- This summer, Bridge Michigan Outdoors Life reporter Laura Herberg has been working to check off bucket list items voted on by you
- Herberg has summited a mountain, driven on sand dunes and stayed up all night watching a canoe race
- She learned how canoe racers go to the bathroom, that people violate rules by leaving memorial markers on mountains and that dogs aren’t that bad when they are very tiny
I don’t know how to say this without sounding braggy: My employer is paying me to spend my summer doing things many people only dream about.
Just before Memorial Day weekend, Bridge Michigan released our summer bucket list, a selection of 10 under-the-radar activities voted on by our readers. It included things like sleeping in a lighthouse, climbing Michigan’s tallest mountain and riding on sand dunes.
I’ve been spending the last couple months working through the list — at times doing them myself, at other times documenting people who are doing them — to tell you what it’s like to experience the ultimate Michigan summer.
I’m more than halfway through, and here are some lessons I’ve learned from each task so far:
1. How long-distance canoe racers eat and go to the bathroom
No. 4 on the list is to “cheer all night long at the Au Sable River Canoe Marathon.” The race starts in Grayling at 9 p.m. and early competitors finish around 14 hours later in Oscoda, 120 river miles away. They have to paddle all night long, hardly stopping, to cover the distance so quickly.
It begs the question: How do they eat and go to the bathroom?
RELATED:
- Voted by you: 10 Michigan gems to add to your summer bucket list
- UP bakery run by monks offers pastries, prayers
- Chill with sled dogs in the heat of summer
One of the top paddlers, Matt Gabriel, told me he usually just sticks to a liquid diet of electrolytes, proteins and carbohydrates, though he said he once ate a cheeseburger in the middle of the race.
“It was actually probably one of my favorite things I’ve ever ate during the marathon,” he said.
Gabriel didn’t keep up the tradition of eating a burger, however, because it took too much time to eat.
As for going to the bathroom, Au Sable River Canoe Marathon historian and statistician Ryan Matthews said, “If it’s just No. 1, you kind of pee your pants.”
But if it’s No. 2?
“That’s up to the paddlers. A lot of them will pull over and go. Some prepare themselves so they don’t have to even worry about No. 2 in the race,” he said.
- Read: Father-son duo joins 228 paddlers in epic 228-mile Au Sable River race
- Watch: What is the Au Sable River Canoe Marathon?
2. I suck at driving side-by-sides
No. 10 on readers’ bucket list was to ride the Silver Lake sand dunes.
Your Michigan Dreaming Ultimate Summer Bucket List
Here’s what else we’ve done so far:
#10 — Ride the Silver Lake Dunes
#8 — Chill with sled dogs at MI Dog
#6 — ‘Climb’ to the top of Mount Arvon
#5 — Visit the Jampot in Eagle Harbor
#4 — Cheer all night long for the Au Sable River Canoe Marathon
I planned to rent a dune buggy at one of the local rental shops, but, when I got there, they upgraded me to a four-person side-by-side — which, if you’re not familiar, looks kind of like a tricked-out golf cart.
I showed the company my driver’s license, signed a bunch of waivers and was instructed that, if I turned a particular switch on the vehicle, it would immediately ruin the transmission. FUN!
They told me to follow a guy in a Jeep on a short drive to get to the dunes. I tried to follow him across a major road, but the side-by-side was moving forward in stilted stops and starts. At some point, I realized that, if I kept going, I would get T-boned by oncoming traffic. The problem persisted even after switching vehicles.
Somehow, I made it to the dunes, where I stalled out twice and at one point had to ask a stranger to push me.
Eventually, I realized that locking in the gear shifter and putting the pedal to the medal kind of helped. Watch this video of me “cruising” around the dunes.
3. There is a very beautiful hike right next to the Jampot
No. 5 on the list was to visit the Jampot in the Upper Peninsula, a bakery run by monks.
Their remote monastery was started in 1983 on the Keweenaw Peninsula by two former Detroiters. In 1986, they opened a little shop called the Jampot to sell jam and baked goods so they could support themselves.
Today, you can purchase more than 60 different flavors of fruit preserves, an extensive list of baked goods, coffee roasted on site and more.
Sign up for our outdoors newsletter
Want more coverage like this delivered directly into your inbox? Sign up for the Bridge Michigan Outdoors newsletter here.
But the treats sold at the Jampot aren’t the only reason to visit.
Located on the monastery’s property, just feet away from the shop, lies a lovely 2.5-mile loop hike. It starts at a waterfall, meanders through the forest next to a ravine, past some ruins and a contemplative pond.
When I visited, I didn’t pass anyone else on the trail.
I highly recommend walking off some of the calories you are inevitably going to ingest after eating the massive cinnamon rolls they sell at the Jampot.
4. Lighthouse lodging is sometimes just a house
Sleeping in a lighthouse was voted No. 1 on the bucket list.
I was surprised to learn that, many times, the tower is freestanding and the lighthouse keepers’ quarters are detached.
If you volunteer to be a keeper at Ludington N. Breakwater or Little Sable Point, you sleep in a nearby residence. At Charity Island Lighthouse, which is maintained as a rental property, the house is right next door, but you have to step outside to get to the tower.
At Pointe aux Barques, the lighthouse I wrote about, the former keepers’ quarters are attached to the tower, but that area has been converted to a museum. Volunteers sleep across the lawn in the house the assistant keepers used to stay in.
I asked volunteer Donna Phillips, who was staying in that residence, if she felt short-changed.
“This is as close as I ever hope to be to sleeping in a lighthouse. I feel I’m there,” Phillips said. “And I like the level I’m sleeping at.”
- Read: Staying in a lighthouse is fun, but work, too
- Watch: How you can sleep in a lighthouse
- More info: Seven Michigan lighthouses that offer onsite lodging
5. Baby sled dogs can warm even a cat person’s heart
This is a divisive thing to say, but I am a cat person.
Just keep that in mind when I tell you that No. 8 on the list was visiting the MI Dog summer sled dog center to “meet the athletes.”
MI Dog is a business started and run by a young musher named Laura Neese. Visitors get to hear Neese tell stories about the sport she loves, meet her sled dog team (aka dogs) and hold future sled dogs (aka puppies).
Ironically, when I was reporting this story, I was holding an audio recorder in one hand and a microphone with a big, fuzzy windscreen known as a “dead cat” in the other hand.
Because of that, my hands were not free, and I was unable to pet or hold any of the puppies when they were brought out for the group of visitors we followed.
Instead, I stood there watching people cradle those adorable, tiny dogs, which one of the young guests described as “fuzzy potatoes.”
It turns out, I was very jealous. Not that that’s something I would ever admit to any of my four cats.
6. Some people leave memorial markers on Michigan’s tallest mountain — but they’re not supposed to
No. 6 on the bucket list is “‘climb’ to the top of Mount Arvon, Michigan’s highest point.”
One surprising thing I found after completing the 0.05-mile trek to the summit was a gravestone for a Virginia Cleveland, who died in 2022.
Or at least I thought it was a gravestone.
The Baraga County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau told me no one was buried there. What I found was just a memorial marker, and they had no clue who Virginia Cleveland was (nor did I, even after doing some extensive research).
It turns out, it’s fairly common for people to spread loved ones’ ashes or leave memorial markers at the top of Michigan’s tallest mountain.
But it’s technically against the rules.
Find out more when you listen to this story.
- Read: Your guide to hiking state’s tallest peak
- Watch: Hike Michigan’s highest point with me
- Listen: Who’s buried atop Michigan’s highest mountain?
7. Digging into Michigan’s gems revealed how much is still out there
I want to zoom out for a second and say something bigger that I’ve learned from chipping away at this list. It’s hard to say it without sounding cheesy, but the truth is, working on the bucket list has been so invigorating.
It’s made Michigan feel bigger and smaller at the same time. Smaller because even the Upper Peninsula feels closer to my home in Detroit now. And bigger because there are all those vacation experiences that we can have right here without even driving down to Florida!
Of course, I knew that before, but it’s easy sometimes to start to feel like you’ve already explored the heavy-hitters and are running out of things to do.
But that’s just not true!
Staying up all night to watch people paddle 120 miles was unique and something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I sucked at driving on the dunes, but simply putting myself out there felt like a growth experience (and the views were stunning). Visiting the monastery behind the Jampot made me ask myself, could I do what these guys are doing? Talking to assistant lighthouse keepers made me think about how volunteering somewhere could be a fun and affordable way to approach a vacation. Visiting MI Dog made me think I’d like to try dog sled racing (for like an hour, tops). Walking to the summit of Mount Arvon made me realize that, even though our tallest point is kind of low, going there felt like an accomplishment and made me feel bonded with everyone who’d been there before.
I wonder how many other places in our state might feel like Mount Arvon, both not a big deal and a big deal at the same time.
I guess I won’t know until I reach them.
Thank you to our Bridge Michigan Outdoors sponsors
Bridge Michigan Outdoors is made possible by generous financial support from our sponsors. Please visit the About page for more information and to subscribe to Bridge Michigan Outdoors. Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Emma Carr.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under our Republication Guidelines. Questions? Email republishing@bridgemi.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.