Slate River Canyon Hike
Last week started off with the first of several awesome sunrises over Portage Lake!
Monday turned into a work day as I finalized and issued the RFP for the re-development of two properties that the township has recently moved into the Houghton County Land Bank at 42291 and 42299 N. Hancock Street here in Chassell. The first property is the former Holy Trinity Lutheran Church which is a dangerous building that will need to be demolished. The adjoining property is one which went into foreclosure that the township claimed since developer interest in the church property has previously been tripped up due to its narrow width. These properties are at the entrance to the cemetery and have close access to the Chassell Trails.
I emailed the RFP to local contractors, but the RFP and proposal form can also be found on the Chassell.net webpage.
Late Friday afternoon Julie and I helped out with the set up for the Halloween Party being put on by the Lions Club for local kids at the VFW post. Later that evening Chassell Heritage Center Curator Mat Moore and I met to review the text I had completed for the canoe/kayak launch signs and to discuss the illustrations he will be developing for those signs.
Tuesday started with follow up on the canoe/kayak launch floating dock and gangway and then reaching out to subject matter experts for review of the text on the canoe/kayak launch signage. With these things out of the way, we headed down to L’Anse so I could squeeze in some fishing on the Falls River.
I saw several good sized fish turn on the surface as well as swim into the pool below this fall, but did not have any luck on this day. A few years back I hooked into about a 30” brown in this pool that had me all over the river. We didn’t have a landing net, so I attempted to beach it after a long fight. Unfortunately, the fish mustered one last burst of energy and snapped the line.
The first half of Wednesday was spent putting minutes together from the last couple of Chassell Township Planning Commission meetings ahead of Thursday’s meeting. I have been covering the Secretary’s role while Ericka has been out on maternity leave. The weather was spectacular with a high of 78 degrees so Julie and I headed down to hike the Slate River Canyon.
The trailhead for this hike is located just north of the Skanee Road crossing over the Slate River, but before you reach The Finn’s Bar. After a short steep climb, the trail follows the rim of the canyon through a beautiful pine forest.
We bypassed Slate River Falls in order to check out the falls farther upstream. It is a steep descent to Slate River Falls, but it is definitely worth the effort to go there. In summer, the plunge pool below the falls is an awesome place for a swim! We continued along the canyon’s rim until we reached the point where we had a good view of the Ecstasy Falls series. In this are the river tumbles over a staircase of slate.
We dropped down the river and continued upstream to Slate Slide Falls. This is definitely one of the more unique waterfalls in the region as the river literally slides over a sloped slate formation. The river falls over the edge of the slope on the bottom left and falls into a pothole on the lower right. The sloped slate ends in a nice swimming hole at its base. You can see summer takes on this really cool place in my July 1st and July 23rd issues.
Climbing back up to the rim of the canyon, we hiked on to Kukuck’s Falls. This is definitely one of our favorite places on the river. During summer, the pool above the falls is a great place for a swim and the falls are easy to climb.
With the runoff from the recent snow, the falls were broader than they typically are in summer. You can see the videos I took on my phone of these waterfalls (as well as the numerous other awesome area waterfalls) on the Waterfalls Pinterest Board at Remote Workforce Keweenaw on Pinterest at this link: https://www.pinterest.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw/waterfalls/
We made our turnaround at Kukuck’s Falls and hiked back out along the canyon rim.
We got back into town soon enough to get over to the SDC at MTU for the Wednesday evening Keweenaw Running Group Run. With the return to standard time over the coming weekend, it would be the last daylight trail run of the year.
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