031926 ~ Spring Into Spring! - Nick Nerbonne

0:00Earlier this week, the Mackinac bridge was closed. People were sending in videos showing not inches of snow, but feet of snow up in the upper peninsula. Those are hardy people up there. As for those of us down here, what do they call us? The trolls? Yeah. The trolls. We are looking ahead to spring. Spring is going to spring this coming Friday. Joining us to talk about all of this is Nick Nerbin from Travel Michigan on our pure Michigan moment. How very different of a life do they live up in the upper peninsula, Nick? The U.P. is a special place for so many different reasons. The amount of history up there, the different cultures from all around the world that have helped settle and develop the upper peninsula, the natural resources up there. 913 miles of Lake Superior shoreline. So many wonderful things to do and see in the upper peninsula.

1:01Personally, the snow is one of my favorite things about the upper peninsula. I love that snow. I wish I would have been up in the U.P. Saturday through about Tuesday or Wednesday, so I could have been part of all of that snow. It at least looked incredible. Oh my goodness. You have to love snow to love that. But you do point out a lot of great things about Michigan's upper peninsula. And it all starts with those resources. The natural resources they have up there. It is glorious, isn't it? Well, I would love to just point one thing out that happened earlier this week. I saw where the Q and O peninsula announced they had surpassed 300 inches of snowfall for the season. We two, you know, four skiers and snowmobiles and people who like to enjoy winter recreation. That's great news. That means there's great conditions and plenty of snow to enjoy them. And then about two days later, Jackson Hole Wyoming said, we've passed 300 inches of snow for the year. So if you think about that, we're the T-tons and Jackson Hole,

2:02a destination known around the world for its skiing and snowboarding and so forth. The Q and O announced 300 inches before Jackson Hole. So in Michigan, we have truly four season experiences that are incredibly unique. And now you want to talk about the U.P. and then spring officially arriving this Friday, tomorrow at 1046 AM. Waterfalls. We have over 300 waterfalls across the upper peninsula. And with all that snowfall, they should be spectacular this year. Oh, that's a really good point. So we've got your Michigan Spring bucket list. Michigan officially arrives at 1046 AM Friday. Nick Durbin, media and digital director with travel Michigan from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Here on the Lucian Lance Show, 1290 WLBY. So let's look ahead to warmer weather and what we can do in Michigan. And we'll start with those waterfalls, right? Oh, 300 waterfalls across the upper peninsula, including Tequaminon Falls, which is the second largest waterfall by volume,

3:03east of the Mississippi. And so you can begin with the largest Tequaminon Falls. But there are so many unique hidden gems throughout the upper peninsula. You know, some of the more popular and accessible waterfalls like Canyon Falls, it's right off of the highway 41 as you're heading from Nagani near Marquette up into the Keywood and Up Peninsula. And it's part of kind of a local county park where there's a trail that you walk back into what they call the Grand Canyon of the Upper Peninsula. So during the spring, you know, what's that trail falls out? And you know, you might want to bring your boots because it might be a little muddy and damp for a little while. But as the trails dry out in the upper peninsula, places like Canyon Falls, they're absolutely gorgeous. And you know, laughing white fish falls, another one with a short hike down into the waterfalls. But then up in pictured rocks, national lakeshore, chapel falls, munishing falls, some way unique waterfalls across the UP. Did you call them laughing?

4:05Laughing white fish falls is another unique waterfall where it's interesting because it's got these kind of rocky ridges throughout as it falls at the water cascades down from a top of a cliff. So I don't know why they call it laughing white fish, you know, but it kind of almost gives you that impression with that the sound of the water fluttering down those ridges and cliffs that maybe there's some white fish laughing through. Oh, wow, that is cool. I've not heard that before. Let's keep on the water theme and we're going to go paddling next. So there are really unique water trails, including the here on River Water Trail that passes through Washington County and into Ann Arbor. And then also up north, the chain of lakes water trail, which is passes from Antrim County down through Torch Lake and a bunch of different lakes throughout that region. Those water trails are designed to explore not just, okay, here's a lake or here's a river.

5:06What they do is they connect communities. Like, for example, you can paddle from Ellsworth all the way down to Elk Rapids on the chain of lakes water trail. And then with the here on River Water Trail from Milford all the way down into Ann Arbor. So some really unique paddling experiences. All right, now don't laugh at me, okay. It's been a long time since I was in a canoe. When you go down the river, so you're going with the flow of the river, right? Yes. How do you get back up again? Well, a lot of these outfitters, what they do is they spot a car. So they will help you drop your car off at the end point where you'll be taking off when you're taking out of the water. And then they have shuttle vans and other vehicles that take you back to where you put in. Yeah. And then when you float down your cars already there, they take care of the canoes and kayaks for you or tubes, whatever vehicle that are vessels that you're floating down the river in. Wow. And so that's part of the experience. Like on the flat river up near Traverse City,

6:06I've paddled it many, many times. We have our own kayaks and we paddle a lot on our own. So we have a vehicle that carries the kayaks. And we drop the kayaks off at the put in point, then we drive down and drop off that vehicle at the end and then come back, hop in the boats and paddle down. And there you go. So it's not physically possible to canoe back up the river that doesn't happen? I think in some cases it might be. Like a larger river, like the Grand River and those kinds of places where it's a slower current, you would have to be in pretty good shape because it's a lot of energy, expended paddling against the current river. But I think it is traditional when it is a flowing river that you'll be taking out and then having a vehicle so that you would get a shuttle back to the beginning or however that works. Because I think with lakes, that's one of the great things about it is you don't have to do that. You can put in a one spot, paddle around and explore, like some of the pictured rocks experiences

7:06that they take you out there by a boat with the kayaks in the big large boat. Drop you off, get you out there with your guide and off you go exploring. Wow, you are so active. I can't get over everything you do. You're amazing. Michigan has some of the most amazing for four seasons recreation in the country. We have someone like just talking about paddling something that's the diverse experiences from the here on Riverwater trail to pictured rocks. That's all in one state. We have so many wonderful recreation opportunities and I'd love to enjoy them. You are amazing. All right, so Nick, let's go now on a bike. Where can we take our bikes? Well, so on the trip, Riverwater, it's incredible resource and now with the new park opening up heading south from the downtown area toward the Gordi Hal Bridge, there is going to be nearly five miles of connected river walk, paved sidewalk, it's going to be incredible. So you can ride from Park Plaza or from wherever you are

8:06and downtown Detroit all the way up to Belle Isle to go across the bridge and offer on to Belle Isle if you want to do that. You can explore up and down the Detroit River front, stop at a cafe, grab a cappuccino. If the kids are with you, ride the carousel. It's a truly a destination for enjoying those experiences. Oh, how fun. All right, next is one of my favorites and that's watching a sunrise on Michigan's sunrise side. Well, they call it the sunrise side because you're looking east along the east coast of the lower peninsula along the lake here on shoreline. And this is actually one of my favorite things to do. You know, I love watching the sunrise. It's my favorite time of the day. You know, sometimes it can be a little painful if you have to get up at 5.30 in the morning and the mids, the sun comes up really early. But the still and tranquility in peace that you get watching the sunrise, especially over a great lake, like Lake Huron, there's so many wonderful destinations from Port Huron up to the tip of the thumb in Port Austin. One of my favorites is Tawas Point State Park

9:07over there on their east Tawas and then heading up the coastline to Ascoda, Alpina, Alpina. So many beautiful places to enjoy the sunrise side. Taka and Nick Nurbin from Travel Michigan, the Peer Michigan folks, about his Michigan Spring bucket list. And I hope many of our listeners are gonna incorporate these items into their own list because you're gonna have so much fun around our great state. I want to ask you a question now. Another dumb question. They say there are no dumb questions. The sand dunes, they're only on the west side of the state. There are dunes throughout the state. And you know, there are even dunes in the middle of the state, believe it or not. Oh, and those are from ancient dunes from the ancient lake that once covered most of the state. And so there are dunes that are throughout the state, but I think for the larger dunes that we picture as what are the sand dunes in Michigan? Yeah, on the lower peninsula, those are typically found along the west side of the state because the prevailing winds and the way the glacial marines set up.

10:09But the grand sable dunes, we can do an entire segment on the grand sable dunes, which are located at picture rocks, national lakeshore. They're also over 300 foot tall. They look like the sleeping bear dunes in some ways, in terms of like a very tall, expansive, duned complex along the shore of Lake Superior. So we have many wonderful dunes, including the silver lake sand dunes, which are over in kind of the western part of the state between Luttington, down south of Pentwater and Muskegon and Whitehall. They have ORVs available. It's the only dune in Michigan where motorized vehicles are allowed to be out on the dunes. They have a special season for it, begins April 1st and they're actually outfitters where you can rent an ORV and go out there with appropriate safety precautions and helmets and whatever, they have them all available there. And I've done this. I've rented an ORV and it was a four-seater. So I had people with me and we went up and went all up and down the dunes. They have special directions where they tell you

11:10which way you have to go up or down and you can drive right out to Lake Michigan. And stand there on the beach. It is a really neat experience. Oh, that's incredible. I didn't know that about all the dunes, especially the one in the middle of the state you were talking about, the ancient one. Yeah, there are dunes over, even just north of Mount Pleasant where I went to high school, just along the US 127 that goes up the middle of the lower peninsula, you can see dunes along the side of the highway as you're driving. You're like, yeah, that is a sand dunes. So it is very interesting how the dunes have proliflated across the state. Incredible. Next is to watch for a certain kind of flower on the hill sides around Michigan. What is that? I lived in Traverse City for almost 20 years and one of my favorite spring activities was to go out and hike the trails out at Slivenberg Dunes National Lakeshore as the trilliums began to bloom. And this is really in some time in May, you know, you've got the Morales season

12:10that begins in late April, early May. And then as we progress further into the month of May, the temperatures warm up a little warmer, the days get a little bit longer. Some of the wildflowers begin to bloom the trillium and the way that it grows, it kind of occupies one larger area and kind of grows throughout that area. There's an area on Peerwood Point Trail in Slivenberg Dunes National Lakeshore near Glen Arbor in which the entire hillside, I'm talking acres of white trillium blooms. If you get there during the right three or four day period when they're all in bloom, you can get some incredible photos of the trilliums across the entire hillside. And I understand it is illegal to pick trillium on public land in Michigan, Nick. Yeah, it is a protected species of flower for that reason. And we definitely advise, please leave those for everyone to enjoy. So you're looking for the three paddled white flower. It does fade though to like a pink purple flower later.

13:14You'll see different colors of trillium. The white is the dominant color, but you'll see the pink. And there's even the rare species of trillium where there's a green streak in the middle of the blossom. So it's like a green and white blossom. So yeah, there are some different looks to the flowers on the trillium, but the beautiful white trillium is one of my favorites. That must be stunning to see just acres of them all together. What is that? It's spectacular. I've stumbled upon them, even down in Southern Michigan. There's a trail that I hike just south east of Grand Rapids where I live. And the trilliums are out there too. So they're across the state. And also I know in Ann Arbor at the Farm Park over there, east of downtown, down in that area, along Washington, on Boulevard, there are trillium that bloom there. So you can go find them there too. I did not know that the County Farm Park is beautiful. Okay, so that's number six on your list to capture photos of a hillside covered and Michigan trilliums in bloom. Our final point today is to visit something

14:17that a lot of us never get a chance to see or go into. Well, we've talked about Lake Huron and the Sunrise side. They have some of the more unique lighthouses across the state and Port Huron, the Fort Graschot Lighthouses, the oldest lighthouse in Michigan. And I mentioned Thomas Point. It's such a unique lighthouse because when they built it 100 plus years ago, they built a lighthouse at the end of the point. And this natural isthmus that is being formed that comes out of the shore from Lake Huron into Thomas Bay. It basically forms Thomas Bay. It is constantly growing and still is to this day. The sand and erosion wave action is growing. And within about 25 years, the lighthouse was a half mile off of shore. So they had to build a new lighthouse. And currently they have the second lighthouse is when you see all the photos. And then the true navigational beacon is actually at the end of the point,

15:18which is a more of a temporary structure. It's a metal structure that can be relocated if needed because it's a unique story about Great Lakes lighthouses. But of course, over where I live on the west side of the state, Holland, Grand Haven, St. Joe, so many gorgeous lighthouses and then up in the upper peninsula too. Spectacularizes like Eagle Harbor and the Q&A peninsula. We have the most lighthouses of any state, so plenty to choose from. And you can go up in some of them, right? There are many like Point Betsy up near Benzie in Benzie County, west of Traverse City and you're sleeping bare dunes. They have a friends group, the friends of the Point Betsy lighthouse that operates public hours, mostly during the summer month, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, where they give tours. And you can go up in the tower and see the for now lens, see what the lighthouse keeper, the view that they used to see from up there. When it was manned by a full-time lighthouse keeper. And so yeah, there are several that offer tours. I know that little sable point over there by Silver Lake Sand dunes also offers tours.

16:19Incredible, thank you so much. This is a wonderful spring bucket list, Nick. And I hope everyone gets a chance to check off all of those boxes. Your trip begins where? At Michigan.org. Michigan.org is where it starts. Get on that site and check it out and plan your next trip around the great state of Michigan. Our thanks to Nick Nurbin, median digital director with travel Michigan, the folks behind the pure Michigan campaign. He's on the area each week right here on Ann Arbor's talk station, 1290 WLBY.