Trillium in Alger County at Silver Lake
May is a favorite time of the year for me in the U.P. and if you missed it this year you should put it on your calendar for next year! I’ve been a little slow in editing my flower photos so these postings are not as timely as I’d like, but still I think definitely worth passing on. As you can see, trillium covered the forest floor this year as far as I could see.
The moose is loose
This young bull moose, a yearling, visited my camp recently… and I had my camera handy! I followed him in my car, snapping photos through the passenger side window.
After a few hundred yards he stopped, peeked at me around a tree, and then came straight for the car! There was nothing aggressive about it, through. This is the time of the year when last year’s calf gets kicked out of the family because the new one has arrived. I suppose this little bull was used to having a big moose around, and it was surely a little lonesome in the woods. He looked for all the world like someone looking for a friend to pal up with, and was checking me out. I guess I’m flattered.
Finally he stood in this “King of the Woods” pose. That’s what he’ll be before long. I hope to see him then.
The Lore of the Lakes
Granite Island Scott Holman’s Lake Superior Light House rehab (great site)
Lighthouses of the Upper Peninsula can be found through Exploring the North’s list of Upper Peninsula Lighthouses open to the public and Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light.
Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is dedicated to the perils of maritime transport on the Great Lakes. It is fittingly located at Whitefish Point, Michigan, site of the oldest active lighthouse on Lake Superior near Paradise, Newberry and the Tahquamenon Falls. The collection includes artifacts like the bell from the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald and a fully restored 1861 Lightkeepers Quarters.
Photo: Marquette, Mich., Lighthouse Point, courtesy Library of Congress (LC-D4-4759)
Flowing spring
Wandering the U.P. is always a voyage of discovery. This weekend I canoed, fished, and assisted in water sampling on and around a private lake that we have listed for sale southeast of Marquette. An extremely cold flowing spring was running hard out of the bedrock 40 feet up a rock bluff. There are reports of wells in this area that are running dry because of the unusually warm, dry weather, but this spring and the lake it flows to was unaffected. Apparently it is a strong upwelling from some deep aquifer. The water tumbles down the bank and joins many smaller seeps, which form a stream. A quarter mile further on that feeds the lake.
Look at the interesting lichen on this rock, and the crystal clear water behind it.
Babies are here
Fawns have arrived. This little guy was hiding out in the open not ten feet from a cabin where we were meeting a number of contractors. (Interesting — did the doe put him near a cabin as protection from predators? I’ve found fawns near my own cabin several times.) This one stayed put, as Mama […]
Old forest in the fog
As Robert Frost has said, “The woods were lovely, dark, and deep.”
This is a photo from a hike deep into the Huron Mountains with a friend who knows the woods as few others do. Standing in those giant hemlocks in deep forest you are immersed in the quiet and the beauty. It makes you be still. Today fog drifts through the woods, and dense fog covers the lakes. Surprisingly for this time of year there are few bugs. I hiked some, and fished some, and photographed a yearling bull moose.
Fall Color Touring in the Marquette Area
The photo blog Michigan in Pictures is featuring a fall color tour of from Marquette to Big Bay to Negaunee to Au Train. Whether you do all or part of it, you won’t be disappointed – the Marquette area and the entire UP are simply gorgeous at this time of year. Some other tours they have are Pictured Rocks/Munising/Grand Marais, the Western U.P. and Houghton/Eagle River/Copper Harbor on the Keweenaw Peninsula.
The photo is from October 4, 2007 and was taken by Marjorie O’Brien, the very talented young woman who has taken many of the photos used in our About the UP section. Michigan in Pictures has an interview with Marjorie that you might enjoy.
Hiking the U.P.
This photo is uniquely Huron Mountains. It shows a narrow divide between rock ridges with a beaver dam that has captured the spring runoff and rainfall to form a long, narrow pond. There are nine beaver lodges on this one, but only one shows in this photo.
This country looked just like this a hundred and fifty years ago when the trappers and explorers were discovering and learning the secrets of this country, and you can still find scenes like this and enjoy the beauty today.
Photos from the Pictured Rocks
Photos and information about the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the Lake Superior shore between Grand Marais and Munising.
This is a great spot for hiking and kayaking.