MOUNT ARVON - 1,979 FT.
Highest Point in Michigan
August 2, 2006 (My 36th Highpoint)
I planned to do this highpoint on the way back to Texas after visiting friends and family in
Pennsylvania. I decided to go to Niagara Falls and Toronto along the way, so I passed
through Sault Ste. Marie on the way to the western part of the Upper Peninsula. Just two
days earlier I had been denied entry to Canada on the grounds of not enough funds to support
a four-day stay in Canada. I was crossing the border at midnight in my car (GR DEAD tag)
while wearing a tie-dye shirt and my car was given a full rectal examination (30 minutes,
plus removal of a bike rack). I came back the next day and got in, difficulties notwithstanding.
So what I'm trying to say is that my luck hadn't been too great, and it wouldn't change on
this trip to Mount Arvon. Fortunately, this highpoint wasn't difficult, it was just very complicated to
get to. The roads around Mount Arvon are gravel and/or dirt and when it
rains, the dirt roads can become very rutted. Well, as you have probably already guessed,
it rained the night before.
I still took one of the usual approaches; from L'Anse, I took Skanee Road for about 15 miles
until I reached Roland Lake Road took. I took that to Ravine River Road and stayed on that
for about 6 miles. These two gravel roads were not too bad, it's just that there are quite
a few turnoffs that are not well-marked, and I found me doubting myself at almost every
small intersection, despite having two guidebooks. Eventually, I made it to the road marked
as Highpoint Road. If you can make it to the parking area at the end of Highpoint Road,
the roundtrip hike is 2 miles and it's an easy hike. However, there were some ruts in this
road that my old bomb
wasn't going to attempt, so the hike ended up being longer than this -
probably closer to 4 miles. And it's not that the hike is difficult, it's just not especially
scenic and two other vehicles who were better-suited to navigate such a road were able to
do so. I didn't even time or measure my hike - I left my GPS in my rental car in Minnesota and never
got it back. After getting turned around and out of the heavy logging area with no issues,
I made my way south to Gurnee, IL to stay with a good friend for the night and watch the
Chicago Bears Training Camp the following day in Bourbonnais, IL.
Wearing the usual clothes in the dump-in-the-woods pose.
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