500 MJ Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 In the northern most part of Michigan lies the Keweenaw Peninsula, God's Country. I attend Michigan Tech University in Houghton, just south of the Keweenaw and live in Hancock just across Portage Lake (Canal) which separates the Keweenaw from mainland. The Keweenaw is rich in Copper. This area used to thrive on the stuff but now there is no mining due to the Copper being uneconomical to mine anymore. Back before the Copper had stopped being mined and it was becoming harder for the mining companies to extract the Copper they looked for other sources of recaliming Copper from tailings left behind. One of these ways was to crush the rock already extracted from underground and melt the Copper out from the crushed material. The leftover material is known as Stampsand. One of the larger operations of this type happened in ghey, Mi (I know the name is a little homo, but no one could foresee the meaning it would eventually get when the town was formed way back when). The stampsand mining operations here were so vast that they created a stampsand beach on Lake Superior from the crushed material. The beach is roughly 1/4 mile wide by 1/2 mile long ( these are my guesses, I didn't measure) If anyone here has been to Silver Lake, it resembles it extremely. The only difference is that it is a lot colder here and there is no "dune" as large as "Test" to climb. Also there is no sand, stamp"sand" is finely crushed rock instead. My G/F and I took a trip there yesterday and had a blast. Each time I have been there I was the only one or we were the only group there. You can cruise around on "ghey Beach" for a bit and then go check out the ruins of the mine. Its a great place for bonfires and cookouts. Here are some pics, Enjoy: Here is a good shot at just how much of this stuff is still here and hasn't been washed away. I took this pic just after I drove along the shoreline between a "pond" and the lake, not 10 sec after I drove across the stampsand "Bridge" I went back to look at how far down I sunk in it and found this: The lake had already lapped up and covered my tracks, I wondered why it was so soft driving over this spot :hmm: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
500 MJ Posted December 5, 2006 Author Share Posted December 5, 2006 Chapter 2: Well, when a Friday afternoon wheeling trip wasn't enough for the weekend, I ended up going all the way to the tip of the Peninsula to hit some fresh powder with some friends on Sunday. We spent the whole day tooling around on State and Private land and put a total of 70 trail miles on the Jeep. This weekend we were blessed with about 7-8 inches of fresh powder at the far north end of the Peninsula and it made for a great day wheeling. My roomate rode along and I went with a couple other guys and their Durago. Needless to say, his old fat lady couldn't make it up the hill. My T-case popped out of 4 wheel half way up it so I eventually had to stop and put it back in. I tried to take off 2nd then and didn't have the momentum anymore... It is amazing to me just what a little downshift from 2nd to 1st will do for ya. We've all been here. It was my only stuck of the day and it would have never happened if it wouldn't have been for the snow. This branch decided it would like to wedge itself under the frontend while I was backing down a hill. Thankfully nothing got hurt but it was all the way up to the sway bar on the drivers side... glad I had my saw! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Woohoo! Didn't look like you were gonna make it after you stopped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc. Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 Sounds like a good weekend! Wish it wasn't so far away, I'd like to check it out myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oizarod115 Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE FREAKIN 71 DEGREES DOWN HERE!?!?! I WANT SNOW!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOMJ87 Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 hell it was 80 here today and I hate this crap. Cole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oizarod115 Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 hell it was 80 here today and I hate this crap. Cole hopefully this winter gets REAL nasty, REAL quick. I'm sick of this crap. it was hot all summer, now its hot in the winter too. ITS DECEMBER AND ALMOST CHRISTMAS! :mad: :mad: :hateputers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 High of 22,and it was 9 when I got up, with 3 inches of snow on the ground yesterday. Yay for snow, boo for cold! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOMJ87 Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 another 75 degree day I I enev am sweating working on the MJ it is way to hot for a week til christmas. I want to move up a couple states north. :headpop: Cole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stumpy Posted December 19, 2006 Share Posted December 19, 2006 another 75 degree day I I enev am sweating working on the MJ it is way to hot for a week til christmas. I want to move up a couple states north. :headpop: Cole i'll trade ya..lol i hate the cold and wind here! i don't mind snow but it never snows enuf here to have any fun.. :cry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocco78 Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 I always drive by ghey but never go there :D Went up to the tip out on high rock road (something like that anyway) in early Dec (or was it late nov?) anyway its nice up there. I'm down in Iron Mountain... You ever check out the UPJeeping site? http://upjeeping.informe.com Anyway, if I could find the pics of that trip I'd post them for people to see what it looks like with no snow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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