the
itten
Protecting Predators Michigan’s Great Lakes wolves continue to spark debate
Winter 2015
shorties
regulars
long form
Name’s Aurora 5 Non-tourist destinations 8 DNR’s adventure central 10
MI adventures: winter edition 4 Happy hunters: Mama Bear 11
Protecting predators 6 Cold elegance 12
the
itten
Designer Alexa Walkowicz Content Contributors Unsplash Wikimedia Commons Stafford’s Hospitality Pure Michigan Blog MLive Detroit Free Press Michigan.gov Huffington Post Outside Online National Geographic Cosmopolitan Trail Space Backcountry Gear Hardcore Outdoor Only In Your State Backpacking-United Campsaver Pro Standard Wacaco
Dear Adventurer, It’s that time of year again. It seems the skiers and snowboarders are out in full force, but what about the hikers, the hunters, the night-sky-viewers? It’s true, Michigan winters can be brutal. But they are also beautiful. In this issue, we have some inspiration for you. The cold can’t keep adventurers inside. In between warming up by the fire and drinking hot chocolate, go explore the wintry landscape. We are blessed with a beautiful state, and our winters are unparalleled in the states. Take time to enjoy it, and all its wonders, like the northern lights, the gray wolves and the ice caves written about in the magazine. Get outside.
Alexa Walkowicz Editor-in-Chief
MI Adventures:
Winter Edition
why it’s
worth it By Jessica Sayles
Winter is here and the cold temperatures may keep us inside. However, it’s still important that we get outside. I’m not talking about the walk from your car to the grocery store or the trip to your mailbox, I mean go outside and staying out. Here are three key reasons get out of the house and into the sun during the chilly winter months:
Absorbing sun gives you a boost of Vitamin D
what to do in the mitten this winter 1. Catch a winter sunrise over the
Crooked River at Stafford’s Crooked River Lodge. 2. Enjoy world class skiing at Nub’s Nob, Boyne Highlands and Boyne Mountain. 3. Bundle up to hike the picturesque sand dunes or cross country ski at Petoskey State Park. 4. Rent a snowmobile from Stafford’s Crooked River Lodge and explore hundreds of miles of trails. 5. Walk or cross country ski through the Bay View community and enjoy the gingerbread style Victorian cottages. 6. Enjoy outdoor winter activities at Mt. McSauba Recreation Area in Charlevoix – one of the few municipal ski facilities left in Michigan. 7. Visit the National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods and museum.
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8. Take a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the historic community of Bay View at Stafford’s Bay View Inn (Saturdays in January & February, weather permitting). 9. Ice skate or sled at Petoskey’s Winter Sports Park. 10. Snowshoe through the historic town of Bay View or one of the numerous hiking trails in the area. 11. Go ice fishing on one of Michigan’s many local lakes. 12. Big Bear Adventures in Indian River offers guided winter rafting trips and snowshoeing (17 miles northeast of Petoskey; 9 miles east of Alanson). 13. Relax by the outdoor fire pit at Stafford’s Crooked River Lodge. 14. Take a winter walk on Sanctuary Island in Alanson. Enjoy the hand cranked ferry and the beautiful views of the Crooked River.
The FDA recently increased the daily recommended amount of Vitamin D from 200 IU a day to 2,000 IU a day. Vitamin D is essential to developing healthy bones and fighting all kinds of diseases and illnesses. It has also been shown to give the immune system a healthy boost. Many adults and children alike don’t get enough Vitamin D in their diets. The sun provides plenty of Vitamin D when exposed to your skin. Try to go for a nature walk during the day to get enough Vitamin D. Just make sure to bundle up to stay warm.
Fight the Winter Blues
Being outside, especially during winter months, can help depression that comes from spending too much time indoors. Exercise and sunlight together can get your blood flowing, providing organs with much needed nutrients to give us energy, stave off the blues and trim the waistline. Enjoy winter activities with your family too. Try ice skating, skiing, snowshoeing and sledding. Maybe build a snowman or make snow angels. Have fun with your family and stay active.
Weather won’t make you sick
We have all been told by our mothers and grandmothers that we will catch our death of cold if we go out in cold temperatures. This is simply not true. If your kids play outside in the cold they will probably get runny noses (this being a natural way for the body to excrete bacteria in cold conditions) but not much else. The only way to catch a cold is to catch it from another person, not just by being out in cold weather. However, immune system may be slightly weaker from the chilly temps, so stay away from people who are sick until you can warm up. Just because the temperatures are a little uncomfortable doesn’t mean you need to be stuck inside all winter.
The name’s Aurora Tips for meeting MI’s elusive northern lights By Shawn Malone
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he aurora borealis is a breathtaking sight that many consider themselves lucky to catch. Today, Marquette-based visual artist Shawn Malone shares her secrets for viewing the Northern Lights in Michigan. The aurora borealis – it amazes, energizes and astounds with no two events ever being the same. As we cruise through the solar maximum in 2013, the peak of an eleven year cycle of the sun and a time of the greatest auroral activity, there is a heightened opportunity to catch a northern lights show right here in Michigan. Michigan has a lot of things going for it when it comes to northern lights viewing, the most important being 1). latitude and 2). relatively low light pollution in many areas. Northern Michigan sits in a great location latitude-wise, as the auroral oval dips further south on nights of stronger auroral activity. The Upper Peninsula is blessed with hundreds of miles of shoreline along the south shore of Lake Superior, which provides some of the best northern lights viewing in the lower 48
due to the very dark night skies. When looking north over Lake Superior, one can see right down to the horizon and take in a 180 degree unobstructed view of the night sky. Getting to a location without the obstruction of a treeline or hills is important at our latitude, as many times an auroral display will sit very low on the horizon. Having a dark night sky with little light pollution is necessary when looking for the northern lights, as the light of the aurora is equal to the brightness of starlight. If you’ve never seen the northern lights and want to maximize your opportunity to do so,learn and pay attention to sunspot activity, as that’s what drives the northern lights.
Get away from the light domes of the cities and head north on I-75 and get to a dark sky location in Upper Michigan. If you make it as far as the bridge, check out Headlands International Dark Sky Park, two miles west of Mackinaw City. This is a newly designated international dark sky park, one of the few dark sky parks in the country. Once in the Upper Peninsula, anywhere along the south shore of Lake Superior is optimal: Brimley, Whitefish Point, Pictured Rocks, Autrain, Marquette, Big Bay, Skanee, Eagle River, Eagle Harbor, Copper Harbor are just a few of the places that come to mind. Let your eyes adjust to the night sky, set up a lawn chair and a blanket, and enjoy one of nature’s most spectacular wondrous light shows, the northern lights! It is an experience you won’t soon forget. Shawn Malone is a visual artist based in Marquette, Michigan. Her photo/video portfolio of the aurora from Michigan has been internationally awarded and recognized, with the video, “North Country Dreamland” being a Smithsonian 2013 viewer’s choice winner.
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Cover Story
Protecting
Predators
Michigan’s Great Lakes wolves continue to spark debate despite endangered status
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By Keith Matheny
he Michigan Department of Natural Resources took not-soveiled shots at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s relisting of Great Lakes wolves as endangered last month, in the state’s updated draft wolf management plan released Wednesday. “Protection of Michigan wolves under the Federal Endangered Species Act is no longer warranted,” one portion of the updated wolf plan states, adding elsewhere, “Regardless of changes in legal status ... wolves in Michigan have surpassed State and Federal population recovery goals for 15 years.” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in December threw out the Obama Administration’s 2012 removal of Great Lakes wolves from the endangered species list. That delisting had enabled Michigan’s controversial first wolf hunt in November and December of 2013. “We are frustrated with that ruling,” said Kevin Swanson, a DNR wildlife biologist and chief of its wolf program, adding that the updated wolf management plan “absolutely” reflects that frustration. The federal relisting puts on hold any future wolf hunts in Michigan, and followed more than a year of tit-for-tat moves between anti-hunt and pro-hunting groups and the state Legislature. Voters last November rejected two proposals that affirmed the state’s ability, through the appointed Natural Resources Commission, to designate wolves and other animals as game species eligible for hunting. The proposals were put on the ballot following petition drives by the nonprofit anti-wolf hunt group Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, with support from the Humane Society of the United States. The group was urging “no” votes on both proposals, so that Michigan voters could have a say on game hunts. But wolf hunt supporters rendered the two proposals moot with their own petition last summer, which prompted the state Legislature and Gov. Rick Snyder in August to pass a new law affirming the Natural Resources Commission will designate fish and game species for harvesting. That law is set to take effect at the end of this month — though on wolves the federal relisting as endangered supersedes it. The DNR’s wolf management plan updates its 2008 plan, and maintains its four goals: maintain a viable wolf population; facilitate wolf-related benefits; minimize wolf-related conflicts, and conduct science-based and socially acceptable management of wolves. While supporting a framework under which a wolf hunt could be considered as a management tool, the plan “does not recommend or oppose establishing a regulated harvest season on wolves.” The DNR also outlined its accomplishments on some of the 2008 plan’s goals, including annual surveys of the Upper Peninsula wolf population, expanding reviews of public attitudes on wolves and wolf
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education projects with farmers and throughout the state. Nancy Warren, a resident of Ewen in the Upper Peninsula and Great Lakes regional director for the nonprofit National Wolfwatcher Coalition, said she supports the wolf management plan — but not how state officials interpret it and carry it out. While she agreed Michigan’s inaugural wolf hunt was quite conservative compared with those in other states — only 23 wolves were killed — the plan offers no guarantees that wolf hunts wouldn’t expand in the future, she said. “That’s what I was looking for in this plan that I did not see,” she said. “I didn’t see, ‘We do not support trapping wolves.’ There isn’t any of that.” DNR officials maintained the hunt was designed to reduce wolf-related conflicts, and the updated report provides new numbers illustrating the extent of such problems. The U.P.’s wolf population is at 636 wolves as of winter 2014, up from 509 wolves in winter 2007. The report notes that from 1998 through 2014, the DNR and U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services verified 249 wolf attacks on livestock on 84 U.P. farms — 9% of all U.P. farms. In its 2008 report, which contained numbers from 1998 through 2007, only 70 such instances were noted, and on 45 farms. The two agencies also verified 72 cases of wolves preying on domestic dogs in Michigan, with 57% of those attacks involving bear and rabbit hunting dogs in the field. In the 2008 report, there were 40 verified wolf attacks on dogs through 2007, with 43% involving hunting dogs. Drew Youngedyke, spokesman for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, said the organization supports the updated plan, and returning management of wolves to state hands. MUCC has joined the DNR and other states and agencies in a lawsuit against the federal government seeking to overturn the wolf relisting. “Their recovery is a conservation success story,” he said. “You have basically one lone federal judge who bought the Humane Society of the United States’ very misleading brief. HSUS’s misuse of the Endangered Species Act is not about maintaining this wolf population; it’s about eliminating a very specific management tool — a public hunt — that they oppose.” While the courts may take years to sort it out, Warren said there is room to find common ground. The National Wolfwatcher Coalition and Humane Society have both appealed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, asking that Great Lakes wolves be designated as threatened rather than endangered. It maintains protections but allows farmers to once again kill problem wolves, she said. “The perception is that we’re, ‘Never kill a wolf under any circumstance,’ and that’s not true,” she said.
GIFTS TO GET
YOUR
SELF Y THIS CHRISTMAS ou’ve made a list, checked it twice, and now you’re jealous. Why not pick up a few gifts just for you? Because let’s face it, you deserve it. So get ready to #TreatYourself.
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Hyperlite Mountain Ice Pack
Astis Kibo Gloves
GoPro Grill Mount
Mt Hardwear Phantom Jacket
Made from sailcloth, weighing just 2.3 pounds, the Hyperlite Mountain’s Ice pack ($325) excels where many average flyweights fail: it’s durable and comfortable when loaded.
The GoPro mount from Pro Standard called the Grill ($30), lets you grip your GoPro in your teeth while snowboarding or skiing. The bite pads are soft and comfortable, and you can still breathe or talk easily while shooting. When compared to helmet or chest mounts, the perspective feels much more natural.
With silicone-injected suede leather, thick Polartec fleece lining, and Cree Indian-inspired beadwork, the Astis Kibo gloves ($165) are sure to look and perform great.
Water-resistant, 850-fill down in Mt Hardwear’s Phantom jacket ($350) means less worrying about moisture, an essential for winter adventures. We also liked the hot-water-bottlesized pockets, the layering-friendly fit, the coziness of the fluffy down, and the fact that it stuffs into its own pocket. Who doesn’t like that?
TOP PLACES TO TRY OUT YOUR FANCY NEW GEAR Big Agnes Cros Sleeping Bag
The minus-20 Big Agnes Cros sleeping bag ($500) has a roomy cut, water-repellant down, and vertical baffles that distribute heat more effectively than horizontal designs.
Patagonia Das Pants
Patagonia’s Das pants ($249) are constructed with quick-drying PrimaLoft insulation and kept us toasty on a frigid evening in the Tetons. Plus, they have side vents.
Links to where these items can be purchased are at www.themitten.com/ asf_giftstogetyourself.
Minipresso
The seven-inch, 0.8-pound Minipresso ($39) delivers the nectar of the gods even when you’re miles from a road (let alone a café). Pour grounds or pop in pre-loaded capsules, add hot water, give a few pumps of the hand lever, and the Minipresso lovingly pushes the H2O through the coffee at 116 psi.
Mount Bohemia’s infamous Voodoo Mountain has a vertical drop of close to 700 feet and about 100 acres of terrain with a combination of open runs and some tree runs, making it one of the biggest runs in the Midwest. Cadillac’s snow trail system spans some 200 mills of terrain and connects you to other trail systems, giving you countless hours of riding fun. Did you think the falls at Tahquamenon Falls State Park were impressive before? Get ready to be wowed when you get a glimpse of them frozen. You’ve probably heard of people going dog sledding in Michigan, but maybe you were incredulous about whether it was really a thing. Trust us, it is in Grand Marais and you’ll want to try it. Just get outside. For more destinations visit www.themitten. com/toptrips.
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A camper with Franklin-Wright Settlements crosses the rope bridge at the DNR’s new Outdoor Adventure Center. Photos by Regina Boone
Jasmine Frowen, 3, a camper with Franklin-Wright Settlements is playing on “The Big Tree” at the DNR’s new Outdoor Adventure Center. Photos by Regina Boone
Adventure Central
Department of Natural Resources opens Outdoor Adventure Center on Detroit riverfront By Matt Helms
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he state Department of Natural Resources Outdoor Adventure Center, Detroit’s newest riverfront attraction, opened for a sneak peek today, giving a look at the facility designed to bring interactive Up North recreation activities to families in the city. Built in the rehabilitated historic Globe Building on Atwater near Milliken State Park and Harbor, the center includes a man-made rock formation with a 36-foot waterfall, a 40-foot man-made tree in which kids can climb through the trunk, simulators of offroad vehicles, kayaks, canoes, snowmobiles and fishing boats, an indoor archery range, a 3,000-squarefoot freshwater aquarium and other features. The public grand opening of the 41,000-square-foot facility is on Monday. The project took three years to design and build and cost $18 million — $13 million for renovation and $5 million for exhibits, the DNR said. Gov. Rick Snyder — who toured the facility and quipped that he caught a fish and rode a kayak, a mountain bike, an ORV, and a snowmobile, all within 30 minutes — praised the facility as another symbol of Detroit’s resurgence. “It’s so exciting to say we can share this with all the people of Michigan but especially the kids in Detroit,” Snyder said before the grand-opening ribbon
was cut by Nicole Curtis, the metro Detroit native who stars in the cable TV show “Rehab Addict” and has rehabilitated vacant homes in the city. Snyder noted the ongoing transformation of formerly industrial land into prime public recreation space on the city’s waterfront, and the reuse of a building that sat empty and decaying for decades. “It shows you can make that comeback happen,” Snyder said. “It shows you can reinvent yourself.” Mayor Mike Duggan said the city’s riverfront is becoming a public destination to be proud of. “For much of Detroit’s history, the public didn’t have access to the waterfront,” Duggan said. “We are headed toward a city where the public has access to the waterfront from Belle Isle bridge to the Ambassador Bridge. We’re getting there.” Anaya Goff, 9, of Southfield, was one of the children invited to attend the celebration today; she sang with the Detroit Youth Choir and Performing Arts Company. Goff got to check out all the interactive exhibits and proclaimed the center “a great, fun, educational place” that has already encouraged her to explore more of the outdoors. “I want to go camping, and I want to explore new creatures and new places,” she said. For more info, visit http://www.michigan.gov/oac.
If You Go...
Address: 1801 Atwater St., Detroit. Opening week hours: Noon-4 Mon-Friday 10-5 Saturday Noon-5 Sunday Regular hours: 10-4 Wed-Friday 10-5 Saturday Noon-5 Sunday Admission: • $5 for adults • $3 for seniors and children age 2-12 • Free for children under the age of 2 • Annual family memberships are $50.
Happy Hunters:
Mama Bear
By Andrew Dodson
Karen Kuch poses with her prized hunt, a 220-pound black bear that she shot in the Upper Peninsula. Photo by Andrew Dodson
Age:
Height:
73
4'11"
Prize:
Gun:
220lb Michigan Black Bear
Ruger
44 Magnum Rifle
Hunting Career:
35 years
Time of Kill:
5:35 p.m.
Like your typical great-grandmother, Karen Kuch enjoys doing crossword puzzles, reading books and baking. But Ms. Kuch is anyting but your typical great-grandma. Measuring in at 4 feet, 11 inches tall, the 73-year-old great-grandmother traveled to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula last week with her Ruger 44 Magnum rifle and successfully hunted a 220-pound Michigan black bear. Kuch secured a Michigan bear hunting license through a competitive lottery system earlier this year after trying for the past seven years. And on her first day out on property just north of Newberry in Luce County, she hunted her prized trophy. “It was the hunt of a lifetime,” she said. “I was lucky enough to get a bear on my first hunt. It was such a thrill.” Kuch’s hunt started at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, a day when a big storm thrashed across a large portion of Michigan. She was joined by her son-in-law Steve VandeMark and Jimmy Gretzinger of Michigan Out of Doors Television, who was filming the hunt for a future show. After waiting about three hours for the storm to roll through, Kuch spotted the first bear of the day just as the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds. That bear was moving fast, though, and she couldn’t get a good shot at it. An hour passed before another one came. This time, the bear was in range. The petite great-grandmother steadied her firearm, aimed and pulled the trigger. But she missed. “I was devastated,” she said. “I thought, ‘That was it. We sat out here all day and got nothing.’ “ But her hunting crew helped keep her optimistic. “They kept telling me that another one is going to come,” she said. “One bigger than the last.” She even pulled out her Rosary
and said a few prayers. And sure enough, at 5:30 p.m., another bear started walking by their camp, and this one was clearly the biggest of the three, she said. Kuch wasn’t going to squander this opportunity. She focused on the animal, pulled the trigger and watched it drop to the ground. “I couldn’t believe it — it was very exciting,” she said. Hunting big game isn’t new for Kuch. Seventeen years ago, she won the even more exclusive state hunting lottery for an elk license and successfully hunted a 6-by-6 elk that weighed 720 pounds. Ask Kuch if she has been hunting her whole life and she’s quick to tell you, “No, just the past 35 years.” Her father was a hunter, as was her late husband Jim, who died four years ago. “It’s just something I enjoy,” she said. Her daughter Shelly Kuch-VandeMark said it was quite the celebration when her mom returned to their cabin up north with her bear. “I’m very proud of her — she’s quite the hunter,” she said. “My husband (Steve VandeMark), who is a very good hunter, told me this has been the best hunt he’s ever been on.” On Tuesday, Sept. 15, Kuch was at her home in Frankenlust Township, cutting the fat off her bear meat. “They say if there’s a lot of fat on the bear, it’s going to be a brutal winter for Michigan,” she said. “I’m here to tell you that it’s going to be a bad one. There’s a lot of fat on this bear.” Kuch isn’t calling this hunt a bucket list item. She said her only goal is to be a wonderful grandmother to her 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. But that doesn’t mean she’s done hunting. She was up in her blind on Monday, Sept. 14, getting it ready for bow hunting season, which starts Oct. 1. “I’ll be ready,” she said.
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Cold Elegance Michigan’s ice caves provide glimpse into nature’s dangerous beauty By Kate Abbey-Lambertz
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rekking to the Lake Michigan in the next couple weeks and hike along the frozen shore, you might find yourself standing on top of miles of spectacular ice caves. Tom Auch, a photography teacher at Northern Michigan College in Traverse City, Mich., did just that this week. On Tuesday, he and a videographer friend, George Meredith, followed a dirt road near Leland to the lake, then hiked along the shore as it gradually rose. At some point, they were able to climb down the icy ledge, and found themselves looking at 20- to 30-foot-tall caves, some as big as garages. Auch got the tip about the ice caves from a resident who told him he had to go see the phenomena for himself, so they set out early in the morning with the temperature below zero degrees. “We walked out onto Lake Michigan another half of a mile to get perspective. Each one seemed to have a little hole in the top exposing blue sky through ice,” he told The Huffington Post. “They had stalactites and stalagmites. … We found over a dozen spectacular caves and as we looked north and south all along the shores of Lake Michigan, we could see that there were many more, for miles and miles and miles that we didn’t experience.” The Great Lakes have more ice cover than anytime in the last 20 years and are quickly coming up on the 1979 record of 95 percent cover. The deep freeze has given travelers an opportunity to see some remark-
able spots: Lake Superior’s frozen surface has meant visitors can reach the Apostle Island ice caves for the first time in several years. About 4,000 people have been trekking to the remote Wisconsin area to see those the jaw-dropping sight each weekend, according to the Associated Press. The Lake Michigan caves aren’t quite as remote or far north, though the Leelanau Peninsula -- what Michiganders call “the pinkie finger” of the state -- is quiet in the winter. Auch came to Traverse City from Los Angeles, where he had been a stockbroker, and had only meant to stay a summer with his parents. Instead, he found his own house, a teaching job he’s held for the last 15 years, and a wife. A self-described nature-lover, Auch talked of exploring his new home in all seasons, as well as the rest of the world. Of all the places he’s seen in his travels, he said, the ice caves were one of the top three most incredible experiences. The trek is dangerous, he warned, though not impossible. On the hike, he said, the ice was more than a foot thick and had sharp shards sticking out. He fell several times and said ice cleats, which attach to the bottom of shoes and keep you from slipping, are essential. But he thinks it was well worth to see the caves. “It’s really something I’ve never seen before. Truly, a once in a lifetime sight,” Auch said.