Timing is Everything

Day 45: Munising to Newberry, MI--60 miles

Boy, did we climb out of Munising today! Climb and sweat; sweat and climb; etc. OK, it only took about 10 minutes, but it was a wake-up call to beat all...

After that, it was all flat and straight for almost 40 miles! And when I say straight, I mean straight as an arrow. Once the hills started at about mile 40, they continued for the remainder of the day. On the flats, we booked! We were going 15-18 mph all morning, which I think means we are getting stronger (at least we SHOULD be by this point).

Also on the flats, there were no towns at all. We had been warned that this would be a lonely stretch of road, and so we were expecting another green desert like Minnesota. But it wasn't that bad. We went alongside a wildlife refuge (which allows hunting in the state season, by the way--wonder how much of a refuge that is???). We saw a wild turkey, and hawk glaring at us from the top of a tree, and a whole family of sandhill cranes! The cranes were the first we have seen (maybe ever) and they were REALLY cool! It was fun to watch them walking along together watching us suspiciously. The baby of the family of three looked to be less than half grown--and he followed his parents very closely!

Another interesting thing happened when we encountered a grasshopper plague on the road. At a rest stop, I noticed one of the "popper" grasshoppers like we have in Colorado--they make a fun clicking noise as they fly. Then when we went back onto the road, I noticed a few smaller grasshoppers on the shoulder who seemed to be playing chicken with us--hopping out of the way just as we almost ran over them. About one minute later, there were millions of grasshoppers all over the road! They were hopping everywhere, hitting us, and generally being a nuisance just like a plague! I was glad to have a helmet on!!! After about 1/2 mile, they disappeared.

Newberry came sooner than expected--that's because we actually stopped at Newberry Corners which was on Rt 28 instead of going to the little town about 3 miles off the road. Hey, it saved us 6 miles total! That's a big deal for us. There were hotels and restaurants out at the main road, so we decided to take advantage of that. Newberry is the Moose capital of Michigan! There were huge, fake moose everywhere, but we didn't see any real ones. However, David did find the local country club and hit a bucket of balls while I was blogging (he got in quite a bit of trouble for leaving me out of the fun). We both got a pleasant surprise because a massage therapist was working out of the hotel--her name is Stephanie Metzler and she comes up to the U.P. from Traverse City once a month to work with clients. She's the only person doing medical massage in that part of the U.P. and she was great! We both felt MUCH better after she finished with us!

I asked during my massage about the eating habits of the Yoopers. Stephanie said that they eat lots of comfort food, and the fact that there are no veggies at the restaurants is no accident--Yoopers don't eat many of them. She also said they are the most fun and laid-back bunch of people you'll ever meet, and that if you start partying with them, you'll never want to stop! They don't have a ton of interest in active lifestyles or fitness in general, but they're great people. We think that may explain why we see so many ATVs up here--easier to move than bicycles! We agree with her that the folks up here are just great! We definitely want to visit again.

So, massaged and happy, we were off to bed!

Yoopers

Day 44: Marquette to Munising, MI--45 miles

"Yoopers" is what the locals call themselves. There's a lot of "you betchas" and "eh's" in their conversation. It's really fun to listen to, and you can buy Yooper stuff at almost any gift shop! We're really enjoying the U.P. and definitely want to come back and do some hiking and water sports. In some ways, the cycling is limiting--and in others, of course, it's a great change from driving.

Although we hated to leave Marquette without exploring more of it (many places were closed on the 4th of July), we had a Michigan fruit and cheese breakfast and left town anyway. I guess we'll have to come back! We mailed our gifts home, found some sunscreen (another missing item), and started out on the bike path toward Munising.

We spent much of our ride within sight of Lake Superior, which was just gorgeous! This south shore has some of the most beautiful beaches I have seen, and I didn't see one person on them! I was imagining camping on the shore, but there were signs everywhere that said you can't do that! The sand is pretty deep and the Lake is about 51 degrees. The beach isn't really wide, but it is very nice. Scenic!

We can tell we're heading east because the humidity is rising! So of course, we're starting the day out in a major sweat! And also, it seems like each morning greets us with a BIG hill to leave town! Today wasn't as bad as some other days due to the bike path, so we were happy about that. But we were sweating buckets nonetheless. However, the temperature is rather cool--around 65 or 70 degrees. We're very happy about that!

Although we rode pretty fast, it seemed to take a LONG time to get into Munising. Maybe it was the humidity talking... The road had a beautiful shoulder most of the time, and there were scenic pull-offs all over!

Still no sympathy from the motorists--even if they have room, they seem to really stick in their lane (too close to us). We have had more scares in Michigan than in any other state. Here's a safety tip for motorists--if there's a cyclist on the shoulder and you can move into the other lane safely, do so! It really helps the cyclists by not buffeting them with the draft from your vehicle. If you bought a mini-car to save on gas mileage, you may be able to squeeze into a lane with a cyclist, but I would advise moving over no matter what. If you bought an ARK to hold your children or all your toys, you will definitely NOT fit into a lane with a cyclist. Holding your breath will not help. So definitely slow down and move over! We hug the shoulder as far right as we can, but sometimes we only have about 2 feet to work with, and that's just not enough...

We rode straight into Munising--and had a late lunch at Muldoon's, which is THE hot spot for a U.P. specialty called pasties (pronounced with a short "a" like "fast"). It's kind of like a shepherd's pie cooked up into a calzone crust. Beef, potatoes, carrots, and rutabaga enclosed in a pastry shell. Comfort finger food, eh! You betcha! It originated in this area from Cornish workers who would take pasties to work with them for lunch. I'm sure the ones we ate had no calories, no cholesterol, and no fat! Ha! We were extra glad we had fruit for breakfast. They were quite tasty, and I can imagine how good they would taste on a cold U.P. night!

There was no camping available (holiday) so we checked into the Munising Motel--nice folks and a good, clean room. There was a laundromat close-by (yes, three days have gone by and we can't cycle again until after laundry). So we did our chores and then raced down to the City Dock to see if we could catch a boat tour of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore--which is right outside Munising. We made the tour by 5 minutes and headed out on a 65-foot cruise boat that held about 150 people or so.

We got seats on the upper deck and really enjoyed a 2 1/2 hour tour of Lake Superior and the Pictured Rocks. It was nice to have someone else do the driving for awhile! And we haven't done very many touristy things, so this was a great treat. David took tons of pictures (hopefully you'll get to see them one day) and we both got lots of ideas for pottery. Maybe more Christmas presents...hmmmm, we'll see if we can pull those ideas off.

The tour took us along a fantastic lakeshore, and in addition to the colored rocks (colored by grounwater with iron, copper, lime, calcium, manganese, and other minerals in it) we saw some fantastic hiking and kayaking opportunities. Maybe next time we come. This was a really fun day for us--and it even felt like vacation! Yahoo!

We plan to be leaving the U.P. in a couple of days and heading into Canada on either 6 or 7 July.

Summer Bummer

Day 43: Lake Michigamme to Marquette, MI--34 miles

At about 5:00 a.m. we were awakened by a sickening smoke that entered our tent. It turns out that the "next-door neighbors" had decided to keep their camp fire going all night, but they didn't have quite enough wood. So they started burning trash--which was pretty smelly and made it pretty hard for us to go back to sleep. But we managed...

Anyway, we had another bad surprise when we got out of the tent. Some random items of David's were missing! His towel and washcloth were gone. His pocket knife (the one Sam gave him years ago) was missing. His snacks were gone, and some other random items that were on the table. In contrast, all my stuff was there, and our sunglasses and helmets had not been touched. It didn't make sense! So we looked all over just in case someone had moved them or mistaken David's towel for their own. No luck. When we reported it to the managers, they said they had had a rash of thefts, but couldn't figure out how it was happening. My theory is that it may have been a pack rat, a fox, or some other animal. Maybe a kid took the towel, but the other stuff was just too random. We'll probably never know, but it was NOT a good way to start the day. We packed up our smoke-filled tent and stuff, and left Lake Michigamme.

We decided to stick with our plan of shorter rides instead of a day off. So we went to Marquette--the biggest city in the U.P. It was a GREAT ride--and the last 10 miles were mostly downhill--that will make anybody feel like a great rider! Marquette is right on Lake Superior, and the city itself is on a VERY steep downhill right to a lakeside park. They have great bike paths, and we were happy to stop for the 4th of July celebration.

Marquette is very picturesque and the people were SO nice! When we came into town, we stopped for lunch at the Sweetwater Cafe--fantastic salads with beautiful dark greens and lots of stuff we love. We talked with some folks outside and they told us about the holiday festivities. They made sure we knew to lock our bikes up and went on their way to see the local parade. The city was having live entertainment and a food fest in the park. They also recommended a place to stay--the Landmark Inn, which is a old hotel in the center of town. Then, two guys came up and chatted with us, offering to let us crash at their place! They had both done long-distance cycling and wanted to pay it forward because people had let them crash when they were riding. We were so grateful, but declined because we had heard so much about the Landmark. So we checked into a room on the 6th floor with a great view of the whole waterfront and went to party with the locals!

We caught the end of the parade--much like any other town in the USA. Fun! The live entertainment was also good, but we decided to skip the food fest because there were no veggies! We went for a really nice dinner at our hotel instead. But first, we found a fabulous organic market with great kitchen and other products! It's called Farmer Q's Market, and we just loved it. We bought a BUNCH of Michigan produce (yes, that stuff that they DON'T serve at restaurants) and took it to our room for breakfast. And we did a bunch of Christmas shopping! What fun!

The dinner was everything we could have wanted. We started off at the hotel pub, where they had FOUR ales on tap. David was in heaven! I had a margarita, which was fantastic. Then we moved to the restaurant, and had caprese salad, shrimp appetizer, and dinner. We didn't realize the dinner came with salad, so we had that also! David had quail and I had Ahi tuna--what a delightful change of pace! Then we headed up to the 6th floor lounge for just one more glass of wine overlooking the water. We met some really nice folks too. One lady was training for the Danskin triathlon, and I was reminded of Jen Maddox's experience. I told her she'd LOVE it!

What a nice evening! The only thing missing was fireworks--they had them in Marquette on Thursday night instead of the 4th. But we loved it anyway--and would recommend a visit here to anybody.

Bookend Flats

Day 42: Bruce Crossing to Michigamme Lake, MI--64 miles

David started the day with a flat before we even left the room! This, in my opinion, is the best time to have a flat. His tire had a slow leak, and he fixed it while I made phone calls for work. Then we got all dressed up for the big rain that was in the forecast, and headed out!

Our thought for the day was about time--and how an hour of driving up here equals a DAY of cycling! At least on our schedule... People up here refer to distances in terms of time--and I'm wondering if that's because they're so close to Canada. Since Canada has kilometers instead of miles, the time reference is probably much easier for everyone to deal with. For us, we just know that if something is 3 hours away, we won't be seeing it for a couple of days...

The ride today was very pleasant--gradual uphills, not too much wind, and part sun. The rain never materialized, and we were happy about that. The gradual uphills made me feel like a rock star because I didn't struggle up them--and I had fun chasing David over the U.P.!

This area is really interesting. It was settled by Finnish folks a long time ago, so you get lots of Finnish names and see lots of Finnish flags flying all over the place. There is also a strong American Indian influence, so many of the towns have Indian names (Negauwnee, Ishpeming, Michigamme). Many of the surnames are Finnish, and the people definitely have that Nordic look to them! It's a little stressful to try and pronounce these names, but the locals are very patient no matter how many times I butcher them!

About 10 miles into the ride, we stopped at Agate Falls--one of the more than 200 sets of waterfalls in the state. It was a truly beautiful spot and the falls were really nice! There is a LOT of water moving around this area--and it doesn't seem to slow down much as the summer progresses.

We had some more narrow shoulders today, and more of THOSE drivers--once again I ended up in the gravel. But no falls--just freak outs! Overall, it was a good riding day until we hit about 50 miles. Then things slowed down a bit for me. I got tired or something, and just couldn't get those legs to go around!

About 20 yards uphill from a roadside rest area, I got my flat to end the day. David (once again) came to my rescue and fixed me up for the remaining 14 miles. We went through the town of Michigamme and missed several shopping opportunities--bummer! But David wanted to check out the Lake--he said he had heard of Lake Michigamme for his whole life. I said--I think that's Lake Gitchigoomie, isn't it? He said "Close enough" and turned in to the lake! We got a picture and then continued on our way. Just a note--David thinks some of his relatives used to come to this very lake to fish, so he had REALLY heard of Michigamme before!

We found a campground right on Lake Michigamme that still had a slot left, and decided to camp. After all, I was slowing down. Our campsite had a great view of the lake (which is huge) and we had great weather all evening. The campground was packed with vacationers who were there to celebrate the 4th of July. Kids everywhere--cycling like maniacs (and most did NOT wear helmets--what were those parents thinking???). There was a lot of boating and tubing going on, and we were thrilled to cool off in the lake. Fun!

We packed up much of our stuff in case of rain, but left some things out to dry and a bunch of stuff on our picnic table. We went to bed pretty early, but the rest of the campground did not. But we finally fell asleep to the sound of cribbage games and other campground noises.

Ski Country, Michigan

Day 41: Ironwood to Bruce Crossing, MI--54 miles

Finally an available computer! Yeah! It has been hard to find an open library with the holiday, etc. We'll try again with the pictures later tonight as long as the computer is available... So here goes---

Today, we had too much eating and just the right amount of cycling! We had a HUGE breakfast, a HUGER (is that a word?) lunch, and a big dinner. Shame on us--and we were sluggish from all that fiber-free food!

It was a cold and very overcast day, but we were happy to have no headwind. The temperature has been just perfect in the U.P. and we're glad we chose this route. The more southern routes are flooded and if we had started later, we'd probably be in the heat wave that's chasing us across the country.

Our first stop was in Wakefield at the visitor's center. We tried to plan our trip across the UP, and enjoyed looking at all the potential campgrounds and other places to stay. I had my picture taken with the largest wooden statue of an Indian Head I have ever seen, and then we departed from Rt. 2 and headed up Rt. 28. We decided to make our days through the U.P. a bit shorter because we were wearing ourselves out--the past 2 days had been long and difficult. So we'll eliminate the day off and just ride shorter rides until we get to Canada, eh?

We also lost an hour today--because we entered Eastern Time Zone (about 30 miles into the middle of the state)!!! Yeah! Michigan doesn't go by those norms of changing the whole state at once. So the northern part of the U.P. is on Eastern time and the southern part is on Central time. Since the whole U.P. is probably less than 100 miles from north to south, this can cause some confusion! Lucky for us, i think we'll just be staying on Eastern time until we hit the Atlantic Ocean...

It was a VERY pleasant cycling day and we even had some downhills! We passed by at least 5 of the Michigan Ski areas. These are pretty small areas, but bigger than our old East Coast haunt of Wisp, MD. Cross-country skiing is also wildly popular here--and considering all the snow they get from Lake Superior, I can see why. They also have lots of snowmobile and ATV tracks all over the place.

We got to Bruce Crossing around 3:30 and checked into the only hotel in town. The people were very nice, but the room was a little beat up. It looked like a family of 5 had a pretty wild party in there! Although the town was small, we found things to occupy our time.

We're seeing some difference in the folks here in Michigan--a bit more cynical and "worldly," I guess I would say. They expect that you'll stay in your shoulder if you're cycling and they're driving. In fact, they don't slow down at ALL! Sometimes when the shoulder is wide, that's just fine. At other times when we have a narrow shoulder, it's a problem. I actually went off the shoulder into the gravel twice today because a LARGE vehicle (one bus and one big truck) came too close and blew me off track. Better to go to the gravel than into the road...

In another example, we went to the local laundromat to do our twice-weekly load of laundry. When we got there, there was no dispenser for detergent. David walked to the local store and only found huge containers of detergent. When he asked in the bar (yes, bar) attached to the laundromat, they basically said "too bad for you--there's no soap." He was a little disgusted, until we decided to go back to our hotel and bum some soap from them. After all, they probably do laundry every day! So they gave him a styrofoam cup with some detergent and all was well!

We had dinner at our hotel (Tupplo's) and it was quite good. We have been trying the local fish since we're so close to Lake Superior, and we had walleye which was perfectly prepared. Of course, no veggies, but at least the fish was great. We also found a little art gallery that was open (I LOVE getting into town before 5:00!) and bought a bunch of Christmas presents as well as a rug for our house! Another fun box to open when we get home...

We hit the sack early (although we weren't very tired because we changed time zones) to try and get an early start the next day.

A new day--a new state!

Day 40: Iron River, WI to Ironwood, MI--70 miles

We polished off Wisconsin today! It tried to get us--but we presevered.

We had to eat breakfast at the restaurant that rejected us last night because it was the only place open in the morning. It was actually good food and good service, so we were happier leaving Iron River than when we arrived. The waitress asked if we wanted Bloody Mary's because she had served about 10 of them already this morning...wow! We passed on that--figuring our ride would be enough of a challenge without alcohol dehydration.

We headed out into a healthy headwind (oh, where are the prevailing westerlies???). The terrain was hilly like the day before--just one hill after another. We found a little "pothole" pond at the bottom of each hill before we headed up the other side. I guess the terrain is what makes all those ponds happen... So we climbed and descended over and over again--and it made our mph go to way down.

The scenery really was beautiful today--lots of green trees and ponds in the morning until we arrived beside Lake Superior near Ashland. We found a bike path to ride on, and were right beside the water for a bit! Fun! Ashland is a really nice town right on the lake--very resorty--and we wished we had been able to stay for the night. Lots of things were closed for Sunday, but they have a very nice historic downtown area and lots of fun shops. Another place on our list of places to return to...

We wasted a coupld of miles and some time searching for a computer in Ashland. No luck there--because it was Sunday and the only two places were closed. So we headed out of town to see if we could have better luck in Ironwood, MI--our destination.

Once we left Ashland, we started seeing lots of dairy farms--I guess the source of all that Wisconsin cheese! They were really neat to look at, and we had lots of time to do so as we were still climbing and descending on a regular basis. We went through the Bad River Indian Reservation and up a huge hill called Birch Hill. We had been warned about this one, and it turns out the warning was real!

Unfortunately, we didn't get a complementary downhill--we just mostly climbed for the rest of the afternoon. We did, however, get some spectacular views of Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands off the coast. I had a little melt-down at about 65 miles. I was DONE with this ride, but we weren't to town yet. I had done my Old Rum imitation, but it left me 5 miles short. In addition it had started sprinkling, which was another problem! I got over myself in about 3 miles when we got to the Michigan state line! I cheered up considerably when we reached town, and then became downright happy when we found a motel with a COMPUTER!

We are staying at the Budget Host Inn here, and it is one of the best motels we have found yet. Very clean with nice hosts. They gave us a bigger room because we have the bikes, and we will luxuriate with a couch and extra space until tomorrow. This is a great little place, and I encourage you to stay here if you're ever in Ironwood! We found some good dinner (and David reveled in Sierra Nevada beer) at Romeo's in town and then came back to blog away!

The next 5 or 6 days will find us in the Upper Peninsula (UP for short). We have about 300 miles to cover before we head into Canada. Due to the iron ore in the ground here, I hear that cell phone coverage will be spotty! Hopefully, we'll be able to find some computers along the way...

On Wisconsin!

Day 39: Nermantown, MN to Iron River, WI--55 miles

Although we have become suspicious of "flatlanders" telling us about big downhills, we really found one today going into Duluth. Several people had told us about this hill. We climbed at the beginning of the morning for several miles into the suburbs with a STRONG north wind. We turned a corner onto Mesaba Ave, and WOW! Below us was the whole city of Duluth and Lake Superior! What a sight! It was truly beautiful! My plan was to go into the city and explore the Canal Park area for a little while.

We started down the big hill--a true, screaming downhill! In fact, it was a little scary because there were stoplights on it. That means we had to be ready to stop at a moment's notice. This was a bit tough, but we didn't really have to stop until we were at the bottom of the hill. That's when we realized that we had totally missed the turns into downtown Duluth! So we missed it and were not willing to climb that hill into the wind to recover--after all, we had a long way to go. So we'll plan to come back and explore Duluth at another time. It looks like a GREAT place to visit!

Instead, we looked for a bike shop. David had noticed that his right cheek-itis may have been caused by a collapsing bike seat, so we decided to trade his in for a new one. After a bit of searching (always a joy to go through a city without a detailed map), we found the Twin Ports Cyclery. And what a great bike shop! They were very helpful and friendly, and they changed David's life for the better by selling him a bike seat. We also both bought new gloves and got directions on how to get into Wisconsin.

We rode through a lot of empty commercial buildings--not only in Duluth, but in many other towns and cities on this trip. Where are all the businesses going? It would be an interesting study to see how many small businesses are making it these days...

We crossed into Wisconsin over the Bong Bridge (named after Major Dick Bong--no, I'm not making this up). It had a great pedestrian/bike lane on the edge, and we had fun scaring ourselves by looking down into the white caps on the lake--200 FEET below! The whitecaps were because of the wind that was howling!

Once in WI, we had to work our way through Superior. We stopped for lunch at a great little bagel shop (Bab's Bagels, I think) and headed out into a strong north wind blowing off the Lake. In case you didn't know, Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world. It actually seems like the ocean in parts and is about 1300 miles around! That could be another trip... The winds are strong off the Lake and it is very cold. They say you can only live 7 minutes swimming in the lake, and I can only imagine how cold it must get in the winter!

It is also a mecca of boating--power boating and sailing, as well as kayaking and canoeing. I have never seen so many boats on the road as we saw this day. It seems like the locals really take advantage of this spectacular lake!

We had LOTS of ups & downs on our ride in WI. As usual, it seemed like more ups than downs, but maybe that reflects the amount of time I spend going up! WI has very rolling, green terrain--with lots of little towns with names like Blueberry, Maple, and Brule! Of course, I had dessert on my mind...

It was a LONG trip into Iron River due to those hills and the wind. We arrived at about 5:45 p.m. with VERY dirty laundry. We made laundry our top priority because almost every item of clothing we had was filthy! That's a down side of living with no running water, I guess... Anyway, we did laundry, searched the town with no success for beer with taste, and took our clean clothes (yeah!) back to the room. We then walked about a mile to the only sit-down restaurant in town--only to be told that it had closed at 8:30 (we arrived at 8:34).

We stomped back to town and went to the only other place available--a drive-an A&W. This is a true drive-up where a waitress comes to your car and takes your order! Very cute--and I haven't seen one of these in a LONG time! We ordered and sat at a picnic table bitching until we saw a fantastic sunset and our food came. A necessary activity for the moment that allowed us to appreciate our food back at the room while watching TV!