BikeSuperior

Key West!!!

Today I finished the Google Map misguided bike path detour, ending in Brimley at the South end of Lake Superior.  I encamped early hoping to do some beach walking but just as I got everything set up, a thunderstorm blew through and dampened my enthusiasm.  I managed to get all of the equipment and bags into the tent before the rain started so I should (fingers crossed) be dry tonight. It this still light up here until 9:00pm so I just may get that beach walk in yet. I am now just 14 miles from completing the circle tour of Lake Superior. I could have ridden into Sault St. Marie and finished today but it is nice to spend one more night under the stars (yes it is supposed to clear) with a campfire as the temps dip. Don't get me wrong; I'm happy that tonight is my last night on an air mattress and that by Sunday I will be in repose on the memory foam that I so love. After a month in the saddle I am just reflecting on the experience and waxing nostalgic. I will craft a more el...

Today was not the most glamorous ride. The geniuses at Google marked a bike path along the shoreline that is actually a snowmobile trail. Google has made that same mistake almost everywhere in the U.P. except in city centers. Just a guess; the teenage gamers in Silicone Valley have not seen nor heard of a snowmobile.  The route change to accommodate this took me through the middle of the U.P. which does not have quite the same cachet as Lake Superior. So I had a chance to see the guts of this peninsula and am sorry to report that it looks just like home. Every going concern has a help wanted sign. Hospitality business service is spotty up here and I chalked that up to cultural differences. Rethinking that supposition however, it is likely that every business is just short staffed. My friend Todd has this same issue in Elkhart so I don't recommend that he spend any money trying to recruit Yoopers. The day ended with a call from my buddy Patrick just checking up on me and offerin...

Waking up with 2,200 feet of kinetic energy in the bank justs makes a body feel good all over. It would be hard to piss me off right now. Thanks to yesterday's slog up hill, I will be able to mostly coast to Marquette 35 miles away. Whee!  I left at 7:15 and arrive in Marquette at 10:00a.m. without breaking a sweat. The one disappointment in this otherwise uplifting experience is that I arrived in Marquette too early to sample Asian food at Jasmine. I have yet to disclose that any and every opportunity to dine at an Asian restaurant gets my attention. Vietnamese, Chinese or Thai - it doesn't matter - I'm all in. Now I fear my next opportunity will be Nina's kitchen in Zimmyville. Not that I don't appreciate that venue, it's just that it is a whole week away. I rode by the cabins where I spent a week's vacation with daughter Heather and my neighbors from Farmington Hills in the mid-70's.  The contrast was striking. In those days of yore, this stretch...

Left from Baraga State Park with the sun just breaking the horizon of Superior. The village of L'anse is just three miles away and my plan was to have coffee and breakfast at the Subway and also get a sub for lunch. This stretch of road doesn't have any services for about 40 miles - not a gas station, convenience store, restaurant or Indian casino. There is one small market about 8 miles before my intended destination and then again nothing for 10 miles after. It is really remote here so I have to figure out how to eat for the next 24 hours. So, back to the plan. Subway breakfast and lunch and find something in the market for dinner. Last resort is the could store with hot dogs and ice cream.  Wouldn't you know, Subway opens late on Saturday in L'anse.  I don't feel like killing an hour doing nothing so I have a protein bar and move on.  So, 35+ miles later I pull into the market and load up with coffee, salami, cheese, Pringles and some assorted fruit.  Dinner is...

Stayed in a motel in downtown Houghton last night and dried out all of the camping gear.  The motel was decorated in '60's era paneling with furniture to match. Clean, comfortable and the real bonus is that you register in the bar next door.  I have never had lodging and a beer all one one tab before. Sleeping in a real bed along with being packed and ready to roll in the morning can improve your outlook on life considerably. Pedaling out of Houghton on a quiet morning along the shore of Portage Lake on the Michigan Tech campus was the perfect remedy for yesterday's case of optical rectitis. It is hard to believe that college students live here all winter and abandon it in the summer. If MTU engineering grads were as smart as that say they are, their breaks would start in January not in June. It is in the 80's up here in the U.P. which is unusual. While I might prefer slightly cooler temps, the lack of rain in the forecast is welcome.  I have a 75 mile ride to Marqu...

Got back to camp after dinner just in time for a thunderstorm.  I slept well through the carnage but the     morning aftermath was discouraging. Unlike camp-in-place people I don't have the luxury of waiting until the afternoon to pack up. I have miles to make and morning, before the traffic revs up, is the best time to ride. So, I packed the wet tent, rain fly and ground cover soaked and dirty into a panier and headed off into the sunrise. Sorry to be a downer, but the extra effort and downright cold conditions made me cranky. I finally got on the road a full two hours later than intended. To add to the misery, the road was hilly, curvy and  busy with no shoulder for the first 10 miles. I made Houghton in no better mood than when I started.  Sorry but that's all I got for you today. Today's ride was 47 miles for a total of 1,121. Some days you're the windshield - some days you're the bug

Today ends week 3 of the great adventure!  A Mostly beautiful ride took me up through the Keweenaw Peninsula along the western shore to the most northern point in Michigan. Although it doesn't have the same elevation, it is every bit as picturesque as the Canadian shore. The roads are quiet and the hills are manageable. Michigan Wins Again!!!! But indulge a little backtracking to last evening. Roy drove into my campsite on a Harley and wanted to know where I've been and where I'm going. He was really interested in my travels, but honestly, his story is way more fascinating than mine. Roy lives in Illinois, just outside of St. Louis. He retired, sold his house, put his belongings into storage and is looking for a house in the Keweenaw Peninsula. He intends to go off the grid and stay off. I didn't want to intrude so I didn't ask why and he didn't offer an explanation. So you might think that Roy is a Michigan Militia Trump white supremacist but I didn't get...

Weather forecasting up here is an illusion. I think they just spew random stuff and hope that 50% is good enough. I usually rely on The Weather Channel. Nina relies on AccuWeather but is really a desciple of WGN's Tom Skilling. In fact, Tom was her first choice but she settled for me as a consolation prize. I was considering skipping the Keweenaw Peninsula because, two days ago, TWC was predicting 20 mph headwinds.  Reluctant to commit to 75 miles ride to Copper Harbor facing that prospect I thought about turning East to Baraga. With Nina's urging I decided to forge ahead. This stretch of Superior shoreline is one of the most spectacular. Wouldn't you know that I had one of the most delightful riding days of the trip with 68 degrees and light wind. Tomorrow is expected to provide a tail wind for the remainder of the ride to Copper Harbor. It seems that, rather than having actual meteorologists apply scientific principles to forecast UP weather, TWC in Atlanta instead ha...

I greeted the day with a flat tire. Picked up a wire from a steel belted tire that exploded somewhere along the road. It is the most common road hazard according to experienced bikers. Anyway, it must have leaked all night and presented itself in the morning. I have a spare tube but decided to retain that redundancy and patched this one. The repair wasn't as fast as Ralphi's old man in A Christmas Story but I was on the road about an hour late and never once said "oh fudge".  End of the day and pressure is holding. A road bike passed me this morning like I was standing still. I don't resent his speed - he wasn't carrying 50 pounds of gear. I don't envy the expensive bike either.  My intent is to see the sights at 10 mph and an "oh wow" bike is not required for that. What really honks me off, though, is that at 65 I can't wear that cute little spandex suit. Nobody my age looks good in that . So instead, my uniform is cargo shorts and a tee s...

Nina told me yesterday that several of our friends wonder why I'm not back home yet. It is hard to  appreciate just how big Lake Superior is. Yesterday was a history lesson, today's topic: geography. This is the largest fresh water lake in the world. Had I left from Zimmyville, riding south, I would be in Atlanta, Georgia now and probably staying overnight with Jay and Marilyn or Frank and Lauralie in our old neighborhood at Willow Springs. Continuing to ride south, I would finish up in Key West in a couple of weeks. Same distance in a straight line but instead I'm up in the wilderness riding in circles.  It's a big ass lake. A 33 mile detour took me off my game today. The road in these parts turns inland for a time and the detour is extending my time away from Superior. I had hoped to get back to shoreline roads tomorrow but Tuesday is now more likely. I crossed back into the Eastern Time Zone this afternoon. When you travel at 10 miles an hour, little milestones t...

Back in Michigan - woo hoo!  But before I get myself all worked up I'm reminded that there are still about 600 miles to go. On the bright side, it may well be the most scenic part of the ride.  Having entered Michigan in the Upper Peninsula, I am now surrounded by Yoopers. Up here I'm considered, somewhat disparagingly, a "fudgie.". The term was coined to identify the scads of tourists that descend on Mackinac Island every summer and spend money in the ubiquitous fudge and taffy storefronts. The term is intended to be slightly derogatory but ya hey dere I'll stand up and own it. The other thing I'll own are pasties - the food most associated with the U.P.  Can't get enough of them. My friend Leanne is  bonafide Yooper having grown up in Paradise (the town, not the place coveted by terrorist suicide bombers). Leanne was the high school prom queen and somehow after earning a Michigan MBA ended up working in Detroit with me. She now runs the New York office...

It's 7:00 a.m. and I am packed and ready to roll. Two of my new Kansas friendsds are awake and I donate purchased but unused firewood for their Friday night fire. A brief but tearful goodby and I'm off. The first mile is all up hill. The second mile is all up hill. After the third uphill mile I pass a cell phone tower which usually signals the top of the hill.  Another four miles and there is finally a crest. The view is breathtaking but I have no breath left to take after 7 miles up hill. The remaining 47 miles is considerably easier. It is all going on in Ashland, Wisconsin. Today is the first day of their annual festival. Sidewalk sales, food trucks and music. There is a Big Wheel tricycle race on Main Street and lots of happy faces. Tomorrow there is a swimming race in the 50 degree water of the bay and a 50 mile bike race with 400 contestants.  I had dinner at the South Shore  Brewery at the bar and sat next to a couple from Oshkosh that came up for the bike race. ...

Stayed in a nondescript motel in Superior, Wisconsin and dried everything out overnight. Ready to begin another day but the weather isn't cooperating. Forecast was for rain yesterday and clear today. So far we have had about a half inch of partly cloudy this morning. Rain gear is nicely tucked away so I hope to wait out the Storm. I see a break and make my way out of Superior, WI. A little wet but soon drying out again. Must say, I'm happy to be out of Duluth/Superior. Industry and shipping are important to the people of this area, but for biking I really prefer waves crashing on the beach to the sound of back-up alarms In shipyards.  Buh-Bye So, here's a little knowledge from biking experience that will put you in the know: cows listen and horses don't.   Say good morning to a horse in a meadow and they pretend to be deaf. But a "hi cow" under the same circumstances makes the whole herd lift their heads and take notice. I'm in Wisconsin so there are c...

Days 13 & 14 were fairly uneventful.  Just over 50 miles each day.  Day 13 still had a south wind in the face. It is discouraging to crest a hill and still have to pedal hard on the downslope. Today's special treat was a tail wind courtesy of a storm front. So, while rainy, it was fast. That is until I rounded the southwest corner of lake Superior in Duluth and headed up the ramp of the bridge over the St. Louis River to Wisconsin. This is a three mile bridge soaring hundreds of feet above the water with wind and rain now in my face at 15 mph gusting to 25. Once on the ramp I was committed but if I had it to do all over again I would have become a permanent resident of Minnesota rather than ride the bridge. Bridge notwithstanding, I'm happy to be in Wisconsin where billboards are legal. There is a tavern on every corner and midwest hospitality should be evident once again. The People's Republic of Minnesota controls all of those things because the government knows wha...

I overslept this morning and didn't start peddling until 7:30. I just moved into the central time zone so my body clock was still set at 6:30.  Not that it matters. I find myself collapsing at 9:30 most nights when it is still bright. There are about two extra hours of daylight up here relative to Zimmyville, so sleeping is not sunset dependent. I set my sights on Tettagouche State Park 62 miles away. Unfortunately a 10 mph wind developed early and lasted all day.  It is getting late in the day and well short of goal so I check out a National Forest campground. I have a lifetime pass to National Parks that set me back 10 bucks. That is the best senior deal on the planet and it is available to anyone achieving 62 years of age. There is a nice kid behind the counter that just graduated from civil service school.  Rather than just saying that they have no sites available and that there are no showers - a must for me - he launches into an unintelligible blast of verbal diar...