Michigan U.P.
Aug-Sep 2025

Dates: August 29-September 1, 2025

People: Mark, Sarah, Seth, Anya, Ben, Dad & Mom Witte

Itinerary

• 8-29 (Travel Day)

• 8-30 (Marquette Marathon - Black Rocks)

• 8-31 (Marquette - Mackinaw City - Wilderness SP)

• 9-1 (Bridge Walk)
  
  

FRIDAY AUGUST 29

We had targeted an 8am departure from the house but it ended up being 825.  We didn't want to get started too late and risk getting into the ever increasing traffic load heading up north from the Detroit Metro area.  We were driving the 275-96 route to get out of the city.  It was all good driving until we hit traffic around Saginaw-Bay City.  The northbound Zilwaukee bridge was closed and so we were detoured on the interstate around the west side of the city.

There was lots of traffic but it stayed moving fairly well most of the time.  We hit lunch just after noon in Gaylord stopping at Culvers.  It was busy.  Culvers was busy.  The whole of Gaylord was busy with people stopping over on their path north.   We also hit up meijer for gas while we were there.  It was over an hour for our stop there.

North of Gaylord there was an accident which made for about a 10 minute slow down.  It looked like it was a truck with trailer that had some kind of mechnical issues.  

During the drive today I was following the end of the CCC race and beginning of the UTMB race in Chamonix France.  As we got north of Gaylord cell signal got worse and eventually I had to give up on the live stream.

We had a good time going over the bridge and made good time moving across the UP and through Munising eventually making our way to Marquette.  We had reserved a stay at the Marquette Tourist Park campground. We arrived at camp at 5:10pm. We were staying at site 100 and it worked nicely for us.  It was adjacent to a nice green field of grass and we felt like we had space.  The campground as a whole is really quite nice and this was my third stay there in the last five years.

We setup camp doing a full setup of the Kingdom 8 including the Garage. We also setup the screen tent.  Once we had most things in place Seth and I and Sarah drove over to the Superior Dome to check out the race expo.  Compared to the Chicago Marathon expo which was my last experience in 2014, this was tiny.  They had a handful of vendors and then the usual runner check-in tables to get bib and race shirt.  We checked out the vendors with Sarah and Seth getting some athletic hats and we also grabbed some Gu gels of flavors we wanted to try.

For supper we cooked pizza sandwiches over the fire and then later on did Smores.  The Tourist Park Camp had put in a new playground over by the tent-only camp area and so Anya and Ben were able to spend some time playing over there. Very nice playground.

We tried out the new travel glow-in-the-dark cornhole game I had just bought a few weeks ago and enjoyed it.  We also played several hands of Uno with Anya and Ben included.  Seth and I tried to head to bed at 1030 to get rested up for race morning.

SATURDAY AUGUST 30

We were up at 6am today to get some breakfast and be ready for the race.  We needed just under 30 minutes to drive to the race start in Ishpeming and we wanted to be 30 minutes early.  I ate a banana, 2 oatmeal squares and an applesauce cup for breakfast, most of which I ate in the car on the drive over.  Dad droves us over in his van to get to the start.  Along the way we saw temps dip to 39 degrees.  It was around 45 in Ishpeming when we arrived.

Marquette Marathn 2025 Trip Report

The family all met us at the finish.  I drank up a few cartons of chocolate milk and we went into the Superior Dome to relax a bit.  I was really cooked those first few minutes after the pace with which we ended the race.  I could feel my legs really tightening up.  Seth and I decided to just do the walk back to camp at the Marquette Tourist Park Campground.  It was only a mile and I wanted to make sure I hit the 50000 step mark for the day.

Back at camp we showered and ate some more snacks.  Caleb Gross eventually showed up to visit with us since he was going to Northern Michigan at the time.  We were looking for afternoon activity ideas and we decided on driving over to the Black Rocks on Presque Isle.  Our race course had gone through there so Seth and I already had some familiarity.  Caleb had also been there and knew what to do.  

We drove into the park on Presque Isle and found some open parking in a small lot along side the road.  It was probably a  quarter mile up road from the parking for the Black Rocks but we assumed that would be full and it was.  The "official" parking is a bit of a dead end lot and we really didn't want to get caught up in it.  That, and if it is full you have to go through the whole loop around the park again to revisit the previous parking areas.

The Black rocks was quite interesting.  Some memories of the black sands beach from Maui when we were in Hawaii this summer.  There is an open area to just walk around on the rocks and explore. There is also a cliff jumping area which was immensely popular that day.  Easily 100 people present of numerous ages, some of which were taking the plunge into cold Lake Superior.  We just enjoyed the exploring on the rocks. 

After Black Rocks we wanted to tour a bit of downtown and Caleb recommended driving down and parking at the Farmer's Market. We did so and walked a few blocks downtown trying out a couple shops and walking to the lakefront.  Caleb served as a fine tour guide.

We went back to camp for supper and cooked brats and hot dogs over the fire.  We tried out our burger cooking trays which allowed us to put 4-6 dogs on it at one time to cook.  I would say mixed results when doing that with brats or dogs.  You do get to hit several at once but it is hard to get them to all cook up evenly.  The Littles got some playground time in the evening and we enjoyed the rest with some free time.

SUNDAY AUGUST 31

We were up at a nice leisurely 7am this morning.  I did a walk around the campground to begin to loosen up the legs post-marathon.  Definitely some stiffness throughout and the soreness in the quads but it felt good to get them moving.  We had targeted an 8am hike this morning up Sugarloaf and it would be Mom and Dad, Seth and I heading up there.  We went for the hike and parked in the large lot that shortcuts onto the trail.  We had a nice hike up to the top bringing back memories for me from trips up here a few years ago.  Still lots of stairs and I took things nice and slow today with my Marathon legs.  They were definitely feeling the hurt on the way down with every step down a stair really testing me.  The views atop were quite nice and we mostly had it to ourselves at first.  Several groups were on their way up when we began to descend.

We made it back to camp and had a nice sausage, eggs, and waffles breakfast.  We use my Jetboil Genesis stove for most of the cooking along with an electric personal size waffle maker that Mom had brought.  After breakfast we proceeded to pack up camp to hit the road for the day.  It was 1145 when we finally made it out of camp.

We settled on driving over to Sand Point at Pictured Rocks in Munising as a lunch and recreation stop.  We got there just before 1pm.  We found a great picnic table just off the parking lot with some shade and setup our lunch there.  A little boy with his dad was nearby and invited Anya and Ben to play with him a bit by the beach.  It was really nice outside and this hit the spot.  Sand Point really is quite beautiful and always worth a visit as a place to spend some time.

We left at 2:40p for the bridge and the big drive out of Munising.  We filled up gas in St. Ignace and debated doing some touring around Mackinaw City but decided on heading straight to camp. We got into Wilderness State Park and headed for the campground.  At the camp check-in we talked to one of the admins about parking in Mackinaw for tomorrow's Bridge Walk. 

We stayed at site 303 which was near the entrance and near the bathrooms.  Perhaps too close to the bathrooms.  It was also next to a water spigot.  The campground has clearly been renovated in the last couple of years and was in nice condition.  The sites were very tightly packed though and we felt like our neighbors and us were on top of each other.  They had setup a tent along the edge of their site line and it was only about 4 feet from our fire pit.

Otherwise it was a nice campground and had a short walkway to get out to the beach area.  For supper we cooked leftovers which was mostly brats and pizza sandwiches from the nights before.  We debated our plans for the Bridge Walk in the morning and who wished to do what.  We finally settled upon having Sarah dropping us off at St. Ignace.

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 1

We were up at 5:10 to get ready for the Bridge Walk.  I had packed my backpack with a few light snacks, water, and my jacket. We left at 5:30 for St. Ignace.  There was a little traffic at the toll booth on the Mackinac Bridge on the north side but other than that we had smooth sailing driving to our drop off point on Hwy 2 in St. Ignace.

Mackinac Bridge Labor Day Walk 2025 Trip Report

OWe finished our Walk around 845. It still looked like a lot of people onboarding at Mackinaw City.  We knew the traffic in the city would be a mess so we setup a pickup with Sarah about 4 blocks west of I-75 at the high school where there was no traffic. We passed several business that appeared to be letting people park on their grass. It looked like everywhere in Mackinaw City must look to help with the parking question of having 30,000 extra people in the city for this event.

We headed back to camp and set about tearing camp down. We wanted to be on the road well before the bridge would re-open and add to the traffic flow.  It was 11:15a when we finished up and hit the road for home. We were back to I-75 in Mackinaw City at 1130 and there were a ton of cars from the city lined up to get on the interstate.

We did a picnic lunch at a rest area around 12:30p.  The traffic had been heavy but with little slowdowns up to this point. That would mostly be the theme of the day.  Continuous traffic and lots of slower traffic (re: RV's and trailers and trucks) in the right lane.  We were pleased to see the Zilwaukee Bridge was open for southbound traffic.  The main slow down was going around Flint where it seemed traffic bottlenecked a bit. I think we only lost 6-8 minutes or so.  The rest of the drive was smooth with little trouble getting around Ann Arbor.  We made it home around 4:15pm and planned to use our leftover pizza sandwich ingredients for a personal pizza supper. Lots of unpacking and drying out gear for the rest of the evening.