 | | Just a little over a mile hike up a sylvan path leads to a rocky escarpment and this splendid vista. Soaring hawks are a common sight. | In a remote, rugged part of the Ottawa National Forest, a series of spectacular high bluffs and panoramic knobs known as the Trap Hills are attracting increasing attention among outdoors enthusiasts. In this "hidden gem of Michigan's Upper Peninsula backcountry," one might hike on the North Country Trail all day without seeing another hiker, wrote Eric Hansen in Hiking Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Such solitude would seldom happen in the nearby Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park, a well-known hiking and backpacking destination.
Eric is the author of Hiking Wisconsin and Hiking Michigan's Upper Peninsula . To Eric, the Trap Hills stand out in all the Midwest. He loves seeing its many vistas, the bald eagles riding thermals, and the grouse in the pine forests.
 | | Not heavily travelled, Trap Hill paths require attention lest one loses one way. White diamonds tacked to trees are helpful but not frequent enough to be failsafe guides. | A series of remarkable panoramas can be seen from many unobstructed high points on the 20-mile North Country Trail section from north of Bergland to Victoria. Eric singles out the vista from Lookout Mountain as especially "glorious" for its view of Lake Superior and the Porcupine Mountains to the north and Lake Gogebic and Wolf Mountain to the south.
Doug Welker, webmaster and moving force of the North Country Trail in the Western Upper Peninsula, mentions additional attractions:
• four waterfalls
• some spectacular old-growth hardwood-hemlock forests in untouched areas
• a variety of ecosystems with uncommon and rare plants in hardwood forests, rock outcrops, and stream gorges.
• visible remains of copper mining in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The famous Ontonagon Boulder of solid copper came from the Trap Hills near Victoria.
These high hills (including Michigan's highest bluff) exist today because they are capped with dark, erosion-resistant basalt and conglomerate formed as lava cooled. These rock balconies and perches make especially scenic campsites. Trap rock is another name for basalt formed of cooling lava.
All this information and much more is on Doug's amazing, very detailed section of the North Country Trail Web site. Go to www.northcountrytrail.org/pwf. Scroll down to the Trap Hills section. Photos convey both the panoramas and the chapter's ongoing work projects. These projects do not require youth or special stamina.
Doug details ten suggested day hikes, four from the Gogebic Ridge trailhead in the Bergland area, four from Norwich in the heart of the hills, and three from Old Victoria. (The Gogebic Ridge hikes are described briefly in the "Ironwood & Gogebic" region of our web site.) Doug's web site notes which hikes are strenuous. Most are do-able by average hikers if they pace themselves.
Hikes are keyed to segments of the North Country Trail guides on another part of the Peter Wolfe web site. Don't miss the helpful section on the Peter Wolfe home page on "current conditions" : snow and road conditions (his descriptions include tips for winter ski and snowshoe outings), what wildflowers are in bloom, and fall color.
Part of the Ottawa National Forest, the Trap Hills currently enjoy no special protection. Timber harvests and roads have been proposed that would affect their scenic beauty. Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, a Marquette-based group formed to lobby for vulnerable natural highlights in the U.P., has successfully blocked logging in one beautiful section with some rare plants. To stay abreast of this and other NWR projects, see its newsy web site, www.northwoodswild.org
Caution: print out and read trail notes carefully, bring a compass, know how to use it just in case, and bring ample insect protection. (A mesh veil over your hat can be a good idea.) Be prepared for wet terrain or shallow fords at some times of year. In summer, inland parts of the U.P. can be hot - or cold.
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