http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/ct-trav-sylvania-wilderness-michigan-canoe-0805-story.html

I guess it won't be so easy to get reservations any more!!

Direct Link

Ouch!

maybe no one will read the article... nice read though.
dr bob

Glad I went last year. I wasn't aware of the history behind the area.

Hadn't been there since we lived in Wisconsin and ironically some friends are going there in September and we're thinking about going. Maybe time to return?

Oh heck, I think everyone should head on out to Sylvania. Leave those rocky portages, skeeters and scant campsite neighbors of the BWCA to dah old geezers.

I have taken my sons to Sylvania the last two summers for all the reasons the article mentions- but especially the proximity to home (3 hours vs 7 for BW). It allows us to do a 3 day trip there and still come to BW later in the summer for our 7 day trip.

Its a great little place and well worth a visit or two, but like the author alludes to- don't make the comparison to BW if you go, it's a very different type of wilderness.

Also, I doubt this article changes anything. Other similar articles have been written in the past.

naturboy12: "I have taken my sons to Sylvania the last two summers for all the reasons the article mentions- but especially the proximity to home (3 hours vs 7 for BW). It allows us to do a 3 day trip there and still come to BW later in the summer for our 7 day trip.


Its a great little place and well worth a visit or two, but like the author alludes to- don't make the comparison to BW if you go, it's a very different type of wilderness.


Also, I doubt this article changes anything. Other similar articles have been written in the past.
"

Check out Craig Lake State Park up there as well.... That really has a boundary waters feel to it... A place for a good shake down before the real thing.

dr bob

One of the best ways to ruin your favorite place is to tell people about it.

Worse than that is to write about it.

A person I know use to call him a friend decided he was going to become a outdoor writer he started to write about some favorite places.

Sure he sold a few stories made a few dollars but those place now are visited by more and more people.

I no longer take him hunting or fishing because next thing you know its being published and ruined.

There is very good reasons to be careful with who you shares your spots with.

Something wicked this way comes.....

Two of my favorite spots were featured on internet sites/"best of" lists. Siesta Key Beach & Starved Rock State Park. Now...complete overrun and ruined. I am shocked at the destruction and/or massive hoards of people. It sucks.

In this case, since it is a specialty-type area, maybe the throngs will not be so bad. Hopefully, the bugs will get them and send them packing. : )

I agree to keep things quiet, if at all possible.

Like the Eagles said in a song The Last Resort from the Hotel California album, "You Call Someplace Paradise, Kiss It Goodbye".

Every wannabe out there taking selfies and landscape shots in remote places---and then posting the details on the internet--is cumulatively guilty of ruining wild places.

Today, the only things that keep places wild and pristine are time-consuming, difficult, or expensive access or specialized skillsets like mountaineering or big-water/whitewater skills.

Funny thing, the first time heard about Sylvania was in a Chicago Tribune article probably published in about 1973 or 1974. My father, who was a subscriber, saved it for me. It was written by a travel writer who also wrote up a backpacking trip to the UP’s Porcupine Mt State Park in the same article. At that time I was familiar with the Porkies but had not heard of Sylvania until the the article. I have probably enjoyed close to one hundred trips to Sylvania since.