You Can Only Get the U.P.'s Best Fall View on a Side-By-Side

Brimley — There is a positive correlation between the southeast side of the state and traffic jams, and there is a positive correlation between the north and side-by-sides. The further north you go, the more likely you are to find yourself on one, driving next to one or passing one for sale on the side of the road.

There is some line somewhere a little south of the bridge where the ORV-to-car ratio starts to gradually flip. It’s probably where the number of gravelly seasonal roads starts increasing and the number of smoothly paved thoroughfares starts decreasing. By the time you cross the bridge and pass through the toll on the other side of the straits, you are certainly in side-by-side country.

While I live in Northern Michigan and am well aware of side-by-side culture I, believe it or not, had never driven one myself. I had seen them on the trails, zipping out of the woods, and speeding along the shoulder of the road, but I had never seized the wheel on one of these off-road vehicles of the wooded North until last week.

Rob Hebeeb is a veteran, a Yooper, and the owner of Rad Rentals. Located just outside Brimley, off 6 mile road, about a five-minute drive from I-75, Rad Rentals is home to Rob, his wife, and a fleet of rentable ORVs. Rob was born downstate, but his family moved up to the great land north of the bridge when he was just 10, which makes him just about as much of a Yooper as his wife, who was born and raised not terribly far away from where they live today. Just a few years after moving to the U.P., Rob met his wife in high school, enlisted in the military, and served our country both at home and abroad for 20 years.

Rad Rentals has been facilitating ORV and snowmobile trips all over this exceedingly beautiful corner of the U.P. since 2025. In terms of the busy season, Rob told me it’s actually, interestingly(!), the snowmobile season that’s most hectic. Yes, believe it or not, people—more people!—actually make the trip way up to the U.P. when the roads are slick with ice and the wind tries to rip your nose off.

I, however—a sane(ish) person—made the trip up to Rad Rentals on one of the most glorious fall afternoons known to man. The sun was golden, the leaves were on fire with orange and red, and the temperature hovered somewhere around 61. Rob and I talked for a while in the garage, he told me to take whatever I wanted from the fridge (I grabbed a Red Bull), and we set off ripping through the woods for Mission Hill on the two-seater out front.

On the way out to one of the most beautiful lookout points I’ve ever personally visited Rob told me about how he’s rented side-by-sides and snowmobiles to all sorts of people from all sorts of places. He told me his favorite things about running Rad Rentals is meeting new people and hearing about the amazing time once they come back after they have been out on the side-by-sides. He loves sharing this incredible beauty with others who know it less than him.

On our way through the woods he told me all about the legality of side-by-sides, how to ride on the road, how to treat cars passing, how to signal, how trails are navigated, what the gas mileage is like (about 10 to 12 miles per gallon by the way), and how you don’t need heat in a two-seater with no windows because the engine gives off more than enough.

He didn’t really need to explain that last past about the heat. I was able to infer that quite quickly. We were tearing down the trails at about 40 mph, the wind was chilly, but we were as warm as we might have been inside any climate-controlled SUV. Rob said, “It’s hard to explain to people when they ask, but you just don’t need heat in a two-seater.” He’s right.

After a while on on the trails we arrived at Mission Hill, a sublime lookout point in the little bump of land northwest of Bay Mills. It’s a place he often sends customers. There’s an old American Indian graveyard to the west and a glorious view of Spectacle Lake, Monocle Lake, and Lake Superior to the east. On a crystal clear day in October, colors ablaze, a freighter on Superior, it was breathtaking.

After admiring the incredible scene of peak color and clear sky for a while we decided it was time to head back. Rob asked me if I wanted to drive. I told him, “Hell yeah.” Cruising back to the shop on bumpy trails, through yellow leafy woods was an absolute gas.

It’s a little rough riding as a passenger in a side-by-side, but it’s much less rough when you’re the one driving. Your body anticipates the bumps more easily when you are the one in control. It was my first time behind the wheel on one of these things and it took me all of about 45 seconds to get a handle on it. It’s basically like driving something somewhere between a golf cart and a jeep. It’s super fun bouncing around over tracks that would wreck your car in about four seconds. It’s amazing reaching into the woods where you just wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise. It’s exhilarating opening the thing up on a straight shot of gravel, woods on either side, the rumble of the engine and the wind in your hair.

Spending the afternoon cruising around with Rob made me wonder if maybe I’m making a mistake living in town on Little Traverse Bay, where we all drive cars or ride bikes. Maybe I’m living in Northern Michigan, but only living one side of it. Maybe I need to relocate to the U.P., buy a side-by-side, rip around the trails, and be one of the guys emerging from the woods in a cloud of dust and dirt boggling the minds of those in cars passing on the tidy concrete.

I need to get back on a side-by-side.