Even though our temps have held pretty steady in the mid to upper 60's, the fall colors are starting to take over. We took a wonderful drive yesterday on the Curly Lewis Highway - up to Paradise - checked out the Tahquamenon River Mouth campground, down past the Tahquamenon Falls and home again. In some areas, especially the Tahquamenon River Valley, the fall colors were really coming on nicely. Lots of the small maples already were bright red. Some of the Birch were getting yellow and even the Tamaracks were already showing signs of needles changing colors. We haven't seen a frost yet and it appears no freezing temps are being projected into the near future. [NOAA forecast for Deer Park]
Salmon are starting to show up in the Two Hearted River. The people fishing at the mouth are doing pretty good early in the mornings. Fish in the river are pretty limited yet. However, we have picked up almost an inch of rain over the course of the last few days and this will certainly help stimulate the run. It's only going to get better. After a very cold front came through last week the lake fishing slowed down a lot. However, the fishing reports the last couple of days have shown that fishing has indeed picked back up and the pike are being much more active than what they were.
Bear hunters are now out and about the woods. Heard of a big one taken off the CCI road last week that went 480 lbs. Three others were taken fairly close by this past week with those running between 160-180 lbs. Deer reports have been fairly steady. Interesting thing is that at lease three different bucks were seen still in velvet. Seems a bit late for that but all that can change real quick. Bird hunting has been and remains very slow.
Talked to a friend that picked blueberries yesterday who was very happy with the quality of berries. And we're getting a lot of pleasure out of our sunflowers - peaked out in height and color.
Tourism sure has slowed down since last week. Weekends will remain busy with all the different user groups coming in. This week in the cabins we will have moto-cross riders, agate pickers, color peepers and fisherman (both brookies and salmon). It's a great time to come up north with a lot of options on things to do. If nothing else you can just sit back and enjoy the beauty.
Hope to see you up north.
Mike & Monica
