I am a little late getting this together but better late than never. As a little back story, 23 years ago my wife an I headed up to the Porcupine Mountains for our first wedding anniversary the first week of November. Because we had not prepared for a considerable amount of snow that was dumped on us overnight, many of our plans ended up changing. This year we finally made it happen to go back with our three (of five) youngest children. It was a wet weekend but all in all a great trip and the kids were already asking when we could go back on the ride home.
This was our first bucket list item because last time we were here the road up the hill was to slippery to get to the overlook parking lot.
After spending some time at the Lake of the Clouds overlook we headed to the parking area for the Little Union River Yurt that we had reserved for Friday night. We had a easy mile or so hike into the yurt where we found a vault toilet, fire ring and our home away from home for the night. The 14' yurt sat up on a hill overlooking the Little Union River. The sound of the river at night was so relaxing and almost hypnotizing. The kids spent plenty of time exploring the river bottom and wadding around in the water since the water was low and the river was only 5-6 feet wide. There was a fully stocked bear vault just outside of the yurt with plenty of pots and pans for cooking and boiling water. The river was pretty clear and a good source of water with a filter and/or for boiling. Karla "with a k" had asked for pics of the amenities since she is headed up to a different yurt this winter. I was told that all of the yurts are stocked very similar. Some of the stuff in the vault is stuff left by previous tenants so they do vary a little.
We indulged in assorted MREs for dinner Friday night at the yurt.. My boys and I have had several different MREs on Scout outings but this was a first for my wife and youngest daughter. Surprisingly all 5 that we had were pretty good. My boys were working on a requirement for cooking merit badge so they planned and prepared the rest of our meals for the weekend which consisted of various freezer bag meals, easy to make trail lunches, and cheddar brats over the fire for Saturday night. Aside from a torrential down pour about 2:00 am that woke me up and dumped about an inch of rain, the stay in the yurt was very enjoyable and I highly recommend it.
Saturday we were able to get into a first come first served site in the Union River outpost site which created a few challenges to get our hang on. After doing some exploring along the Union River and viewing the Union River Gorge falls we headed into Ontonagon to check out the Labor Day weekend festivities and toured the local historical museum. After that we headed over to Greenland to Adventure Mine Tours to check out one of the mine tours. by the time we got done with the mine tour it was getting late in the day so we headed back to our campsite to get the hammocks strung up. My boys (15 and 13) found a couple trees a safe distance from edge of a drop off that they were able to buddy hang from with a spreader bar.
My wife and daughter had planned to buddy hang more for my daughters sake which was a little more challenging. I ended up having to run a ratchet strap through each of the front and back doors of our vehicle and tie off one of their hammocks to ratchet straps and the other to a big poplar tree. I made use of the other side of the car and stretched out to a birch tree. My hang angles were all wonky but it worked. I would not recommend Union River Outpost site one for hammock camping if you have more that just a couple people in your party. The other two sites in this Outpost looked questionable at best as well for more than one or two people.
Sunday we spent the morning dodging rain drops and checking the Nonesuch mine site and falls in the area and heading west to Presque Isle State Park where we hiked the river from the ranger station to the north to the mouth of the Presque isle River where it dumps into Lake Superior. The falls along this stretch of the river are absolutely amazing. The entire area was fairly wet so there were mushrooms everywhere. I cooked up some lobster mushrooms Friday night and took pics of some really nice oysters, northern tooth, and some really nice Reshis that we found on Sunday.
Sunday evening my wife wanted a shower and the kids (primarily my daughter) wanted a pool so we began our migration south and stayed in a motel in Hurley WI. I would have much rather found another site to hang in at Presque Isle, or in the area, but over the years I have learned the importance of keeping the peace so I obliged and got the motel room. Monday we continued to head south towards home with a few stops here and there to do a little fishing without much luck but is was still fun.
For anyone headed up to the UP, the colors were just barely starting to change in a few spots over Labor day so by now they are probably getting into full swing. With the views that we took in I can only imagine how vibrant they would be at peak color.
Hopefully all of my images show up ok. Here is a link to an album with a just a few of the 250 plus pics we took of the trip. https://photos.app.goo.gl/g2dkmUQi6193dZjKA
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Originally Posted by michigandave
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