Side By Side Trip - Watersmeet Michigan!

Our Adventures Around Michigan In Our Kitty Kat! 

Dan and I took a trip to Michigan with our side by side. We were looking for a different experience and we heard that the Upper Peninsula had a ton of side by side trails. From east of the twin cities the drive was only 5 hours and we stayed in this little town called Watersmeet. We stayed at a small casino called Northern Waters Casino Resort. We arrived Thursday night and planned on saying until Sunday. As we were checking in we had to get screened for COVID of course.

Friday morning we started our first day on the trails it was COLD so we put on layers, helmets (which was our first time) and we took off. We got a Map from the general store at the Casino and we decided to just wing it because we didn’t know how long it would take us on the trails. Our first stop was Bond Falls. When we arrived, we sat by the falls and we ate the sandwich and snacks we packed. We got back on the trails where we started heading towards Lake Gogebic. We were on a pretty big trail so I told Dan I could drive to give him a break. As we were heading down the trail there were a couple yield signs. I was good at being cautious for all of them… but one. We approached a driveway which I didn’t notice the yield sign until too late. It was tucked away and was basically on the driveway. A car was casually coming out of their driveway when they smoked our back tire. We ended up flipping 3 times, thank got for our helmets. Long story short we were fine, the guy in the car was fine and so was the side by side. We got it working again and we drove back to the casino. It was an unforgettable day!

Saturday it was a little hard for me to get back on the side by side but I did. Im glad I did because we had an amazing day. We took off from Watersmeet to a town called Marenisco where we ate at this nice small town bar called Dutches. That was a pretty long hike so we started making our way back. On the way back we stopped at these falls on our map called Pelton River Falls. Nobody from the town ever heard of these falls but we saw them on the map and decided to check them out! Good thing we did they were a beautiful hidden gem. Our last stop was a cool little bar in the middle of nowhere called Rogers Bar. It was right on the trails and we stopped in for a little while. The staff was so friendly and treated us great. We headed back the to casino where we enjoyed the rest of the night gambling and sitting down for a nice meal!

What I learned

I learned we should never take a tip by ourselves with an ATV. We lucked out this time but it could have been way worse. We also would have drove a little farther and stayed in the town Houghton. There wasn’t anything to do in Watersmeet, the casino was very small. If you love the small town vibe this is the perfect trip. We had a blast and we told each other that we can’t wait to go again!