The Upper Peninsula(UP) of Michigan is pretty vast and I have been trying to separate it into different chunks so @mrsbozz and I can take the time to fully explore each area. This is our fifth or sixth year camping together in the UP and we have slowly been working our way further and further West each trip.
Marquette, MI is one of the larger cities in the UP (there are only about five large cities total), and we were pretty excited to explore this area. We stayed at a campground just south of the city which I wrote about here, and went golfing on our first full day in Marquette.
While researching things to do in and around Marquette, my wife and I kept coming across the word "Sugarloaf".
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Sugarloaf is a small (relatively speaking) mountain just North and West of downtown Marquette. Compared to some of the other hikes in the area, it was described as pretty easy, so I thought it might be cool to check out. There is another mountain nearby where the description of the hike included something about four points of contact against a cliff face... I took that one off the table right away!
As you can hopefully see on the map, the parking area off of Highway 550 is small. There is a sign out by the road, but if you blink you will miss it. There were only a handful of cars in the lot when we got there around 10:30 on Tuesday morning. By the time we left the lot was almost completely full.
At the beginning of the trail, you are given two options, the easy way and the difficult way. We actually took the easy way up (because we didn't know what to expect), and the difficult way down. Here are the main differences between the two: The easy way takes longer, but offers a more gradual climb up the mountain. It also offers stairs in some places which make the ascent easier. The difficult path is more direct but has zero(if I recall) stairs and requires you to navigate a pretty steep incline covered with rocks, boulders, and roots. It can definitely be an ankle breaker if you aren't paying attention to what you are doing.
Here are some shots on our way up the easy path:
It is amazing how stairs can really take a toll on you no matter how "in shape" you think you are. Even taking the easy path we were pretty winded by the time we got to what we thought was the top. There was a nice path to a secluded area that offered some awesome views...
After taking the obligatory selfies, we made our way back to the area where the difficult and the easy path converged. There was another set of stairs that we thought just led to another small viewing area. I could tell everyone was pretty tired so I asked what we wanted to do next. They agreed we should take the difficult way down and head on our way.
Something was nagging in the back of my head though and I kept looking back at the small area we hadn't explored yet. Finally, I stopped and I said "I really want to check out that other area". My hesitancy proved to be both beneficial and horrible.
Horrible because the path didn't just lead to a small viewing area, it lead to probably another couple hundred steps taking you further up the mountain. Beneficial because as you will see, the views were amazing!
About halfway up this last section, my wife's friend decided she needed to stop, so @mrsbozz sat with her, and her husband and I continued the rest of the way up. Just short of the summit we came to this viewing area that I wish the others had at least made it to.
The black speck left of center that looks like a dead pixel is actually a bird of prey that was gliding around.
As beautiful as these views were, it was only about twenty or thirty more stairs to the top, and I knew I had to keep going...
This monument sits near the summit of Sugarloaf. There is a plaque near the bottom that I didn't bother to read. I am sure it explains the significance of it. Quite honestly, I was too busy taking in the view!
Make a note of the two items indicated by red arrows. I will be talking about them in a little bit.
Given more time we probably would have hiked out to the rocks where you can see people sitting in that last photo. We figured we should get back down and find @mrsbozz and her friend though. We met up with them a couple of stair flights down and made our way down the difficult path back to the truck.
In a past post I wrote about how people sometimes use paths and steps like this as a place to exercise. The same was true here and we came across a couple of guys running up and down the stairs from the parking lot to the summit. I thought the one guy was going to keel over and die by his second trip up to the summit (he sounded rough), but I just kept on moving. He was kind of bringing it upon himself right? :)
After leaving Sugarloaf and a failed attempt at finding a local waterfall, we headed to Presque Isle Park. This picture shows one of the ore docks where the Great Lakes barges get loaded up. It is hard to see in the picture, but those are actually train cars on the top of the structure. A railway leads from land all the way out to the end of it.
Remember the smoke stacks I pointed out with an arrow in the previous picture. There they are again!
We moved to a different parking area and decided to walk out on the break wall towards one of the light houses in the area.
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Notice that white dome to the left in the last picture? That is the Superior Dome, home for many of Northern Michigan University's sports teams. I also pointed it out from the mountain top in that other picture with the arrows.
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Presque Isle Park is beautiful area we didn't even explore a fraction of. There is an area called "black rocks" I would love to get some pictures of some day. As we left the breakwall I walked down to the water and put my hand in it to feel the temperature. Although crystal clear, the water was downright frigid and as I recall, Lake Superior doesn't warm up much even throughout the Summer.
That is my post for #wednesdaywalk hosted by @tattoodjay. Although a bit of a long post, I hope you enjoyed! All pictures were taken by me or @mrsbozz.
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