Cold canoeing in the UP

Journal
Canoeing in the Sylvania Tract, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
September 11 through 14, 2007
Schuy, Peter, Fred, Gary
Written by Gary Hochgraf


After three days paddling on the Wisconsin River, the first two warm and sunny, the last a steady light rain with falling temperatures, we were not quite as prepared as we should’ve been for the change in temperature in the UP. September can often be quite pleasant, but we picked the wrong week. We stopped at an outfitter to supplement our wardrobe with long underwear and hats. The drive north from Madison with canoes on the roof was blustery. We arrived in mid afternoon to register at the ranger station, then put-in onto Crooked Lake, at the north-east corner of the park. From there we paddled south, hugging the shore in a chilly headwind a fairly short distance to our first campsite, named Porcupine.
Campsites in Sylvania are set quite a ways back from the lakefront, unlike most other canoe wildernesses I’ve visited. At the site is a fire ring, set flush into the ground, surrounded by a large cleared area for tents. An assortment of large logs near the fire pit serve as benches or tables or a place to lean your pack. Heavy use has cleared all available firewood away from the center of camp to about 100 yards away. A trail leads off to a pit toilet in the woods. At Porcupine is a large tree trunk, about 24” diameter and broken off 30’ off the ground, which has become a favorite of the pleated woodpeckers. They have dug huge furrows in the trunk, and produced a large pile of wood chips at the base.
The woods here are very open. There is no understory of low plants or small trees, just bare ground with tall trees. We suspect the deer are overgrazing, and we have seen very well defined browse lines along the shores of the lakes. The woods are so open that you could drive a wagon through them. Sylvania was never logged - a virgin forest, and I was expecting to see some truly huge trees. But while there were many big ones, they were not much bigger than other areas in the northwoods.
The sky is heavy overcast and low, so we rig a dining fly, set up our tents, and cook dinner of rice and dal (lentils) with tomato, mushrooms and spices. Its not often that I use slow-cooking rice or beans on a trip like this, but it turned out quite good after a half-hour of cooking.
In the morning the wind was gone, but still overcast. Breakfast was blueberry muffins, then we packed up and paddled south down Crooked Lake past some small stands of wild rice (not yet ripe, but tasty nonetheless) then through a huge field of rice to the portage to Clark Lake. After a short paddle on Clark, we portaged another quarter-mile to Loon Lake.
We arrive at our second campsite about noon and have the whole afternoon to while away. All our paddling/portaging distances are short, often taking just a few hours. This is not a very big park, and long distances are just not very realistic. Its still chilly, but the wind has abated and the sun is out and strong. Our lakeshore is in shadow, so we take our reading books and paddle to the opposite shore and find comfortable spots on the shore to read and watch the world go by. By and by we return to camp and settle into making dinner - Schuy’s home-made tomato sauce with sausage over angel hair pasta. The skies are very clear in the evening, so we return to the lakeshore to watch the stars come out. Magnificent. All the early fall constellations are very bright, and the milky way is prominent.
We stay at Osprey campsite on Loon Lake two nights, so the next day is a day trip. The air is still quite chilly, but the morning sun is warm. We paddle east to the end of Loon Lake, and portage to Deer Island Lake. Here we see a flock of about fourteen mergansers at the put-in, and several bald eagles further along. One of the adults was harassing an immature. This is not the first time we have observed rather aggressive behavior in this species.
Rounding a point, we saw an otter! Or possibly two, up on the shore. I’d seen them out in the water on other trips, but to see the entire animal humping along on shore was exciting. He then stood up and watched us watching him, then scampered away, and we continued along.
The bright morning sun was giving way to a fast moving bank of stratus clouds as we arrived at the next portage. On the next lake, Cub, the skies were heavier, and by the end of the next portage to Big Bateau, as we finished lunch, the rains came. So we waited under the hemlocks until it let up a bit, and headed out. But it was only a brief intermission, and once we were out on the water, the rains resumed. It rained through the next two portages and one small lake, and we waited under upturned canoes at the put-in on Loon Lake. Eventually it cleared for good, so we paddled back to camp, some of which was with a significant tailwind. We have no ‘official’ word that the campfire ban is lifted, but the woods are soaked, and so are we. After a pot of tea, we build a fire and begin drying out.
Dinner of tacos, and we settle into bed early. The morning brings very unsettled weather. Cool temperatures, strong and gusty winds, clouds then sun then clouds again with a light mist, and another spot of sun. We take our time packing up to move to Balsam campsite on Clark Lake, hoping the weather will settle. It doesn’t, so we head north into the wind to the portage back to Clark. This is the biggest lake in the park, and we are at the downwind end, with the 20mph wind sweeping down the entire length. There are whitecaps out there, and we have small boats. And we get a few flurries of snow mixed with the occasional drizzle. Instead of putting in, we continue to portage around to another shore where there is slight protection, scout around, and head out. As long as we stay close to shore, the tall trees provide some protection, and we make good progress. Its tough going, and it snows again, not enough to accumulate, but enough to make already chilled fingers colder. We take out at the first campsite we come to, and build a quick fire, dry out a bit, warm up, and have a good lunch. We discuss our options. Stay at this site? Proceed to our assigned campsite further up the lake, into the wind? Or continue beyond that to the parking lot, fetch the cars and head home? We’re scheduled for two more nights of camping. We choose the latter. Once more we load the two canoes, and head into the wind. There is much less protection from the shore as we proceed further up the lake, and at times we are paddling in whitecaps. But our canoes are well designed wilderness trippers - a Kevlar Minnesota II by Wenonah, and a carbon Bell Mystic, and we make reasonable progress to the boat launch.
Schuy and I walk back a little over 2 miles to the parking lot at Crooked, retrieve the cars, return, and load the boats and gear. Its about 5pm when we hit the road, and arrive back in Ann Arbor about 4am.