Tulip and I were mighty excited to learn we’d be traveling to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the Mid-west Musher Symposium and Teacher Conference. Tulip was born at Nature’s Kennel in the U.P. Her brothers still live and work there. Way before we packed our bowls, food and favorite bones we did some research about Michigan.

Did you know that the state of Michigan is made up of not one but TWO peninsulas – the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula? By land, the Upper Peninsula borders Wisconsin and the Lower Peninsula borders Indiana and Ohio. The Mackinac Bridge connects them. Michigan is bordered by four of the five great lakes – Superior, Michigan, Erie and Huron.

The folks who live in the U.P. call themselves Yoopers. The Yoopers host a sled dog race called the U.P. 200. The U.P. is noted for resorts, dairy farms, logging operations and copper mines.

The U.P. has been called the land of wonderful wilderness. Tulip and I agree with Henry Ford, who back in the 1920’s said the U.P. is one of the prettiest places in the world. In a story printed in National Geographic about ninety years ago, George Shiras says this about the U.P., “Nowhere, probably on the continent, is fall foliage more beautiful in brilliancy or contrasting color.” He has a way with words and we agree with him too! It’s no wonder that Musher Ed Stielstra decided to call the U.P. home for his human and canine families.

There’s plenty of wildlife roaming the U.P. The biggest is the Moose. Over time, we’ve learned that moose sometimes confuse us lovable sled dogs with hungry wolves and they are none to kind when meeting a dog team on the trail. This is especially true when there’s deep snow and it’s a bad food year for the big critters. Check out these Yooper moose we spotted on our adventure!

Born to Run,

Sanka & Tulip