WoW 7: Quick Escape to the Upstairs of Michigan
Mid-COVID Travel
Michigan, the only state that is two masses of land called one name and the peninsulas couldn't be more different. If you look at a map, The UP is connected to Wisconsin. So why isn’t it a part of Wisconsin? We’ll skip all the boring explanations and tell you that what it came down to was a political power dispute involving none other than Ohio. Maybe the hatred between Ohio and Michigan doesn’t stem only from a football rivalry…
Having spent most of our lives in Michigan, one would think, yeah they are from Michigan, cool what do you guys do… grow corn in the snow? But what most people don’t realize is how different and far away the Upper Peninsula is from Grand Rapids, Lansing, or Detroit. For reference, from Grand Rapids, we could get to Louisville, Kentucky quicker than we could get to Munising Michigan. You could nearly make it to Nashville in the same time it takes to get to some parts of the UP. We spent one full day getting to the UP for our slightly extended labor day weekend.
Sidebar and thoughts on the Upper Peninsula and life -
The UP is remote. Most people would be upset by the lack of cellular service, but if you prepare and have maps downloaded, some podcasts, and some tunes you'll be just fine. Not having that phone light up, vibrate, or ‘ping’ every 30 seconds is pretty glorious. If you really want all those notifications, you can have an orgasm worth once you get service again. Another reason this excited us is our recent obsession with Darin Olien and what he calls fatal conveniences. These are things that we think are necessary and helpful in modern-day life, but, in reality, are harming, poisoning, and slowly killing us. The fatal convenience that hit home was the harmful impact of EMFs. “They’re a continuous field produced by electrically charged objects like cell phones. EMF likes to travel around in a wave-like pattern, at the speed of light. This propagation is called “Electromagnetic Radiation.” EMFs can occur naturally from the sun, but the man-made EMFs are what can be harmful. Things like Cell Phones, Routers(wifi), Microwaves, etc, can cause these. There have been thousands of studies performed that show a direct correlation between health issues and manmade EMFs. Since the tech boom, more and more people have been sick more frequently, having constant headaches, and a decrease in sperm count (linked to a phone in your pants pocket) *DarinOlien.com, 9/1/2020. This trip and Darin Olien’s content helped us realize how much we use our technology, and how often we keep it close to our bodies. Constantly exposing ourselves to EMFs. Creating awareness about these modern-day issues is extremely important in determining how we move forward as a society. Check out ‘Down To Earth’ with Zac Efron and Darin Olien to open up your mind to how messed up the US is when it comes to food, water, and our environment, and really how great other countries are doing by keeping it simple. Furthermore, check out the ‘Darin Olien Podcast’ to hear more about fatal conveniences.
“Down to Earth” The first episode highlights Iceland’s efforts (and success) in combating their carbon foot print. In the future we will do a blog post on our epic trip to Iceland in 2018.
Back to our trip!
The UP is fabulous at making you appreciate food. This was probably one of the worst food and breakfast beverage trips we've ever taken. Not only were the options scarce, you never knew when something would be open. Even if Google said, yes they are open, the hours were not always accurate. Probably related to the reasons mentioned previously. Another note, Power is also not always a given. After completing the full Chapel Basin Loop we were looking forward to pigging out on some pizza. As we arrived, the ENTIRE town lost power, not just a few buildings or one half of the city, the ENTIRE city. We couldn't buy anything from anywhere. So instead of filling up on carbs on top of carbs, we were able to find an Ice cream shop little ways out of town that just so happened to be right next to our AirBnB still selling scoops. One thing I will quickly note is how friendly people are. We ate at a place called Taco Primo that was relatively good, and the waitress was running around the whole time making sure everyone was comfortable, and people had what they needed. Our AirBnb hostess was very friendly and acted the same way when we had to reach out to her for help with something. She even scooped our ice cream! While the food left more to be desired, the Yoopers do know how to drink. Their beer is excellent, but also like everything else, sort of hard to find. We ventured an hour further into the UP to a town that actually felt like a city called Marquette, this is the home of Northern Michigan University, and more notably(depending on your priorities) Blackrocks Brewery and Ore dock Brewery.
Cant go wrong with a Superior beer
The UP is beautiful. That is partially due to its lack of roads, power lines, buildings, and an ungodly amount of McDonald’s every few miles. I don't think we had ever been further away from society. As you drive on a dirt road, you can stare into a sea of trees with seemingly no end. Looking into the Hiawatha forest is mind-blowing. It is a truly untouched nature.
Everyone must take the time to sit and watch the leaves turn.
Hiking and Trails
One of the biggest chunks of the UPs beauty is the hiking, trails, and the lakeshore. There are HELLA hikes. In our short time in the UP we hit up a mini hike up Sugarloaf Mountain in Marquette and the longer Chapel Basin Loop, saw kitch-iti-kipi, and drove the coast of lake superior. The Chapel Loop is sort of all of the pictured rock hikes wrapped in one. Its a 10.5-mile loop and every view we saw got better and better as the hike went on. Most hikes, you climb all the way to the top or to one specific view in nature, and then you’re done. With the loop, it seemed like it never ended. Forest trails, Mosquito Falls, Mosquito Beach, The Pictured Rocks Shoreline, Chapel Rock, Chapel Beach and Chapel falls, it was just one epic loop of scenery that was well worth the time and miles. This trail is HIGHLY recommended. While the trail was ~10.5 miles, we ended up walking a total of ~13 because of how busy it was. We parked ~1.5 miles out from the start of the trail… Get-There-Early. Though there was a large number of visitors when we were there, the trail is so spread out it didn’t feel over populated. Most people that were parked at the trail head were headed just to the Chapel Falls portion and were not there to do the entire loop. After this hike, as you could imagine, we required sustenance. This is where we ran into the pizza dilemma mentioned above. Good times. Good times.
Sugarloaf Mountain was a much quicker hike, 30 minutes or less, with great views. At the top, we could overlook the forest and the Lake Superior shoreline. Definitely a must-see due to the little time it takes to complete and how close it is to Blackrocks Brewery.
Kitchi-iti-kipi was such a natural wonder. You walk on to this giant wooden boat with a square cut out of the middle to view the water, Then, the part we did not anticipate, someone (any passenger) has to use a pulley system to get you out to the middle of Michigans largest natural freshwater spring, and back. Our first attempt to view this was paired with a roughly 3 hour wait. Due to no person monitoring time spent on the boat, people want to take in the views and aren’t in a rush to bring the boat back to shore. We decided coming back when it wasn’t a holiday weekend was a better choice so we left and came back on our way home. The 2nd time was the charm, we walked right on the boat first thing in the morning and were able to enjoy the spring as long as we wanted. It was breathtaking. It feels like you are in an aquarium with how easily you can see into the depths of the teal water. The fish swimming around are massive and could be seen from all around the spring. The spring is lined with beautiful trees and it just felt like time was moving slower.
Our quick labor day trip to the upstairs of Michigan was relaxing, slow, and remote and we loved it. We will definitely return.
Lets wander where the wifi is weak
We’ve ended our last few blogs with Happy Travels (Someday!) and maybe this time we can more appropriately say SAFE Travels, whatever that may look like for you these days. Get out and explore! Even if its your own backyard.
Food and Breweries
Ice Cream - Right next to our AirBnB
Our AirBnb
Citations
https://darinolien.com/should-you-be-worried-about-emf-exposure-from-your-cell-phone/
