Panking that Powder snow.

A snowshoe adventure with Yooper Steve and John.

Hope everyone is doing well, winter is soon coming to an end, usually the last flurries we see are somewhere around late April or around Mother’s Day. Last year the last snow I had on the ground at my Tamarack loc was May 14th, but that’s the last inch, but still some snow could be found in the deep woods till the end of May and into the first week of June.

Anyway as part of being a subscriber to this substack I will be sharing fun adventures across the Upper Peninsula. Sometimes they will be more popular places, but many will be more off the beaten path adventures. That is what this adventure is going to be, an adventure that a friend invited me on. Sometimes they will have videos, lots of pictures, maps, lots of text, a little text, a few pictures, I guess for the most part I will take it post by post and see how people like the adventure posts.

As this is my first outdoor adventure post I will be making it available for all subscribers, Free subscribers and Paid subscribers. If you aren’t already I would love for you to join in the subscription plan so you can access the content in full.

Paid subscribers support gives me the ability to continue providing UP snow reports, fall color reports, UP adventures, and other content. Eventually many of these posts I make on my adventures may just end up in a book one day, I have hundreds of adventures to share. Thanks for giving my substack a read.

Let’s Pank the snowshoe trail.

Pank: to compress or flatten dirt or snow. Image below is a roller used by many cities and towns across the UP to pank the snow on the roadways.

So on January 31st a friend of mine John, I call him the Forester, invited me on a snowshoe hike to pank down the fresh 12-15 inches of fresh snow that we have just gotten over the last 24 hours. I would able to after I got my daily duties of measuring snowfall at all of my 6 snowfall stations from Calumet, Dollar Bay, and Houghton. So we decided on about 2pm for a time to meet up at John’s home and we would leave from there. So I met up with him, gather my dslr camera, my extremely well used Manfrotto tripod, GoPro 8, rabbit fur hat, backpack, water bottle, and stuff inside. Now John had the snowshoes, yes I have snowshoes but John wanted to use his traditional wood snowshoes with sinew (connective tissue from animals). The traditional snowshoes aren’t what people are buying these days, but it was the only type available up to about the 1970s. The Chippewa of the Great Lakes and early French explorers along Gitchee Gummee used these to traverse the deep snows.

Now why did we use them? Well, 1. they are wider, longer, flatter, quieter, hold up to the cold temps, and are superior to pank a new snowshoe trail, traverse deep snow as you get more floatation, and you don’t post-hole. And, 2. with the deeper snow you won’t use as much energy as you walk in them as you won’t be sinking as deep in the fresh powder. Snowshoeing already is a workout and you don’t need to make it more of a workout unless you really like stressing your body more. If you really want to loose some calories and get in shape, put on a pair of snowshoes, wooden or aluminum you’ll burn 3x as many calories as walking down the street. Do bring your bottle of water, you’ll dehydrate 3x as fast also in the winter and drinking your water will give you the ability to stay on your adventure longer.

After loading up the stuff in John’s truck we headed off to a trail we’ve dubbed the Finney creek trail, it’s a trail that is used more by the locals in the area, our hiking group, and not many others. It is a trail that makes its way across other trails in the Churning Rapids trail system crossing Spring creek and along Finney creek, it’s more of a winter trail. Keep in mind this winter trail does cross the fat tire bike trails and xc ski trails so be careful and watch out for bikes and skiers and only traverse those trails don’t snowshoe on them as they put a lot of grooming efforts in them for those using those trails for those purposes.

It is a fun little trail that is roughly 2 miles and peaceful and quiet adventure through a mixed forest with small creeks and gentle rolling ravines. There isn’t a lot of ups and downs, but just enough to keep it interesting and help you burn a few calories.

I have put some pictures up which you will find below and I have also included a map of my track. I will also post the coordinates and info on parking.

Iverson snowshoes with sinew - Alaskan snowshoes.

Shelf fungus along Finney creek

Fresh snow clinging to the trees along the trail.

Standing with the Alaskan snowshoes made by Iverson

John panks trail along Finney creek, big birch tree.

We cross snowbike trail on way to Finney creek

Signs at crossing at Jimmy dean trail

Elevation profile, as you can see rolling hills.

Light blue is the track for this hike we went on.

Parking spot, Google link

6.4 miles from Welcome to Hancock sign just as you cross the bride from Houghton.

Here is the link with the directions from that point, it will open up in Google maps.

Make sure you park closest to the forest side of the road. In the winter the plows come by in the mornings usually before 10am. The road is always cleared as there are homes along High Point Rd.

I would also like to make you aware the trail system of Churning Rapids and Maasto Hiihto trail system is mostly private property graciously made available for recreation use of biking, hiking, and snowshoeing. The trails are groomed and taken care by volunteers with the Keweenaw Nordic Ski Club so please take care of them and enjoy your time out there using them. Also you can purchase a day pass or season pass online through the website or use the donation box at the Chalet trail head.

https://www.facebook.com/ChurningRapidsSnowBike/

https://www.facebook.com/KNSCHancock

Thanks for taking the time to read about this adventure and hopefully one day you’ll be able to enjoy a winter or summer hike here or along the Churning Rapids trail system. I can’t wait to share more adventures with you!

—Yooper Steve - facebook.com/yoopersteve - instagram.com/yoopersteve