A lot of people in the lower part of Michigan like to go “up north” for the weekend as often as possible in the summer. This means that heading northbound on any of southern Michigan’s freeways is probably a bad idea between, say, 3pm and 6pm on a summer Friday, unless you don’t mind sitting in barely moving traffic. Since this isn’t the most scenic area of the state, I usually do my best to avoid these traffic jams.
Typically, “up north” means somewhere on a lake or in the woods (or both) in the northern half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, but it could mean the Upper Peninsula as well. In this post, I’m referring to an area of inland lakes near Lake Michigan (actually Grand Traverse Bay) and not far from Traverse City. Tim and I headed “up north” this weekend, but we avoided the traffic by driving up on Saturday morning and heading home Monday evening. The purpose of the trip was a mini family vacation at Tim’s aunt & uncle’s cottage on Lake Skegemog, which is between Elk and Torch Lakes for those familiar with the area or looking it up on a map.
I’ve found that a lot of people don’t have much of any impression of what Michigan is beyond knowing that Detroit is here, and Detroit is scary and Motown. Sure, the rest of Michigan - including Detroit - has a lot to offer, but since I was just there, let me show you a little of what “up north” has to offer. First, beautiful nature.
On Sunday morning I woke up around 6am to the sound of loons and headed outside to enjoy the tranquility before everyone else got up and things started rolling. This is normal for me on this type of vacation, but rest assured that plenty of others in our group managed to sleep considerably later than I did.
Dawn on the lake is gorgeous, with mist hovering over the water’s surface.
And though people often speak of and photograph beautiful sunsets, sunrise can be gorgeous as well.
Torch Lake has the crystal clear aquamarine water that you might expect to see in the Caribbean.
On the Torch River, we were all thrilled to see one of the area’s male bald eagles out looking for food. Seeing one of these magnificent creatures fly is impressive.
In addition to the natural beauty, “up north” is a great place for fun with boats. I did get a great picture of my sister-in-law and her cousin tubing before my camera was swamped with water (from which it did recover I’m happy to report).
And I was excited to finally try wake-boarding, once I talked myself into it. Keep in mind that I’ve never been water- or snow-skiing in my life, and I’ve never done any snow-boarding or anything like that. Everything about this was completely foreign, plus I don’t like getting water up my nose. Still, I gave it four attempts the first time around, and managed to get most of the way up on the third try before falling. Then I was completely out of breath and needed a break!
Later in the afternoon I went again, managing to get up and actually move forward for maybe 5 seconds. I’m told I didn’t turn the board far enough around, but it was a very strange sensation to try to move forward with my feet pointing sideways. It was amazing, though, and I wish I knew someone closer to home with a boat so I could keep practicing. And yeah, I’ve been a little sore for the last couple days. But it was totally worth it.
A lot of people like to go places and people watch. I certainly do. But it’s also fun to go and watch other things. A trip up the Torch River allowed us to peer at many waterfront homes - some mansion-like, and others that couldn’t have been more than one minuscule room. We also got to watch a variety of boats pass, such as this one done up to look like a classic tug:
And finally on our drive home, not a Michigan natural wonder, but a wonder all the same from Kalkaska:
Are they trying to bring carpeted walls back in fashion? Were they ever in fashion?