We drove a hundred and forty miles to do a 3 minute peak bag at Mt. Arvon, Michigan. At 1,979 feet it is the highest point in the state and, gee, you can almost see Lake Superior. The timber company that owns the land did provide a lookout point a few hundred feet from the high point where we could see the lake. We were creative in our drive from Marquette to Mt. Arvon, going the shortest route suggested by Google Maps. Foolish us. The last twenty miles Betsy crept over and around rocks and ruts. Fortunately, no problems with the car or the road (actually barely a track). It 's a skimobile route in winter. We didn't meet another car until just 100 yards from the destination. According to the high point register, the guy who passed us leaving was from Colorado Springs and Mt. Arvon was his 35th high point.
The broad view of the top
The register
Lake Superior in the distance, forest in the foreground. The Lyme Timberlands Company cut down some trees to open up this view.
After the high point adventure, we drove back to Marquette and then on to Munising, MI. This town sprung up to serve Picture Rock National Monument -- tomorrow's event. We stocked up with dinner/breakfast supplies and drove south. In about 25 miles, we crossed a little more than half of the Upper Peninsula to the Colwell Lake Campground, our accommodation for the next two nights.
We had a snack of cheese and crackers, sampling the cheese from the Wisconsin Cheese shop -- very good - after setting up the tent. Then we rode our bikes around the campground, just a single road. We passed the campground host who told us that there was a trail around the lake we could cycle. It was 3.2 miles around and very pleasant. While the ride was not a lot of exercise, we felt we had earned dinner. There were some mosquitos, not swarming but still annoying.
Camp site #9
We enjoyed salted whitefish, pasta (leftovers from last night's dinner) and a 'salad bag."
Sounds like a fun day and a well deserved dinner. I enjoyed reading about your drive on the snowmobile road. I did something similar in my car when I was supposed to follow Pat and Rick. They disappeared thru the dust in front of me. I thought they took "this little road to the right." After about a mile I realized this was a mistake but the road was very narrow on the side of a mountain--I couldn't turn around. I kept driving for an hour or so, sometimes barely rolling forward over deep ruts in the road. After an hour or so I came to a large flat space where a small group of dirt bikers we standing talking. They all had looks of sheer shock at seeing a passenger car up there in the forest. Then of course I had to take the same difficult road back down.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun. They've upgraded the highpoint a bit since we were there (signs, table, lookout point, register). Our Highpointers Foundation contributions at work. Now if only they'd address the road...
ReplyDeleteOops, sorry. Previous anonymous comment was me!
ReplyDelete