[ride reports] [photo album this trip]
Up North,eh
WI-MN-MI Upper Peninsula Tour
August 30 - September 2, 2003Highlights
Intro
After two weeks of planning our route and getting hotel reservations, Labor Day weekend was upon us. This would be a four-day weekend for Brian and I since we were taking a vacation day on Tuesday. We've been looking forward to riding down to Arkansas for months now, but now we were concerned with the weather down South. All week the forecast was looking good but as of Friday there was rain in the forecast. We were still hoping that it would be rain free. We woke up Saturday morning with high hopes and turned on the weather channel. The weather forecast was looking bad down South. There was going to be a storm lingering for four days in the Missouri/Arkansas area. The forecast was calling for a lot of rain and flooding. We decided to cancel our reservation and ride north away from the rain where the weather was looking great. (Same thing happened a few months before on Memorial Day weekend. This is the second time I had to cancel my ride to Arkansas and I was bummed.)
Saturday Day 1
Saturday morning we checked for available motel rooms in the Lake Superior area. A couple hours later we finally found a place. We decided to set up base camp in Ashland, WI and ride the surrounding area. A quick re-packing with warmer clothes, tightening of my chain, and by noon we were on our way. We needed the fastest route possible so I-90 to I-39 was the way to go. After many hours on the highway and no stops other than gas, we reached the end of highway 51 where it turns into a two-way road. Then West on 70. This road is nicely paved and has many sweepers, runs through many forests where the air is clean and crisp. As we turned North on 13 the sun started to set. We really wanted to get there before it got dark. This is deer country and you don’t want to be riding the bike at night here. The day temperature was only in the low 70s so by nigh-time low 50’s were expected. 13 has a few small towns on the way, but for the most part is pretty scenic, runs through some forests and has some sweepers on it but not as good as 70. The last part of 13 near Ashland is probably the best, where there are some elevation changes, rocks on both sides of the road and it gets a bit twisty. There was a small detour that took us 5 miles out of the way but we made it to Ashland by 8:30PM.
Now we had to find this so-called “resort”. After seeing a home made sign, we pulled in to the side street that quickly turned to gravel and ended up at someone’s front door – this was it? Some old guy came out and for a minute I think he though we were lost. Then Brain explained that we had a reservation. The old man walked us to our “cottage”. A two bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room cottage which was build in the 40’s and decorated in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s style in tones of orange, brown and lime green. This was definitely the place old furniture ended up after people tossed it on to the curb. But for $55 a night it wasn’t that bad. We were told it was right on the lake although it was dark so we couldn’t really be sure. After 450 miles, which included 350 "boring" highway miles, we were beat and anyplace would do.
Sunday Day 2
Next morning we woke up and saw Lake Superior peaking though the trees outside our bedroom window. We went outside and discovered that we had our own private beach out there. Since we weren’t planning to come here, we didn’t have a route. After a quick look at the map, looking for any roads that looked twisty, we decided to head out to Copper Peak, Michigan – a ski resort area. We figured out some rough calculations and came up with 180 miles there and 180 back. The weather was still on the cool side, low to mid 70’s and still very breezy. Took 2 east from Ashland, WI, which is a mostly scenic road that runs through forests along the lake. There are a few elevation changes, which allows you to look down on the valley and get a small glimpse of the lake from time to time. Some sweepers too and mostly new pavement.
After approximately 40 miles you enter Michigan. There are a few small towns on the way as you enter MI. The speed limit in most towns is a ridiculous 25mph. After passing one of the small towns, at the first chance to accelerate, we did and as we went though a sweeper at 72mph we noticed a cop approaching the other direction. Yes, he turned around and followed us. Yes, he put on his lights and pulled us over. He ended up not giving us a ticket, so that was a good thing, just a verbal warning. This was the first time ever that I was asked to see my registration. I never carry that with me. Maybe I should. Shortly, we were on our way. Took 64 North. This road is all right and has its moments but the next road, 45 SE was much better. Turns, some tighter, but mostly sweepers, very scenic, mostly good pavement.
While at a gas station pumping gas I felt a tickle on my neck, I still had all my gear on, so with my gloved hand, the one not holding the gas pump, I swatted whatever that was. All the sudden I feel a sharp sting and I knew at that point that was a bee. I take off my gear, Brian pulls the stinger out of my neck and it starts throbbing and kept throbbing for the next six hours. I tell you, bees just love the yellow F4I, I never had this problem with my orange F4. There was no time for ice, back on the road, next was 26 NE and this road was the best so far. A few hills and valleys, many more turns, some at 35mph but most at 45-50mph. After about an hour we realized we were wrong and we just simply didn’t have the time to make it all the way to Copper Harbor. We finally decided to pull over for a late lunch/early dinner in Houghton. There really was nowhere to eat before. Houghton is a nice town, not all that small. A collage town with many bars and pizza places. Found a bar & grill overlooking the lake and had some grub. Back on the bikes at 4:30PM and now we need to hurry back to get back to Ashland before dark. This time we’ll take a more direct route since we didn’t bring our clear helmet shields and riding at night through deer infested forest with tinted shields is not a good idea in my book. Apparently last night I took some sweepers at 70-80mph with deer standing on the side of the road and I didn’t even see them. The route back was more enjoyable. 26SW to 45S again were great, even better going in this direction. Then 28E, ok road to 2W back to Ashland. A pit stop at the local supermarket to grab some food stuffs including brats, marshmallows and matches. An hour later we were sitting on our private beach looking across the bay, cooking brats and marshmallows over an open fire.
Monday Day 3
Today we decided to head west from Ashland and followed 13 around the lake toward Superior, WI. Today was a bit warmer, low to mid 80’s. The first stop was the town of Bayfield where we took some pictures. We should have stayed here instead, it's a nicer town than Ashland, more touristy. Lots of places to walk to but probably a lot more expensive too. Back on the road, a lot of elevation changes and some tighter turns in this first part of the road. About half way though it got a bit boring, the scenery wasn’t as nice, the towns were not as cute and the roads became straight. It’s still worth it though since there isn’t too much traffic. Just when things got a bit boring, what’s that in my helmet? So I look to see what this is, and I can’t tell but it’s big. I think I will pull over to get it out, don’t want to open the visor and have this thing blow in to may face. But there is nowhere to pull over. It’s dead so I will pull over when I get a chance. No biggie. Ah, crap it’s starting to crawl on the inside of my visor and now I can see clearly that it’s a big bee. Not again! I pull over in the middle of the road, by now Brian probably knows that there is something wrong. I see him signaling to the car behind us to go around. I open the visor and flick the bee out. That was a close one. We decided to pullover at a scenic overlook a few miles down to rest and when we got back on the bikes, I had a bee follow me all the way to the road. They really like the yellow bike. I hate bees.
13 W turns into Z, which is really straight and narrow and crappy but even before you have time to realize that, you are at 35 North. Then 105 West, 39 West and 23 South. Nothing special about those roads though. Entering Minnesota. The road I really wanted to check out was 210. It runs along the river in a forest preserve and looks really twisty in my Atlas. We took 210 West. It was super twisty and many elevation changes with some nice views of the river. Speed limit on this road was 40mph, since it’s a narrow twisty road but the pavement was so bad, I could only go about 30mph. This is seriously the worst paved road I’ve ever ridden. Too bad because it has such potential. After a few detours we got on 35 North and made it to the Duluth Area. Always looking for neat places to eat, we exit the highway downtown Duluth. Rode around the port and checked out the ships. There are many restaurants with outside seating. We chose a Mexican joint. After our early dinner we decided to venture further and check out the pier and lighthouse. This is such a nice town. It reminds me of Portland, Maine. Unfortunately we couldn’t hang out any longer, it was 6:30PM and we still had about 65 miles to Ashland. We yet again tried to make it back before dark with our tinted shield on, but while we were riding on 2 East though the forest looking at deer and a black bear by the side of the road, we decided to pull off 10 miles from Ashland to change our helmet shields. It’s just so dark out there, without any city lights near by. Once again we relaxed on the private beach and roasted marshmallows in the crisp, cool air of the night, looking at the shiny spot in the sky called Mars – very visible this week. No bee stings and no cops today, that is always good.
Tuesday Day 4
We woke up late today and rushed out right before the 9:30AM check out time. I had a nice route planned that would take us through Wisconsin down to I-39 North of Madison. It looked like it would be only 50 miles more than our highway route up there. We started out on 2 East to 169 South which runs though a forest area. I wanted to make a pit stop at Copper Falls but as we entered the park we found out that there was a drought and the river lever was low, which meant no falls. 169 was a disappointment. First part had bad pavement. It was scenic at times but also a residential/farm road. A lot of tight 20mph – posted turns all with gravel in the turns. I kind of wished I took 13 instead since the first part was really nice and curvy. Finally joined up with 13 and took that up to 70 East again. This time we traveled further east on 70 and it was curvy all the way. A small part of the road was getting paved and the pavement was rough. In front of me, through a turn the Diet Coke truck lost some bottles. Nowhere to pullover to pick them up for Brian (His drink of choice). From there we took 32 South. Now I was already enjoying 70 with it’s many winding sweepers, but 32 South was awesome. Some parts went through a forest preserve where we came upon a deer crossing the road in the distance. Some parts ran along a lake and river, and it was twisty but nothing tighter than 25mph. 32 turns into 55 and it was even better. There were parts that ran through open farmland with turns posted at 40-50mph. All the turns were visible so you could really take them fast. The only bad thing was a bunch of cars that were going very slow. We couldn’t pass them and there was nowhere to pull over and wait, so we just kept riding slow behind them. Then we came to a stop sign. One of the cars turned right and the other pulled over to let us go, great, but the road from there looked straight and boring. If I had time I would want to ride that road again at full speed. After a few minutes there was a turn and two and we entered another forest preserve. The road was twisting back and fourth, it was a bit narrow with no shoulder. Trees growing really close the road on both sides. Turns posted at 40-50mph. It went on for miles and miles though this dense forest. Almost ran over a squirrel, then a huge bird with a wingspan of at least 3 feet got in my way. I actually went around it since it looked as if it was traveling in slow motion. At every turn I was expecting to see some deer but never did.
Once we got to the next stop sign, we entered a town called Menomonee, that was it for the good twisties. 55 turned to 22 South and looking at the map we still had about 5 hours to go and it was 6PM already. We needed a quicker way to get to Chicago suburbs. A quick glance on the map and the highway 41 route through Milwaukee was probably faster than I-39 though Madison. We headed South on 45, Milwaukee was still 100 miles away. Today was mid 70’s and very pleasant although the windiest of the four days. This whole weekend ended up being very windy. Up north the colors already started changing and leaves were already starting to fall from the trees, a bit early if you as me. Tonight was also going to be cold. Once on 41 South we started getting closer to home. Changed over to I-94 East. Traffic was crazy and I think some of these semis purposely were trying to either scare us or kill us. Having an 18-wheeler pass you at 90mph in the left lane while you are already going 75 is nuts, especially since the speed limit is only 55. The temperatures got colder and colder but by the time we reached the Illinois border it wasn’t as cold anymore. Jumped on I-290 and exited on North Ave. we arrived home before 1AM. Much later than anticipated and somehow we gained an additional 100 miles. This was our highest mileage day for the trip, approx 500+. About 1500 miles for the whole weekend.
The best thing was finding out that it had rained here all weekend.