This Viking cabin is a cozy retreat in the U.P.
Playing cards by electric candlelight in a cozy cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula makes the world and its worries seem millions of miles away.
A wood-burning stove in the corner kept the cabin toasty as snow piled up in the nearly silent woods outside. A pot of stew warmed on an electric cooktop and a couple cans of beer cooled outside.
This was what Scandinavians define as —a kind of coziness and contentment that helps them not just survive winter but enjoy it.
It was fitting my mom and I found it in a Vikingthemed cabin in the U.P. While we were only about 10 miles east of Marquette, the largest city in the U.P. (pop. 21,355), quiet enveloped our little cabin, tucked into the edge of a campground that was shut down for the season.
The cabin could be considered glamping, without any running water but with all the other comforts of home, including a kitchenette and electricity that powered charming string lights and a radio tuned to a station that delivered regular ice fishing reports between country songs.
A full bathroom, complete with a sauna, was a few minutes' walk away at a lodge. A minor inconvenience, even in the winter, for the quiet solitude provided by the cabin.
Before settling in to play cards, we took in some of that solitude on the 4,600-mile North Country Trail, which ran along the southern edge of the property.
Snowshoes would normally be necessary for such a hike in this part of the U.P. that gets nearly 150 inches of snow every winter, but it had been a low-snow winter so far and our boots were enough for a 3-mile outand-back trek through the pine-filled woods.
Back at the cabin, we followed the campground entrance road to M-28 and crossed it to reach a small park along Lake Superior. In the summer, people take chilly dips there in water that barely tops 60 degrees, then warm up next to bonfires on the small beach.
Stairs down to the beach had been washed out by one of Lake Superior's famously brutal storms, but we could still take in the mighty lake and ice shelves along the shore from above.
The lake and those storms helped carve the dramatic
sandstone cliffs at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore about 30 miles to the east. While most of the park is accessible only by snowmobile or a long snowshoe trek in the winter, it's possible to see some of those cliffs and their accompanying ice formations via a short hike along Sand Point Road, which is one of the park's only roads that are plowed in the winter.
Even with plowing, Lake Superior's winter storms are not to be messed with. While we had planned to visit Pictured Rocks that day, the forecast called for half a foot of snow, so we squeezed in a visit the day before.
The snow came later than forecasted, but I was thankful we changed our plans as it began piling up on the road on our walk back to our cabin. We settled in for an afternoon of hygge as the fluffy powder covered the picnic table and grill outside.
While we had limited cellphone service, the digital distractions mostly stayed on their chargers as we took turns stoking the stove and yelling at each other for not laying down the cards we wanted.
For the first time in months, I knew nothing about
the latest COVID numbers or political happenings. In that moment in our little cabin in the woods, none of it mattered. All that mattered was I was absolutely demolishing my mother in gin rummy.
By the time she figured out she had been playing wrong and started winning a few hands, darkness had begun to settle in around the cabin. We turned off the electric candles, put a final log in the stove and climbed the ladder into the bedroom loft.
There, a full-size bed and a few blankets created a cozy cocoon that had cradled us in a deep sleep until after 10 that morning — the latest either of us had slept in a long time.
While we had to say goodbye to our little cabin the next day, it gave us a big enough dose of hygge to return to the real world and make it through the rest of the winter.
More information: The Viking Cabin is part of Dragonfly Dunes, which includes three other rentals: a bus converted into a tiny home, a heated canvas tent, and a lodge for larger groups.
The cabin has electricity and a kitchenette with a convection oven, conduction cooktop, coffee maker, drinking water, a small fridge and basic kitchen items. There is air-conditioning for the summer and an electric fireplace and wood-burning stove for the winter, with plenty of fire starters and wood.
The cabin’s full-size bed is in a loft, accessible only via a ladder that might be difficult for young children and those with mobility challenges to use.
The cabin doesn’t have a bathroom, but guests may use the campground’s bathrooms (about 50 steps away) when they are open (May-September), or a bathroom in the upper level of the owner’s lodge, a few minutes’ walk away.
Snowshoes are available to borrow by request, and there are a couple short trails on the property that link to the North Country Trail.
Pets are not permitted in any of the Dragonfly Dunes rentals. There is no Wi-Fi, but we had some cell service with U.S. Cellular and Verizon.
The Viking Cabin is for rent on Airbnb (airbnb.com/rooms/29535997) and Hipcamp (hipcamp.com/discover/ michigan/dragonfly-dunes) starting at $89 per night.
The cabins are off M-28 10 miles east of Marquette, about 290 miles north of Milwaukee.
Contact Chelsey Lewis at clewis@ journalsentinel.com.