Mt Arvon Adventure 
6/30/18
Last Saturday in the Upper Peninsula I saw a New Hope. She definitely had her big girl panties on (and she hates it when I tell her to put them on). We left our Munising hotel with a plan to go to Michigan’s highest elevation, Mt. Arvon (a nose bleed elevation of 1,979 feet). I Googled it for info and it said, “drive through L'Anse, take a trip down Skanee Road, then turn onto what shortly becomes a gravel road.” It all sounded easy enough.

Oh my goodness! What happened to us turned out to be the scariest, craziest, wildest, yet most beautiful adventures, of our 49 years together.

When we Google mapped directions it told us to not go toward L’Anse and head toward Mt Arvon from the north, as in shown in this map:

 but rather, enter the region from the south seen by this map

Ignoring my mantra that I’ve told others for years, “never trust GPS devise any further than you can throw a GPS devise,” we followed Googles advise.

Long after Marquette, we left the safe confines of US 41 and headed north near Lake Michigamme. The paved road was very bumpy, and 15 mph was the fastest wen could go without being bounced around in our Equinox. The pavement ended after about 10 miles. The gravel road that picked up after pavement was actually a little faster.  The Map direction did allow for slow driving, saying the 30 logging trail miles would take an hour and a half.

We did have nice scenery which made everything bearable.

The gravel roads became narrower and narrower eventually to where oncoming cars could not get by. The trails were active logging property of Weyerhauser, but being a Saturday only one security company 4-wheeler was seen.

We followed the Google blueline course until it told us to go where no trail was visible, just woods. We following a white line on Maps until it looped back to the blueline. It was then we knew we couldn’t rely on Google Maps. Yikes!

The average speed continued to dwindle,  and we’d now been driving two hours away from the main highway. When Google again told us to turn where there was no trail we continued, but on a non-blueline (white logging line on map). It eventually became barely drivable, even though it had curved and headed back toward the blueline.

Hope had been driving until now. She could not go on, she had enough, and passed the steering wheel over to me. We already talked about aborting and turning around and driving back. But, we’d come so far, taken so much time, we could not give up, it would all be for naught.

I, now at the wheel, and driving in what was a no longer a trail, but a 2-track with weed hitting the undercarriage, soon came to a bump and a dip that looked impassible. I went over the bump into the dip slowly. Too slowly, the front wheels of the Equinox was in the dip, the rear on the other side of the bump. Wheels began spinning. This to me, was when I become the most frightened. We were stuck 30 miles in wilderness, totally off the grid, no phone or On Star connection, and we were stuck in mud.

I couldn’t go forward, so I put it in reverse. By doing this we were able to get traction and back over the bump. What a relief.

I thought… if we tried it again, and  went a little faster, we could make it over the bump and past the dip. I told Hope so, and this is where I truly discovered Old Hope gone and was with New Hope. She let me proceed. Old Hope would have made me turn around right then and go no farther. We both were motivated by the fact, “We’ve come so far, we can’t give up.”

I put the Equinox in forward and plowed over the bump and dip and made it. We proceeded down the whiteline path on the map, toward the blueline. This would be the extension of blueline that was no trail to be seen, and had to go on a mapped white line. Why would it be there futher down the trail?

Soon ahead of us was a wash-out. That was my breaking point. We’d barely gotten through the last obstacle, this was way worse. We had to turn around and do a reverse of the horrible 2 hour drive back to US 41.

But there was no backing up, I had to turn the car around in a tight trail of about as wide as the Equinox. All the time taking swing after swing, back and forth, to get in a 180 direction, without getting stuck. Hope had her head down. She couldn’t look and she’s repeating “Another fine mess you gotten us into.” I manage to get out of the mess. The next obstacle was the dip and bump where we got stuck. With more speed we again manage not to get stuck.

A mile after the 180 and into reverse trek we came to a fork where I previously taken the wheel, where the two-track began. A right turn was needed to go back the 30 miles to US 41. We debated whether to go against better judgment and go left instead. We knew the trails back were bad but at least we knew the results would be a US highway. Turning left was a scary unknown, it could be better, and in the end up being shorter, then again, it could be a dead end, like the last place we had to turn around. Mt Arvon was out of the picture, we just wanted to get out, it had been 2:30 of wilderness. We knew the original direction from internet said to come in from the north, L’Anse. This left turn may lead us there? Crazy us decided to go left, Old Hope would never chose the unknown, New Hope chose the uncertainty. We made the left turn and at the 15 mph pace we headed into the wild unknown. A mile or so later we came to another fork in the road, where there were actual signs! One pointed the direction to L’Anse, the other said 2 miles to Mt Arvon. Eureka! We both were excited. Our goal that we thought was smashed, was back on the table.

Ten minutes later we found the end of trail not even seen on Google Maps. We arrived!

Geological Survey Marker

Inside mailbox was a log to leave a note. Our note would have to lengthy. We just entered our names.

It meant a lot seeing this sign

Lake Superior view from Mt Arvon.

This view was worth every minute it took getting there, and it wasn’t easy.  Our craziest adventure together. We hugged. We made it!

 We left Mt. Arvon knowing we would never be back. When back at the fork where we saw the direction signs, the choice was obvious, go to L’Anse, the way we should have come from to start with. Would I advise my friends to go to Mt. Arvon. Yes, but go to L'Anse first.