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Sierra Club Wilderness
trips and expeditions
Chapter: Michigan (Mackinac)
Group: Central Upper Peninsula (CUPG)
Leader: Michael Neiger, Marquette,
Michigan (Web site; e-mail;
bio)
Review trip journal and photo album from this completed trip
January 13-18,
2005
Winter camping
This trip will be a snowshoe tour pulling cargo sledges (five, first-come, first-serve, $5-rental club sleds available by prior arrangement) just as the Ojibwa travelled for 100s of years. We'll explore the Beaver Basin, which is up for Wilderness Designation in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, as well as shoe along the north end of the Fox River Trail and through the expansive, wind-swept Kingston Plains.
Sledging--
one of the more efficient
ways to move gear
in the winter.
Members of the
WomenQuest Polar Trek 2001,
an all-woman
North Pole expedition,
train with the Central Upper
Peninsula Group of
the Sierra Club
and Mary Powell of Flint
in the Pictured Rocks area,
March 2001
(Photo by Mary Powell)
Destination:
Pictured Rocks
National Lakeshore area:
Beaver Basin, Kingston Plains, and
Fox River Trail
Alger County
Upper Michigan, east of Munising
Experience level:
Advanced-level,
minus 30 degree wintercamping
with sledge ($5 club rental) and snowshoes
Requires prior wilderness tripping experience with leader
Difficulty:
Extremely strenuous
Off-trail/on-trail rating:
100 percent off-trail
map & compass recon
Participant requirements:
-- Notice:
please review the homepage on this Web site
for general wilderness tripping requirements
-- 18 years old or older
-- non-smoker and non-drinker
-- very physically fit (good aerobic endurance)
-- adventurous spirit
-- proficient swimmer
-- prior wilderness tripping experience
-- fully equipped with lightweight backpacking gear
including rucksack, bivouac gear,
survival gear,
foul-weather gear, rations, stove,
etc.
Bivouac
advisory:
This
is not a basecamp trip.
We will move each day
and bivouac in a different location each night,
often deep in the bush and far from roads,
dry & level campsites, potable water, toilets, and
fire rings.
Trip info:
-- 8 a.m. Thursday
to late afternoon on Tuesday
-- Club fee: $15
-- Rental of club sledge: $5
-- Other fees: PRNL camping permits may be needed?
-- Sign up
by December 30 appreciated
-- Contact trip
leader for sign up, or application form if new
-- Review journals
and photos from similar wilderness trips
Specialized equipment required:
-- In-pocket survival
kit (knife, matches, firestarters,
compass, whistle); Sierra Club survival
kits can be
borrowed free of charge
-- Ice-rescue picks
Rations required:
-- Breakfasts--6
-- Snacks--6
-- Lunches--6
-- Dinners--5
-- Backup rations--1.5 full days
-- Rations and stoves info
Additional destination info:
-- Pictured Rocks
National Lakeshore http://www.nps.gov/piro/ 1-906-387-3700
-- Book: "Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore - -
A Guide" by Olive Anderson (1988, Bayshore Press)
-- Book: "Scenic Highlights at the Pictured Rocks
National Lakeshore and Adjacent Areas" by Richard W. Holzman (1990,
Royal Gallery)
-- Book: "By the Shining Big-Sea-Water - - The Story
of Pictured Rocks 10,000 B.C. to 1966 A.D." (1989, Bayshore Press)
-- Book: "Backpacking in Michigan" by Pat
Allen and Gerald L. DeRuiter (1989 University of Michigan Press)
-- Book: "Michigan Ice - - An Ice Climbers Guide
to the Central Upper Peninsula of Michigan" by Bill Thompson (1998
Michigan Ice)
-- Search destination in http://www.google.com
search engine
Travel
info:
-- Driving
maps
-- Road conditions and weather
reports
-- Tourism info
-- Road trip gear
Wilderness skills and resources info:
-- Backpacking
skills
-- Land nav skills
-- River fording skills
-- Water purification
skills
-- Lightning safety
-- Low-impact skills
-- Backpacking links, books,
& vendors
-- Ultralight backpacking
links, books, & vendors
--
Dressing warm skills
-- Sleeping warm skills
-- Winter-camping skills
-- Ice-crossing skills
-- Snowshoe links, books,
& vendors
-- Winter-camping
links, books, & vendors
Emergency contacts:
-- Pictured Rocks
National Lakeshore: 1-906-387-3700
-- Alger County Sheriff: 1-906-387-4444
-- Munising State Police: 1-906-387-4540
-- Hospital (Munising): 1-906-389-4110
-- Sierra Club Outings Department 24-hour help line:
1-888-outings
Land Nav Team Info:
Topographic maps:
1:24,000 Au Sable Point SW, Michigan
1:24,000 Au Sable Point, Michigan
1:24,000 Driggs Lake, Michigan
1:25,000 Trappers Lake, Michigan
--Topo map ordering
information
--Topo map waterproofing
& GPS prep
County maps:
Alger
County
--County map ordering
information
2005
Magnetic declination specs:
Magnetic
declination for Lat 46° 30'N, Lon 86°15'W:
05° 23' west
UTM easting grid line to meridian
line deviation:
00° 35' east
UTM easting grid line magnetic declination:
05° 58' west
GPS
configuration specs:
Grid coordinate
system
1000-meter Universal
Transverse Mercator Grid (UTM)
UTM grid horizontal map datum:
1927 North American
Datum (NAD 27 CONUS)
UTM grid zone:
Zone 16
UTM grid hemisphere:
Northern hemisphere
Unit of measures:
Metric
Misc nav setup:
Roamer
UTM plotter scale(s):
1:24,000 & 1:25,000
Ranger pacing
beads:
Metric--9 100-meter
beads; 4 1-kilometer beads
Magnetic declination setting on compass:
0° of offset
More land nav team info
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