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Outdoors

DNR Citizens’ Advisory Council to meet

NEWBERRY — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Eastern Upper Peninsula Citizens’ Advisory Council is scheduled to hear an outlook on state parks, boating access sites and trails in the eastern Upper Peninsula, updates on the DNR's wolf abundance trail camera survey and the U.P. deer camp survey when the council meets Monday, June 16. The meeting will take place from 6 to 8:30 p.m. EDT at Lake Superior State University’s Walker Cisler Student and Conference Center, located at 650 W. Easterday Avenue in Sault Ste. Marie. Additional business includes reports from ...

Reading maps is he first step in the many adventures to follow

By John Pepin Michigan DNR MARQUETTE — “Pounced with fire on flaming roads, using ideas as my maps,” – Bob Dylan The territory I was set to explore was imprinted in relatively dark lines on the back pages of my mind. I had it filed away, up there in the dusty old reference section. These recollections I stored there were borne of study of even dustier topographic maps and aerial photographic imagery that showed the landscape from a satellite’s view, with leaves on and off. I had hoped to arrive today before the leaves were out in full, making it harder to discern the ...

Sometimes winter just keeps hanging on and on and on

By John Pepin Michigan DNR “The railroad crossed the continent, and the buildings scratch the sky, the highway runs all over the place and the big jet engines fly,” – Steve Forbert As I headed up the highway north, it seemed like I was going the wrong way – even though the digital lady’s voice broadcasting satellite-fed directions to me claimed otherwise. “Proceed to the route,” she said. The farther I drove, the more the traffic thinned out and the buildings, people, signs, highways, lights, graffiti, congestion, airplanes, construction, garbage and other indications ...

Fishing Report

Little Bay de Noc: Docks are in at most locations. Windy conditions limited angler numbers. Those that were able to make it out reported good perch fishing when jigging with perch rigs. Big Bay de Noc: Perch anglers reported fair to good fishing. Minnows or worms seemed to work best. St. Ignace: St. Ignace City boat launches have been put into the water, and the cleaning station is open. At the Carp River cement footing pier, steelhead anglers saw limited success. Smelt were running at the Carp River over the past week. When using the roads to get back to the Carp River mouth, watch ...

Outdoors North: Nature – a significant thread woven through a lifetime

MARQUETTE — “How far you all going Ruby asked us with a smile? We’re going all the way, until the wheels fall off and burn,” – Bob Dylan and Sam Shepard There are places to travel to that when you visit, the atmosphere of the place itself can clear your mind. These types of places are likely different for every individual. For me, they are usually sweeping landscapes where wild country is the king and the queen and the jack and the ace – places there is no question that nature controls the scene. I think the big and the wide and the openness of these places – be they ...

Outdoors North: Are ‘real winters’ from way back gone forever?

MARQUETTE — “I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night; in the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light,” – Bob Dylan The silence in the nighttime air hung heavy and low. It was a deathly silence, like being in a tomb, I would imagine. It was the coldest night I can remember in a long time. It reminded me a great deal of some of the seemingly black and endless cold, winter nights I remember as a kid growing up in the old, rusted and frozen mining town. The thermometer said it was colder than 15 degrees below zero. The snow that had ...