I've vacationed a ton in Michigan (Mainly Bellaire in the NW of the LP). You might want to look into canoe camping as well. Tons of awesome water routes.
One water route I recommend is the Au Sable River. Iargo Springs and Lumberman's Monument are nice places to get out and hike up the bluff stairs to enjoy the view. I've paddled the river as a kid many times and would love to paddle/camp as an adult.
https://paddling.com/paddle/trips/au...3.4403&zoom=14
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right near gaylord you have the Jordan river valley loop which is on the NCT and the pigeon river area is not far either. Both places I have camped many times!
I guess I was a former Michigander from Gaylord. Long time ago tho, 43 years. I grew up east of spar on spar rd. We didn't migrate in the winter like some. My parents were always taking us kids places. Lots of public state land, small lakes, rivers and streams. We would always be camping, picking blue berries, black berries and morale mushrooms always on public land. Didn't cost a dime, that I can remember. Us kids didn't know what a tick was. We always heard about deer ticks, but I never had one on me and we basically lived outside. Didn't know any poisonous snakes either. Only thing we was concerned about was yellow jackets and skeeters.
Dad worked at the US Plywood factory, and when he got laid off, early 70's, we moved to Tn. Parents moved back to Gaylord when he retired in 91.
I'm going to take my hillbilly wife up there in the future. She's never been that far north. I miss the snow, public land, natural lakes and of course the UP.
Rambling on again. Roy.
I grew up in the UP, pretty remote places, some have already been mentioned. The Porkies are awesome, one of my favorites is the Sturgeon River Gorge area as well.
I live in Waters, Frederic Area and grew up in the Pigeon River Forest and after military lived in Traverse City man we have tons of hiking and camping opportunities. I do a different solo hike/hang at least every month and the family and I since being new to the Ausable River and upper Manistee river area we try and take a hike every weekend. We just did a 9 mile day hike on the Mason tract was a nice walk to start the warm weather the section we did not a lot of hills. But yea just tons of trails to the east, west, south, north of Gaylord as close as just 4 miles from town. The High Country Pathway in the Pigeon I love I rarely ever run into anybody and I spend a lot of time in Green Timbers just a few miles North and east of Gaylord. if you make it up drop me a note would love to take people out see Elk, Trout Fishing or a hike.
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