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Bikes roll in Marquette

Bikes were rolling this weekend at the 2007 Superior Bike Fest in Marquette. $8,000 in cash was awarded to the winners, but the real prize was participation and competition. Here’s a shot of an early leader taken from the corner of Washington and Third St. in downtown Marquette.

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 2007 file of 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.

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.

Welcome to our updated v3 website!

You’ll find a number of changes and new features including:

• A fresh design
• Easier printing
• Larger photos of listings
• Satellite maps for every listing
• Easier navigation throughout the website
• Larger slideshow or "mouse over" photo viewing
• Higher placement in Google searches will benefit sellers
• A blog for keeping you up to date on what’s happening in the U.P.!

The new software will make future improvements easier and will allow us to offer additional features. We’ll appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Dick Huey

Canoe a foggy lake

Last night I was out in the canoe, and the lake was beautiful. Even the trout cooperated (for a while). We’re “catch and release” anyway, and a beautiful brown jumped several times and threw the hook on the third jump. That’s called a “long distance release.”

There's magic and mystery when fog blankets the lake. It can be a very introspective experience or at the extreme you can get lost. On a really big lake, or Superior, you need a compass. That's true whenever you leave the roads and wander about in the U.P. And wandering is important: Just like anywhere else you have to leave the big roads to find what makes an area unique and wonderful.

When I first visit the city I hear lots of noise, feel lost, and the city is a strange and of threatening place where I'm "on alert". But then instead of noise I start to identify the sounds of a bus, and garbage collection, street vendors and neighbors. As I learn where to go, what to do and how to get there it becomes a place I know and appreciate. The wilds of the U.P. are just like that: Familiar and friendly to us; mysterious and strange until you learn where to go and what to see. You have to learn the territory. And we can help with that.

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 like 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.

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.

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 had directed, although after a while he decided we were OK and raised his head and watched us. When someone new arrived the head quickly went back down. We got there at 9 AM and had a number of people, trucks, and activity within a few feet of him all day. He was still there right where she left him at 10 PM. One of the contractors, a road builder, said that once he found a fawn directly in the path of a new road. They couldn't get him to move, and (correctly) did not want to touch him, so they build a temporary road around him using large bulldozers! He stayed right where he was until Mama returned.

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.