Waterfalls of the Keweenaw

Conditions:

Sunny, hot, humid, buggy, little recent rain

Companions:

Solo Trip

Vehicle:

Ford Taurus

The weather was slightly on the warm side this Tuesday. I was rather excited to be waterfalling, as I had been camping in the lower all weekend and hadn't had any good solo exploring for several days. However, I was moving very slowly thanks to a rather bad sunburn I got from canoeing on Alcona river, so it was a bittersweet return.

The plan was to make a small loop, hitting up to eight waterfalls along the route. Starting with Otter Falls near Nisula, I would then head south then east to Plumbago Falls, seeing Vista and Onion Falls on the way. Then I'd check out Harley and a few falls along Upper Silver river near Herman, ending with a late night trek to Houghton Falls back up near Lake Linden.

After getting a late start thanks to the puppy and forgetting the camera at first go, I arrived at Otter Falls around 5:30pm. I took Hazel Swamp Rd from N Laird, stopping where the power lines crossed the road. From the sat photos, this looked like an easy way to get to Otter River. Bad idea - the ferns and grass were between 4 and 6 ft tall. Luckily, there was a logging trail that ran along the power lines that met up with a ATV trail. I set off along this trail mishmash, heading NW for the better part of a mile with relatively good time.

The ATV trail headed into the woods before it hit the river, so I followed it for several hundred years, heading mostly W (parallel the river) before breaking N to the river. This going was okay, mostly logged out, and involved watching the sun and jumping over tons of branches. The landscape was very rutted out, so I was constantly going down and up twenty-odd feet ravines.

I got excited when I first hit Otter River. It was a pretty decent sized flow, even with the low rainfall over the weekend. However, there was a distinct lack of trails, even along the river, and the excitement wore off quickly with the hike. Going upstream was a choice between the high pine tree-infested bluffs that overlooked the river or wading through black mud and ferns along the riverside. I mostly stayed along the river the way there and was pestered by black flies for the trek.

The river was quite windy and flat, which I gathered from the topo maps, so I took several opportunities to cut a bend or two to save time. You can easily lose track of the river's flow, as it isn't very loud and the woods are thick enough to cover the gurgles. Also, when cutting bends, I usually had to hike up steep bluffs into the pine trees, which were thick enough to make crawling sound like a good idea.

I was honestly getting close to turning around when I finally hit the falls. My shadow was getting longer, and the mile-long hike that I estimated was stretching on far too long. When I finally saw them, I was immediately disappointed by both the size and the small house directly S of the falls. The falls were no more then a series of 1- to 2- foot drops over red/brown sandstone, spread out over a straight stretch of the river. There was one drop that gave a bit of whitewater, but it was so close to the house that I didn't bother getting closer. I could hear voices at the house, and the ziplines across the river made me worry that they owned both sides of the river, so I only took about a dozen pictures before heading back.

There were a few cool things along the hike, including a rotting deer blind and several sandy cliffs overlooking the river. However, I don't plan on going back, at least not along my original route. While there was a DNR metal marker and several trees marked blue, as well as small sections of trail broken by overgrown ferns and fallen trees, I felt pretty darn lost most of the time, judging direction by the sun and the river. Also, the final size of the falls was not worth the 150 minute hike through the woods.

After getting back to my car around 8, I headed N on Hazel Swamp road, which ended up being a pretty drive. It was too low for any good vistas, but it crossed numerous little creeks with quaint little bridges. The quality of the road was okay, but I wouldn't try it during the winter.

Eventually reaching Otter Lake rd again, I decided to head due N to South Range, passing through Baltic. There was a hill that you could see S of Houghton with a bare brown line that ran straight up to the summit - too wide and steep to be a road. I guesstimated the directions, and ended up on Whealkate Rd on the W side of M-26. It took a sharp left turn into Siira Rd, and then split off into several logging/4-wheeler tracks. My car was already having a hard time, so I took the road to the left that had numerous rocks. I doubt it could have handled the inclines, let alone the ruts.

After a short trek along the road, I was rewarded with a huge meadow, sprinkled with giant trees along the fringes. It was pretty decent sized, enough to be visible on a Sat photo, and even had several large bonfire pits for high school parties. On the far E side of the meadow was the hill, rising suddenly, with what appeared to be a giant dirt road (though the ruts were far too wide for any vehicle I've seen) leading straight up. I pocketed the camera and started to run up it, only stopping a few times to catch my breathe. It was steep and sandy, but a normal person could walk to the top within a few minutes.

The view was impressive, though limited to the NW direction. Trees framed both the road and the top, so you couldn't look around too much. It was pretty clear out, so I could see the Portage in the far distance, and could easily see Houghton and Quincy Mine in the foreground. In the N, I could barely pick out Mt. Houghton, Mt. Bohemia, and what I thought was Brockway. I wandered around a bit on the top, then had a slide/dash back down the side.

After getting back to the car, I headed back to Houghton, stopping at the car wash along Sharon Ave to take some sunset pics and play with the color settings. The entire trip (ignoring the double back to get my camera) lasted right around 4 hours. While Otter Falls was a huge disappointment, the hill at South Range was worth the entire trip.