Surprises of the UP

A short trip to Marquette for one last goodbye to some friends was highlighted by one phenomenal day of exploring. Since getting my new jeep I was wanting to see what it can do off-road; well it most definitely got pushed on this trip. Evan and I were pursuing the elusive AAA road; a seasonal county road which has duped us on multiple occasions. We followed the road until it became completely overtaken with snow and had to accept defeat once more. On our return trip we got distracted by another road we've never traveled. Along this road were many beautiful houses and some land for sale, we were so intrigued we just continued to drive.

Well, for hours we followed it and as we did it became a muddier and continued to get narrower and narrower as we progressed but the map showed that it would eventually lead us directly back to the highway. As we crossed streams and huge ditches I was convinced that this could not possibly be a county road; but the gps claimed otherwise, thus we drove on.

Finally we came to an intersection; the road before us was fairly traveled, in fact it was an interstate compared to what we were just on. The issue with the road before us however, was that it did not exist on the map, and the road we were suppose to follow did not exist either...so we turned left. About a mile up the road to the left we discovered a gate, locked and well protected on either side to prevent our passing. Frustrated we decided going right, although it was in the wrong direction it would be much better than back tracking down the path we just followed so we went back to the intersection and this time went right...it took 3 miles in this direction to find another gate.

Disheartened, we had no other options but to turn around and take our chances through the streams and ditches once more. On our way out of the area we passed through an open gate which we of course did not take into account on the way in. Being the kind people Evan and I are we stopped to close the gate and save the next sorry batch of explorers wouldn't have to discovered the blockades now almost 10 miles behind us. The gate unveiled an interesting sign that prohibited motor vehicles from the area...foiled again by another UP road; but still an entertaining day.