Running Houghton

If you drive 9ish hours from Detroit, you can get to a lot of places – Washington, DC, Nashville, St. Louis. What you may not think about is heading north 9 hours to Houghton in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Houghton is a quaint city nestled in the hills at the base of the Keweenaw Peninsula. When I talk about what makes great cities – walkability, great downtowns, leveraging anchor institutions – Houghton has done it all right. It makes it worth the drive north to check it out.
 
I went to Houghton last week for a work trip. Despite arriving around 1 a.m. I still got up early, laced up the shoes and headed out. This is a beautiful city, but it’s cold. Even in May the morning temperature was in the high 30s with a chilly breeze. But the sun was shining and the scenery made me entirely forget about the chill. It was gorgeous.
Downtown Houghton

 Houghton , a city of about 7,000 people, sits on the Portage Canal. I ran out the door of the hotel and into the heart of downtown. Most of the storefronts are filled with charming local restaurants and shops. I took a turn down to the waterfront and ran along the paved waterfront trail.


Water is a keep part of Michigan’s identity, and Houghton uses its waterfront brilliantly. The houses are set back across the street (beautiful homes with large decks facing the canal) and the waterfront is all public. There is the trail, picnic tables, docks, and a fantastic park with a “chutes and ladders” play structure (this thing is a kid’s dream). 
The Library - a brew pub on the Portage Canal

 The next day I turned the other direction to run through Michigan Tech’s campus. Michigan Tech is a premier engineering institution, and approximately 96 percent of their students have jobs, enroll in grad school or join the military by the time they graduate. With around 7,000 students it doubles Houghton’s population. Campus is relatively small, but it was a beautiful run past the fraternity houses and around campus.
the boat to Isle Royale National Park on the Canal

 Houghton is a city with lots of culture –with festivals in the summer and then winter – where Houghton really hits its stride. It is a great place for skiing – both downhill and cross country as well as snowmobiling and other winter sports. It is the birthplace of professional ice hockey which pretty much makes it king of winter sports.
Storefront in Downtown Houghton


Each year Michigan Tech hosts Winter Carnival where visitors come to see snow sculptures built by the students. This week-long celebration is supposed to be fantastic. Winter Carnival holds the world records for the largest snowball and largest snowball fight. 

Granted I visited Houghton in the summer and missed all the cool winter stuff. And if you lived in Houghton I think you’d have to invest in a treadmill or supplement your running with something else like cross country skiing. 

This city is 100% worth the drive. Houghton is doing everything right – investing in its community in a way that will maintain the city as a vibrant place to live, work and play for generations.

How would I rate Houghton? A+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some Reasons Why Diet Culture is Garbage: I Poop a Lot and I'm Always Hungry

Image
It was the spring of 1996, and my mom and I were at the mall shopping for my senior prom dress. I had decided I was only going to eat 500 calories a day over the weekend. It was track season, so I couldn't starve myself on practice and meet days, but in my mind it seemed perfectly logical to basically starve my healthy, 17-year-old body on less physical days. I was in the fitting room trying on dresses, and I heard the sales person say to my mom, "Your daughter is so tiny!" I was light headed and nauseous from not eating, but that overheard compliment made me feel like it was all worth it.  Senior Prom 1996 I've struggled with my body image since I was a pre-teen, and in the 30+ years that have passed it's still something with which I struggle daily. I spent years punishing my body so I wouldn't gain weight: eating very few calories and working out for hours, purging, taking laxatives, only drinking alcohol until I threw up so I wouldn't gain weight. It...
Read more

Here's a Shortcut: Do the Work.

Image
I have a confession to make: I don't think I'm my best self right now. I've been thinking a lot about being my best self overall (including fitness which is a huge thing for me), and I've come to a simple, unalienable truth: there is no shortcut. To be the best version of yourself (whatever that means) you have to do the work. I'm not the same version of myself at 46 as I was at 26. (Man could I give that girl some good advice though.) I spend a lot of time reflecting on who I am and who I want to be. While doing the work all the time seems daunting on its surface, it's not. It doesn't mean life has to be a grind 24/7, but it does mean that there is effort in whatever is important to you (which of course is unique to each of us). Where am I willing to do the work to be the best version of me? Fitness. I love exercise. My husband says I'm "obsessed", and I retort that there are way worse obsessions. While I'm logging way fewer miles than I ...
Read more

Why Do I Talk About my "Stuff"?

Image
A few months ago a friend told me someone we knew was venting that I share too much about myself in my blog and on social media. She said (I'm paraphrasing) something like "We all go through stuff. There's no need to share it." At first I was irritated until I realized this person has zero impact on my life. And it's true: we are all going through things. But since then I've been thinking a lot about why I am so candid about things in my life (in particular my struggle with Crohn's Disease).  I was 19 when I got sick. It was so embarrassing. No college girl wants to tell people they're dealing with bloody diarrhea and nausea and horrible cramps. That's the thing about a chronic illness: it's easy to feel like you don't have anyone to lean on. I had my colon removed 5 weeks before I started law school (the delightful adventure chronicled in this blog ). I began law school having lost 30 pounds in less than a month, with steroids puffing up m...
Read more