24 replies to this topic

[buckland]

Might be something in here:

https://www.outsideo...ce=morning_brew

[Vic Harder]

Might be something in here:
https://www.outsideo...ce=morning_brew

If they were good sites before, now they will be inundated, I’m afraid.

[buckland]

Vic you are so right, It made me sad to see this "advertisement" to lure folks without a clue into "boondocks' sites. But it was out there so thought it worth noting for a backup plan. The happy news I read last week was the RV industry was "tanking" which I see as a sign folks who pandemic bought are burning out with fuel costs and reality. Cat maybe out of the bag though.

[daverave]

Might be something in here:

https://www.outsideo...ce=morning_brew

Yeah I cringe at these stories too. We camped at the Badlands spot in 2016 which I found by crunching hard on Google Earth. It was also shown in the Nomadland movie which won Best Picture so that cat is way out of the bag. It was by far the windiest spot we ever camped. T-shirts and shorts at dinner and bedtime then in the middle of the night the wind came up (60 mph?) and as we were right on the edge we decided to put the top down and sleep as best we could with our cat on the floor and sofa. There were ten or so campers there when we went to bed and by morning we were the only ones left. Somebody was out there in a Tepui!

[Foy]

I dunno what the disbursed camping rules in the central and western UP may be, but practically the entire section of the UP west of, say, Marquette is a mixture of NF, state forest, and timber company lands.  It's all public land survey system out there so finding tracts of public lands is pretty straightforward.  There are several large hydropower reservoirs (Michigamme Res comes to mind) and the public utility (Wisconsin Power back in the day) maintained many small boat ramps and small primitive campgrounds. Unlimited small to large stream paddling or lake/pond access throughout the central and western UP.

 

Foy

[buckland]

There is this was well on tonight on PBS.

Might be interesting to see either way.

 

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[Bigfoot Dave]

Dave, we live in the Duluth, MN area right at the west end of Lake Superior. We've driven the Circle Tour and boated around the lake. There are so many interesting and beautiful things to see in both the US and Canada. We don't boondock much around here like is done out west(I learn so much from the WTW site) but we do frequent the state parks and have some favorite local parks too. Being close to the lake is our favorite and there isn't much boondocking there. Just inland.

The Canadian provincial parks are beautiful. Just east of Thunder Bay is the Sibley penninsula Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. It's worth the time to drive to the end and visit Silver Islet and to the overlook of Thunder Bay waters.

Stop and visit every park along the way if only for a walk. When you get to Sault St Marie CA. Visit the Seaplane museum. I thought my wife would last 30 minutes and they had to kick us out when they closed. The Canadian side of the Soo is much more fun and interesting than the US side and it's fun too.

Visit the shipwreck museum at Whitefish Point. We had a great trip out to Crisp Point Lighthouse and stayed at Taquamenon Falls state park. There's a brewery/eatery right in the park. Stop in the little local towns and take a walk, Watch for waterfall signs on both the north and south shores.

Lake Superior Magazine has a bunch of information on the Circle Tour of the lake.

If you need any local help feel free to call me at two one eight 94zero 29three six. We have a boondock site back in our piney woods just outside of Duluth too.

Have a great trip, Bigfoot Dave

[daverave]

Thanks for everyone's participation! We head out tomorrow for two nights along US-50 on the way to SLC (and a Disgusting Brothers show ;-)  Then Denver to visit friends before we head north for the border.

I've printed out your post above Bigfoot and will keep your suggestions in mind. Glad to get out of Sactown and the second half of our hellacious heat wave.

Cheers,

Dave

[buckland]

Have a ball!

[Old Crow]

Sorry I'm slow to respond, daverave.  Hopefully you're still checking WTW while on the road.

 

I don't know if you're a fan of these but I always like to sample the pasties ('PASS-teez")  when we're traveling through the U.P.  I'm partial to the ones with rutabaga.  Many grocery stores have them but I like to stop at small pasty shops as some have stories to tell about their secret recipes.

 

Since you mention Voyageur NP, I'd also recommend a visit to Ely, Minnesota, particularly the North American Bear Center.  It has dozens of video displays with very interesting bear footage.  I was impressed with how thoroughly they anticipate and answer any question we might have about bears and bear research.  I imagine many folks do a walk through on their way to see the live bears out back but there's a heck of a lot of good info on those video displays.  Also- on both our visits there we were able to talk to very experienced bear researchers.

 

Ely also has the International Wolf Center.  We enjoyed that and took the night-time wolf-calling tour.  You don't need to pay for a tour if you want to call on your own as I can provide location details on a good night-time wolf-calling point with an overlook into the Boundary Waters wilderness.

 

There's also a 50-plus mile gravel road we enjoyed in the Superior National Forest north and west of Ely... the Ely-Buyck road (route 116). It's also sometimes called the Echo Trail, presumably because it goes to Echo Lake.   It felt kinda remote but then we'd pull into an out-in-the-boonies canoe launch and find the parking lot nearly full as this is in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  The lakes in that area are wonderful but you do need a permit.  Also- here's a link to a possible adventure along that road: Hegman Lake Pictographs ( I just ran onto that in a search for Ely-Buyck Road).  Alltrails has a route there called Hegman Lakes Hike and Paddle Route.

 

Ely itself is an interesting little town.  You might also keep an eye out for anything to do with Will Steger in and around Ely.  I see he recently returned from an expedition and had a premiere showing of a new documentary called 'After Antarctica' in Ely last month.