Outdoor enthusiasts honor cabin and home – Les Voyageurs wax love for nature’s splendor, rally in timeless lodge

The Habe Mills Pine Lodge in early autumn. Photo Credit: Greg Monroe

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Beneath the brow of a quiet hill, on the banks of the Huron River is the Habe Mills Pine Lodge. The modest structure rests tucked away from the edge of Longshore Drive, where pavement meets the mouth of a wooded dirt road on the city’s north side.

Since 1925, the lodge has remained home to Les Voyageurs of the University of Michigan, a coed fraternal society dedicated to the pursuit of all things out-of-doors.

Shrouded in bracken, the lodge leaves one with the impression of stumbling upon an old barnhouse lost in a forgotten field. It appears unfrequented, veiled in a quiet calm.

The deep red planks that comprise the cabin’s exterior are framed by a precarious assortment of trees and shrubbery. A beige blanket of fallen pine needles slopes down the vaulted roof of the porch.

But upon closer inspection, an onlooker will easily find traces of the LVs (short for Les Voyageurs).

A side-yard gives way to a healthy woodpile in the distance. A pair of sawhorses balance the trunk of a downed tree. Fresh dirt and tarps create a backdrop for the LVs latest project: an earthen oven.

A stroll along the property reveals a tool shed (complete with two-man saws), bike port, canoe cabin, wood-burning sauna and chicken coop—just one of many ways the LVs practice sustainable living.

“We’re all environmentalists in addition to being outdoorsmen. We like to do local food,” said Joe Rhodes, a senior studying environmental geology at the University of Michigan and member of the society of Les Voyageurs.

Habe Mills does well to center these interests.

“The cabin is a great place where outdoor activities meet cooperation, friendship and a lot of fun,” said Justin Lefevre, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan mechanical engineering program and LV member.

Lefevre and Rhodes both live here, along with four others. They agree it’s one of the best privileges of membership.

It’s a bit longer than a typical pedestrian commute to campus, they say. But the comforts of the cabin and the serenity of the river make it an ideal place to live.

“We don’t have to deal with people shouting outside our window at 3 am,” Rhodes said. “We get the train going by at 7:55 in the morning. We get geese honking … I wouldn’t leave it.”

Entering the lodge, it’s easy to see why.

A guest is immediately aware of a vaguely familiar smell that perhaps conjures one's own fond memories of the outdoors. Fresh fall leaves, the slightest tinge of maple syrup.

“It’s a smell I like and it smells like home,” Rhodes said. “I guess some people would like their homes to smell like Pinesol or lemon Frebreeze.”

A survey of LVs present described the scent as rustic, amazing: an amalgamation of woodsmoke, people, years of good and bad cooking and countless fires in the cabin’s rugged fireplace.

A placard above the hearth reads: Here let the fires of friendship burn forever.

In true LV fashion, it’s carved into a lodge-pole recovered on an adventure in Oregon.

Fires are commonplace at the lodge--but not always for utility function. They are often intended to create a gathering place to encourage LVs who don't reside here to venture down and hang out, Lefevre explained.

Other highlights of the cabin’s interior include yearbooks dating back nearly a century, handcrafted nocturne furnishings and a flag that was taken on the first American expedition to the South Pole by an LV in 1930.

“It’s still very similar to how it was in the past,” Levefre said.

And in the spirit of love for nature’s splendor, Habe Mills will continue to be a haven for young adventurers beginning their own journeys for years to come.