<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John Pepin of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources wrote an excellent article about the Craig Lake State Park (<\/span>A Visit to Michigan\u2019s Most Remote State Park<\/span><\/i> – published in the Ontonagon Herald, April 10, 2019).\u00a0 The park straddles the Baraga – Marquette County line just north of Lake Michigamme.\u00a0 This article was interesting for several reasons.\u00a0 First of all, I was unaware this area had been owned by the family who also owned the Miller Beer Company.\u00a0 Three of the lakes in this state park bear the names of the Miller\u2019s children.\u00a0 I was also not aware that the father and oldest son died in a plane crash shortly after taking off from Milwaukee on the way to a pre-Christmas hunting trip in the early 1950s.\u00a0 The State of Michigan took over the Craig Lake parcel in 1966 and designated it as a wilderness area.\u00a0 Lastly, it piqued my interest because I spent an overnight fishing trip there.\u00a0 I can attest to the state keeping their promise to create a park for those who wish to experience camping in a wilderness setting because there are many square miles to wander with little evidence of human presence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having taken many hikes in the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park with my Junior High classes, pre-hike prep meant sharing a few horror stories about hikers not paying attention to where they are heading.\u00a0 This was especially true before our annual eighth grade orienteering trek where we employed compasses and topographic maps to get around while hiking cross country.\u00a0 We would hike pre-planned routes from the Escarpment Trail near the Lake of the Clouds Overlook to a little bump of a hill near Green Mountain Peak.\u00a0 The stories always covered the same territory:\u00a0 don\u2019t panic and trust your compass and map.\u00a0 Those who get the most turned around in the wood are the ones who are sure their compass must be wrong.\u00a0 There is no better way to illustrate this point than to have a real live Geography major tell them some true tales about getting turned around in the woods.\u00a0 Intentionally, the word \u2018lost\u2019 was never used in these stories.\u00a0 \u2018Lost\u2019 means \u2018call out Search and Rescue\u2019 so I preferred to use the term \u2018misplaced\u2019.\u00a0 Being misplaced helped us teach them to keep their wits about them and work the problem – key tools needed to get back and to not actually get lost!\u00a0 Panic is never a good option.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When my brother Ron got out of the Army in 1973, we pooled our resources and bought a 13 foot aluminum canoe with a padded shoulder bar to make it easy to carry.\u00a0 That summer I was called to work at the Huron Mountain Club a month earlier than the rest of the kitchen crew, so there wasn\u2019t a lot of canoeing time available for me that year.\u00a0 At the beginning of the next summer, however, I had a month and a half break between the end of the term and having to report to NMU\u2019s Field Station south of Pictured Rocks National Park for classes and a new summer job. As May played out, Ron, Jim Soderberg, and I decided to take our portageable canoe into one of the remote lakes of the Craig Lake State Park to do a little fishing.\u00a0 Ron had dug out the necessary maps and decided we would park at the public access site at Kewayden Lake.\u00a0 From there, we could carry the canoe and a couple of backpacks of camping gear cross country to Crooked Lake which was in between Kewayden and Craig Lake.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the appointed day, we parked the truck, loaded up our packs, hoisted the canoe, and struck out on a compass bearing toward the lake.\u00a0 We traded pack and canoe carrying duties often as traveling through the woods on uneven ground with a canoe on one\u2019s shoulders was more taxing than hiking with just a backpack.\u00a0 Less than a half mile into the woods, we crossed an old logging road that was going in the same general direction (more or less) as our compass bearing, so we opted to take the easier path.\u00a0 When it became apparent we should have already made it to the lake, we sat down on a berm at the side of the road and dug out the map.\u00a0 In my archives I have a wonderful picture Jim took of me looking dejectedly down at the map while Ron scratches his head trying to answer that eternal question, \u201cWhere are we?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Studying the topography around us and comparing it to the map led us to the realization the old road we were on wasn\u2019t \u2018more or less\u2019 going in the right direction – it had made a subtle bend to the north and was now running parallel to Crooked Lake.\u00a0 The bend in the road had taken us around a sizable hill which now stood between us and our destination.\u00a0 After discussing the two options before us (backtracking and then re-entering the woods or taking a bearing to the lake with the shortest route – over the hill), we opted for going over the hill.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a bad decision because the hill had been logged.\u00a0 Between blow-downs and slash left behind after logging, we were able to pull and push the canoe to the top of the hill without much trouble.\u00a0 The downed trees and tops kept the canoe at waist height, making it easy to move.\u00a0 The downhill side was even more littered with debris and at some point, we lost the handle on the canoe and it took off down the slope toward the lake.\u00a0 We were about to draw straws as to who would have to swim out got get the canoe back when it hit the thick leather leaf brush growing around the lake.\u00a0 Thankfully, it stopped dead in its tracks albeit with a couple of new dings in the bottom from sliding over the downed trees.\u00a0 This was great news because it was early in the summer and the lake was cold (as we could tell when we reached the canoe and found ourselves thigh deep at the shore)!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We managed to get our stuff in the canoe and paddle the length of this long, narrow lake to a little peninsula we had seen on the map.\u00a0 It turned out to be a nice sandy point with easy access to the water and enough open space around it so the breeze kept the bugs at bay.\u00a0 We made camp, tried a little evening fishing, and then turned in for the night.\u00a0 While breakfast was cooking the next morning, I wandered into the woods to answer the call of nature when I stumbled across an old portage trail.\u00a0 After what we had crashed through the day before, this resembled a two lane highway.\u00a0 Curious, I followed it until I caught sight of Craig Lake where the trail ended (or started depending which way one is traveling).\u00a0 On the other side of the lake there was the distinctive glint of sunlight shining off an Airstream trailer.\u00a0 Apparently there was an area where people drove in to camp.\u00a0 Had we driven a little farther down U.S. 41, we could have parked at this location, paddled across this lake, and portaged the canoe to our current location minus the bushwhacking.\u00a0 I went back to our little camping spot to share the news.\u00a0 We laughed about it, even after we spent a whole day catching exactly zero fish.\u00a0 When I compared notes with Jim recently, he confirmed my memory of the sun glinting off the Airstream.\u00a0 He also reminded me the only fish we saw on this adventure was in the talons of an Eagle who obviously had better luck than we did.\u00a0 On the way out, we took the straightest route from the east end of Crooked Lake, back to where we parked, wisely ignoring any and all logging roads we crossed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A few years before I retired, we decided to revisit one of our old seventh grade hikes at the Porkies, a trek we hadn\u2019t taken in at least a dozen years.\u00a0 I talked Bruce Johanson out of retirement for a day as this had been one of our yearly fall hikes when Bruce and I were teaching Jr. High History and Geography\/Earth Science, respectively.\u00a0 Back in the day, we had rediscovered an old trail from M 107 that went up and over the Escarpment at the east end of Lake of the Clouds.\u00a0 The trail at the top passed the old Carp Lake Mine and then continued south to the valley bottom where an old stamp mill site was located.\u00a0 There are still some big roller stamps, boiler pieces, and a lot of stamp sand to be viewed at the bottom of this valley.\u00a0 As we passed the mine site at the top of the hill, I warned the kids out front, \u201cThe trail makes a tricky turn to the right, so watch out and don\u2019t miss it.\u201d\u00a0 They missed it.\u00a0 By the time Bruce and I got there, all we could do was follow the pack to see where they would end up.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We hiked about 20 minutes longer than we should have so I called a halt and asked everyone where they thought we were.\u00a0 When we finally agreed we were now \u2018misplaced\u2019, I asked them what the next course of action should be.\u00a0 The old path the leaders followed past our turn off had petered out.\u00a0 We obviously were no longer on any trail and definitely not at the stamp mill site.\u00a0 Most wanted to go back and find the trail, but we were far enough off the beaten track, I said, \u201cWell, that is a possibility, but we know the stamp mill is at the bottom of this valley.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t crossed the river so we know we are east of the stamp mill.\u201d\u00a0 We proceeded downhill until we could see the swampy river channel and then turned west until we walked right to the stamp mill site.\u00a0 Actually, the group that was (again) out front walked right past the site.\u00a0 This time, the sharper eyed hikers trailing them spotted the old equipment.\u00a0 On the trip back to the bus, the students who first saw the stamp mill site were amazed that the \u2018leaders\u2019 out front had missed the fork in the trail in the first place.\u00a0 When we hit the turn off point the group missed on the way to the stamp mill site, it was rather obvious they had been jack rabbiting along and not paying attention.\u00a0 With that said, everybody hiking behind them either missed it or didn\u2019t bother to speak up.\u00a0 It was another good example of why one does not just blindly follow others into the woods.\u00a0 Paying attention to where you are headed and searching for landmarks along the way must always be on one\u2019s mind.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another favorite \u2018lost trail\u2019 story doesn\u2019t even involve getting lost in the woods.\u00a0 In the early days of the orienteering hikes, we would take a small group of high school volunteers and run them through the routes so they would be familiar with the terrain.\u00a0 One year, there had been a late April snow drop that covered the Porkies but we decided it would still be a good day to take the training hike.\u00a0 Mark Szaroletta was home from college and volunteered to come along.\u00a0 About a half mile west of the Lake of the Clouds parking lot, Mark and I were given the task of running a\u00a0 line to the north from the top to the bottom of the Escarpment.\u00a0 We played out a physical line to the bottom of the Escarpment and another quarter mile beyond that.\u00a0 The forester who helped us on these earliest orienteering hikes thought running into the line we played out would be a signal to any groups that drifted off course on the way back.\u00a0 The forester took the main group west on the Escarpment and Mark and I broke off and headed north to string our line.\u00a0 Hiking the trail with six inches of wet snow was tricky because you couldn\u2019t see what was underfoot.\u00a0 Hiking off the trail was even worse.\u00a0 We reached our end point but rethought our original plan to bushwhack straight back to the parking lot.\u00a0 We decided the safer bet was to retrace our trail back to the top and abandoned the idea of heading on a new bearing back to the Lake of the Clouds parking lot.\u00a0 We arrived ahead of the rest of the hikers thankful neither of us had turned an ankle.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We had driven out to the Porkies in a couple of cars and trucks.\u00a0 Luckily one was a four-wheel drive we used to get everyone to the Lake of the Clouds parking lot.\u00a0 Upon our return, Mark and I had no other choice but to walk the winding road down from the parking lot to the old toll booth area at the base of the hill where we had parked my car.\u00a0 As we rounded the last big bend, we came upon a Greyhound size charter bus parked diagonally across the road and a group of people standing around a fire they had built in the middle of the road.\u00a0 The group was from a private school somewhere and were making their annual camping trip to the Porkies.\u00a0 Their driver had decided they could drive a bus up the same road we had needed four-wheel drive to ascend.\u00a0 Needless to say, they didn\u2019t make it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mark and I had a couple of hours with nowhere to go until the rest of our crew came out of the woods, so we offered to take one of their chaperones to the park headquarters to call for help.\u00a0 This was in the pre-cell phone days, but their driver had already called for a tow with his CB radio.\u00a0 While we waited, one of the chaperones lit into us:\u00a0 \u201cIf you hadn\u2019t parked in the turn around, we wouldn\u2019t be stuck here.\u201d\u00a0 He calmed down a bunch when we walked down to the toll booth area and showed him what they missed.\u00a0 Yes, we were parked in the area next to the toll booth, but they didn\u2019t see the wide turn around loop on the other side of the road.\u00a0 Oops!\u00a0 The tow truck finally arrived, tugged the rear end of the bus back on the road, and after extinguishing the bonfire, they loaded up and drove away.\u00a0 When our bunch came down the hill, they had to drive around the remains of the bonfire and saw the tracks made by the bus and tow truck.\u00a0 We explained what had happened in great detail and to our amusement, nobody believed us!\u00a0 They were sure we had, for some unfathomable reason, built a fire in the middle of the road while they were hiking to Green Mountain Peak and back.\u00a0 They had no explanation for the dual tire tracks and icy skid marks made by the tow truck and the bus.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We didn\u2019t get misplaced that day, but we did avoid a mystery.\u00a0 I later asked Mark, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s say we had gone the full distance and come back after the bus had already departed.\u00a0 How would we have unraveled the mystery of the tracks and a bonfire in the middle of the road?\u201d\u00a0 He had an even better question:\u00a0 \u201cIf that bus load came here to go camping, where did they go when they got the bus unstuck?\u201d\u00a0 I am not totally sure where they ended up pitching their tents, but at least they didn\u2019t get far enough in the woods to get lost when they went back to the park\u2019s headquarters.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 A 1985 version of CCR’s\u00a0Up Around The Bend<\/em> . . . after all, Mark and I discovered the stuck bus on a bend . . . plus, I like this version – John F has started playing his live stuff very fast!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John Pepin of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources wrote an excellent article about the Craig Lake State Park (A Visit to Michigan\u2019s Most Remote State Park – published in the Ontonagon Herald, April 10, 2019).\u00a0 The park straddles the Baraga – Marquette County line just north of Lake Michigamme.\u00a0 This article was interesting 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