—Pigeon River Country Association Newsletter —

Spring 2008

Spring Arrives! With spring flowers popping up, and the return of feathered migrants (see photos on page 4) we know that despite some frosty nights summer can’t be far off. And that means it’s also time, even for those who went elsewhere during the winter to start thinking about getting back out into the woods and enjoying the Pigeon River Country.  

PRCA President’s Announcement of Annual Meeting: This year’s annual meeting will take place at DNR Forest Headquarters on Sunday, July 6. Like last year we will have an informal sandwich lunch for everyone at noon, and we’ll start the official meeting at 12:30. We hope to end by 2:30 so that we can all get outdoors while there is still some afternoon left! The main items for discussion will be the new Concept of Management for the Pigeon including the latest changes in mountain bike and horseback use and an assessment of where we stand on getting a replacement for Joe. Of course we will have copies of Dale Franz’s second edition of Pigeon River Country that we have been selling online and at libraries around here over the past half year and copies of the new High Country Pathway & Pigeon River Country Map. They have both been well received and are available for purchase on at www.pigeonrivercountryforest.org. Or, if you don’t already have them, come to the meeting and get them on the spot! We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Advisory Council Report: The meeting held on April 11 was missing a few of the council members, but was crowded by horseback riders who are clearly unhappy with the new land use rules (see below) affecting the PRCF. However, after a somewhat lengthy rehashing of the issues, the council voted by a 12 to 1 majority to recommend that the rules recommended by the special DNR appointed work group that met back in February (see previous newsletter) be adopted, and that the condition of the trails affected by future horseback and bicycle use be monitored (using Jan. 1, 2008 as a baseline).

          Other reports were made to the Council regarding the preparation of an updated PRCF vehicle access map, new fishing regulations in the PRCF (see “Going Fishing?” below), and from the Oil & Gas Committee.  The latter proposed that the Council pass a motion opposing any use of the PRCF lands being used for underground carbon dioxide “sequestration” storage fields, which the Council promptly did, again by a 12 to 1 majority. After the pro-tem forest director, Laurie Marzulo, also announced that Merit Energy has scrapped any further plans to develop gas wells in the Blue Lakes tract, a motion was made that the DNR make new efforts to acquire the mineral rights to all of this property—this time the motion passed unanimously.  A formal resolution was also made asking the DNR to appoint a full-time permanent forest director as soon as possible.  The district director, Dayle Garlock, said that he was fairly confident that such an appointment would be made by September.   

New State Land Use Regulations in the PRCF

As discussed and thoroughly debated over the past year, the restrictions envisioned in the new (2007) revised Concept of Management for the PRCF concerning snowmobiles, horses, and bicycles have now, or soon will become law by means of land use rules approved by the Michigan legislature. This was already the case since December 2007 regarding snowmobiles, which are banned from the PRCF lands except forest roads open to other vehicle use.

The same now applies to the use of horses or bicycles, except with the addition of certain designated trails (the North Spur of the Michigan Shore-to-Shore Trail for horses) and the High Country Pathway and Shingle mill Pathway for bicycles. And of course, the extensive county road system throughout the PRCF remains open to these uses as well, and in two instances, parts of closed forest maintenance roads are being reopened to provide additional “loop” routes for horseback riders. 

          However, we are well aware that many people, are not entirely happy (see your editor’s reflections on how it affects his jaunts to the Blue Lakes) with these new measures to protect the Pigeon River Country as a very special place. But having been personally involved in the give and take necessary, I can see, and I hope others can also, try to understand how important that these regulations be obeyed. Without them, who knows what might we see next? (To answer that question, also see the item on “Vigilance” below.)

Going Fishing?

Interesting new trout fishing opportunities have opened up in the PRCF.  As announced previously, seven of the sinkhole lakes which form one of the most interesting features in the forest, after decades of being closed to fishing while being used for research have now been opened to fishing, with four of them (Hemlock Lake, West Lost Lake, Ford Lake, and Section Four Lake each one being stocked nearly a year ago with a special strain of either rainbow or brook (or speckled) trout. The first three lakes named above may be fished from canoe or kayak or other small boats that need to be carried in by hand only a short distance. Also, electric trolling motors may also be used in those three lakes. The other sinkhole lakes are closed to all watercraft but personal float tubes are permitted in the other lakes. Fishing these lakes from shore is discouraged due to worries about safety (there is little or no wade able water in these very deep lakes) and there remains concern for the erosion of the steep banks. Spin lures and/or flies only—no use of bait will be allowed. The daily limit for these lakes is one fish, 15” minimum size.

           Another interesting new trout-fishing opportunity has opened up on the portion of the Black River in the stretch between Tin Shanty Bridge and Blue Lakes Road.  Already classified as Type A trout water (10” minimum with a daily limit of 3 fish) the upper half of this stretch (from the riverbank “stairs” east of Town Corner Campground) upstream to the Tin Shanty Bridge will be open to year-round fishing, but with artificial lures only. The regulations on the lower part of this stretch of river will remain the same, but a concerted effort will be made this summer to install various types of “woody debris” from the banks reaching into the water, after repeated surveys of this area showed high potential for trout reproduction, but lack of suitable cover or hiding places for larger fish. It is hoped that these measures, and the experiment with artificial lures only, will provide important information and pay off with even greater angling opportunities in one of Michigan’s premier brook trout streams.

The Last Bike to Blue Lakes

On the bright and chilly afternoon of April 27, I took what most likely will turn out to have been my last bicycle ride in the Blue Lakes Ranch tract.  This beautiful piece of land, which touches the northwestern corner of the property on which I live, was for many years the private preserve of the handful of wealthy sportsmen who jealously guarded its pristine beauty from the incursions of the public. It just sat there, all those years, across the river from me, a kind of “terra incognita”, with my one chance to see at least part of the property afforded when Shell Oil was there attempting to drill two wells.  Otherwise the situation was something like those medieval maps warning “Here there be monsters or dragons”—so steer clear if you know what is good for you. However, after many overtures and proposals from the Department of Natural Resources the State finally succeeded in acquiring most of this property as an addition to the Pigeon River Country Forest.  For the first time in my life I was finally able to get a glimpse of the two lakes after which the tract was named and which in so many ways constitute its crown jewels.  This was back in 1989.

At the time the tract passed into state ownership it was crisscrossed by many two track trails—so many that one wondered if most of the hunting over there wasn’t done on foot. But having recently discovered the advantages of the fat-tired all-terrain “mountain bike” as a means of getting around the backwoods despite my long ago bummed-out left knee, I eagerly explored the whole tract from top to bottom, even covering much of the swampy area in the northernmost part in the winter by another means of transportation which my left knee gets along with, thanks to cross country skis.  In the years that have followed, most of these trails have become overgrown, so much so that in many cases one can only find them by a means of a very sharp eye, or with the assistance of an old map or a GPS device. 

In fact, only two or three of these trails still remain much in evidence, one of them leading from the parking lot on the west side of the tract to the two Blues Lakes themselves and then southward along the east side of South Blue Lake and from there further on to Hardwood Creek.

The second major trail starts were the first trail ends, and goes northeastward parallel to the creek and then to the west side of the Black River until it reaches the dead end access road that enters the tract from Blue Lakes Road from the east.  It is this latter trail that is usually been a link in the route of my Sunday afternoon bicycling excursions forming an eight and a half mile loop up Black River Road from my place, then westward on Blue Lakes Rd.  then down through the tract itself along the river until I cross an old footbridge over Hardwood Creek and bicycle through my neighbor’s property to return to my place.  In fact, I have sometimes made this trip as soon as the snow disappears carrying saddlebags on my bicycle to collect trash left by last season’s hunters, snowmobilers or others who unaccountably seem to find room for all their cans and bottles when they are full but suddenly find them an intolerable burden once they have been emptied of their contents.

The above-mentioned trails also seem to have been very popular with horseback riders, so much so that the trail southward from South Blue Lake has been transformed from a fairly flat two-track into a narrow and bumpy, and grassless rut that in some places has become several inches deep, and has become difficult to negotiate even with a mountain bike.  New detours have been formed to get around fallen trees, while in other places, especially on the east side trail along the Black River, fallen trees were cut up—apparently to provide vehicle access connected with the last attempt to develop natural gas wells in the blue lakes to tract.  Although the State does not own the mineral rights to this property, it seems that this most recent attempt, much like an earlier one has been canceled due to the poor performance of many of the wells drilled across the river to the east.

It will be interesting to see, now that horses and bicycles, as well as snowmobiles, have been banned from this area, how long it will take for these remaining trails, much as the others have, over the past nineteen years, to practically disappear from sight.  Once the horses are gone, with their iron shoes churning up the sandy soil, I suspect the recovery will be rather quick.  As for bicycles, the difference will be negligible, for although I have occasionally spotted a faint track left by a bicycle tire, I have yet after all these years to actually meet, unless some one else happened to be bicycling with me, another bicyclist in the Blue Lakes tract. Instead, in one instance a met a fellow who was using a wheelbarrow to tote his gear from his pickup to his riverside campsite!  I wonder if that is now going to be banned as well?

All I know is that I don’t want to give up my relationship to these two little lakes.  The fact that I will now—unless I get a fancy knee operation— have to drive twenty-some miles round trip to reach them means I’ll probably do so rarely given the present price of gas.  But as the good book says, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away…” (Job 1:21) But one way or another, the Lord willing, I will be back.   R. W. Kropf

Vigilance:  One of the major challenges in keeping the PRCF as a special place is keeping an eye on those who either unthoughtfully, or even sometimes deliberately, try to take over things and rearrange them for their own private convenience. One striking incidence turned up early this spring. It seems that someone decided that one of the off-road parking areas leading into the Blue Lakes Tract needed some more or less permanent “facilities” to make their camping there more comfortable. So look what two turkey hunters to their amazement found tucked away in the pines about 50 yards from the parking place—a permanent hunting blind?  No, when they got downwind of it, it definitely turned out to be something else. Would you believe this?

Back when the Blue Lakes Tract was being added to the PRCF, some concern was raised about having such access roads dead end in areas not visible from the nearest county road. This latest incident would seem to confirm that worry. But one way or another, it takes concerned citizens, like the two turkey hunters, to alert the authorities to the kinds of trespass and other violations of the rules designed to keep the Pigeon River Country Forest, and other state lands equally available to all and not turned into the private preserve of just a few.

PRCA Sponsored Student Intern: This summer’s Association sponsored intern is Darren Swan, a MSU student who has already had six years of management experience with the Detroit Gun Club. Darren is specializing in the recreational management side of resource conservation and he will be especially put to work on the many tasks involved in implementing the recreational use aspects of the new revised Concept of Management.

Hemlock Lake—2008 Trout Season Opener

First Flower of Spring

Looney Close-up

Last Bike to Blue Lakes

Spring Color

Spring Surprise!

(Photos by Editor)