In August of 2024, I was invited to spend a week in the Upper Peninsula with a good friend of mine and it ended up changing my life. I was honestly super nervous. I had never spent more than a few hours with him before, but he made the opportunity sound so amazing that I couldn’t say no. So Marcus and I packed up and made the eight-hour drive to Houghton, Michigan, where he lives during the school year.
After just one night at his apartment, we decided to go camping. I’d been camping before, but this was totally different. He and his friends took me to the middle of nowhere — a place called High Rock Bay. You need a serious off-roading vehicle to get there because the roads are so rough. It took about two hours just to make it in, but when we finally arrived, it was absolutely beautiful. We managed to grab the campsite right on the point, surrounded by trees and open water.
That evening was so nice. We swam in the lake even though the water was absolutely freezing — the kind of cold that takes your breath away but somehow makes the moment even better. Later, we roasted hot dogs over the fire and just stayed up talking and telling stories. It was simple, but it felt like the kind of night I’d want to relive over and over again. The next morning, the sunrise was perfect. The way its light reflected off the water was the perfect picture.
I knew pretty quickly that I’d made the right decision by saying yes to this trip. That night at High Rock Bay felt right. It was fun, peaceful, and one of those experiences that just sticks with you. The friends I was with were used to this kind of environment. They get to experience this all the time because they live up there, and I was jealous — to say the least. I felt extremely lucky to be part of it, even just for a week.
Later that week, my friend Marcus and I found our first geocache. It was called “A Good Place to Ponder Immortal Love.” The cache was hidden along a trail near Quincy Mine, and when we found it, we ended up at a lookout spot with an amazing view of all of Houghton. The cache itself was tucked inside a book titled Immortal Love. Looking back now, it’s kind of funny — and a little ironic — that this was the very first cache we found together, considering now we’re dating.
The day before I left, I was an emotional trainwreck. It had all been so amazing. I connected with so many new faces and got to experience so many cool things. I called my mom that day and told her how sad I was to be heading home. It just felt like a place I needed to be — not just because of the connection to the outdoors, but because of the people. His friends were all so welcoming, and I wanted the chance to get to know them better. A week was too short.
So a week after I got home, I found myself booking an Airbnb to stay up there for nearly five weeks, ready to dive back into the place I hadn’t been ready to leave. But that’s a story for another post…
Drifted Form 