Welcome to Botches Off -Road. Join us as we talk
about everything from gear reviews to trail stories,
tent camping to rock landing, and all things
to do with the outdoors. Today, because I botched
our episode we actually did yesterday, I moved
all our recording equipment for myself from my
son's room to my room to give him a little bit
more space. And while recording my copy for Audacity,
I forgot to reselect my mic as the recording
device. So when Alex went to go edit this, he
got about an hour and a half to two hours of
silence coming from me. So that's fun. I screwed
that up. My bad. We had a really nice interview
with Brian R. Sweet and his forerunner that he's
got. And we might have him on later to kind of
chat a little bit. But yeah, I kind of screwed
that up. So we were going to wait and do this,
but I'm going to just do it now. That way we
have something we can put out, which is the Northology
magazine. And we're going to talk a little bit
about the couple articles that they have in here.
I'm going to read them off to you. That way you
don't have to read them yourself. And then if
you want to look at Northology magazine and.
check that out, see what's in there, then you
are more than welcome. So, the first article
I'm going to read is called Overlanding is the
American Way, A Homegrown Tradition of Exploration.
The American Overland Legacy. Long before GPS,
Americans were blazing trails into the unknown.
The term overland itself may have emerged from
these domestic expeditions. Consider Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark. whose corps of discovery
departed st louis in eighteen o four on what
would be called the original american overlanding
expedition their mission navigate the rivers
mountains and plains in search of a route to
the pacific with just grit gear and the guidance
from indigenous communities decades later the
overland trail carried thousands of immigrants
westward these pioneers weren't weekend warriors
they were travelers seeking new lives beyond
the mississippi traveling by wagon through the
treacherous and untamed terrain the infrastructure
of today's back roads and byways owes much to
the determined tread of those early overlanders
the overland trail americans first overland highway
long before the term overlanding entered the
modern lexicon The Overland Trail served as one
of the earliest and most iconic examples of vehicle
-assisted travel, albeit powered by oxen and
grit instead of diesel and differential locks.
Running 2 ,000 miles from Missouri to Oregon
and California, the Overland Trail became a lifeline
for pioneers, gold seekers, and settlers in the
mid -1800s. Unlike the earlier Oregon Trail,
the Oregon, or I'm sorry, the Overland Route,
also known as the South Pass Route, offered a
slightly more hospitable and efficient corridor
through Wyoming, avoiding some of the treacherous
river crossings and mountain passes that plagued
earlier travelers. By the night, ooh, not in
the 1960s, the 1860s, the route gained even greater
significance when ben holidays overland stage
company began using it to carry passengers freight
and u .s mail between missouri and salt lake
city and eventually all the way to california
stations replaced every 10 to 15 miles where
travelers could rest change horses and brace
for the next leg of the dusty jolting travel
travel through the railroad would eventually
render the trail i'm sorry though The railroad
would eventually render the trail obsolete. The
legacy of the Overland Trail lives on in the
very idea of remote land travel through rugged
terrain. Today's overlanders echo the same values,
self -reliance, exploration, and willingness
to head into the unknown. Modern rigs may have
rooftop tents and a GPS, but the spirit of the
Overland Trail still rides with every traveler.
Which brings us to today's overlander. still
following the frontier so why the gatekeeping
why imply a traveler who treks the dalton highway
the mojave road or the boundary waters region
isn't really overlanding unless they're also
juggling visas and passports and bribing border
agents to be clear there is a value in international
travel, but American overlanders aren't simply
stuck in their borders. They are choosing to
explore a continent -sized country with a staggering
range of terrain, from the alpine trails of the
Rockies to the cigarro -studded routes of the
Sonoran Desert. From the dense Appalachian Forest,
the windswept Great Plains, there is no shortage
of challenge, remoteness, and self -reliance
required. And let's not forget the cultural patchwork
that makes each region distinct. One can cross
borders in America simply by crossing county
lines. A trip from Arizona to Louisiana can feel
more foreign than a crossing from Spain to Portugal,
which is definitely true. So that was the article.
And that, yeah, that has a lot of merit to it.
We've been overlanding and traveling from one
place to another. For very, very long time. I
mean, since settlers were coming from Europe
to America, however you want to put it, colonizers
or whatever. But the want to find something better
and to do something for yourself to better your
life has always been there. It's just kind of
evolved. I mean, for me now, the want for me
to get out. and experience some peace and tranquility
and to explore the unknown, or at least the semi
-unknown, and see the things that are out there
to see is a driving force for me. I really enjoy
that, and my family does as well. And it's something
that's great for the kid. He gets to see what
there is to see out there. He gets to see a different
side of the technology -driven world. I think
a lot of the kids nowadays don't really get that.
And I think it's only going to get worse. There
will always be those families that push nature
and being outside and whatnot. But if you look
at the dependency on electronics nowadays, I
think these newer generations, I think we're
going to see. and the overlanding world. I think
we're going to see that drop off a little bit
because they can get pretty much everything at
their fingertips. They want to see cool things.
They can watch YouTube. They can do this. They
can do that. They can play a video game about
it. I mean, hell, they have a farming simulator
and lawn mowing simulator, and they even have
off -road trucking simulators and all that. So
I think some of that... kind of kills the curiosity
within the kid to get out there and experience
it for themselves. I mean, like I said, of course
you have outliers and some of us that are going
to raise our kids a little different, but a lot
of these kids are going to be so focused on technology
that they're going to miss out on everything
that this beautiful country and world has to
offer. So we've been doing it for a while. The
definition might have changed. The name might
have changed, but we've been traveling since
the beginning of time. We've always been looking.
So it's just a matter of how we do it. And I
hate to put any kind of definition on overlanding
because at the end of the day, as long as you're
out there, that's all that matters. So we're
going to take a look at a second article called
the roadless rule rescission. Now, I didn't know
about this until. I would say last night, I had
to look up what the roadless rule rescission
was. And what it was, was a, let me get you an
actual definition here of kind of what going
on. So here, via copilot. The U .S. Department
of Agriculture, the USDA, is rescinding the 2001
roadless rule, which will unlock 30 % of national
forest system and allow for common sense forest
management practices. This decision will remove
prohibitions on road construction, reconstruction,
and timber harvest on nearly 59 million acres
of the national forest system. So... With that
in mind, what this might mean for us as overlanders
and explorers could be pretty good. I mean, as
long as they don't do something to, I don't know,
mitigate our travel through these areas, what
it could lead to is more trails. So I'm going
to read the article for this, and I'll let you
kind of decide, and maybe you guys will have
some kind of insight on this. So, what does it
mean for overlanders? The decision of the roadless
rule, depending on how it's implemented, could
positively affect overland travel and dispersed
camping in several key ways, also providing potential
benefits to forest health and land management.
Benefits for the overland travel and dispersed
camping would be like expanded access to remote
areas, lifting the roadless rule allows for limited
road construction and maintenance in previously
restricted areas, this means overlanders and
dispersed campers could gain access to more remote
and rugged parts of the national forest increasing
the opportunities for solitude exploration and
backcountry adventure the better maintenance
of existing forest roads forest managers can
now more easily repair and reopen roads that
were previously neglected due to rule constraints
Improved access means safer travel conditions
and fewer closures due to impassable routes,
especially following wildfires, landslides, or
other severe weather. Increased dispersed camping
opportunities. As more areas become accessible
by vehicle, dispersed camping options could increase.
This will reduce overcrowding at traditional
campsites and help spread out the visitor impact
across a wider landscape, potentially preserving
the quality of experience. and improved wildlife
mitigation. The ability to create or maintain
roads can aid wildfire prevention and response.
Fire crews can access vulnerable areas more quickly,
and land managers can implement strategic thinning
and prescribed burns more efficiently. Key components
in reducing catastrophe with the wildfires. And
then there's more effective land stewardship.
With the increased mobility through forest roads,
agencies and conservation groups can conduct
better monitoring, invasive species control,
and restoration work in the backcountry areas.
This can lead to healthier ecosystems that benefit
wildlife, watersheds, and long -term recreational
use. Adaptive Management in a Challenging Environment
As natural changes intensify, beetle infestations
drought having the flexibility to build and restore
access roads enables proactive and timely management
interventions while the rescission opens doors
for overlanders and improves forest service capability
it's important access is expanded responsibly
yes it's important that the access is expanded
responsibly Collaboration between user groups
and land managers and conservation organizations
will be critical to ensure that new or reopened
roads don't compromise sensitive habitats or
lead to overuse. Access versus disposal. The
rescission of the roadless rule and the subtraction
of public land sale provisions from the land,
the big beautiful bill, the comprehensive public
lands legislation, may seem unrelated. but they
reflect a broader pivot in the federal land policy
towards the sustainable access and stewardship
not the privatization privatization privatization
or restriction wrote this role rescission this
policy rollback allows for a strategic road construction
and maintenance in designated roadless areas
for overlanders firefighters forest managers
and dispersed campers it allows for the ability
to reach use and care for public lands that were
previously inaccessible even for needed restoration
or emergency access striking the public land
sales clause the original draft of the big beautiful
bill included language that would have allowed
the sale and disposal of certain federal lands
that language was stripped out after the public
outcry ensuring that these lands remain in public
hands open to the recreation conservation and
responsible use together these changes Send a
clear signal. The federal government listened
to the outcry and is prioritizing keeping the
public lands public and making them meaningfully
accessible. Rather than locking up lands behind
legal barriers or selling them off to the highest
bidder, these combined policy moves support the
active engagement, responsible recreation, and
localized land management, giving adventurers,
volunteers, and local stakeholders a renewed
role in how these landscapes are accessed and
cared for. Is this a win for recreation and conservation?
From the article, it seems like it's a balancing
act, which, okay, yeah, it says right here. Do
environmentalists have, oh, I'm sorry, do environmentalists
have any legitimate concerns on these topics,
or is this a win for conservation and recreation?
The reality is more nuanced than a simple win
for conservation and recreation. The rescission
of the roadless rule and the removal of land
sale provisions had different implications. And
while some outcomes may benefit overlanders,
the forest management, others may come with tradeoffs.
What might happen that could be a negative, I
guess, would be habitat fragmentation. Building
new roads, no matter how limited, can fragment
wildlife corridors and introduce invasive species,
noise, and pollution into previously undisturbed
ecosystems. Precedent for resource extraction?
Yes. The original roadless rule was created in
part to protect forests from logging and mining,
even if the intent has improved recreation. access
or fire management the rules rollback could open
the door to commercial interest in remote public
lands the loss of ecological preserves roadless
areas are in some of the are some of the last
semi -pristine places in the u .s public lands
converse wow i am really screwing this part up
conservationists worry that increased access
could degrade the ecological integrity Subtraction
of public land sales. Generally seen as a win
for conservation, most environmental groups and
reduction advocates supported this move, keeping
the public lands in public hands and help safeguard
public access for non -motorized and motorized
users alike. It helps the habitat protection
under federal oversight and long -term stewardship
rather than short -term. So yeah, that was the
the two articles from Northology Adventures,
July edition anyway, that I'm going to read.
And then I'm just going to go over some of the
things that are in the magazine itself. So we
do have one of our Michigan guys in here. That
would be on the rig profile. And that's Mitchell
McPherson in his 2020 Toyota Tacoma. Mitchell
lives in Traverse City. He's a police officer.
And he has a 3 .5 liter V6. And it's got the
auto factory rear locker with diff breather.
They asked him why did he choose this vehicle.
And he said the GX470 is an awesome mix of capability,
reliability, and ruggedness. And space for my
family of six. So I think that might have gotten
mixed up because I know Mitchell. He doesn't
have a GX470, and he's got a Tacoma, so I'll
have to let her know about that. Suspension.
He's got Dobinson 2 -3 inch IMS shocks, springs,
800 -pound rear leaf springs, and Falcon Wildpeak
AT3s, 285 -75 -16, JBA upper control arms. He's
got the Backwood Adventure mods. front bumper
and badlands 12 000 pound winch and so far it's
been pretty awesome combination the bumper is
lightweight due to being both aluminum and steel
a mixture his camping setup he's got a lu cab
canopy camper it's the best setup i've ever had
he says uh however it is a commitment it has
a 270 awning and a shower room and the outside
Now on the inside of the camper I have an EcoFlow
power station, an EcoFlow alternator charger,
and a deep cycle battery for my diesel heater.
There is also an Iseco fridge in the back that
keeps me off -grid longer and it makes travel
simple. Other than that, those are the pretty
major additions. The rest remains pretty simple.
Blue water jugs, Coleman stove, and everything
else you need for basic camping. Next on the
build list will be a high clearance rear bumper.
Not sure which brand yet. What outdoor activities
and hobbies does he like? He will occasionally
take mountain bikes or my dual sport motorcycle.
Almost always have hiking boots and a swimsuit
for those beautiful Michigan days. And what does
overlanding or remote travel mean to you? Vehicle
-based exploration where you can be self -sufficient.
That's a good one. So you can see Mitchell's
social media profile at MMC Thiersen Media. So
MMC. P -H -E -R -S -O -N Media. I believe that's
on Instagram. He's got a pretty cool Tacoma.
He's a very nice guy. And yeah, check him out.
So what else we got here? We got the usual New
Holland Overland LLC. It's a West Michigan -based
adventure vehicle outfitting company. You have
the Dead Miners, which we probably talked about
earlier. Dead Miners is super... There's, like,
a super cool, like, website. They got a bunch
of, like, handmade stuff, a bunch of cool little,
like, not knickknacks, but you know what I mean.
Yeah, they got some articles on this for paddle
gear. They got, you know, your typical, the radio
chatter stuff. They try to mix it up, and they
have these same, a couple of the same guys in
here because I'm sure they either sponsor it
or something like that. it's it is still cool
seeing and like all these links in the magazine
you can usually click on them and and see kind
of the website like that's kind of how we discovered
some of these things on here in the first place
so uh then they have like pictures of like uh
people over landing and like where they're going
and and just pictures of the activity in general
um yeah i they have all sorts of cool stuff and
Let's see, they have a part about charity and
stewardship programs that they have that they're
working with. It looks like Aero, Blue Ribbon,
Idaho State 4x4, Tread Lightly. So they got,
yeah, a lot of different stuff in there. And
then they have a directory towards the end, which
helps with common navigation, camping gear, the
Momentum podcast for more expo. They have the
Northwoods Overland Adventure, which is like
a community. And they have Overland Radio, Orbis
Overlanding. They're doing a Crawl for the Cure
21st anniversary. They've raised over $1 .7 million
since 2005, which is super, super, super cool.
And then they have the Rigs and Coffee schedule.
And that is for Midwest 4x4s in Hudsonville,
Michigan, which you can look up on Facebook.
The next one, I believe, is 7 -27. Then they
have 8 -24, 9 -28, and 10 -26. Those are the
upcoming dates on that. So, yeah, pretty cool
stuff. Northology is really cool to kind of get
that, kind of learn about, you know, the local.
some of the local stuff going on around here
in the, I guess, Midwest. Some people don't consider
us Midwest, but I kind of lump us in there. So,
yeah, it's pretty cool. I would check it out
if you guys haven't already. Otherwise, I'm going
to kind of shift gears here, and we're going
to talk about my plan. So in the wrap, I didn't
actually put, you know, some of the stuff I had.
Just got done with spring kids camp a couple
weeks ago. That was great. You know, you've heard
about that. And my power steering went out or
was going out and was eating my belt. So I waited
for my parts there, got my parts back, and started
working on that, which was a pain in the ass.
The new power steering pump that I ordered, which,
you know, granted, I bought a cheap one off of
Rock Auto. But the outlets weren't in the exact
same position. So it kind of took some finagling
for me to get the old connections back to where
they were. So like the hose outlet wasn't exactly
the same. It was a little more back. There was
a bolt hole for the harness like to clip onto
to keep it away from things. And then there was
a ground wire bolt. Those were both super, super
hard to get to. And not only that, they were
in different positions. So if you were to hook
it up the correct way, you couldn't really get
them to hook the same way where the ground cable
hooks up versus where the clip holder was at.
So a lot of that was us trying to figure out
how that would work. And then once I figured
it out, it was kind of just a holder. and didn't
really matter and i figured a ground was a ground
um they were two inches apart and the bolt holes
were very similar looking we kind of jammed those
into fit and kind of made it work so uh i refilled
my power steering um fluid which i also didn't
know was actually just transmission fluid and
then we burped the heck out of it which uh was
you know just turning to full lock on both directions
about a million times until you got most of the
air out of the system i put a new belt on i rechecked
all my pulleys to make sure there wasn't any
wobbling anything like that made sure my tensioner
was tensioning my belt correctly and then put
everything back together and so far so good so
it took a little while for the power steering
to clear up a little bit and get back to where
it was But otherwise, it's been good. So hopefully
we are ready for the West UP exploration trip
that we're going to be doing here in about a
week. And that is going to be starting from my
house here in Grant area to the West UP. It's
going to be like Braga, Copper Harbor, that kind
of area over there. So it looks like it's going
to be... Probably close to 1 ,200 miles to 1
,600 miles through, you know, trails and between,
I don't know, basic, or not basic, but, you know,
basic roads between the trails and some other
stuff. So we're going to, you know, start, either
leave Wednesday night or Thursday, and then we're
going to move. up to uh i was gonna be what area
here um next you know hog island point state
or you know close to nob and way we're gonna
camp in nob and way area probably thursday night
um and then we're gonna do uh like friday we're
gonna take the big trek um west until we get
to the you know i think it's ironwood area uh
gladstone In the UP, and then we're going to
take trails pretty much all the way up to Copper
Harbor. We're going to try and hit some of these
bigger touristy areas. But, I mean, my wife has
never been to the West UP. The farthest west
we've been is Lance, or Leance, Lance. So, it's
going to be really cool for her. We're going
to see a lot of... A lot of things that we typically
don't get to see down here in the lower peninsula,
we don't have the massive amounts of rock that
they have up here. We're more of like sand and
mud. They're more like rock, sand, and mud, with
rock being a lot more prevalent. So a lot more
cliffs, that type of thing, like granite rock
faces, which is super cool to me. I always love
it when we cross the bridge and almost immediately
after we cross the bridge, you start to see like
these reddish rock faces on the left and right
side of the highway. And it's like, dude, it's
like you just went into a whole different country.
I've never been to Colorado, but that would be
the way that I compare it. It would be like going
to Colorado because it's just beach, mud. There's
not any rock cliff. kind of things in lower peninsula
and it's just everywhere up in the upper peninsula
it's it's how it is and so that also brings like
uh super cool rock faces and waterfalls and uh
you know like pictured rocks lakeshore and and
stuff like that that you don't get to see in
the lower peninsula so it really genuinely feels
like a coastal uh state you know with the cliffs
and the rock face and all that so and then you
know you're right on lake superior which if you've
never been it really does get compared to the
ocean quite a bit a lot of a lot of people who
haven't been over here kind of think about that
and they're like yeah i don't it's it's not but
if you look at it the way that it acts the way
that it looks it acts and looks a lot like an
ocean because of how large it is of course it
doesn't it's not salt water And it doesn't have
the same ecosystem and fish and blah, blah, blah.
I think you get the picture, but it's just the
way that it acts. I mean, if you look at some
of the statistics behind Lake Superior and how
big it is, it's one of the biggest inland lakes
in the world. So it's pretty cool. And you get
out to the coast and just about as far as you
can see, you can just barely see a tinge of land
sometimes. And it's cooler up there. It's going
to be really nice. I'm assuming and am planning
for colder nights into the 40s, 50s. So that's
going to be really nice. I love sleeping in that
weather. It's like perfect for me. My wife is
a little bit more of a chilly blood, so she would
rather it be in the early 70s to sleep in. But
I'm cool with that. 50s is good. Me and my son
are cool with that. He's warm -blooded too, so
we'll have fun with that. But we're going to
try and see a couple waterfalls. I think Bond
Falls is on the way. We're going to go check
out a mine or two. And we're going to try to
get up to the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is the
top, I guess I would call it horn of the UP.
It's funny, the UP kind of looks like a side
profile of like a pterodactyl almost. So it would
be like the top horn of the pterodactyl. So we're
going to go all the way up to the top. peak of
it and then we're gonna check out they have like
a it's called copper harbor we're probably gonna
check that out a little bit we're gonna check
out um the the barraga like keystone cut there's
a couple like cool little trails around there
um and then we're gonna probably try to head
down to gay michigan and gay michigan actually
has a beach that was actually almost i think
if i remember right it was made completely off
of waste uh from the mill so it's like a bunch
of like sand and and waste off of the mill so
it's like a dark gray um sand color and so we're
gonna check that out and then we're gonna check
out the old launch pad uh there was a missile
launch or a rocket launch pad that was there
from The 50s back when, what was it? I can't
remember what it's called. I'm sorry, 50s. 60s
when we were doing the, what is it, Stargate,
Overlord, Overwatch, whatever that was, the race
was there. But yeah, there's an old rocket launch
pad over there that we're going to check out.
Like I said, a couple of... A couple of mines,
a bunch of waterfalls and sites to see over here.
I know that we're going to do a mine tour at
some point. We're going to probably head through
Houghton, which is a really beautiful area, and
take the trails around that. And then I'm probably
going to finish it off by going to the Porcupine
Mountains. If you've never seen or never been
to Michigan and you've never got to see or experience...
anything uh like that i would definitely suggest
going to porcupine mountains um they're one of
the few mountain ranges in michigan most of them
are in the up i think there's porcupine and then
there's like mount arvon something like that
there's there's not much and they're not super
crazy high either but um porcupine mountains
is unique because it has a lake like in the actual
mountain area if that makes sense so the lake
is referred to i think is referred to and or
named lake of the clouds because it's in the
mountain system um and and typically on on the
days it's higher up in elevation so it's you
know lake in the clouds it's in the mountains
so one of the one of the few lakes located in
mountains so it's very very very beautiful um
and if you do any kind of overlanding or anything
in michigan it's it's Definitely something that
you have to check out. If you are in Michigan
and you're looking for crazy cool places to explore,
if you're overlanding Michigan in general and
you're like, where's the cool spots? Where's
the nature and the cool spots that I want to
see? I would tell you as someone who lives in
the Lower Peninsula, the Lower Peninsula is beautiful.
you have like the sand uh i'm sorry stan lake
uh you have like the sleeping bear dunes um you
have um gosh i don't know why i can't think of
it now but you have like the uh the dunes for
like you know all the buggies and stuff go on
too and that's cool like you could drive on it
in the sand and if you like Bumping around in
beach sand and stuff like that and getting rowdy
and stuff. It's cool. I mean, you can't camp
on it, so that sucks. But as far as, like, overlanding
stuff goes, other than, you know, the trails
are beautiful down in lower Michigan. Don't get
me wrong, but as someone who lives in lower Michigan,
my advice would be pretty much stick to the upper
peninsula of Michigan, really. Start down by,
like, Charlevoix, which is the lower peninsula.
Um, and I mean, if you do like touristy stuff,
the West coast of Michigan down the West coast,
if you follow the roads down there, you get all
cool little West coast towns that are beautiful
little areas. But if you, I always try to start
around Charlevoix cause that's kind of when things
start to get really like beautiful. Um, and then
I, I take up Mackinac city is pretty cool. Mackinac
Island, as far as like tourist attraction goes,
um, Mackinac Island's like one of the most popular
tourist attractions in Michigan. And then for
the off roaders, um, Drummond Island is the most
popular. So Drummond Island has a, is kind of
in the, just up in the UP. They have ferries
that go onto the Island and Drummond Island actually
has like actual like rock face, like. rock configurations
that people have been wheeling on for a long
long time so uh they have a bunch of trails on
drummond island and it's the hardest stuff that
you're gonna get in the michigan area um as far
as like technical rock terrain goes and then
once you get over into uh you know the up there's
a bunch of like i'll name some of the touristy
things like what's the the go -to thing to do
in the UP and it's like Muldoon's Muldoon's is
like a pasty, uh, like shop and a pasty or pasty.
That's like one of the Michigan arguments is
what, how is it said? But, uh, uh, a pasty is
like this. Um, I would compare it to like shepherd's
pie almost, or like, uh, you know, she got meat
potatoes, like a little gravy type thing in it.
Um, Oh, Yeah, it comes with gravy, but it's like
meat, potatoes, and corn. It can have a variety
of different things in it. And it's wrapped up
into like a bun, like a bread. This is going
to sound super stupid, but look it up when I'm
done telling you. And it was originally created
as like a miner's meal, if I remember right,
from reading. It has... this big bubble shape
i guess if you were to make a fist it was about
the size of your fist and then has a really really
big crust rind on one side and apparently from
what i read when i was there um that women used
to like make this for their husband for minors
um and they would eat the the pastry all the
way down to that big crust that crust was really
really big it's not like a pie crust it's If
you were to make a O with your hands, the crust
would be about the same girth as that O. So it's
really hard trying to explain it over a podcast.
So they would actually eat it from the rind or
the crust, and then once they ate to that rind,
they would throw the rind away. Because typically
the miners up there were working with like arsenic
or whatever, like poisonous mining material.
So they had that all over their hands. So that's
kind of like how they would mitigate that risk.
Nowadays, obviously, we have some different practices
and we kind of eat lunches different. But I think
that's the main type of story with that is that.
that they had this big pastry with almost a handle
because that was kind of what it was used like.
And they would eat up until they got to that
crust made handle. And then they would throw
that away. That way they weren't poisoning themselves
with the mining material and byproduct they have
on their hands. So kind of a cool little piece
of history. So everybody who comes into Michigan.
Uh, the upper peninsula goes to Mackinac Island
and gets the famous Mackinac Island fudge. That's
like, everybody knows about that. And then they
get pasties. Those are like the two, those are
the two main foods up there. So, uh, and then,
so once you do that, you check that off your
list. Um, most people like going to the Sioux
locks. Um, Sioux St. Marie is the town where
that's at. So we have a locks from Canada to.
You know, in Michigan where the freighters will
pass through to get to different parts of the
Great Lakes. The Soo Locks is that bridge. Freighters
will come in through Sault Ste. Marie. It'll
change the water level. And then they'll come
out down what I think is called the St. Mary's
River. And they'll go into Lake Huron. And, you
know, they kind of go through that Canada there.
There's also a, I think, a bridge to Canada up
there around Sault Ste. Marie as well. So if
you want to get to Canada, you can go through
Sault Ste. Marie. What else? So one of the biggest
tourist attractions in the east part of, I mean,
and this is other than lighthouses, because a
lot of people when they come up there, they're
like searching out lighthouses and stuff like
that. So other than that would be like the waterfalls
in Upper Peninsula. Those are known for it, and
the most known waterfall in the UP is Tacuamanon
Falls. Tacuamanon has an upper and a lower falls.
They have a whole thing built around it, Tacuamanon
State Forest and that whole thing. And if you've
never been there, go there. It's absolutely gorgeous.
They have lots of cool boardwalks. a hard four
and a half mile hike from the lower to the upper
falls and if you like hiking it's absolutely
gorgeous and you would love it and then they
have usually a shuttle that'll take you back
down to the lower falls if you don't want to
do the down and back but the taquaman falls it's
absolutely gorgeous bringing your walking shoes
and it's one of those things that if you go there
you have to see it it's beautiful um if you're
over landing I would recommend a campsite at
the mouth of the Two -Hearted River. So it's
Two -Hearted, mouth of the Two -Hearted Campground
or Two -Hearted Campground. It's absolutely beautiful.
A bunch of rock hounds go there as well as Crisp
Point Lighthouse. Also really, really beautiful.
Tons of rock hound stuff there. And then once
you get into... Like, what else do I want to
see? You kind of go along the top coast of the
UP, and you get into, like, Grand Marais. Grand
Marais is like a little bay area. It's got a
bunch of cute little shops and gift stuff. It's
really, really cool, and it's one of the bigger
towns you will get to. And then if you keep going
left, you'll pass a bunch of hiking. So if you
like hiking, the UP is fantastic for that. I
mean, you have pictured lots. uh rocks which
is uh a little bit more west i believe and pictured
rocks is really beautiful you can go and do like
the pictured rocks tour and that's like super
popular and they are gorgeous like it's if you've
never seen them before they're really cool you
should do it um it is one of the most common
things in there is like you have the shipwreck
tour you have whitefish point which has like
the shipwreck museum You have, like, the pictured
rock tours. Then you have, like, the mining tours.
So, I mean, northern UP, basically the whole
thing was off of, like, shipping for logs or
mining. I mean, it was a big, big mine, a mine
thing. So as far as, like, the islands go, Isle
Royale is, like, one of the best hiking islands
there is. It's a whole different. A whole different
ballgame. If you want to do one of the coolest
and one of the most remote hiking places in the
surrounding Michigan area, Isle Royale is the
way to go. Super, super cool. Then you have Grand
Island. It's not really a bunch there. Cool towns
like Munising. Let's see. Then you get into Marquette.
Marquette is a gorgeous town. um that's gonna
be like your biggest town in the like upper peninsula
area that i'm i'm talking about um the next biggest
one is like east so you have like marquette and
then you have sault ste marie so if you need
anything really important like a walmart or something
like that like to get shoes like i did um yeah
you have those two to choose from so marquette's
actually I mean, super gorgeous. Like the old
town part of it is just beautiful. Made mostly
out of like the, uh, the granite rock from the
surrounding area. So it's like red, super beautiful.
Then you get to like Lance and from Marquette
to Lance is when things start to go crazy. Like
the trails get really cool. The waterfalls, I
mean, they're everywhere on the way. Like you
can look up, you could find waterfalls everywhere.
Start looking for those. And then once you get
to like Lance, that's kind of like the, that's
like where we stopped at last time. And then
there is all sorts of different things to do,
like Copper Harbor. I mean, it's called Copper
Harbor for a reason. They have a bunch of copper
mines. They have the launch pad up there. They
have the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is great trails
and great sites. And there's tons, tons to see.
There's mining tours. um lots of like gift shops
and knickknack stuff that you can go uh the beaches
are super super cool and there's tons of camping
in the up too so there's like you're between
camp spots and if you do dispersed camping like
us there's no shortage of camp area um then you
get to like uh you know they have the seven hour
plane crash trail that goes from you know the
up goes up from the keweenaw to wisconsin which
i've heard now is quite boring but it's one of
those things that i'm gonna just check off the
list someday then you get west back into like
porcupine mountains and as i kind of said earlier
so there is tons of stuff to do in the up um
you really can't do it all in one go like we're
doing we're doing most of the west side in in
five days the the big parts in five days and
that's not enough it really isn't i mean I've
done three to four trips and done the east side
to Lance. I've been to the UP quite a few times
before, so I know all the other little attractions
like Kitchetea Kippy and the arch on Mackinac
Island and Mackinac Island as a whole. So I know
all the little attractions here and there. They
have an Oswald's, it's a bear sanctuary, stuff
like that. the mystery spot you know it's one
of those popular tourist destinations uh the
youper i forget what it's called the youper store
i think it is which is like a goofy little uh
novelty store that's got it's like one of the
biggest novelty stores in michigan got a bunch
of knickknacks in there like big tourist hit
spot too and so they're like castle rock and
stuff like that so Yeah, I've seen all that small
stuff. I've been there. So I can kind of filter
it out from what Sienna wants. So Sienna's my
wife, and she's never been anywhere that I haven't
taken her in the UP. So west of Leonce, she's
never been to. So super excited to take her on
this and for her to see all this stuff that she's
never even seen before. It's like one of my great
joys in life is to watch her. um experience that
experience something new and just travel and
adventure i love watching her um experience that
so um and of course jasper is going to be there
too so he's going to be experiencing all this
stuff for the first time as well so double win
for me i just have to drive i just gotta drive
i gotta keep at it it's gonna be a long long
drive uh we're hoping nothing goes wrong um as
i think probably everybody does but It's going
to be really fun. And, you know, I guess this
kind of turned into, you know, from a Northology
to really talking about my trip to the UP to
kind of talking about the UP in general because
there really is a lot there. I don't think anybody
really thinks about Michigan like that. Like
when they think about overlanding, you have the
West Coast, you have the Ozarks, you have...
like Oklahoma and some of those other spots but
you don't really think of things like Maine like
Maine's got some really cool trails on there
too but yeah it's just it's not it's obviously
not the same the the sites aren't quite the same
the mountain ranges like there's crazy cool places
and like the Carolinas and stuff to go and see
in Tennessee or the mountain ranges I mean but
Everybody already knows that. But Michigan kind
of gets left behind, and it doesn't deserve the
hate, man. There's some gorgeous things to go
and see in Michigan. While it isn't the hardest
and most challenging obstacle -wise, technical
wheeling -wise, for sights, it's on par with
a lot of other places. People that have never
been to Michigan, when they see the sights in
Michigan, they go, oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, this
has some merit. Like, yeah, it's not the redwoods
of California. It's not like Moab. It's not,
you know, the Great Plains. But it's its own
unique ecosystem, the forest, the trees, the
woods, you know, cedar forests. Just gorgeous,
gorgeous area. And there's not a lot of places
that have, you know, like ocean -like beaches
in one place and then rocky cliff edges. And
then mud. And then complete inland. It's just
such a diverse area. You know what I mean? It's
hot. It's cold. Michigan, I mean, known for its
mood swings and temperatures. I mean, one day
it's 90 degrees. The nights are, you know, 50.
The other day it's, you know, 50s and 40s at
night. Like, it's super different. Michigan is...
very um because of the great lakes the the temperature
varies quite a bit and in the up you have to
pack for that too because in lower michigan you
can pretty much guarantee that you're going to
get pretty warm weather you're pretty safe to
not have to pack layers but when you're on that
coast of lake superior man things can get chilly
i there was a couple days where i i did wear
a sweatshirt until just about noon Just because
there was quite a chill, you know, being, you
know, 60, around that with the wind blowing everywhere,
sun's, you know, a little cloudy, you know, stuff
like that. I mean, crazy. But anyway, I thank
you guys for listening on this. Me kind of blabber
about the UP and blabber about Northology Magazine.
Like I said, this is my bad kind of episode,
so. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And I'm going
to sit down and edit the crap out of this and
get it ready to post. Get some chapter art. Get
a makeup for my wrongdoings. I'm going to hammer
down. And I will see you guys on the next one.