layer of perfectly dry clothes. Even when it's deathly cold I still find a sick enjoyment out of sucking in freezing cold air and turning it into warm breath that slowly billows out of my mouth and nose.
Once again Paul melted snow to fill our water bottles. Our original intention was to spend 3 nights in the wilderness but because I wasn't sleeping and had a bag full of wet gear I requested that we crank out the remaining miles before the end of the day. Everybody was in and we made our way up the trail and back to our car. The finale of the trip was going to be seeing Lake of the Clouds from an amazing vantage point. Paul and Joe both experienced the view before and spoke highly of it splendor.
During the hike we carefully crossed dozens of rivers and steams and saw many signs of wildlife in the form of tracks. After about 5 miles of hiking we came to our cross road except it wasn't the right one. We studied the map and realized that we went 5 miles in the wrong direction. Joe pinpointed us on his GPS and we received the unfortunate news that we were 15 miles from point to point from our car. The pain that my out of shape body was dealing with started to become more apparent. I didn't really consider the reality that we wouldn't make it to our car without spending another night in the tent. What can I say I’m an optimist.
We decided to hike to a snowmobile road and try to hitch a ride. We made it to the nicely groomed road and continued towards the car. We were more than 12 miles away at this point with a little more than 2 hours of light. We hiked for about an hour before we saw one snowmobile. Then all of a sudden we saw packs of them everywhere. Coming out of the woods, blazing down the road and parked ahead of us in the distance. I think we all knew that a ride was definitely going to happen.
As we walked we kept our eyes out for singles on 2 person sleds that could potentially take us to where we needed to go. Most of the riders didn’t fill our criteria and some that did were too far ahead to flag down. It was frustrating and I think we were all feeling kind of desperate. Plans to wave a crisp 10-dollar bill were discussed but this idea went unused. After about 5 or 6 miles of hiking 4 riders stopped for us. Paul explained the situation and talked them into taking Joe, myself and our gear as far as they could. There was no room for Paul but he figured he could finagle a ride at some point.
I was so excited about the ride that I forgot to cover my face before the snowmobile fired up. Before I new it we were flying on the surface of the snow. I was holding on with both arms as the cold wind punched my face.
The ride felt like 20 minutes and several miles. We ended up getting dropped off about 2 miles from our car. Joe made the good Samaritans take some beer money and they declined my offering of cold booze from my canteen. Joe asked them how the trails were and one man replied, “F#@$ing awesome!”
We got back to the car and reorganized ourselves before going to wait for Paul. More than an hour had passed since we got picked up and there was no sign of Paul when we first got to the rendezvous point. It was getting dark and all we could do was hope that he was safely on his way. Worst-case scenario Paul hikes the whole way back. His legs are diesel and he’s been training for the annual Berkibeiner (a 30 plus mile cross country ski race in Northern Wisconsin).
We waited at our meeting spot for about 15 minutes total before two snowmobilers delivered Paul. A hip looking handshake was exchanged and he hustled over to the warm car. Paul told us that the rider agreed to him a ride if he promised not to stab him. We all had a good laugh at that one. As we drove back the spirits in the car were high and we walked away with an incredibly unique experience.
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