In October 2018, shortly after purchasing ATV’s and a trailer, we visited Drummond Island in the upper peninsula of Michigan. We rented a cabin that was large enough to accommodate the four of us, my friend Jim, his son Riley, my son Kyle, and myself. Jim and Riley planned to rent a side-by-side while Kyle and I hauled our Polaris ATV’s. Since we hauled the ATV’s with a Jeep, it seemed like the times we were not riding ATV’s, we could explore the island with it. That is exactly what we did!
On the Drummond Island east side map that you can see here, on our first day and with the Jeep, we explored the trails on the route between #27, #26f, and #25, and #25a. In October 2018, there was considerable water on the trail and it filled up all of the ruts and holes on the route. This prevented a visual assessment beneath the water for raised rocks and steep drop-offs on the route. We were able to travel all of these routes successfully without a mishap. However, since this trip, we have returned to Drummond Island and seeing this same route without the water made me wonder how we ever made it!
Using the same map here, the following day, we traveled out to Marblehead using the route between #16, #17, #19, #20, #21, #21a, #22. On this route and before Marblehead, there are a small set of steps. With some help from Kyle guiding the tires, we were able to make the climb up these steps. We eventually made it out to Marblehead. We did not try the real steps. My Jeep is stock and also our main transportation back home. I believe just going down the steps would have caused some damage let alone trying to get back up!
Trail/Route Assessment: Trails don’t apply so much since we were using a Jeep. For the route, it does not get much better than Drummond Island in the State of Michigan. It is a Jeep Badge of Honor location, the only one in Michigan. There are plenty of places where a stock Jeep Wrangler can travel on these routes. As long as care is taken and the driver takes the time to assess places to put tires up on rocks to avoid other rocks, it can be done. Skid plates, lift kits, and larger tires are going to be an advantage. This is especially true if the steps of Marblehead are a goal. The drives along Lake Huron on the first and second days were awesome! Five stars, highly recommended!
At the time of this trip, I was not consistently using Gaia GPS. No trip data from that system is available.
