A Flooded Return to the Off-Grid Cabin

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Well, it's finally spring in Michigan, but with melting snow and days of heavy rain, rivers across the state are at near historic flood levels. Homes are underwater, roads are washing out, and even dams are failing. Good news for us, a trail camera says that our cabin is still on dry ground. The bad news is the only way in is by kayak. To reach the cabin, I'm going to have to cross two flooded branches of the creek, now running more than 6 ft above normal levels. Today I'm heading in just to see how far the water reaches and whether the property is still accessible when conditions are at their worst. Welcome back to building up Middlefork.

[00:00:41]Driving north. It's uh April 24th today heading up to the cabin. Really excited to be up there. Um it's pretty flooded up in the upper peninsula. There has been a lot of late season snow and uh a lot of warm temperatures lately.

[00:00:59]Escort in progress. High winds.

[00:01:05]That's what a wind escort looks like.

[00:01:12]Seeing too much too much bad flooding yet. Just hoping that the road in is going to be all right.

[00:01:20]Now, last time I pulled onto this road, there was probably 3 ft of snow on the ground and we skied in. So, it's looking a lot better. I'm just really hoping that we don't have we don't have a lot of water on the road.

[00:01:34]Probably I don't even know 5 seconds since that last clip. And there is a tremendous amount of water here. I have no idea how deep that is.

[00:01:46]I've got some boots with me. I might just have to go and walk it and see.

[00:01:53]Well, seems like it's passable.

[00:01:58]Okay. Through that first big spot. Now we just have this part.

[00:02:06]Okay. Well, April's tough in the up. Well, this is the end of the road for me.

[00:02:16]It's not going to be accessible to drive all the way in, but the driveway really is just right there on the right hand side. So, not too bad. I don't think I've really given great appreciation for my truck ever either. Um, did not have a truck last year at the start of the year when we got this property in July. Ended up picking this truck up. It's a 2002 Toyota Tundra. Got it for 2,400 bucks and it has been just absolutely wonderful to have. You don't have to spend $60,000 to get a good truck. 2,400 bucks.

[00:02:46]plan is going to be hop in this kayak and ferry some stuff to kind of where our property is. And I actually have at this point I really have no idea what's going to be underwater and what's not going to be underwater. I might be able to paddle all the way to the dang cabin at this point. Just made that first water crossing in the kayak.

[00:03:07]Be careful what you wish for when you ask for waterfront property.

[00:03:11]That is wild. So, here's where things are getting really crazy.

[00:03:18]The top of my steps to get down to the creek, the top of my steps are underwater. See him right there?

[00:03:31]Oh my gosh.

[00:03:35]Oh my goodness. Part of the all Okay.

[00:03:38]All the boardwalk is floating.

[00:03:41]Um, so all right. Well, I should be able to get the kayak and put it in right here and scoot right through here. Shouldn't be bad at all.

[00:03:53]Yeah. Wow. Last year, my dad and I came up here around the same time, end of April, to replace the roof on the cabin.

[00:04:02]And unfortunately, I had no way to know this beforehand, but when we got here, the creek was flooded. And the problem with that was we had no idea going into it that it was going to be flooded. This year, not only did I have the intel that this creek floods every year, I also had a trail cam set up right there to keep an eye on the flooding. So, I was prepared. I brought the kayak. I brought the waiters. I knew what to expect. So, so far this is pretty much going how I anticipated it going. More difficult than just walking stuff in. Um, but honestly, this isn't too terrible.

[00:04:36]And we're going to see if we cannot get across.

[00:04:40]Going to have to just sort of go around that guy for right now.

[00:04:46]We're just going to have to see. We're just going to have to see.

[00:04:54]I am home free. That is just insane.

[00:05:04]Wow.

[00:05:06]Yeah, I'll come out all the way up here.

[00:05:08]Holy moly, that is wild.

[00:05:12]Okay, let's go take a look at this second crossing over here. See what we're dealing with. Oh my. Yep, that's looking rough, too. Cabin looks good, though.

[00:05:27]Got my butter, too.

[00:05:38]I guess it's not that deep. I probably could have waited that.

[00:05:53]See if I can not stick in that same hole right here.

[00:05:58]There we go. That's everything.

[00:06:01]What a journey. Holy moly.

[00:06:13]Made it. Drives about 6 hours and it took me a good hour and a half just to fairy stuff in, but altogether not not too too too terrible. Before I even go in the cabin and get my stuff put away, I just want to have a quick look at the rest of the buildings. And yeah, the storage shed looks good. This seems to be a nice high spot. It's not wet in here. It's not muddy in here at all.

[00:06:42]Shoot. Looks fantastic. Oh, I forgot I had a little bit of water left. Thank you. Passed me. Armpit's full of water.

[00:06:50]Okay.

[00:06:52]Looks like it survived the winter.

[00:06:59]Yep.

[00:07:01]Looks good in there.

[00:07:08]At some point tomorrow, probably tomorrow, I want to walk to the uh to other spot on the creek where I've been considering building cuz I'm very curious to see if that's high and dry.

[00:07:16]But for now, let's get into the cabin, get our stuff put away, and start relaxing. It's been a long day getting up here.

[00:07:26]Oh, it smells just like I just like I remember and just like I love.

[00:07:31]Okay, well, it's dry in here.

[00:07:35]It's nice and clean in here.

[00:07:39]So, yeah, we made it. And the cabin looks amazing. Don't worry, I'll take my waiters off soon. I know it's a fashion statement, but like first thing I did in this, a penny came out of my pocket. That's That's an interesting feeling. That's a That's a strange thing to have inside the bottom of your waiters, but I'm sure it's not the strangest. That's like art. That's like a wall decoration. That's Oh, that's beautiful. I'm going to go put stuff away for a while, and then uh yeah, I'm going to listen to the birds, light a fire, have some dinner, and relax.

[00:08:25]So, I was just setting up. I have the trash bucket set up. Just a bucket with a trash bag in it. That's the bucket that the gray water from the sink will drain into. And then I was just getting out here. This is the stove. We just keep this stove. It's a twoburner Coleman stove. And we just keep this up here.

[00:08:41]That's really what we were looking forward to last year when we first got this place was a I can't wait till you can just show up and it's just ready to enjoy.

[00:08:52]10 minutes of getting stuff uh out and put away and we're good to go. Love it.

[00:08:57]I was just looking for something and there was a sew it cake in here that has been quite thoroughly chewed apart. That is the first and only sign that I have seen of mice in this cabin. There you go. I just spent a good probably 20, 30 minutes cleaning this stove out really, really well. I scooped all the ashes out and then I pulled the fire bricks out of the bottom. Um, I lifted and cleaned under the fire bricks on the sides and back. I thought it was a ash, like an ash receptacle, but when I took all the fire bricks out of here, this is a completely enclosed sealed stove. No ash drops below there at all. So, it's not an ash drawer. There is a hole in the back. I believe that's an intake for air. Uh, that's not I mean, I don't have that routed outside. I I feel like I did some reading when I first installed the stove and it didn't seem like that was necessary. I'm actually going to take in the in the spring when I can get more tools up here and the river's not flooded, uh, I'm going to take the stove completely out and I'm actually going to put real heat shield behind this. I'll admit this is not great. This is always a temporary fix. If you're supposed to run that outside, then I guess I can do that. I didn't buy this stove. I actually don't even really know what this stove is. This was here sitting at the property on a cart laid down on its back when we bought the property. I'd read the manual if I had one.

[00:10:59]Grilled cheese with bacon and Hatch green chilies from New Mexico.

[00:13:14]So, I'm in the kayak right now, and that grassy line there is where this usually drops about 3 feet into the creek.

[00:13:22]And you can see this is just the exact same level as everything around it.

[00:13:39]Love that sound. White throatated sparrow.

[00:13:52]Anyways, I was very curious about this area here because this is what I'm considering for a future building spot for another cabin. The creek is historically high, you know, historic water levels. It's hard to really have that come through on camera, but there's probably at least 24 to 30 in of distance between the water and the top here. And is uh this is totally dry.

[00:14:26]It's hard to get a sense of scale, but this birch is just it's it's huge. Absolutely colossal white birch tree right there. Look at that.

[00:14:42]Paddling the creek when it looks like this. I'm up near the top of a lot of these alders.

[00:14:49]Just so much different than it was when I paddled this in June last year.

[00:14:58]I just want to see how far up the creek I can make it cuz last year I could only make it so far before the allers got too thick. But I'm kind of wondering if I can make it past that spot now. Let's see if I can get through here with minimal bumpage. Okay, not bad. Yeah, right up on the bank is where I was standing earlier.

[00:15:26]Very cool. Here we are at the other build site. Ha, that's too cool. But I believe that kind of right up in here, I've paddled to the very, very top right corner of our property square. I've never been up here before. Very cool to be up here.

[00:15:46]Oh, this is not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

[00:15:56]in from doing all that scouting. It's 42 degrees outside. Quite chilly. But I come into the cabin and it's almost 80.

[00:16:04]Oh, it's such a nice feeling. So cozy in here. Just some cold glowing in there.

[00:16:11]Okay. Well, I'm going to sit in here for a few minutes, have my second cup of coffee, have a little bit more breakfast, and then it's off the chores.

[00:16:19]Main goals for today is I got to cut all that storm blowdown out of the way. So, I got the chainsaw at the beginning of the property. I'm going to go out there and just cut all the big stuff out of the way so that next time I come in, I can just walk in and not have to walk around all that stuff. Also really wanted to get a look at all the flood damage. Did that. Take a look at the other site. Did that. I want to get the well flowing.

[00:16:41]And then other than that, I mean, I don't really have a lot. I did lose a shoe off the back of my truck yesterday on the drive-in. So, I might backtrack if I have some extra time and go try to find my one shoe that I left. Put them both in the tailgate and one of them survived, one of them did not. It's just stupid. Wasn't thinking about it. So, I might go do that. But otherwise, I'm just really happy to be here. H it's so nice. Supposed to warm up a little bit in the afternoon. Uh be high 50s and sunny, which will be lovely.

[00:17:45]And the wood that I burn here is it's pretty much just all um it's all soft wood. It's all spruce and balsom.

[00:17:54]While it's not perfect, I know it's not as good as maple or oak or and you know, hickory, any sort of a hardwood, I know that it's not as good as those. It's what I have here. I think maybe in the future I will have just a small stockpile of hardwood that I I bring from home or I cut up here or something um for like long cold nights. Well, I think I got to throw the towel in. I've been trying to get this well going for the last probably 30 minutes plus. And what I'm realizing here is that this is not sealing properly. So, when I'm pumping on the handle, I can hear like a little from this seal right here, and I can see water kind of seep out and seep back in.

[00:18:45]Um, it seems like hopefully I can just either tighten these two bolts down and it'll compress that seal or I might, you know, just have to take it apart and clean stuff up. And if there's like a gasket in there that needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, I do not have a single wrench here, not even an adjustable wrench. So, I was trying with pliers. I was trying with channel locks, and I just couldn't I couldn't get a good enough grip on these. So, I'll come back with a few um a few wrenches, and hopefully I'll be able to fix this next time I'm here.

[00:19:20]Luckily, it's only going to be, I think, about 35° overnight. So, I'll probably just get a nice good fire going now and then let it die out overnight. and I'll wake up and it'll still be in the probably 60s or so in the cabin. Not bad at all for sleeping.

[00:19:50]All right.

[00:21:52]Well, this is just out the back of the cabin and I'm going to spend spend maybe 20, 30 minutes just kind of pulling down some of these standing dead trees and just cleaning this area up just a little bit.

[00:22:03]Well, I got that area cleared out pretty well. Just pulling everything behind the shed to chip later on.

[00:22:09]Looking much more open back there now.

[00:22:12]But now I got to kind of do the packing up stuff, empty the bucket, uh the water bucket, and just clean stuff up here and then hit the road. And then we'll be back up in a few weeks hopefully with all the water gone.

[00:22:25]I'm going to paddle out of this flooded creek and over to the road and we'll be home free.

[00:22:38]Just cruising up the road.

[00:22:47]Oh, amazing. Like five days. I'm so ready for snow to be done. I will be excited to come back here when there is no snow and there is no flooding.

[00:23:07]It's kind of soupy in here.

[00:23:23]Okay, well with that, this trip is really uh really done. It was a pretty short three days, two nights, but got quite a bit done. Got to see the flood damage, and I'd be really excited to get back here in May when it's just a little bit nicer out. But thanks so much for watching, and have a good one.