Quiet Water Symposium, East Lansing, March 6, 2010
Outdoor Michigan’s Favorite Indoor Show brings together non-motorized outdoor recreation and Great Lakes environmental interests in this annual showcase featuring handcrafted canoes and kayaks, nature photography, bicycling, sailing, nature centers and more.
Festifools, Ann Arbor, April 11, 2010
Fun and frivolous street festival and parade greets spring with giant papier-mâché characters and “random acts of April foolishness.”
The rugged hills and reliable snows of the Western Upper Peninsula make it a favorite destination for skiers. Tina Lassen, a longtime Michigan Travel Ideas freelance writer and avid skier, writes about a recent getaway to Ironwood-area ski resorts.
As if on cue, the snow begins falling in earnest when I cross the border into the Western Upper Peninsula’s “snow belt.” As I drive along US-2 near Wakefield, it floats down fluffy and thick, piling up to the windowsills of farmhouses and draping across broad hemlock boughs.
Excellent timing, since I’m meeting up with three Yooper friends (UP locals, that is). We’ve planned a day each at Big Powderhorn Mountain and Indianhead Mountain Resort neighboring destinations northeast of Ironwood.
Big Powderhorn
On day one we opt for Big Powderhorn with meticulously groomed runs winding through the pines. Powderhorn is great for beginners, families, or anyone with rusty ski legs. I particularly like starting out on runs such as Alpen and Little Horn, bathed in morning sun.
We spend much of the day carving up the corduroy on long, mellow cruisers, then cap off the afternoon with a stop at one of Powderhorn’s slopeside wine huts. New this year, you can call ahead to reserve one of the three wine huts for a private lunch spot. The ski area provides the grill and charcoal, and will transport food to your hut.
Indianhead
The next day, I’m primed to tackle the steeper terrain of Indianhead. We charge down the headwall on West Winnebago and careen through the bumps on Crazy Horse. I even steel my nerves to try a few of the smallest jumps in the Big Chief terrain park. I quickly decide it’s probably better for my middle-age knees to watch others get air.
Indianhead does a great job with this park, building jumps and rails for all ability levels. By the time we call it a day, a lively après scene is taking shape in the Sky Bar, where old chairlifts get a second life as booth seats.
Around the ski areas
Plenty of restaurants, lodgings and gear shops scatter between Indianhead and Powderhorn, creating a fun, mountain-town atmosphere. The Caribou Lodge (906/932-4714) at Big Powderhorn Mountain is one of my favorites, for its great from-scratch soups, huge salad bar and hearty specialties like bacon-wrapped pork loin. You can find great Italian food around here, too—Tacconelli’s in Ironwood is a sure bet.
After a social day of skiing, I love the solitude of the Black River Lodge. Although it’s just a short drive from the slopes, it feels like a wilderness outpost thanks to its 65-acre spread along the Black River. It’s also pretty sweet to kick back in the lodge’s wood-fired hot tub and 54-foot-long swimming pool.
Freelance writer Tina Lassen has spent more than 25 years exploring and writing about Michigan’s outdoor adventures. She is a frequent contributor to Midwest Living magazine and has written extensively about Michigan in guidebooks like National Geographic’s Guide to America’s Outdoors: Great Lakes.
Thanks to Dan Donarski for another guest blog piece with great advice for those looking to get out and try ice fishing this winter.
Ice Fishing
Yes, it is February, the shortest month of the year, yet the one that seemingly takes the longest to get through, to survive. Days are getting longer, there is more sun, but winter has its icy talons still clenched tight to your heart, and your sanity.
Deal with it. Have fun dealing with it. With so many gaming choices so close to tremendous ice fishing waters there is no reason to come down with a case of cabin fever. From Minnesota to Indiana, ice fishing puts anglers on a level playing field.
I’ve been glad the temperatures at night have been downright cold. The kind of cold needed to make thick, hard, clear ice. The kind of ice needed to give me the confidence to venture out, drill some holes, sit on a bucket and wait. This year it seems that this type of cold has been a long time coming.
Sanity must be questioned when the subject of ice fishing comes up. I mean, how can you rationally explain to anyone the reason you sit out on the ice all day hoping to catch a fish? Sitting in a shanty, starring down into a blue hole for hours on end is a bit odd even if the shanty is heated. The only exception here is in a shanty equipped with a TV, microwave oven, stove and often carpeted, these babies even use a refrigerator to keep the drinks cold.
Ice fishing does offer some advantages. Everyone is equal at the beginning of the trip. You don’t need a boat. You don’t need a lot of expensive or special gear. You don’t even need to buy a lot of fancy lures. Your feet, your old rod and reel, something to poke through the ice with, and a few tear drops are really all you need. Your only constraint is how far you want to walk, how much ice you want to drill, and what kind of bait you want to use. Under most conditions, the clothes you wore deer hunting will suffice quite nicely as well.
If you love walleyes and perch on big water, check out the Linwood area and Saginaw Bay or Little Bay de Noc. While nothing is a sure bet, these pieces of icy real estate come awfully close.
Gear for these fish is easy. A few jigging Rapalas or jigging spoons, a handful of tear drop jigs and a bucket of minnows is all you’ll need. Rod and reel combos spooled with six to eight pound test will do very nicely for these two species.
The same gear will work well on the inland lakes for these fish as well. In the Upper Peninsula, not mentioning Lake Gogebic, Indian, and North Manistique, would simply be wrong.
If you are after panfish like bluegills and crappies the tackle is even easier. Light action rods with no more than four pound test and very light jigs. Either small minnows, wax worms, mousies or maggies are the baits you should be looking for.
Panfish opportunities run from north to south and east to west. Just about any lake will have them. There are a number of lakes that deserve special note.
Oakland and Livingston Counties are littered with small lakes, a number of these are inside the numerous State Recreation Areas and the Metro Parks. Crappies, bluegills, red ears– they’re all here, and in some cases big in size and in numbers. Towards the “top-o-the-mitt,” index finger to be specific, Fletcher Pond, near Alpena, as well as Cook, Loud and Foote Dam Ponds just west of Oscoda offer a superb pan fish fishery.
In the U.P., you’ll find the Cisco Chain of Lakes in the Watersmeet area. Dozens of lakes give you all sorts of options when it comes to panfish. Iron County, based out of either Crystal Falls or Iron River, will give you access to some hidden lakes and put you on some of the largest gills in the state.
Ice fishing does come with its inherent hazards. The biggest of these is the ice thickness. While the Coast Guard and Natural Resource Departments of the states will tell you there is no such thing as safe ice, and they are right, there are rules of thumb.
Clear ice is harder and stronger than cloudy ice. Four inches of clear ice is generally considered safe for walking on. Snow machines and ATVs need at least eight. What about cars and trucks? Well, here you are on your own. My personal rule is nothing less than 14 inches, but 16 is better.
An even better rule of thumb is to only go out with locals, or follow locals out on the ice. These guys know the conditions. One rule you should never violate is always go out with another person.
Staying warm will be key to your enjoyment. Dress in layers– that way you trap more body heat than if you wore one very heavy layer. Stay dry– this one is self explanatory. Cotton clothing will not keep you as warm as poly fleece. Wool may be the best answer because even if it gets wet it will still keep you warm.
Ice fishing doesn’t have to be a winter activity that you simply struggle to enjoy. Choosing the right lakes, choosing the right tackle, and the right clothing will help keep your fun meter pegged.
Dan Donarski is an award-winning journalist/photographer and author. He specializes in the outdoors and adventure travel. When he’s not out and about he lays his head in Sault Ste. Marie.
Thanks to Dan Donarski for another guest blog piece full of safety tips for the avid ice fishers in the light of the abnormally high temperatures of the season.
Unseasonable warm weather has struck the State of Michigan, and it appears that above freezing temperatures will be the norm through the next week. While this has certainly turned on the fisheries from Saginaw Bay to Lake Gogebic, it has also resulted in a few close calls.
A buddy of mine was fishing Saginaw Bay on Saturday, January 17, when he came off the ice he was greeted by the County Sheriff and an air-boat rescue crew. Seems a crack had opened on the bay, stranding a bunch of anglers. Not a good thing. In a good wind these cracks can become virtual islands, and float out into the lake. Even without the wind this can happen, too.
Here are a few tips to keep you safe on the ice this winter.
A few pieces of precautionary gear will go a long way to keeping you safe.
Ice fishing hut
I’ve been lucky. Some would say I’m even a bit chicken as I won’t drive out unless there is a good, solid, hard, crystal- clear ice layer of 16 inches or better. All I can say is that neither my wheels nor my clothes have ever gotten wet due to falling through. However, I did come close once.
About five years ago, while on Munuscong Bay, I was trucking towards the rock pile. Something didn’t look right in front of me so I slowed down but actually slid right up to a three by five foot section of ice that was barely frozen. All around me the ice was a good 18 inches thick. Not here, not less than a foot away from my front wheels.
Not long before ice skating with my truck a spearing shanty was here. The occupant left the area with the shanty, and left the hole unmarked. Don’t you think it would be a good idea if we marked our spearing holes in some way to prevent an accident? I did, and do. A simple stick with a flag or other marker is all it takes. A buddy of mine uses discarded Christmas trees to mark his.
Don’t be scared of the ice, be respectful of it. Ice fishing is a sport where nearly all are on equal footing. However, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The brass tack point is to get home so you can go again.
Dan Donarski is an award-winning journalist/photographer and author. He specializes in the outdoors and adventure travel. When he’s not out and about he lays his head in Sault Ste. Marie.
Thanks to Dan Donarski for this guest blog piece on the magic of dog sledding and advice on where you can experience it this winter. If you’ve never been dog sledding, make it your Pure Michigan resolution this winter to get out and try it!
Not more than 10 or 15 years ago, you would have been hard pressed to find more than one or two venues for dog-sledding in Michigan. Now there are a dozen or more spread out in both peninsulas. At some of these venues, you’ll be a passenger in the sled; at others you’ll be taught the basics and actually get to steer the sled.
Snow squeaks under the pressure of the sled. The wind streams past your ears. You can hear the dogs pant, all creating a soft musical rhythm. The quiet of the snowy woods envelope you. That is, at least, once the dogs settle into the run. When you first start out, they (and you!) will be barking and/or squealing in delight. If you’ve never done this before, your smile will be that of a young child on their first adventure sledding down a hill. It is, in a word, bliss.
And, while romance and dog sledding don’t exactly come to mind in the same sentence, they most certainly will at The Terrace Inn, one of Petoskey’s historic inns in Bay View. You see, on the weekends of Jan 22-24 and Feb 19-21, the Terrace Inn will be offering yet again their very popular dog sledding packages.
On Friday afternoon, you’ll be going to school learning the ins and outs of this old transportation style. Saturday finds you in the woods behind a well-trained team of sled dogs, coursing through the beauty of a winter wonderland. Late in the afternoon you’ll return for a toasty fireside reception before enjoying a sumptuous dinner in their classic dining room. This dinner, and breakfast both Saturday and Sunday, are included in the package.
Now, that may seem like enough romance, but the Terrace Inn provides even more. The weekend package includes appetizers on Friday night. They also offer an upgrade called “A Touch of Romance”, which will provide you with roses, chocolates, and a bottle of wine for your room.
Dan Donarski is an award-winning journalist/photographer and author. He specializes in the outdoors and adventure travel. When he’s not out and about he lays his head in Sault Ste. Marie.
