Gratiot Lake Boat Launch

Your GPS will likely try to send you down the wrong two-track. Look for the state forest signs and trust those over your phone — cell service is spotty up here anyway. Know your turns before you lose signal.

This is about as off-the-grid as it gets for a DNR site. One lane, eight trailer spots, dense Keweenaw forest on all sides. You're not sharing this lake with jet skis and pontoon parades — it's mostly small boats and canoes up here.

The lake bottom is predominantly muck, and that includes near the ramp. If you're wading to guide your boat off the trailer, expect to sink in a bit. Felt-sole wading shoes help. Back in slow so you don't stir up a cloud that'll take twenty minutes to settle.

Don't let the soft shoreline fool you — Gratiot drops to 70 feet out there. Great for lake trout if you know where the structure is. The 1,438-acre footprint means you can find solitude even on a July weekend, which is basically unheard of in lower Michigan.

This launch is realistically a June-through-October affair. Snow lingers late on the peninsula, and the access road can be impassable well into May. By mid-fall the place is yours alone, but plan your trips around daylight — it gets dark early up here and there's no lighting at the ramp.