One of the many places I'd like to get to, someday.

So how does the UP rate as to hunting, and fishing?

You couldn't pay me to go to that state.

Haven't been there recently, but I used to love going there. But not in winter.

I’d LOVE to move to your state.

Wabi- the experience in the UP is absolutely fantastic; my 13 yo daughter & I go up there at least a handful of times a year and never get enough. We took our family vacation there last year and are going there again this year.

The fishing is fantastic for trout as well as smallmouth bass. Out in the lakes the trout salmon walleye and perch fishing are amazing.

Deer hunting is tough, but upland bird and waterfowl is great.

There’s tons of huge tracts of public and commercial forest areas open to exploration.

College buddy I haven’t seen in years and I are doing a week long backpacking trip on the NCT in May and I’m super excited.

I love the UP. One of the spots we're considering retiring to. Just south east of Sault Saint Marie is an area we like

Fishing is good. As is the general scenery etc in summer and fall. Deer hunting not so much.

A man that moved fro the UP, told me, You can't eat scenery.

Spent two years there for school in Houghton. A beautiful place with wonderful fishing. The summers are awesome and the winters are brutal. I have never been to the lower peninsula so I cannot comment on the whole state but the UP is special - this coming from a native Coloradan.

The UP is well worth seeing. Between state and federal land and private paper mill land open to the public there’s all kinds of land to enjoy. Tremendous snowmobiling and ATV riding or two tracking. Lots of very remote areas maybe more than anywhere else in the Eastern half of the US. Overall deer number are low between wolves and being on the northern fringes of deer habitat and southern fringes of moose habitat. Ruffed grouse hunting is some of the best in the country.

Fishing is excellent. There are small streams and rivers everywhere and most hold trout. Lots of lakes and bays with good to very good walleye, smallmouth bass and pike fishing including but not limited to Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to the South and Lake Superior to the North. Fall steelhead and salmon runs on numerous rivers and big lake fishing for them in the summer.

The UP has a unique Finnish heritage and feels a little bit like going back in time a few decades. I love going up there. Beautiful coastline surrounding the peninsula, Highway 2 along the northern Lake Michigan coast is nice. Mackinac Island is worth checking out and even Drummond Island if you had time. Tahquamenon Falls on the East side of the UP. The Pictured Rocks either hiking or by boat in the middle and the Porcupine Mountains to the West is especially scenic in the fall. With fishing and trail riding opportunities land to get out and stomp around on, and wildlife pretty much everywhere.

If I were going to pick a time I’d go in late September to take advantage of changing trees and mostly comfortable weather.

Love to visit the UP... wouldn’t live there. Winters are tough. Good fishing.

Yeah buddy!

That's what I'm working towards!,....to move up north and live my golden years among rude ass yankees while freezing my ass off.

Just knock me in the head.

Hows the grouse hunting?

Some of the best in the country. I try to go up for a week each fall for bird camp.

Used to own 40 acres in Alger County. At that time the stream on my place had Trout and regular Black Bear sign. Deer were far and few between. Walking the place you would usually flush Grouse. My job offered an opportunity I couldn't refuse so I relocated to Kentucky and sold my UP paradise, much to my regret.

A good friend brings us delicious Pasties when they visit the UP.

Horrible.

Much better in Minnesota or Wisconsin.

The UP has alot to offer including the biggest baddest most hungriest blood sucking critters anywhere..

Speaking as a second generation in law of the UP, it is either a near paradise on earth, or hell during a cold spell. I have been there during rifle deer season {last half of November} and experienced minus twenty to sixty-five. No snow, to snow so deep my hunting partner, who is a lot tougher than I, turned around at the entrance to our drive and drove right back home to Illinois. It is beautiful, and really great all year around if you are not too far back in the brush. I would have tried to convince my wife to move up there when I retired, but help can be a long way away if you have a medical emergency. I think she was influenced by her mother's stories about walking across Little Bay de Noc on the ice to sell butter and eggs in Escanaba.

I agree, it's a beautiful place and very different from the lower peninsula . And the Yoopers refer to folks south of the mighty mac bridge as trolls

How bad is the deer hunting? I hunt the central Adirondacks, 2-4 deer per square mile. That bad? I hear the wolves take a toll on the deer herd. It’s a place I have always wanted to hunt.

This is what makes the UP great, it separates the wheat from the chaff.

My family loves the UP. Great scenery, excellent grouse and black bear hunting; perhaps the best woodcock hunting in the world; fishing every place.

The Keweenaw is breathtaking: https://www.keweenaw.info/keweenaw-peninsula/eagle-harbor/great-sand-bay/

405wcf

That area ain't the real UP..............................just saying.

MM

Engineer or geologist?

Thanks, LL.

Years ago this guy named Nick Adams liked it, especially the fishing.

Nick Adams ( Jonny Yuma) !

Another would be Cully Gage.

Grouse hunting- great!

Deer hunting- I think there are like 4 deer in the entire upper peninsula

After my brother graduated from college with a Civil Engineer degree he landed a job with Harnischfeger Corp in Escanaba. Hunted and fished the area with him for several years. It was great. Ruffed Grouse and Timberdoodles all over the place, deer not so much. Fishing on the big lake was outstanding.

You have not lived until you picked and ate wild blueberries in the UP. Blueberry pie is a must.

Christmas and New Years we trailered our snowmobiles up there and had a blast.

Made a lot of friends with the salt-of-the-earth, hard working Finn's there.

Some of the U.P. is much like the Daks. My mom grew up in Utica so I have been to both places. Take the area north go HWY 28 and it is pretty poor deer hunting . I never hunted there , but been there many times. Seeing a deer is not exactly rare but you wont see 10 at a time neither. The southern area is not bad , but still, whenever I scout parcels of land for sale, there is still not a lot of sign. You will know where the deer are by how badly the cedars are browsed. Way up there, there are not enough deer to even notice browsing of Hemlock or cedar.

You got that right.
.

It usually still has snowdrifts in the woods in June most years. Lots of nice hungry skeeters.

It’s a place where men are men, and the dogs run scared! I spent two years at Michigan Tech, and noticed it snowed a lot, and you were lucky to get 60 sunny days a year.

The fishin is good. For the brave or drunk, or brave and drunk, try the sauna and a bath in Lake Superior or just the snow.

As a former YOOPER i am a little biased , I love the U>P. It's not for everybody. Deer hunting is really great in the counties that are in the so called "banana belt" Menominee and Delta counties to be precise. There is lots of farm land in these counties. Grouse hunting has been bad the last few years
because of West Nile virus. Fishing is great as stated by others. Life along Lake Superior can be rough in the winter with as much as 300 inches of snow in a bad year as compared to less than 100 inches along Lake Michigan shoreline. There is a saying by old timers up there,... a farmer saw God walking along in the U P one day and asked him hat he was doing , God replied that he was working from home that day. It truly is God's country.

Others, especially TheLastLemming covered all the good spots, so I'll just add a few. The drive on Brockway Mountain Drive in the Keweenaw is beautiful. The shoreline there reminds me of the Maine coast around Eagle River and Eagle Harbor. Tahquamenon Falls is beautiful with an onsite mini brewery. One of their regular selections is Black Bear Stout. Think of Guinness without the bitter aftertaste. Paired with a fried or sauteed whitefish dinner and you're really close to paradise. In fact, Paradise is 10 miles down the road!

What is it, a hundred mile detour on the way to your fishun’ shack?

Forester

I was sorta thinking the same thing but couldn't put it as eloquently as you...

heard someone say yesterday they would be better off to seceed and become conservative south Canada.

Hahahaha!

Lead finisher on our last concrete crew was a big guy from north Michigan.

Faber, about 6'4" 250lb, good dude from what I knew.



Old fashioned dorky like us.


Is Faber a Finnish name?


Just us Natives and some Swedes and Norwegians around here

It’s awesome. Paradise on earth.

Or just blow up the Mackinac and International bridges and mine the Wisconsin border.

It is God's Country. My camp in the north central UP.

Fishing is great. Deer hunting, well that depends where in the UP you want to hunt. We make a couple trips a year and I’d like to do more.

Watch out for the Paulding Light.

It's where I spent many summer weeks and where many of my most pleasant memories were made, especially as a child, but is now getting overrun with tourists in subarus, especially in the summer.

Well done! That's a Beauty!

And I haven’t even started to get to the browns, steelhead, coho, kings, rainbows, brookies, whitefish, lake trout., ect,

Just today I went to Garden and snagged a bunch of yellow perch.

Beautiful place. Got any High Bush Cranberriers?

My cabin in the south central UP.

Porcupine Press UP Magazine is a must read.

Hahahahaha!

I was close, great school!

Lived there during my formative years. Fishing is very good. Walleye, northerns, perch, trout, salmon, smelt, panfish, giant Lakers at Stannard Rock, something is always on the bite all year 'round. Bird hunting is usually good in different parts of the UP. Gotta scout. Grouse and woodcock mainly. Watch the 10 year cycles. Deer hunting is sketchy. Deer populations plummeted in the successive 95-96 and 96-97 winters and have never recovered. Add in wolves and things haven't been great. Some big ones are still around though. Lots of other stuff to do up there year 'round too. Political climate is good - like minded people. Too bad Detroit has so much influence in Lansing.

I heard they were gonna pay Colorado1135 to come there, but he said no. Damn shame.

Just a gorgeous setting.

Exactly.

Destination Polaris filmed a good little exposé on Wisconsin and the U.P. Richard.

U.P.

People that spend their time in the UP or on the highline are a different breed.

Luckily, I married into Houghton-Hancock without even knowing it. Hard folks indeed.

Paradise on earth IMHO. LOVE the yoop.

People are kinda scarce where I"m looking at.

UP is more like living around hillbilly folk.The FINNS are good people no chit.Below the big mack bridge things change.

I've been all over the world - nothing really compares to the UP for me. Love it.

Absolutely world class walleye and small mouth fishing. Good grouse, small game, trapping and where I am - deer. As in I see double digit deer every day I am out. Usually in rifle season I'm tagged out by day 3 after having passed up 3-5 bucks. BUT I hunt banana belt.

People in and from the Yoop sure aren't the same as MI folks from the LP and they definitely aren't like those in WI. The UP has a very....."libertarian" feel for me. So long as you're not really hurting anyone - folks stay out of your business. There's only 2 things that will really raise an eye brow - asking to borrow a deer rifle or a chainsaw. You're expected to have your own.

Other than that - it's paradise on earth. Waterfalls, large timber, fishing, swimming, kayaking, boating, SxS adventure, snowmobiling etc.

If you're looking to move - buy my Uncle's place.

Life on the Lake

Beautiful! I love it!

The Big Two Hearted River really isn't a good trout stream. Too tannic, or so the locals told me.. Hemingway admitted to his son he just liked the name.

Fishing is very good. Northern, walleye, trout in many streams, and perch and panfish in the smaller lakes.

The descriptions of the UP given here are pretty much as I remember it. I spent 2 weeks up near Newberry every summer as a kid. Deer hunting never has been as good as in the LP. Not as much farm land, more timber. I can't comment on wolves. Back in the day we didn't have them except on Isle Royale.

Winters are tough! They get lake effect snow worse than Buffalo. Nobody talks about it because most sane people get out after Halloween.

Come up here with with that attitude and yeah you'll be treated accordingly. Otherwise people are mostly friendly, willing to help.

Have talked to tourists asking about bears and wolves and how safe it is, tell them it's not the bears and wolves you need to worry about. In May/June the bugs can drive you insane in the woods. keeps the soft people away.

Oddly enough, the color of the sky in that photo reminds me of Michigan. That is just a distinct blue I associate with that state,

(Then there is the grey sky that seems to be 6 out of 7 days all winter, but that's a different story!)

Notice how cheap the taxes are on it? Relatively?

Hemingway actually fished the Fox out of Seney - better fishing. Two Hearted is east of there and not as good, but as you say, the name has a "ring" to it. There are a number of good trout streams up there.

This time of the year the smelt should be running. I remember my dad and his buddies dipping nets and filling up the back of a pick-up with em. Took all night to clean them too. Everyone in the neighborhood had gallons of fresh smelt to eat and freeze that next day. Good times.

\

Smelt! I forgot about them. Fry 'em up and that is some good finger food.

The charm of the UP is all about lots of room and very few people. At 16,377 Square miles, the UP would be the tenth largest state, smaller than West Virginia, and larger than Maryland and 8 others. The three largest cities are Marquette at 20,000, Escanaba at 13,000, and Sault Sainte Marie at 12,000.
The rest of the UP has small towns and villages, 200 to 2500 people, spaced about 40 to 80 miles apart. You need to be self reliant and travel on the upper half of your fuel tank. The rest of the UP is forests and lakes.
For those thinking of moving here, first check out the winters that usually last from mid November to mid April, and the snow depth gets azzhole deep to an elephant, a BIG elephant.

My oldest son lives in the UP, just signed a purchase agreement on a nice piece of property and a house south of the Sault Ste Marie area.

Yoopers are hearty people, they hate the governor and think of themselves as a independent state. They like the packers and will tell you so.

If you like to freshwater fish, the eastern UP is heaven. I grew up in Northern Mi and never knew how good the superior and St Mary's waterway is. I have caught just about every freshwater fish in MI just 40 minutes from his house.

UP has big deer if you move around and find the pockets. I bear hunted on a do it yourself hunt. I had two bear's show up during shooting hours. On camera, bears over 350# on a regular basis.

Our very first grandchild was born on the full blood moon and the coldest night of the year in 2019. She hates a coat even when its cold out.

I hunted in western UP for bear also. I was very impressed with the pretty blond ladies. I expected to see a bunch of toothless hags but I was wrong. the Flemish blood is strong west of Marquette.

I would retire up there in a heartbeat, but the wife says no. I would just go to Florida for a 3-4 months each winter and enjoy the other three seasons.

Wolves are a problem but the locals have ways to deal with them.

It helps if you have a hair lip. You can run for mayor then.

A unique place.

The first time I saw icebergs was on the lake between Escanaba and Manistique. It was June 10.

Once I was trying to see how fast the company car would go. I was going 105 when a cop stopped me. He asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was a salesman. He let me go, saying, “Oh. Salesmen are pretty good drivers.”

We used to say weather forecasting was easy. Just stand by the guard shack across the river from the Escanaba Paper Mill. If you can’t see the mill, it’s snowing. If you can see it, it’s gonna snow.

That is gorgeous!

Deer hunted the east end for 38 yrs. Quit going there 7 yrs, ago. Second to last year didn't see a single deer and the last year i couldn't find a track in snow. Wolves are not our friends.

It's still a great place. Biggest problem is citidiots that want to come there to retire but want to bring the city with them. You know, I'M here now so thing need to change.

Just sent the realtor email.Thanks..

In the UP, the men are men, and the women are too! I’ve only hunted bear in the UP, and the mosquitoes were so big, they had landing gear. Coolest thing I saw during my bear hunt was a guy who baited bears by nailing lobster carcasses to trees. After a couple of days the lobster guts stunk to high heaven but didn’t attract any bears.

It helps if you are fluent in Yoopanese.

The UP is a great place to live, raise a family, enjoy the outdoors. Great people here also. Quite a variety of things to do in every season. Spent my entire life here. I enjoy hunting other states as well. But being raised up here, I still call the UP home. PM me if you have any questions.

This has not been my experience. My in laws were both born there. The wife has a lot of family there. The vast majority would like to leave Michigan and become part of Wisconsin. A friend of mine there wants to start a petition to leave MI.
It's about time for me to take a trip there. Hopefully the deer didn't break through my cages and eat my saplings. Our small property is in the Rapid River area-just NE of Escanaba.

Sadly, no high bush cranberries. But I do get quite a few of these growing up here.

No fruit, but plenty of protein...OK.

Jaydub, I am likely going there this weekend to look at a few parcels of land. I want to have a place up there more every year. I love my cabin in NW WIsconsin, but the Rapid River area is better.

The upper peninsula is beautiful and the VFW in Munising has cold beer, good food, good people and Jane Fonda's face in every urinal.

My family has been in the UP over 100 years - I've never, EVER heard a single Yooper wish to be part of WI.

MANY say - 51st state, no more LP but NOT ONE has ever said "Lets join WI".

Thanks All! I need to get there.

Well, ya, eh.

You need to get a Jerry Harju orientation manual (one of his books) to really grasp the underpinnings of the UP. The UP is one of the very few places east of Montana that I have any interest in going back to visit.

The only Wisconsin redeeming quality is PBR at 25 cents a can. The Youp’s could care less.

I will get up there this year and get in some camping far from the madding crowd, hopefully. The Sylvania lakes area is appealing to me in the fall, though I know nothing of the UP. WI has never been appealing to me, but I have familial obligations!

Based on many years in the UP and with family on both sides of the border, there is a good case for breaking off the urban, liberal southern part of Wisconsin, including Madison, Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha, and giving it to Illinois; and joining the rural, conservative northern 3/4 of Wisconsin with the UP.

It would be a large enough economy to stand on its own. If the urban Chicago folks get pissy, the new state could simply shut off their supplies of meat, dairy products, vegetables and toilet paper.

I shot my first bear on the UP. Fabulous country up there!

There was talk about doing that maybe 10 years ago.The UP was actually part of Wisconsin territory,but it was traded off for some political reason.

The basic explanation is that the UP was given to Michigan in exchange for Michigan giving up a piece of land known as the Toledo strip, to Ohio.

My Old man was a Finn.We lived in Lake Linden as a kid.He went to Milwaukee for a job as he was sick of going 100 miles one way to White Pine to work each day.I still have lots of relatives up there and hunt & fish there quite often.When I retired we move to NE WI.Close to the UP and my wife has relatives around here.300" snowfalls are no BS.Our UP house had a second story exit.

UP was the first ( and pretty much only) place I've seen people worm grunting/thumping.

They put a stick in the ground and thump it or rub a metal rod over the end of the stick and worms jump out of the ground and off you go fishing.

My family is from the UP and I lived there for 25 years. It's a great place for many reasons. However, the winters got old and the Marquette area where I lived changed rapidly during that time. It's really becoming a liberal hell hole. Glad I moved to Montana a few years back.
For the MT guys the UP us like a combination of Butte and the high line. In fact most.of the non Irish in Butte came from the Houghton/Kewanaw area.

You can also drive a shovel into the ground and shake it back and forth, in minutes you'll be fishing.

Liberals tend to ruin everything they touch including their own lives.