[Pet Health Admin]

Customer Review: The best - - and only - - guide to the Porkies, with room for improvement
The Porcupine Mountains (Porkies) are a beautiful place. Like other "mountainous" places in the Midwest, there's not much elevation here - - about 1000 feet in total - - but there's a lot of up and down, and I find that I work as hard there as on the Teton Crest. The forest is dense and soaring vistas are few, but the North Woods have their own charms. In addition, the crowds are small. I saw one party every two hours on Friday, about one party every hour on Saturday and Sunday. That's a far cry from the wildernesses in most national parks (this is a "state wilderness park") Having been to the Upper Peninsula before, I expected bugs, and I went in mid-August to miss the worst of them. That worked out fine. I also knew that the UP was a pretty soggy place-it's basically all wetland-but I thought that the Porkies, being "mountains," would be well-drained. That was only half true. Even though it hadn't rained for several days, long stretches were pretty soggy. Bring the right boots, and also bring trekking poles and gaiters if they add to your comfort. The park headquarters sells a nice topographic map for about ten dollars. It's suitable for framing because it comes all rolled up - - in an ideal world there would be a fold-up version for hiking. That map shows the campsites, as does a free pamphlet that comes with your backcountry permit. The pamphlet (but not the map) also shows which sites have bear poles. None of these maps show you which sites have water and which ones do not. Did I mention that this is a soggy place? That means that most places do have water - - but three very pretty sites atop the escarpment do not. You can probably guess that fact from the map, as they are . . . well, on top of an escarpment, and there are no streams or springs nearby. Still, putting fresh water symbols on the map would be nice. Well, that's a long introduction, and I haven't even talked about Dufresne's book yet. You can probably tell that maps are important to me. Dufresne's book has maps - - they are good enough for your planning, but only just. There's one map of the whole park in the front of the book, with some high-use sections bifurcated by the page seam. That map labels the trails and provides topographical information. The chapters on each trail come with a trail map, with more fine-grained topo lines shown only as they cross the trail. This means that you can't tell directly whether you're walking around a mountain or a valley or whatever - - only whether you're going up or down. His maps do show campgrounds but do not show bear poles or water sources. Also, Dufresne's maps show a shelter on the Superior Trail that is now a pile of lumber awaiting removal. Like his book on Isle Royale, Dufresne organizes this book around trails and not around routes. He puts the long trails first, short trails last. I've never understood the logic of this. When I backpack, I hike routes - - and, more often than not, I have to hike a loop or a lollipop because I only have one car. (Apparently, there are some shuttle services available if you schedule them in advance - - call the park headquarters; Dufresne's book does not mention this possibility.) Planning your own route therefore requires that you flip back and forth between different chapters as you patch together a bit of this trail and a little of that. This is annoying but not a deal-breaker. The trail descriptions are accurate for the trails that I hiked. He warned me about soggy stretches, and I used his guide to avoid the even soggier North Mirror Lake trail. He didn't tell me about how overgrown the Superior Trail was north of the Big Carp River, but that may just be a late-August thing. He provided enough information for me to plan my visit, and I got what I expected on the trail. The book also includes other useful information for non-backpackers, including a discussion of the waterfalls, wildlife, backcountry cabins, fishing, and winter skiing. There are also a lot of pictures of his family hiking through the park, which is an acceptable indulgence. The park's hike-in cabins are an interesting idea, and seem to attract dog owners (doubtless because of the black bears in the park). The presence of cabins reminds you that this is a *state* wilderness area, not a federal wilderness in which "man is a visitor who does not remain." Information about these things, which falls into the category of all-purpose tourism information, makes up about half of Dufresne's book. As far as I know, it's the only guide to the Porkies. For that reason, it's essential, and it does the job. But there is room for an even better guide yet to be written. If you've gotten this far, GO. Bring this book - - and maybe write a better one.
Customer Review: A SOLID INTRO TO & OVERVIEW OF THE PORKIES...
Jim DuFresne is a poet of the outdoors. It is disconncerting to find writing of this quality, this vitality, in what is essentially a travel book. The section in this book on his encounter with a black bear is just one example. Is this the definitive guide to what are affectionately called "the Porkies?" Not really, but this is a very useful tool in planning a trip there. This book and a good hiking guide--like the Falcon guide to Hiking Michigan--along with some decent topo maps should do the trick. The hiking info is critical, because unless you're just gonna go take a gander at the Lake in the Clouds, you'll be doing some serious hiking in the Porcupine Mountains. This book is great background for some of the things you will see there, but the Falcon guide and the maps really help you plan. I give this book a solid recommendation--with a suggestion to get a good hiking guide & maps.


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