U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) travel recommendations

[saveevryjp1998]

I'm looking for input from members of past travels, bucket list trips, and especially local yoopers.  I can't get enough of it, I want to move up there. My mind trying to pinpoint a specific area to live is having a harder time focusing than a rat in a newly found stocked outhouse. 

[Pete M]

are you looking to be in the boonies?  near a touristy place? 

 

I imagine @MiNi Beast has some thoughts  

[fiatslug87]

O.K., what is U.P.?

[Pete M]

shorthand for the upper peninsula of Michigan.  

[Chad R]

I have never spent much time west of I75 but I’ve spent some time in the far east of the UP  mainly on Drummond island.   It is a very tight knit community and probably many opportunities for someone with your construction skills.

[eaglescout526]

When I saw the title of this post I thought we were looking for Union Pacific stations. 

[saveevryjp1998]

13 hours ago, Pete M said:

are you looking to be in the boonies?  near a touristy place? 

 

I imagine @MiNi Beast has some thoughts  

Both but this trip is limited access depending on how far I can push the Kia Forte. We did pretty good last time in it since we made it through that early 1st season snowfall upwards to a foot. It did keep us from hitting many spots we wanted to go. There was always unlimited places to hit so it really didn't matter. That's half the problem. I'm guessing for every spot we went, there's twenty more better within a mile right under our noses that we don't know about.  I know Craig Lake area is on our list, Lake Gogebic, and Copper Harbor. I think the next trip we want to try to really focus on the western U.P. again since I think we most likely would move around there if I can convince the wife. I'd be happy hunting deer and wrestling bear for fresh walleye or trout until the day I die.

3 hours ago, Chad R said:

I have never spent much time west of I75 but I’ve spent some time in the far east of the UP  mainly on Drummond island.   It is a very tight knit community and probably many opportunities for someone with your construction skills.

We definitely want to go there but I doubt I'd want to live there or do anything construction for anyone else but myself or outreach organization once I've moved. I'm a man of many trades that has always had multiple jobs or gigs going at once. I've thought that working on a boat or shipping dock might be interesting for a spell. I've had all kinds of freight jobs, moving, driving, loading, management positions besides my trade skills going throughout the years. I never fear finding a job and working my way up from the bottom rapidly if it's worth it or simply just working a new field for a new perspective in someone else's shoes for a bit. I definitely want to learn more of the shipping routes, time frames involving them, and how the dock yards work involving the big ships.

[Manche757]

The UP is pretty with all the trees but there is not a lot in the way of commerce.  Winter time is busy with snowmobilers coming from lower parts of Michigan.  Driving along the northern edge gives some pretty awesome views of Lake Superior.  Munising over towards Wisconsin has "Whispering Rock" which you might check out.  Like smoked fish? There are a lot of shacks along the road close to St Ignace when you first cross the Mackinaw Bridge.  Give those a try.  You probably already know about Mackinaw Island with the grand old wooden hotel    Some trivia or science:  About 25 years ago, scientist took many samples of a fungus on the UP and found the samples were not just similar but identical.  For several years it was thought that the fungus was the largest living thing on the planet and is 2500 years old.   A larger fungus was discovered in Oregon that is 8000 years old.  Actually it is a big deal from a science perspective.   You might want to find your way to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste Marie, Ontarion, named by the French and means rapids on the St Mary (river).  Not the most exciting part of the country but nice to experience

[saveevryjp1998]

13 hours ago, Manche757 said:

The UP is pretty with all the trees but there is not a lot in the way of commerce.  Winter time is busy with snowmobilers coming from lower parts of Michigan.  Driving along the northern edge gives some pretty awesome views of Lake Superior.  Munising over towards Wisconsin has "Whispering Rock" which you might check out.  Like smoked fish? There are a lot of shacks along the road close to St Ignace when you first cross the Mackinaw Bridge.  Give those a try.  You probably already know about Mackinaw Island with the grand old wooden hotel    Some trivia or science:  About 25 years ago, scientist took many samples of a fungus on the UP and found the samples were not just similar but identical.  For several years it was thought that the fungus was the largest living thing on the planet and is 2500 years old.   A larger fungus was discovered in Oregon that is 8000 years old.  Actually it is a big deal from a science perspective.   You might want to find your way to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste Marie, Ontarion, named by the French and means rapids on the St Mary (river).  Not the most exciting part of the country but nice to experience

I guess we have different perspectives of the idea of commerce there. I see nothing but vast opportunity and demand as the years have past from lower Michigan up to the U.P. now from my days of sledding twenty years back. Urbana sprawl alone will have no choice but to create more demand over time. Just the shear volume of properties sold, divided, developed, and resold in the past 3 years I've been watching is astronomical. What I witnessed from Green Bay, Marquette, to the Porkies told me even more. I was shocked to see just how big and bustling Marquette was. Produce and food seems to be in high demand. They sell root crops at gas stations on pallets in large quantities like they do salt and windshield wiper fluid here.

Farmers had permanent product stands using refrigerated semi trailers, fork trucks, and container bins loaded with whatever they could get to sell. We stopped for fresh blueberries. Two skids were sold in past four days the farmer had said. I witnessed extended cab after extended cab truck filling beds full of just apples, rutabaga,  potatoes, and onion. I never had tried rutabaga until my first trip to the U.P.  I was surprised to see the demand for storage units throughout the parts of the state I traveled. It was no different than in Indianapolis or Indiana for that matter. Supply and demand curve is relative. You can't barely get units here and it just keeps getting worse even though their building them as fast as million sq. ft. plus leasing warehouses. Moving furniture for a living off and on over the years gives you another perspective of real estate demand and human migration. Economic demand for goods goes with it. In building new structures, you visually see only the developments you work on. Moving furniture you see new ones multiple times a week or daily even week in and week out. You cover a lot of distance fast. If you pay attention, you will learn just by observation.  Changes in infrastructure, the volume, and how fast are major indicators. We watched government U.P. land and housing forecloses get swallowed up so fast and redeveloped in just three months of planning our last trip. It was scary and disheartening since the trips are primarily to research areas and property to live. Human population growth maybe slowing but it will continue to grow. The U.S. population has grown by 1/3 (over a hundred million since I was born 44 years ago. It was half that when my grandmother was born. I'm scared to see what our county will become if I live to be 88 at the same exponential rate. There are now over 6 billion people on the planet. There was almost a two thirds that when I was born. Just doing the math of average people per square mile in Indiana now, compared to my teens when I enjoyed hunting deer as much as possible, is alarming. Now it's terrifying to compare that to a deer population of the same area. Not a snowballs chance in hell they all survive if that average acreage is all food and water even let alone any type of healthy genetics or long term environmental damage. It simply is not sustainable. So I see the U.P. as vast opportunity that will unfortunately have no choice but to be more populated and developed just like everywhere else.

[Pete M]

@MiNi Beast  where are you?  I'm guessing he's in a signal-free zone enjoying life.  

 

I've been to Houghton, Copper harbor, and the area around Painted Rocks a few times and it's all just gorgeous.    the flies on the coast in the summer can be oppressive though.

[MiNi Beast]

Sorry been in jail for a bit. 

 

Yeah things booming round here. You have a goods idea as far as I have read. I'm just outside Marquette. I enjoy it mostly. I'm Just trying to live an offgrid life in an on grid world. 

 

Hay is in high demand as well as been a wet year. Winter coming soon and will be here for a while, so bunker down and ride it out.  

[Pete M]

that's a good point.  no matter where in the UP you are (unless you're in a major city), ya gotta be prepared to be stuck in the house for... a while. 

[fiatslug87]

Just came across this.

https://www.takethetruck.com/blog/things-to-do-in-the-upper-peninsula

[saveevryjp1998]

15 hours ago, fiatslug87 said:

Just came across this.

https://www.takethetruck.com/blog/things-to-do-in-the-upper-peninsula

Thanks for that, I'll definitely be heading back east towards the bridge for places I've missed out on from that info in years past. This is exactly what the U.P. is like. It's some of the best unspoiled habitat left. Soo much of it that you often miss out or forget about what's right under your nose while your there.