I have not, but I'd love to. I'll be interested in the responses to this thread. I've done some hiking on the south shore (Pictured Rocks), but have never made it up that far. I've always wanted to...the LST, Isle Royale, and canoeing Boundary Waters are on my bucket list.
I imagine right now it's incredibly cold, lol. And if it's anything like the south shore the bugs will be epic in the summer!
Posts: 9648 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006
Originally posted by 92fstech: bugs will be epic in the summer!
I can attest to that in the Boundary Waters.
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“ Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one’s own mind without another’s guidance.” — Immanuel Kant
Posts: 48020 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002
Back in the day day I did some hiking up there and the BWCA. Lived up here over forty years now. I rarely go up the shore for anything now. In the winter the roads just suck in the summer too many tourists. We purchased three acres a hour or so north of us an a reservoir so I spend my time there. That being said the northern part of our state is like nowhere else in the summer time. I would strongly encourage you to visit and partake.
"Fixed fortifications are monuments to mans stupidity" - George S. Patton
Posts: 8726 | Location: Minnesota | Registered: June 17, 2007
Kind of. I think he's referencing the Superior Hiking Trail, which is actually a portion of the NCT that extends from Duluth up to the Canadian border along the north shore of Lake Superior.
The NCT is a much larger, multi-state trail system:
Posts: 9648 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006
Was going through some old vacation photos tonight looking for something else, and came across some from one of our trips up to Lake Superior a few years ago, which reminded me of this thread. Don't get me wrong...I love northern Michigan and Lake Superior...it's absolutely beautiful. But the bugs are out of this world, and on this trip they were particularly bad.
Those little specs in the sky...not birds.
The worst thing in the world are Stable Flies. Walking on the beach, these suckers will swarm you. And I mean swarm...I've never seen anything like it. No insect repellent works on them, and they bite. They can even get through clothes. They're truly awful. We were killing handfulls at a time and they just kept coming. No matter how much you brushed yourself off before getting into the camper, a bunch would still get in with you and you'd spend the next 10 minutes finding and killing all of them. I normally like to stay out in the woods and away from urban centers when I'm on vacation, but on that particular trip we spent a full day in Marquette just to get away from them.
Posts: 9648 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006
I have a higher tolerance for mosquitoes & biting flys, I think. That resolve is easily tested on a trout stream in the U.P. later May or early June. I’ve been pretty much chased out of the woods by the bugs.
There is the window, after the snow, then before the bugs. The same in the Fall, once temps cool down. Later Summer things are tolerable, with mosquitoes, deer & ‘horseflies’.
Posts: 6595 | Location: WI | Registered: February 29, 2012
There is the window, after the snow, then before the bugs. The same in the Fall, once temps cool down. Later Summer things are tolerable, with mosquitoes, deer & ‘horseflies’.
Yeah, the trick is to find that window when the fish are still biting but the bugs are all gone. We've been reasonably successful picking late September for our last couple of trips.
Posts: 9648 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006
We spend a lot of time in the Pictured Rocks area. Stable flies keep us off the shore when the winds are from the south and west. North and east winds generally mean the shore is free of stable flies. Black flies are seasonal, late spring and early summer. Mosquito populations moderate as the summer goes on but rainy days typically cause an uptick in their presence. We keep headnets, long sleeve shirts and Deet handy. September and October are some of the most pleasant months up there but we have had freezing temps and snow in September. The weather is highly variable. We've been swimming in lake Superior in 70 degree October weather. Been at our cabin in early April in warm temps and snow all gone. There have been times in late April, early May we could not drive into our property for all the snow on the trail. You never know what kind of weather you're going to get. Still, it is a beautiful area worth braving the bugs.
Posts: 695 | Location: Ohio & UP of Michigan | Registered: April 18, 2010
