176 - Helpful Area Information
A beautifully photographed overview of the eastern Upper Peninsula, is at The Great Waters. For Les Cheneaux, stop by the LES CHENEAUX WELCOME CENTER on the north side of M-134 at Blindline Road, 1/2 mile west of the blinker light in Cedarville. It's open year-round, by chance, Tues-Fri 10-5. Call (906) 484-3935 or (888) 364-7526. Look in on the tourist association site for a wide variety of information on businesses, cultural institutions, nature, and more . . . For De Tour call De TOUR CHAMBER of COMMERCE (906), 297-5987. The phone may ring at North Country Sports & Gifts on Ontario at Elizabeth in the center of town. It's open from May through December, daily from 9-5, earlier and later in season. The store has some printed info for walk-ins. More printed info is at the DeTour Historical Museum by the ferry dock, open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day daily from 1 to 5, opening Saturday at noon. Or visit the De Tour travel site.
Mike Lilliquist and his crew at the MICHIGAN WELCOME CENTER in St. Ignace, by the Mackinac Bridge exit, are full of helpful information and background, beyond hundreds of free pamphlets and (often) free phone books of U.P. areas. (906) 643-6979. Call for current hours. Open 5 days/week, often longer in summer. Open daily, year-round, 9-5, in summer from 8 to 6. P.S.: the center can be reached from the U.P. side of the bridge.
PUBLIC LAND: The Michigan DNR administers a great deal of state land along Great Lakes waterways near DeTour, on Drummond Island, and along the St. Mary's River. Contact the DNR's Sault Ste. Marie office, open weekdays from 8 to 4:30, except closed for lunch from noon to 1. It's at 2001 Ashmun./I-75 Business Spur. (906) 635-6161. . . . Government Island and St. Martin's Point in Les Cheneaux are part of the HIAWATHA NATIONAL FOREST. (906) 643-7900.
GUIDES AND CHARTERS: In Les Cheneaux, Jim Shutt's Dreamseeker Charter & Tours, based in Hessel (906-647-7276; dreamseeker@northernmi.net) offers great lakes fishing charters and scenic cruises. So does Norman and Jason Perkins' Les Cheneaux Island Tours out of Cedarville: (906) 484-3776. Woods and Water EcoTours in Hessel at 20 S. Pickford Ave. corner of M-134 gives guided kayak and bike tours in beautiful areas, with rentals. (906) 484-4157. See woodswaterecotours.com . . . The local outdoors store in DeTour is North Country Sports (906-297-5165) downtown.
EVENTS: Consult lescheneaux.org for details. The area's big event is the Wooden Boat Show is on the second Saturday of August in Hessel. Les Cheneaux Historical Museum holds occasional evening programs. Two summer theater productions pack in crowds at the Cedarville high school. . . .DeTour's Fine Arts Council sponsors a garden walk, art fair, and a number of plays and performances. See detourvillage.com.
CASINO: Hessel Kewadin, 3395 North Three Mile Rd., Hessel, 3 miles north of M-138. 1 (800) kewadin or kewadin.com Kewadin's smallest casino has a folksy feel. 154 slots, 2 blackjack tables. Burgers and breakfast at grill. Seasonal hours. 8 a.m. to midnight in season.
GOLF: Hessel Ridge Golf, 2061 North Three Mile Rd. across from Hessel airport, 2 miles north of marina, 1 mile south of casino.
(888) 660-9166 or (906) 489-2107. 18 holes, par 70 on rolling, park-like course.
PICNIC PROVISIONS and PLACES
■ Cedarville has Les Cheneaux's only supermarket, Cedarville Foods, on M-134 at M-129. Its deli section is better than it used to be. Pammi's Restaurant and The Ice Cream Shoppe (see restaurants) do a big take-out business; so does Ang-Gio's for pizza. The prime picnic spots are the picnic tables at the marinas in downtown CEDARVILLE and HESSEL.
■ Serene picnic areas with beach, woods, and dunes close at hand are along M-134 between CEDARVILLE and De TOUR. 18 miles east of Cedarville there's a beautiful Michigan Department of Transportation roadside park on Lake Huron. Four miles beyond
that is the DeTour Picnic Area on Lake Huron on state land.
■ In De TOUR itself there are benches and a gazebo in the Dr. Shula Giddens Memorial Garden, overlooking the DeTour passage and its occasional freighter traffic. The attractive picnic area at the DeTour State Marina is almost surrounded by water. It's on Ontario Street, DeTour's main drag that parallels the waterfront. DeTour's grocery is Sune's, north of the marina.
Betty Bailey at DRUMMOND ISLAND TOURISM ASSOCIATION (906-493-5245) is a font of useful information: backroads adventures, botanizing, ORVs, etc. The office is right at the four-corners at 34974 S. Townline Road. Hours: In May and June open Mon-Fri 11-5. From early July thru Labor Day open Mon-Sat 11-5. After Labor Day thru April open Mon, Wed, Fri 11-3.
Call to confirm hours in shoulder seasons. . . . . . Also on Drummond Island, North Haven Rentals & Gifts, on M-134 not far from the ferry, functions as an informal information center. (906) 493-5567. Open daily in season.
DRUMMOND ISLAND lends itself to outings on or near the water with a good sack lunch. A formal picnic area in the heart of Drummond Village (north on Bailey Road) is the Betsy Seaman Park, right on the water, with a playground. The island has a grocery, also called Sune's, right on the four corners. A short ways beyond it on Johnswood is a very good all-around gourmet deli and wine shop, Gourmet Gallery (906-493-5507).
Drummond Island Yacht Haven (906-493-5232) is a good source of fishing guide referrals. . . . Botanist Ellen Weatherbee (eew@umich.edu) conducts guided botany trips on Drummond and Bois Blanc Islands (south of Mackinac Island ferry from Cheboygan, technically in the U.P.). (Expect intense botany, not loosely appreciative nature observations.)
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