Hiking the Lake Bailey Sanctuary
Last Friday we headed up to the area between Eagle Harbor and Copper Harbor to hike the Lake Bailey Sanctuary. This preserve is located just past the east end of Lake Bailey before you reach the Silver River. There is a trail here that takes you through a gnarly cedar swamp before making an over 500 foot climb to the top of the ridge above the swamp and providing some limited views (this time of year) of the surrounding area.
On the drive up we stopped at the Mohawk Superette where we grabbed a pasty lunch which we enjoyed at the nearby park.
The pasty was brought to the Keweenaw by the immigrant miners from Cornwall, England in the 19th century and has remained very popular in the region. Its popularity is highlighted by the annual Pasty Fest which took place this past weekend in Calumet. Our dogs Red and Blue love pasties. We learned this the hard way when we left a couple of hot ones on the dash of the truck one time to run into a store. We came out and found Blue on dash devouring one of them.
The parking area for the Lake Bailey Sanctuary is rather inconspicuous, so you will want to watch carefully for it as you drive along M-26. You will know you are at the right place when you see this sign at the back of the parking area.
After a very short distance on the trail you will enter the cedar swamp. This place has a very mysterious appearance as it can be a dark place even on a sunny day. Its mysteriousness is amplified by the dense and twisted nature of the cedars.
A lot of care has been given to the swamp portion of the trail recently as we found that many of the trees that we had found fallen on our last visit had been cut; however, there were still plenty of horizontally growing trees to help maintain the trail’s closed in feeling.
As you start exiting the swamp to make the climb up to the ridge, you will find a spring that is appropriately marked along the right side of the trail with a spring. Our dogs were able get a much needed drink here on what was turning out to be a hot August afternoon in the Keweenaw. The climb up from this point is quite steady. Usually we find mushrooms on this portion of the trail, but the conditions were extremely dry and not particularly hospitable for their growth.
With foliage still thick on the trees, we only had a limited view to the south. Late autumn is a good time to check out the Ridge Loop as the views are much better at that time of year. The Ridge Loop is a bit overgrown in places coming back down from the top of the ridge, but we found it easy enough to follow even though Red was struggling to stay on the trail.
Once you complete the loop, the trail backtracks through to the cedar swamp to the parking area.
You can check out my GoPro video from this hike on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at this link:
Here is Strava’s take on the topography for this hike of just about 2.6 miles:
Saturday was a day focused on errands ahead of a hike I would be leading on Sunday on the West Branch of the Sturgeon River. I did squeeze in a 5-mile run on the rail-trail!
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