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I spent 4 and 1/2 years of my life in the upper peninsula of Michigan, attending school at Michigan Tech (MTU)... well, minus the 6 month study abroad in Australia... so, I guess technically it was only 4 years! During my time in the great white north, my friends and I explored just about every river, ridge, two-track, and ruin that we could find within at least a 2 hour radius of our home base in Houghton, MI. We had some grand adventures on foot, in Jeeps, on bikes, and on snowshoes (for what seemed like 9 months of the year!). Here are some of my photos from those years. I have it broken down into spring and summer (page 1), and fall and winter (page 2).
The Houghton lift bridge connects Houghton and Hancock across the Keweenaw Waterway. The waterway is part natural, part dredged canal that provided a shortcut around the peninsula back in the days of heavy copper mining in the UP.
"The Bridge" was also one of my favorite photography subjects.
Sturgeon Falls is just one of many, many waterfalls that we explored near Houghton. River hiking was usually a weekly thing for us.
Cliff jumping at Sturgeon Falls. This is just a minnie-cliff compared to the more popular Sturgeon Gorge, which entails a ~40 ft drop.
Ahh college... the days when barbecuing in the street and hanging out with house furniture on "the lawn" didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary... oh wait, I still do stuff like that don't I?! College wasn't THAT long ago!
Brockway mountain provides one of the Keweenaw's best, most accessible elevated views. Brockway Mountain Drive takes you from Copper Harbor right to a parking lot/overlook at the top of the "mountain"
Everywhere you go you're sure to find religious fanatics. The U.P. is no exception. These Yoopers (posing with my friend Mark, at center) are doing a bit of afternoon doomsday picketing after the 9-11 attack in 2002, as cars form a line down the street behind them to fill up on gas for their end-of-the-world travels.
Michigan's Upper Peninsula is blessed with hundreds of beautiful rivers, streams, and waterfalls. Or should I say that we were blessed to have explored just about all of them... with the help of our trusty gazetteer of course. This photo shows hikers in part of the Falls River near L'ance.
What can I say? We all like to jump off of stuff.
Countless "no trespassing" signs were ignored free of consequence during our explorations of Copper Country mining ruins over the years. These ruins that litter the Keweenaw landscape were once part of a mighty infrastructure that produced the majority of copper used in US pennies during that period of time.
The Hole. My first college house... the title we gave it just about sums it up.
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