Hey there. I’m heading up to tip of the mitt and will be there Sunday afternoon 7.14.24 and looking to float a river and try not to paddle alone. Anyone around wanting to check out some water, let me know. Flexi on venue 248-403-6327
14 ft Aquaterra Spectrum, yes, it’s ancient but have taken it everywhere and love it.
The Jordan River is a nice paddle if the water level is decent. Sorry, I don’t live in Michigan any more or I’d be up for joining you!
https://www.fishweb.com/maps/antrim/jordanriver/index.html#google_vignette
Dang, i’ve been doing the Au Sable all my life, along with others around the area, but that’s all people want to float this weekend… Thanks and I’ll scope out the Jordan and see what’s what… Hope you’re still paddling and keeping it on the dry side of the water.
Oh, yeah, keeping all my hulls wet. I’ll be back in Michigan in late August for a week (with a couple of boats) for a family reunion and some visits to friends and family, but pretty much will stick around the southwest quarter of the mitten.
FYI, forecast calls for possible thunderstorms today. The humidity is about 92% up here. Not many places to hide on the Jordan.
WAIT a minute here! THAT’S not upper Michigan! It’s bad enough to call the Lower Peninsula “Northern” Michigan, but da UP is across the bridge! We Yoopers (even us transplants) must unite against such disinformation!
Te UP should be part of Wisconsin anyhoo.
I’ve always known about the geography of Michigan and the “YooPee” and “Yoopers” since both my parents were born/raised in the state and we spent most summers with the grandparents and cousins there. And I practically memorized my favorite book from childhood, “Paddle to the Sea” about the geography of the state and the Great Lakes.
When I moved to MI for 8 years as an adult I did find that there are some natives who refer to the parts of the “mitten” between Cadillac and Mackinaw City as “the north”. First encountered this when one of my co-workers at the new job mentioned that they were going to their cottage “up north” for the weekend. When I responded “Wow, what part of the U.P.?” I was quickly corrected that “north” meant the upper half of the lower "mitten"and their cabin was near the Jordan River.
And that was how the other people I came to know there consistently referred to the those parts of the state. The U.P. was always the U.P. , and never “the North”. My eventual boyfriend when I lived there, who was born and raised in Michigan (Detroit area) who had Finnish grandparents in the U.P., also referred to Traverse City, Charlevoix and even Houghton Lake as “up north”. Maybe that was just a Grand Rapids thing.
It’s all relative, I suppose. When I lived in northern NY (the ADKs), anything north of White Plains was “upstate” to NYCers, and when I lived in Minnesota, the “north” started just beyond the 694 Minneapolis/St. Paul beltway. The size of one’s world is defined by the breadth of their travel.
Hah, urban New Yorkers! To them, anything beyond the metro area is the hinterlands. I was always amused by “New Yorker” cartoonist Saul Steinberg’s “maps” showing the locals’ perceptions of the world.
Yup, “north” is always relative and regional. In Great Britain, the residents of England proper refer to Yorkshire as “the North” even though it is barely at the midpoint of the land mass. The farthest “northerly” region is referred to as Scotland. I think in Canada, any area more than 50 miles above the US border is “the North”
Here in PA, anything above Interstate 80 is “the north”. I’ve always had family in northern NY and think of Interstate 90 as the defining line for “upstate”.
Just so we don’t get forced into Central Time, I’m okay with that.
Nope, it’s an “all the LP” thing. I grew up in Indiana, and my family’s cabin is roughly east of Grayling. Growing up, that was “up north”. And all our LP family and friends think of that as Northern Michigan. I’ve been in the UP (Keweenaw Peninsula) since college in 1984, and it really seems ridiculous. Durn Trolls 
I’ve heard a rumor that people can live quite happily in Central Time, but I hear you!
Driving north on I-75 in Michigan there is a sudden change from the rich flat farmland into forested hills and moraines before West Branch. Up 127 the change is somewhere near Clare. The line is clearly visible on satellite views too. https://www.google.com/maps/@44.1096866,-85.0732275,594605m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
To me that is the border of “up north”, where you find famous paddling rivers like the Au Sable, Pine, and Pere Marquette.
To me the Adirondacks had even more of an up north vibe than northern Michigan. But Cincinnatti’s version of “up north” is down in Kentucky.
It’s really the “Northern Michigan” thing, rather than “Up North” that bugs me. It is north of most of the population in the state, so when people travel there they are going north. And yeah, we used to come up via 127 as a kid, and Clare was the known dividing line. But the claim that it’s the northernmost part of the state is just silly. The terminology is inaccurate. It’s the Northern LOWER PENINSULA of Michigan. It’s like the occasional national maps that completely leave the UP off, or show it as part of Canada 
Haha! Now that I’m retired, I could probably do it. Getting out of work in the dark, and only ever skiing in the dark would have killed me. My spirit, at least.
Regional perceptions of place, direction and even compass orientation are quirky. I grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts, a western suburb of Boston. Many of my classmate’s families spent vacations at Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, 2 hours drive due north. Always puzzled me that they would say they were “going down Winnipesaukee” for the weekend. They’d also say they were “going down the Cape (Cod)”, 2 hours to the south.
Then there’s that Journey song - “Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit”. Windsor, eh?
