We woke up to severe thunderstorms this morning in Madison. The wind and rain was pretty heavy for a while, but the storms moved through quick and were out of the area around 10 am CST. As we traveled north out of Madison on hwy 12 we were greeted by dry roads and deep blue skies with the typical smattering of cumulous clouds. We swung through the tourist trap town of Wisconsin Dells and picked up Hwy 13, which will be our main route until we reach Duluth, MN. We jumped off route 13 a couple of times to chase points of interest and ended up in Ashland on Lake Superior around 8 PM CST. Total miles today was 340, and we rode about 10 hours.
Tomorrow the Loop around the Lake begins...1500 miles.
The sun rose early this morning, just a little after 5. The intensity was such that it made it difficult sleeping in, knowing that the light could be used for exploring the open road. The air was fresh and cool as we made out way out of Ashland towards the Apostle Islands. We stopped in at the Northern Great Lakes visitor center and learned a little about the culture, people and the natural resources that attracted people to this area - iron ,timber and beaver fur. We rode up to Bayfield (ferry point to Madeline Island) then to the upper end of the Chequamegon to Sand Bay. This is the launch point to excursions into the Apostle Islands to the North.
We rode into Duluth Minnesota about noon. The Metro area of the city looked quite picturesque rising up a large hill on the Minnesota side of the lake. We took a diversion down into the ship yards, and it was apparent that this industry has declined. Many of the facilities looked abandoned and several large iron boats lay in dry dock, probably destined for the scrap heap from the look of them. In Duluth we hit Hwy 61 heading up on the northern shore of Superior. The road opened up as we traveled northward with the lake and bluffs on the right and mile after mile of fir and birch forests on the left. You could feel the temperatures dropping as we traveled and the sun taking on a Fall like cast. We ended for the day in a small town of Schroeder. We found a nice cabin on a hill overlooking the lake. Tomorrow looks like increasing chances of rain in this area but up around Thunder Bay it looks like it might hold out a couple more days. Temperatures today were in the upper 60's, low 70's with tonight’s forecast to hit 41. It might make it, it's 51 as I write this at 11:30 Tuesday night.
Today only 235 miles - Tomorrow I plan at least 300.
We should be in Canada by tomorrow late in the morning.
Today we only managed 163. There's just too much to see.
Heading out this morning it was brisk. Just minutes after we left we found a point of interest at Temperance river portal and spent an hour hiking around the various overlooks around the portage. By now, it had warmed into the mid 60's so it was pretty nice. We finally made it up to Grand Marais and had donuts and coffee in a little shop by the bay. At Grand Portage we used up another couple of hours visiting various living exhibits and learning the history of the fur trade. The Northwest Company had a large outpost here that was only open one month a year to collect furs from the Canadian Northwest. We checked through the Canadian border and were in Thunder Bay about 3pm. After visiting the tourist information center (or should I say centre while in Canada), we found there were a few things we needed to check out so we're here for the night.
Tomorrow we hope to make it to Marathon, but who knows.
Today we covered 249 miles, not too bad considering we were off investigating points of interest. Great riding conditions today -cool and clear. Towards the end of today’s ride it started to get even cooler, and the wind picked up off the lake. The ride was breathtaking once we started across the far north shore. In many ways I felt like I was near the Black Hills or eastern Wyoming, the big difference being the never ending coverage of spruce and birch trees, and hundreds of small lakes.
Food and fuel up here is expensive. I filled up at Nipigon, and it was a little over $7 per gallon. You can't get 93 octane here, this was 91. A fish sandwich at the local restaurant was 8 dollars. We stopped at a local super market in Marathon and found many American brands were double what they are at home.
But the scenery…oh man, what a day! Tomorrow we should make Sault Ste Marie and back in the USA. We’ll be two third of the way around by then.
We covered 271 miles today. Cool morning but it warmed quickly as we headed south towards Sault Ste. Marie. The hwy deviates away from the shore for about a 70 mile stretch and you could tell it. It was a breathtaking ride through the Lake Provincial Park with may vistas of the lake and an inland ride where it seemed there was a small lake on every bend of the road. No doubt these "ponds" are filled with some nice size fish, they just look like it. Water is everywhere, and if you stop long enough in the woods so are the mosquitoes.
A change of weather is looming on the horizon. The next few days could be hit or miss storms, but one thing we are sure to notice is the heat. After four days of riding in the 60's and 70's we're going to see the 90's by the time we get back to Madison in the next few days. The rough plan for tomorrow is to continue to follow the southern coast ending in Munising or Marquette.
We've covered 1507 miles since we left Madison on Monday.
We only covered 239 miles today, this seem to be the norm for us. You just can't ride through these places without stopping. We had a shower or two during the night in Sault Ste. Marie, but skies had completely cleared by the time we got on the road. We retraced our route from 2009 and picked up the road along the south shore out of town. In 2009 it was raining when we passed through this section so we saw it under much different conditions. As we move west however, we can feel the humidity building. As we rode in and out of bays it felt like opening the air conditioner vents - heading inland was like turning the heater on. We are in Munising, MI tonight. It looks like a chance of showers tomorrow and lots of heat. In the morning we are going to catch a 2.5 hour boat cruise up to the Pictured Rocks. If we can get up to the copper country on the Keweenaw Peninsula by tomorrow night we'll be doing good. Temperatures should be cooler up there.
We've covered 1647 miles since we left Madison on Monday.
We only covered 140 miles today. We didn't get on the road until about 1:30 because we took a boat cruise up along the pictured rocks. The heat got pretty bad today. In Marquette it was about 93, and the heat index put it over 100. We called it quits at Houghton MI ,did laundry and just took it easy. We'll try for Copper Harbor tomorrow where it is predicted to be much cooler in that area.
We've covered 1940 miles since we left Madison on Monday.
We covered 293 miles today, a pretty full day. We got an early start and was going to visit a local McDonalds so I could upload my photos. Unfortunately, there was a large power outage on the west side of town so we decided to head on north to Copper Harbor. As we rode north of Houghton we passed a large copper mine that is now shut down. The shaft to the mine is over a mile deep. As we neared Calumet we observed a mean looking storm moving across the peninsula north of us so we stopped at a roadside park and ate our stash of nuts and bananas. After about a half hour wait we got back on the road to Copper Harbor. The roads were still wet when we arrived at Copper Harbor but dried out on the way down along the coast. Fog was hanging off the coast and it was cold along this whole stretch, but at least a bright sun was with us most of the way. We had a close call on gas here. There are no stations north of a place called Phoenix, and they only had regular(87) but I had no choose. I put one gallon in, enough to get me back to Houghton. We retraced our way back to Houghton - where the power was now back on -then started down the lower western side on Ontonagon and Silver City, both little harbor towns. To complete the loop we rode into Ashland and through the intersection where we started a week earlier. We are going to try and get an early start towards Madison tomorrow and try to beat as much heat as we can. Madison is seeing heat indices of 100+ . It's sure to be a tough ride.
Today we covered 314 miles from Ashland, WI to Madison. We were on the road early to beat a line of storms moving out of Minnesota and the building heat and humidity. We were able to make it a couple hundred miles under cloudy skies before we broke out into the sun, then the heat and humidity started giving us problems. Staying hydrated became a challenge. We consumed over 64 oz of water in the last 100 miles to Madison.
We drove back home non-stop on Thursday night. It seemed odd not to be traveling on the bike and we missed the presence of the Big Lake at our side and it's cool breeze. We're sad that it's over, but there are other places out there to look forward to exploring.
