Michigan wilderness on an F3

[seraph_rapture]

This is my first ride report and trip of any respectable length.  I've been riding for about a year now, and I wanted to take a trip that I felt I could manage easily.  I'm also a senior at Eastern Michigan University, and I've been trying to see everything I want to in the state before I graduate and move to another with new things to discover!  I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy the riding, and stay tuned for updates.



I have to preface with a little information about Michigan's Upper Peninsula for those of you who aren't local.  The entire UP has a population of 317,000 - one quarter of Michigan's land area but only 3% of its population.  It is separated from the lower peninsula by the 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge (more about this later).  It is, in a word...isolated.  One of my biggest worries before taking the trip was the availability of fuel, repair, and medical services should the unforseen happen.  But enough about that, lets dive in!

Here's a rough Google map of my route.
http://tiny.cc/nu3t0

Day 1 - 319 mi

The trip actually starts in Ypsilanti, Michigan.  I packed up Tuesday night before work and loaded up the bike so that I could slab up to my parents' house in Alpena, this breaks the ride to the bridge up from 6 hours to 4, allowing me to offically begin the fun part fresh on Wednesday morning.  Here's the bike all ready to go, as I leave Alpena 10am on Wednesday, heading up US23 N toward Mackinac (and the UP!)



The ride up 23 is uneventful, and I didn't snap any pics because this was really a UP trip.  My first challenge would be the Mackinac Bridge, and it was probably the most harrowing experience of the whole ride.    Normally riding across a bridge isn't the biggest deal in the world, but the "Mighty Mac" is 8 miles long - the third longest suspension bridge in the world.  It's crazy windy and I had the good fortune to find it under construction.  Normally it's an...interesting...experience anyhow with the high winds but it so happens that of the 4 lanes on the bridge two were closed, one on each side.  And the side that was closed was the good, paved one.  That means that what was left to ride on was the grate, which on my bike at least, shuffled me from side to side with no control.  I was putting along at around 20mph with gale force winds trying to blow me off.  Somehow, I made it.  The grate picture is not mine, I borrowed it from the web.



Success!  After pulling over to calm my nerves and part with $3.50 for the toll, I was on my way to St. Ignace to gas up.  Finally UP official!

The wind was going to a problem all day.  I was getting 30 mph gusts virtually all day, and leaning as if for 90 degree sweepers just to maintain a straight course.  It made for some interesting riding, to be sure.  The ride from St. Ignace to my next destination on US 2 was all along the coast with no windbreak.  Beautiful, but windy!  There aren't any pictures from this part of the trip, as I was trying hard to hold on.

My first stop was Fayette.  I'm a bit of a history buff, and I LOVE local history.  My major is Secondary Education - English, but I sort of which I had majored in History rather than minoring it in to be honest, I love it so much.  Fayette is a state park townsite, reconstructed to illustrate life in the 1800's.  The town was built specifically to capitalize on the iron trade in the mid 1800's.  Getting a glimpse into how these people lived is so interesting, it really puts things into perspective.  Here's a few pictures I snapped.












This last picture I snapped because I thought it was interesting.  Here I was,  8 hours from 'home' and I find references to my school.  Awesome!  I think it's fantastic that there is (or at least was) a program at my university that helped to preserve this bit of history for future generations.  


The original plan was to camp at Fayette but it was only 3 pm or so with hours of good riding ahead of me, so I hopped on the CBR and decided to beat the pavement for a bit.  On the way back north from Fayette I think it was moth breeding season!  I didn't snap a pic but I wish I had, there were easily 500 yellow moths flying around this small section of road, and this didn't happen anywhere else on the trip.  Spectacular, and very strange.

Anyway, back on the road.  After putting on a few more miles I realized I was running out of daylight.  The plan was to camp off the bike for the whole trip but I realized it was getting on into the evening and I didn't want to screw with setting up a tent in the dark, so I stopped in Norway, MI for the night.  Here I have to digress for a bit.  Michigan's UP was founded on three industries - Lumber, Iron, and Copper.  Many of the workers in these industries were immigrants, and to this day small pockets of these immigrant families still exist in their own towns.  Norway was one of these, filled with Swedes!  I stopped at the Viking Motel (because I'm cheap, and a college student) for the night and was treated to a very decent room for $29 out the door!  This was the best deal of the trip - I set myself a goal - I wouldn't spend more than $50 a night for a room, which seemed like it would be a reasonable bar in the wilderness that is the UP.

After getting unpacked I had a conversation with a nice older gentleman who came up and asked me what size my bike was.  "600," I answered.  He smiled and said it was just the right size.  Turns out he was a relative of the proprietor of the inn, and had just come back from Italy.  "Everyone over there rides Ducati or BMW," he said.  "Is this better than a Ducati?"  I smiled and told him it was more reliable.    He laughed and headed back to his room for the night, and I solicited the opinion of one of the construction workers staying at the hotel for a place to get a beer and burger.  Following his advice I headed up to the Thirsty Whale a couple miles up the road and was treated to a very ok burger and bud lite.  The food was ok, but the service wasn't great.  I did have a girl who wasn't on the clock anymore come over to take my order eventually, I suspect that I was the only non-local in the bar, which may explain why it took so long.  Overall, an ok experience.  After a couple of brews I headed back to the hotel to pass out for the night.  I must have been exhausted, because I quite literally passed out at 8 pm.  Thus ends Day 1.

[bassjones]

 

[seraph_rapture]

Day 2 - 278 mi

Christ, my ass was sore.  I woke up and immediately felt 20 years older than I was.  I had purchased some bicycle shorts before the trip thinking they would help, and they may have made some difference, but not according to the feelings of my glutes.  From reading other ride reports it was my understanding that if you're going to put in long days, to do them the first few days while you're still fresh.  This seemed like a good plan to me, because I had a lot of thigns I wanted to see as the days went on.  As I packed up all my gear in the room, I remembered that we had some pretty crazy thunderstorms that woke me up the night before.  It looked like my decision to stay in a motel rather than camp was the right one.  I looked out the window to make sure the rain hadn't washed my bike away, and I saw there was a bag of garbage on my seat.  Damnit, it looked like the construction workers decided that my bike looked like a garbage can.  I took a load of gear down to deal with it.

When I got down there I realized the plastic bag wasn't garbage at all, but hand towels.  Wtf?  The nice lady from the front desk came out to solve the mystery for me, it turns out she left them on my bike to dry it off after the torrential downpour the night before.  Very thoughtful, and an example of how nice people can be when you're on a bike far from home.  If you're ever in the Norway, MI area and looking for a place to stay, the Viking motel is higly recommended!  I wiped the bike down and loaded it up, intending to get a few miles in before lunch.  You'll note I skipped breakfast, I have a bit of a sleeping problem.  Problem is, I love it.  There wasn't a day on this adventure that I started riding before 10 am, which did tend to bite me in the ass a few times but I wanted to treat this like the vacation it was, rather than a fixed schedule task.  

My first stop was Crystal Falls, but to get there I would have to take a two minute trip through Wisconsin. :O  If you've ever been through 2 minutes of Wisconsin.  It wasn't a very memoral experience, I did love that the town I rode through was named Spread Eagle.  When I came back into Michigan a short time later I stopped at a roadside park and snapped this awesome waterfall pic.  This is where I learned my first lesson of the trip - If you don't stop, you won't see these things.  I would have absolutely missed this if I hadn't stopped.


I'm sure you're wondering - "Where are all the pics of your actual ride?"  Truth is, I didn't take much.  For most of this leg of the journey the road was through national forest, which was beautiful but largely the same.  Here is a pic, it is representative of most of day 2's roads.


I found a roadside park with a state map, so I pointed out for those of you who aren't familiar with the state where I started on Day 1 -

And where I ended on Day 1 -


After passing through Crystal Falls (I dated a girl who lived there, and I knew it was a cute little town so I made it a stop) I stopped for lunch at Bewabic state park for some lunch and a quick chain lube, thanks to the rain the night before.  For those of you in the know, yes those are MRE's.  I had forgotten how they tend to stay with you for the rest of the day, and I brought a weeks worth of them, even though I end up eating only 2.




Chain lubed!


I really wanted to see two things around this area - Bond Falls and Agate Falls.  They're both pretty close, but I'll have to backtrack after Agate.   No matter, they're both great!  Bond Falls first.




Video of the falls -




After the hike back to the parking lot I saw I had picked up a stowaway!  He quickly decided the ride wasn't to his liking, but I appreciated his company for the short time we had together.


On the way to Agate Falls I saw the sign brings a smile to the face every sport biker.

Finally, some good roads now that I was off US2!  I got some tuck, started to lean, and got ready for some twisties!!!
Sadly my excitement was short lived, for this lurked around the next corner!

This was the theme of a lot of the trip - I'd hit some curvy roads and they would invariably be covered with sand from recent construction.  At first I was disappointed but then I remembered four things.  
1. My last name was not Rossi.
2. I was loaded up with 300 or 400 pounds of gear.
3. I was almost always more than 50-75 miles from a hospital.
4. I have no health insurance.
With these realizations in mind, I treated most of the ride like a vacation, and rode as such.  Onward to Agate Falls!


Like most rivers, in the years of the timber boom Agate was a log superhighway, used to transport the logs from where they were felled to the mill.  My hometown had quite a few of these lumber mills, so the history really brings back memories.  






To get these shots I had to climb to a second, awesome bridge high above the first.  I'm not sure if it's an ATV bridge or what, I've never done any ADVriding, but someone will probably recognize the significance of the orange triangles.

But I had to climb this steep path!  It would have been much easier in something other than my old AGV boots, but the only other footwear I brought on this trip was a pair of $2 size 13 (I wear size 11) flip flops from the Wal-Mart in Alpena.  I opted for the AGV's.  There were three older people climbing up the hill who were only groaning a little, and at my age I wasn't about to be shown up.  

A quick consultation of the road map told me I had a reasonable distance to cover to get to my next destination, Lake of the Clouds and the Porcupine Mountains.  I had to stop and give you a picture of the roads I was riding through, I realize that I haven't done much of that.  So here you go!

Lake of the Clouds!





My point and shoot really does not do this place justice.  It's a fine camera, but for scenes like this you really need a DSLR.  This next photo isn't mine, but it will give you an idea of how fantastic the view is up here in the fall.  Summer is a great time for riding through the wilderness but Fall can't be beat.

And for those of you who didn't know that Michigan has mountains -

[Michigan's mountains aren't really mountains, they look like big hills.  Still, I like them. ]
I didn't get any snaps of the next leg of the journey, because I was busy breaking my no lean rule.    I ran into a gorgeous black Skyline R35 about 30 miles outside of Hancock and decided to keep pace with it.  Beautiful car, seemed to handle really well too!  I of course obeyed all traffic laws but somehow those twisty 30 miles only seemed to take 20 minutes.  
I thought I was going to stay with a friend in Hancock tonight, but she wasn't available, so I stopped at Taco Bell and consulted my map.  There wasn't anything close in the way of state parks to camp at, so I decided to continue on to Calumet and get a room there for the night.  Room choices were limited to one hotel - AmericInn.  I was heartened by their banner outside welcoming bikers and offering discounted rates, so I stopped in to see what I could get.  They wanted $80/night, and this was the discounted rate!  The original rate was ~90 a night, so I declined.  The lady at the desk was nice enough to call a motel in the next town over, who told me they would do $50.  I was off to Mohawk, to stay at the White House!

Very nice couple that managed the place, and soon after settling in (you can see it looks like my gear bag exploded) a couple guys on harleys rode in.  Turns out they were coming from the direction I was going, and they were from 10 miles from where I go to school.  What a small world!  I told them that I had checked out the weather report for the next day and that if they had rain gear they should have it handy, they said that they had rode in the rain yesterday and that if it looked like rain they were just going to spend the next day in the room.  I can't wait to have that sort of flexiblity with my vacation time.  After shooting the breeze for a bit I headed inside to crash for the night.  Thus ends day 2.

[seraph_rapture]

Day 3 - 345 mi

For once, the weatherman's predictions turned out to be accurate.  

Wet was the theme of the day, and I didn't have days built into the trip to wait it out, so I grabbed a scone from the front desk, donned my rain gear, and waved goodbye to Mohawk, off to Copper Harbor.  The harley guys kept true to their word, they were still parked as I roared off.  
One thing to watch for when you're riding at highway speed are trucks, especially logging trucks.  These things displace a lot of wind (and water from the road) so I got in the habit of tucking before they got to me which seemed to help a lot.
My first destination was Fort Wilkins.  If you get a chance to ride only two roads in the UP, make this section of 26 and 41 one of them.  The google map doesn't describe how awesome it really is, even in the rain.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Eagle+River,+MI&daddr=copper+harbor,+michigan+to:47.455495,-88.1495217+to:Eagle+River,+MI&hl=en&geocode=FS160wIdE7e8-im1jS-6o4NQTTE_N6CCiChVmQ%3BFfpQ1AIdxu3C-imzKZusfJ1aTTEMeUx9524Fyg%3BFQcd1AId7_G--ildkneBQXhaTTGWxhQrBjELYA%3BFS160wIdE7e8-im1jS-6o4NQTTE_N6CCiChVmQ&mra=dpe&mrcr=1&mrsp=2&sz=11&via=2&sll=47.429481,-88.094559&sspn=0.227612,0.44014&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=11
A section of this was the Brockway Mountain Drive, which you can read about on Wikipedia.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brockway_Mountain_Drive
Fort Wilkins was wet, wet, wet.  And so much fun.  As I said before, I love history and was stoked to visit this fort.  In the 1840's Michigan had a copper rush in the Keweenaw Peninsula.  The government was concerned about the concentration of miners and prospectors during the rush, so they built a fort for the dual purpose of keeping the peace and providing a safe harbor to ship in supplies and ship out copper.  The whole time I was walking these buildings looking into the lives of these enlisted men and their families, I couldn't help but be awed by the isolation and toil they must have experienced.  This fort was at the extreme point of the upper peninsula, in a time where it was difficult to traverse any measurable distance.  The winters were extreme, and made the passage impossible.  On top of that, the military men were made to perform double duty - mining for copper ore and various military duties.  Can you imagine pulling watch during the middle of winter, wandering around post in those arctic winds off the lake?  Mining with this gear?  Check out the candles they used for illumination!

Oven!

Bread!


Munitions!

For 10 weeks during the summer they have period actors from NMU here in role, but they weren't there today.  Can't say I blame them, I was one of 3 or so people in the park thanks to the weather.  I suppose that's a bit of a silver lining, I had the place practically to myself!

As I left Copper Harbor back on 26 I felt a stumble.  Shit, I forgot to fill up when I left Mohawk.  I switched over to reserve and racked my brain.  I had passed a gas station between Mohawk and Copper Harbor, right?  I'm sure I had.  I had never run completely out of gas before, so I wasn't sure how large my reserve was.  I prepared for this eventuality before the trip with a MSR 30oz fuel bottle because I knew that cities in the UP can be few and far between.  I really didn't want to use it though, because it's a bit of a pain to fill up.  Also, I like a challenge.  Would I make it to town before emptying my tank?  I thought I'd tempt fate by stopping on 26 to give you all an idea of how great the road was, and how spectacular it would be to ride on a dry day.  


Stopping also gave me a bit of a cushon between myself and the log truck I had been following which was limited to 20mph on the twisty roads.  I kept on looking for that elusive gas station, and passed through 3 small "towns" without a functional gas station.  Now I was starting to worry, I knew it was about 30 miles to Mohawk from Copper Harbor, but I had no idea how big the reserve was.  I did know that it wasn't a gallon, and my bike was getting about 45mpg I guessed.   Let me tell you, there's no feeling like that of worrying about running out of gas on a motorcycle.  I pictured having to push this 400lb behemoth miles to town (I really didn't want to open that MSR bottle) and as I came around a bend what do I discover but a Marathon!  Thank you, big oil!  I filled up (4.3 gallons) and was back on my way, happy as a clam.
By now the rain was getting god-damn-ridiculous.  I started running into construction that had my lane on the sloped shoulder, which was unsettling.  Standing water on the road was a couple inches deep, the wind picked up, and I couldn't get used to riding with so much lean and going straight.  The rain picked up around L'Anse and the standing water was so deep that I pulled off to have lunch and wait for it to pass.  I ended up at the Hilltop Restaurant for some very tasty chicken cheddar ranch and watched the rain roll in.  Apparently the restaurant has delicious 1lb sweet rolls (check them out on the interweb) but I didn't partake, now I wish I had.  Luckily my next stop gave me a bit to take a break.  
Marquette!


This place is my favorite in the upper peninsula.  I've been here a few times, probably 3 or so, and every time I'm there I don't want to leave.  It's a great college town, the largest town in the UP (19,661), a couple hours from everything else, and has a great atmosphere.  I needed to stop at Northern Michigan University to pick up some college swag for a co-worker.  I can't say how much I love this place.  Having so much time by myself gave me a lot of time to think, and I made the decision that if I don't get hired to teach next year after I graduate I'm going to transfer to NMU to finish my Masters, as well as making the decision to apply to teach in Marquette.  I didn't have much time to spend in town and I arrived there in the middle of the day so I couldn't stay the night like I wanted.  I did, however, make the resolute decision to move there someday, I can picture myself writing novels in a cabin up there.  Look for them on the bookshelves in the next 30 years, and you can say you knew me back when.  
It was after leaving Marquette that I had a visor scare.  I have never taken the visor off my Scorpion EXO 400 before but while I was riding the left side popped off and started hanging.  Might not seem like a huge deal, but if I had lost the visor completely I'd have been fucked - I can't see there being a ton of Scopion vendors in the UP and my Oakleys were all I had for eye protection.  Luckily it held, I snapped it back on in a credit union parking lot, and never had any problems with it for the rest of the trip.  A fluke, I suspect.
The ride along the coast from Marquette was beautiful.  I took advantage of a few minute break in the rain to snap a pic.

It was scenery like this most of the way to Newberry, where I planned to stay for the night.  Somewhere between Marquette and Newberry I lost a bar end, I went to feel  I picked up a room for $55 and after grabbing a quick shower and unloading the bike, I thought about dinner.  On my ride to Newberry I spotted a billboard with a larger than life Big Mac being devoured by huge incisors, and decided that McDonalds was in order - I passed one 3 miles out of town on the way in.  I asked the owner of the motel if there was another one in town, and she laughed for a good 30 seconds.  I didn't really think it was that funny.  She was nice enough to ask me if I wanted to park my bike in the garage for the night, and to let me back into the room after I locked myself out.  I declined her offer as the bike had, and would see, much more rain on the trip.  Time to backtrack!

Mac attack satisfied, I headed back to the room for the night and was greeted with this -

Seems some unfortunate person in Illinois or Wisconsin was struck by lightning earlier that day, and with storm systems like this I can see why.  I settled in on the bench outside of my room to watch the show, hoping that tonight's storm wouldn't be the theme for tomorrow.  Day 3, finis.

[seraph_rapture]

Day 4 - 223 mi (version 2, the website swallowed it the first time)

The rain eased up from a pour to a manageable sprinkle, so I packed up my gear, tossed on my gloves (which I had dried out using the room's A/C) and headed out.  I should say that my Firstgear overjacket and A* Drystar pants did their jobs, I stayed relatively comfortable despite all the rain.  The only real discomfort was my own fault - I didn't bring the liner to my Joe Rocket jacket so the mornings were a bit chilly.  After a quick MRE pop tart (just as terrible as it sounds)  

My first stop of the day was just a short ride to Tahquamenon falls.  I apologize for the lack of my own photography for this segment, as I was afraid to keep taking my camera out in the rain for fear of ruining it, I thought I had tempted fate enough with it during this trip.  I may update at a later date with some of my own pictures from a trip I had taken there with my girlfriend a month earlier.  For now, this is the awesome that is Teq falls!  It's a great place to camp if you have the time, the sounds of the falls and the sights are amazing, even in winter.




Just outside the falls is a small town, but don't believe the sign - this place has only a gas station, two grocery stores (tiny), and a restaurant that doesn't open until 11am.  Not my idea of Paradise, unless you happen to be a hermit.  


The ride to Whitefish Point was great.  The roads around Tahquamenon Falls state park in general make for great riding, highly recommended.  My destination at the point was the shipwreck museum there.  In my hometown, Alpena, we have a great NOAA musuem with tons of info about shipwrecks in the great lakes, and those have always interested me, so I was excited for more of the same.  I was disappointed to find out that admission to the museum at Whitefish was $13, so I didn't partake.  I expect that it was good though, as I found some really interesting artifacts outside - check out that rudder and watchtower!  And was treated to a great view of Lake Superior.  Can you believe that this lighthouse has been in operation since 1849?  You can almost picture the grizzled seaman (har) on post, looking out over the fog.  I picture the carriages drawn by horses along the same route I took and I can't imagine the tenacious nature it must have taken.  Way to be, ancestors!







From here I headed south along 123 to the 28 junction to have a little lunch at this abandoned warehouse while I consulted my map.  MRE again, which I shared with some of the 20 or so bees hanging out with me.  Anyone want to buy this Camaro?  At this point I had a decision to make.  The weather to the North and West was dismal, which was fine because I didn't want to go either direction.  My choices were to head south, slabbing straight on I75 to my parents' house, or head south to Sault Ste. Marie, risking the storm moving in from the west.  I munched on some MRE wheat bread and weighed the options.


Eastward, ho!

The Soo is a cool place I remember visiting as a kid.  The locks here are an interesting way of transporting the ships from one lake to another via the St. Marys river.  When I visited as a child it was (much) pre 9-11, and I when I approached the gates I did notice the no weapons sign posted, but it never crossed my mind that knives would be included, I was thinking only of firearms.  When they searched my bag at the gate he gave me a hard time about it for 5 seconds or so, then told me I'd be fine as long as I kept it inside the bag.  Why he thought I'd be walking around with a knife in my hand, I'll never know.  Just doing his job I suppose.  Anyway, here's how the locks work.  Ships enter the locks and the gates are opened to raise or lower the water level to accomodate the difference in water levels.  Ingenious!  I was lucky enough to catch a ship in the locks!
 


Here's a bad pic of the bridge connecting Sault Ste Marie US and Sault Ste Marie Canada.


Rather than slabbing on I75 from Sault to the bridge, I decided to take the highways so I could catch some scenery!

But my efforts were soon foiled, as the road was closed and I was out of options, so got on the freeway and headed on back to the bridge.

[dentedvw]

Keep up the good work!  

I have been working at EMU for a while now, and it doesn't look like it's slowing down any for me.
I take one of my bikes with me when I travel, but not to EMU. Too close to home.
Nice looking F3!

 

[R Doug]

I look forward to more installments (as you have bookmarked above).  I would like to tour the UP sometime soon.

[prosqtor]

Nice - have been in the UP a number of times (raised in SW Lower MI, moved to WI in '98), I love it there...any sand on US2 along the beach west of Big Mac?



Andy

[Mastros2]

  I really enjoy your report!  Keep it coming!  

[Just_Peekn]

Great to see the ride , pictures look great. Hopefully next year we will have time to schedule a little adventure.

[sammyseaman]

 

[Kneescrubber]

Looks like a great first trip!  

[duceduceexplorer]

i fucking know u you are carmons friend!  

[Ack535]

Great pics, thanks for posting up. Hope to see you at one of the R4 meets!

Pete

[Tar Snake]

Great pics sounds like a good trip! I think I made my 1st really long tour from So Cal to my parent's house in Northern WI. I was 23. It's beautiful country and brings back memories for me.

Never tried Mighty Mac on a bike!

My parents grew up and met in Ironwood right off US 2 and the Wisconsin boarder.

Hopefully this is the start of many more trips for you!

[seraph_rapture]

Nice - have been in the UP a number of times (raised in SW Lower MI, moved to WI in '98), I love it there...any sand on US2 along the beach west of Big Mac?



Andy

Andy,

Surprisingly, no, I didn't run into any sand on that strech of 2.  I fully expected it given that dunes line both sides of the road and the wind is always whipping.  Ran into some good luck there!

[seraph_rapture]

I look forward to more installments (as you have bookmarked above).  I would like to tour the UP sometime soon.

Definitely make your way up there if you get the chance.  There is so much to see, you can easily make a week long trip out of it.

[seraph_rapture]

i fucking know u you are carmons friend!  

One and the same!

[seraph_rapture]

Great to see the ride , pictures look great. Hopefully next year we will have time to schedule a little adventure.

Looking forward to it Dom!  Thanks, the Kodak point and shoot didn't do it justice but for ease it couldn't be beat.

[Orson]

Good job!  

Thats one part of the country I havent ridden.

Nice to see what it looks like