Exploring Michigan's Upper Peninsula (Part 16): Kayaking & Biking - St. Ignace, Michigan Area

 

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.

– Eleanor Roosevelt

During the last week of our visit to Michigan's Upper Peninsula in July 2024, we spent some time exploring Lakes Huron and Michigan by kayak, and rode our bicycles on a trail from St. Ignace through the Hiawatha National Forest. Below are short descriptions, photos, and links to videos of these adventures.

July 30, 2024 - Kayaking on Lake Huron

After spending the morning exploring the far-eastern tip of the U.P. at Detour Village, we drove back west along the shore of Lake Huron looking for a place to launch our kayaks. (Click here for our post about that morning's adventures.) We had earlier passed what looked like the perfect spot, and decided to return to it. The Terry L. Anderson Park is located along Michigan's Route 134 between Albany and St. Vital Bays, just to the east of the Le Cheneaux Islands. We took our kayaks down a short path to the sandy beach to launch them.

The water and wind were mostly calm as we headed west along the shore where the water was clear and fairly shallow.

Then we turned our kayaks out toward the middle of the lake where we spotted an island in the distance and headed for it.

After beaching our kayaks on Saddlebag Island, we walked up the beach to explore a bit. We found what looked like an abandoned boat beached on the rocky shore. We also followed a trail that led to an abandoned, run-down house. We didn't stick around long because it was kind of creepy and it looked like someone had recently been staying there. We didn't know if the island was privately owned - there weren't any signs posted - but we didn't want to take any chances.

When we paddled around to the other side of the island we could see the remains of what looked like a partially built wooden dock, another uncompleted structure, and some lumber lying on the shore. Clearly someone had plans for the island at some point.

We continued paddling around the southeast end of the island, looking at the large boulders beneath us in the clear water. We didn't learn until researching for this blog that Saddlebag Island sits near the wreck of the steamer Harriet A. Hart, which caught on fire in 1905. All of the passengers and crew escaped in lifeboats. Days later the wreck washed onto a reef near the island's southeast end during a storm and sank. Had we known, we would have tried to find the wreck. The water was certainly clear enough to see down pretty far.

After passing the southeast point of the island and heading back to complete our circle of it, we could see the abandoned house we had come upon earlier. Continuing on around the point at the northern end of Saddlebag Island, we paddled eastward toward another small island we saw closer to the shore before heading back west to our starting point. Other than a little uneasiness while exploring Saddlebag Island, we had a wonderful time paddling our kayaks on Lake Huron.

We didn't take any photos of the abandoned house or other structures on the island, but you can see them in our YouTube video about our kayak trip on Lake Huron. To view it, click here.

August 1, 2024 - Bike Ride on the St. Ignace to Trout Lake Trail

The St. Ignace to Trout Lake Trail is a 27-mile-long lightly trafficked multi-use trail located near St. Ignace, Michigan. The trail follows along an abandoned stretch of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad through Hiawatha National Forest. Going north from St. Ignace, the gravel and limestone trail gradually gains 574 feet in elevation. However, we only rode the first 10 miles of the trail and found that section to be extremely level.

The trail is most popularly used as a snowmobile and ORV trail, but is also used by mountain bikers and hikers during the summer and fall. It shares the first 5 miles north of St. Ignace with the North Country Trail, a hiking trail that stretches 4,800 miles across the country from Vermont to North Dakota. Although much of the trail follows along the edge of the M-123 highway, it's separated by thickets of fir and spruce trees, as well as some dense underbrush, so the ride still seemed wild and remote.

We didn't encounter many other people on the route. Just a small group of Boy Scouts riding their bicycles from St. Ignace to the trail's terminus at Trout Lake. The trail doesn't have a lot to look at aside from trees, wildflowers, birds and butterflies, at least on the section we rode on.

After passing near low-lying Chain Lake on our left just outside of St. Ignace, we followed the trail northward past the Castle Rock trailhead for the North Country Trail. The NCT went off to our left, and we continued on along the extremely straight trail, next passing by Hay Lake and crossing over M-123 before turning around a little past Allenville.

We enjoyed our ride on the St. Ignace to Trout Lake Trail, even though it wasn't what we typically think of as a Rail Trail here in Pennsylvania. The road was a bit rough at times with plenty of potholes and some rather large mud holes to dodge in low-lying areas. However, we enjoyed seeing all the different wildflowers and watching the butterflies gliding ahead of us as we peddled along the trail.

If you want to see more of our ride on the St. Ignace to Trout Lake Trail, click here for our YouTube video.

August 2, 2024 - Kayaking in the Straits of Mackinac

We decided to spend our last full day on the U.P. by paddling our kayaks from Bridge View Park in St. Ignace, hoping to get as far as the small beach at our campground, about 4 miles west of the park. After taking in the view of the Mackinac Bridge, we headed west along the relatively shallow and rocky shoreline. The water was calm, the winds were light, and we had blue skies overhead, making it perfect weather for paddling.

We kept turning around to see how much progress we were making, and watched a large ship pass underneath the center span of the bridge.

Ship passing beneath the Mackinac Bridge

Next we decided to head toward an island we saw off in the distance. Green Island sits out in the straits just off of Point Labarbe. The 16-1/2 acre privately owned, uninhabited island is hooked shaped and is home to hundreds of cormorants and their nests.

Mackinac Bridge on the left, Green Island at center, & Point Labarbe on the right

As we approached the island we could hear the birds calling in the distance. The closer we got to shore, the more we could detect the stench of the guano-covered island. It definitely wasn't pleasant, so we kept our distance a bit. We saw a pleasure boat anchored offshore of the island with a group of people on it. We decided to let them have their privacy and paddled off to the west.

Cruising along the shoreline

You could easily see the rocky shoal beneath us through the crystal clear blue water. We did spot a couple of fish darting between the rocks, but they were gone almost as soon as we spotted them.

It took us much longer than we thought it would when we finally rounded the end of Point Labarbe. We felt like we were finally making progress. As we came around the point we could see St. Helena Island in the distance, but couldn't quite see the lighthouse from our level in the water.

Geese perched on rocks in the water

We saw some houses along the shoreline that looked like those we had seen from the roadway driving back and forth from the campground, and we thought we might finally be close to the campground beach. But after rounding point after point and still not seeing the campground beach, we finally gave up and turned back. It was getting late and we were hungry. By the time we arrived back at Bridge View Park 2-1/2 hours had passed. Even though we didn't reach our goal of paddling to the campground, we enjoyed our afternoon out on the water.

Huge house on the shore

To see a YouTube video of our kayak trip, including a humorous clip of some startled ducks, click here.

This entry is the last in our 2024 Michigan U.P. series. We left St. Ignace on August 3 to head back to Pennsylvania for one more campground. We loved our stay on Michigan's U.P. and wished we didn't have to leave, but we still had more adventures elsewhere before returning home. You'll have to read the next blog post to see where we went.

* All photos and videos are the property of the owners unless otherwise noted. *