Intro
For the past few years, our family has gone to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a week of camping and relaxing in some of the most beautiful places along Lake Superior. I’m a Great Lakes kind of guy and my wife caught the fever when we moved to NE Ohio. Our travels have taken us to some very off the beaten path campgrounds and places that really pull us out of the daily routine. This year was a little different for us.
Last time we were in The Yoop, we rented mountain bikes to explore Copper Harbor which is well known for its mountain bike trails. The truth is, I’m spoiled with my bike and a rental was Not It. My wife had the same complaint. The only solution was to get some suitable bike racks (bike racks that work for fat bikes are kind of a niche thing) and put them on the camper so that this summer we could explore on our own machines. This was without a doubt the best idea. It was glorious!
Straits State Park
Our first stop is always an overnight at Straits State Park. It’s on the north side of the Mackinack Bridge. The campsites are spaced out pretty well and you can take a nice walk along the shores of Lake Huron and view the bridge. It’s really pretty and I’m usually pretty exhausted from towing the trailer by the time we arrive. But once we set up, I check the time to see how close we are to 00:00 UTC and get my rig set up. I’m still stinging from not catching the fact that I rolled over UTC on our first visit there and didn’t notice that I didn’t have enough contacts for either side of the UTC line. Never again!
For this trip, I brought along the SuperAntenna. It goes together quickly and I’m finding that on rough days, it’s performing better than my non-tuned options. That shouldn’t be a surprise, but I guess I’m paying closer attention. I put it together on its tripod and put the IC-705 together in the camper. I set up for FT8 so that I could talk to my daughter a bit while she set up her sleeping bag.
It was a slow going 10 contacts, but I got them. A big bonus for me was getting WG8X in the log right out of the gate! John is a fellow PCARS member who does a column for The Radiogram called On The Road which details his POTA adventures. He was out at a two-fer and was my first vacation contact. Thanks John! Always happy to have a Park To Park with a fellow club member.
After I got my 10, it was time to call it a night. The next day was a “short” drive to Munising and to our most primative camp for this trip.
Hiawatha National Forest
The Hiawatha National Forest is a big place. It spreads itself wide and has many wonderful camping areas. The one we chose this time was Bay Furnace. It’s very close to Munising and all of the things we wanted to do there. Our site was in some deep forest and there were plenty of bugs to keep us company. Fortunately, we had the Opus Annex and some Thermacels to keep them from draining every drop of blood we had.
Our stay there included a glass bottom boat tour of two shipwrecks. My daughter added that to this year’s agenda and it was a lot of fun. We got a nice tour of the shoreline and saw the wrecks in detail. It’s amazing how clear the water is and how in tact these structures from over 100 years ago really are.
After a couple of hours on the boat, we made some lunch and headed over to Grand Island with our bikes. We did a quick 1 hour ride and knew we would need to come back the next day. This was something my wife has wanted to do since our first trip. The two of us went over to the island the next day and had a great ride. There were plenty of long stretches with some elevation gain, but nothing too uncomfortable. The best part was going down the “sketchy” trail that the rangers told us to walk. When you have a fat tire bike, mud and muck and wet sand are part of the fun. My bike didn’t even notice it. It was a blast!
Our first night at camp, I decided to do an activation. I started off on CW and got two contacts, but then things got quiet. It had been quite a day, so I grabbed my tablet and got 8 contacts via FT8. The bands weren’t showing me any love, so it was a good strategy to get the activation. And it was quick which was important because, well, mosquitos.
The two days in that site were really amazing. I can’t recommend biking Grand Island highly enough. Just go do it!
Ft. Wilkins State Historical Park
Copper Harbor was the centerpiece of this trip. It was our second time out to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula and we were excited to have our own bikes with us. There are so many trails, but the one we really wanted to hit was the one that leads to the Rocket Range. You didn’t know that there was a rocket pad on the coast of Lake Superior? It’s OK. Neither did anyone else. The road to get there is long and recommended for mountain bikes, OHVs, and 4×4 vehicles with real clearance. My Jeep would have loved it, but my fat bike loved it more.
It’s a decent logging road out to the point where the trail splits with one side going to the bay and the other leading to the range. I didn’t get any pictures of the trail because I was busy riding it, but I will say that I went through some very deep “puddles” (8 or so inches deep) and we picked up plenty of mud because of the recent heavy rains. The day we did the ride was sunny and in the mid-60s. Gorgeous weather for exertion.
At the shore of the lake, we walked around and I did some staring at the water. It’s just such a wonderful place. Quiet. Remote. Silent.
And of course, we had our standing familiy joke…
Daughter: Hey! I can see Canada!
Me: No. You can’t.
Daughter: Yeah huh! It’s right there!
Me: YOU CANNOT SEE MORE THAN 7 MILES DUE TO THE CURVATURE OF THE EARTH!
Wife: You bite on the troll every time. It’s so predictable.
Daughter: And sad. Really sad.
I activated Ft. Wilkins three times while we were there. All FT8 all day long. It was quiet and I was tired. It was nice to sit with my radio and play a bit while the others napped or did whatever they do when I’m playing radio. This did put me in the 2nd place position for activations! I’ll never beat out the park leader, Daniel KD9MSP, who I met last year on our first trip to Copper Harbor. He’s a great guy and it was wonderful to see a camper with a POTA flag out front. Nice to spot our own in the wild! My big regret was that we didn’t have a pair of HTs to do a park to park together. I did bring along the TH-D74 just in case, but he wasn’t there (that I saw).
QSO Map
Here’s what it all looked like on the map.
Final
Camping, mountain biking, and radio for an entire week. I don’t know that I could ask for more. The weather held for us and it was fantastic. Everyone got to relax and do something that they enjoyed. The perfect vacation. I can’t say enough good things about that part of the world and I know we’ll go back again.
