Ride around Lake Superior

Every year my wife is kind enough to cut me loose for a solo bike trip. I hop on the "07 RWB and take off. Most years I'm not sure where I'm going when I start. I just go and see where it takes me. Last year I rode along the Mississippi to the Headwaters in Lake Itasca. I try to go in late August or early September to get past the summer crowds. I do this because I always stay in hotels / motels and this gives me the best chance of finding a room available. I hate reservations because I never know how far I will get in a day. I see something I like, I stop, if not I keep going!

This year was a little different, I always wanted to ride around Lake Superior. As a kid I've spent vacations and worked at a resort in Northern Wisconsin. I have spent many hours on the VFR exploring the southern shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin and the UP. I have also done the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota from Duluth to the Canadian Border. I have never riden the The Canadian north shore from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay. So that was my plan.

I live in a Northwest suburb of Chicago. I started at 8am Sunday morning on September 6th. Temp in the low 70's and expected to go up to mid to upper 80's. This was a day to cover as much ground as possible. The plan was to use interstate 43 through Milwaukee and get past Green Bay and as far into the Upper Penninsula as possible. I wanted to stick to the West shore of Lake Michigan and do the North shore of the Lake as well. After Green Bay I used MI 35 through Escannaba and US 2, My goal was to make it to Manistique MI, about 350 miles from Chicago. Mission accomplished.



I stayed at the Gray Wolf Inn across from Lake Michigan just east of Manistique for $69 a night. Had a wonderful fresh Lake Perch Dinner at a little place next door called the "Three Season Cafe". Perch lightly breaded and pan fried $15 including salad bar. Best perch I've had in a long time, cooked to perfection!

Monday Sept. 7th.

Three Season Cafe opened at 7am. I was the first customer. I had their special "Farmers Omelette" Ham, Bacon, Sausage, Green Pepper, Onion, and Hash Browns all stuffed inside the eggs. A little different with the Hash Browns stuffed inside the Omelette. Delicious! about $10 bucks.

The sky was overcast and slightly misting but it was time to go. I continued east on US2 hugging the North Shore of Lake Michigan. Mist stopped in about an hour.




I joined up with Interstate 75 just north of the Mackinac Bridge. I was glad I didn't have to cross it. I heard at a rest stop it was "Walk the Bridge Day". Bridge shut down to one lane in each direction and all other lanes open to pedestrians. Happy Labor Day!

I continued north on I-75 to the Canadian Border at Saulte Ste. Marie. Once inside Canada I stopped at their tourist information center. I talked to a very helpful girl behind the counter and asked her where to stay. She said I had to stay in the town of Wawa because there was nothing good beyond that until Thunder Bay. She made me a reservation at the Wawa Motor Inn. They had a bank inside the center so I gave them $50 US and got $62.50 Canadian back.

Once outside of Sault Ste. Marie everything changed. Rocks, Trees, Waterfalls, Privincial Parks etc. Trans Canada Hwy 17 is a beautiful two Lane road with passing lanes every 6 to 10 miles. Speed limit 90 kmh. (58 mph) First time I ever held down the left button on the dash to change the speedo! I will stay on 17 the rest of the way and continue to Wawa.



These two pictures are essentially the same one, look closely at the wide shot and you can just make out the fisherman. This is Chippewa Falls just north of Sault Ste. Marie.



Somwhere on 17 and Awana Bay

About an hour outside of Wawa it started to fog up and visibility became poor. There is supposed to be three nice waterfalls within 10 minutes of Wawa but it wasn't worth trying to find them in this weather. I just checked into the Wawa Motor Inn at about 4pm. Room was good at $104 Canadian. Food at their restaurant was Ehh! Breakfast was the typical "Continental" Crap. I can do OK on cereal, yogurt, coffee, muffin and juice. Good to stay away from the yellow round egg like disc's and immitation ham rounds, Where's the Canadian bacon?

Tuesday Sept. 8th.
Wawa Canada to Grand Marais MN. USA

Tuesday morning was just slightly foggy and in the mid 50's F. My gear is Klim "Overland" jacket and pants and it is perfect for this weather. Love riding in full ATGATT when it is cool!

Towns ahead are White River (Home of Winnie the Pooh...didn't stop) Marathon, Terrace Bay, Rossport, Nipigon and Thunder Bay. My hope was to get to Nipigon or even Thunder Bay. I saw two nice motels online in Nipigon that had rave reviews

This whole area is absolutely beautiful, the problem is there are no really good spots to pull over and take pictures. The following pictures are from rest areas or long straights but the best pictures are missed because of curves or hills.



Most of these towns are pretty small and probably here because of the railroad and highway. I would get off 17 and drive the main drag but not much caught my eye so I would keep going. Terrace bay was a little different it had a nice little cafe advertising fresh homade pies. I should have stopped for lunch but I just wasn't hungry.



The one picture is Aguasabon Falls and Gorge Just west of Terrace bay.

I continued west on 17 and was making good time, stopping here and there, but mostly just enjoying the road and view. When I got to Nipigon it was too early to stop so I decided to go on to Thunder Bay. Well Thunder bay has some nice shore parks and I'm sure it has many things to do but it is a pretty large city and I would rather stay in a small town. It was still only about 3:30pm so I decided to push on.

It wasn't far from Thunder Bay to the US Border so I topped off my gas using the last of the Canadian money and continued on to the US border at Pigeon River. There was a line of about six cars at the border so I waited in line with the engine off thinking about what the Customs agent was going to ask. Only one night in Canada and back to the US.....Drug Dealer or just some goof on a VFR? When I got up to the booth I had my helmet on with sunglasses and I just handed my passport to the agent. He looked at me and looked at the passport and asked if I minded taking off my sunglasses. I complied and he looked at me and the passport a few more times and then asked if I minded taking off my helmet. Again I complied and he looked at me and the passport a few more times. I thought this was pretty funny. How can the agent tell who anybody is with a helmet, sunglasses and full ATGATT. I could have been anybody. I'm sure they get a lot of people on bikes doing the same thing I was doing and are used to it, but I still thought is was funny. He must have looked at me and the passport better than 10 times. All in all he was very nice and I went on my way.

I made it to Grand Marais in MN at about 5:45 and stopped at the Blue Water Cafe for Dinner. Someone told me they had half price burgers after 6pm so I sat at a park bench overlooking the harbor until Six.



After dinner I continued on a few more miles to the Americinn at Tofte MN. Nice room with hot tub $94. Pretty good continental breakfast here. Real eggs and sausage patties plus all the other typical stuff.

Wednesday Sept.9th.

Once I left Thunder Bay the day before, I was on US hwy. 61. This road goes from Thunder Bay along Lake Superior to Duluth, south to Minneapolis and then follows the Mississippi all the way to, I think, New Orleans. Because I have been on this road before, I took 61 a few miles south to Mn Hwy 1. 1 goes for 60 miles north from the shore of Lake Superior to Ely. This is suposed to be the best motorcycle road in Minnesota. It is also supposed to have the highest concentration of bears and moose in the state! Ely is the starting point for all the canoe trips to the Boundry Waters Canoe Area. I saw two deer within the first ten minutes on the road but nothing else the rest of the way. The road was great but not as much wilderness as I expected.



From Ely I headed west on Hwy 1 towards Virginia MN. Near the town of Soudan is the Soudan Iron Mine. This mine was run by US Steel until 1962 when they switched from deep mined ore to Taconite. Taconite is of lower grade but can be strip mined and is cheaper. US Steel donated this mine to the State of Minnesota and can now be toured. I arrived at 11:05 and tours are an hour and a half and start on the hour. About $18.00 per adult. Seeing as though I just missed the tour I didn't want to wait until noon for the next one and not get done until 1:30. I was able to walk around all the buildings and see some videos and take some pictures without having to pay. The tour would have been great though! The mine is 2,500 feet deep!



After leaving the mine I continued west to Virginia where I picked up US 53 south to Duluth. Crossing the St. Louis river into Superior Wisconsin I headed east on US 2. I could have taken Hwy 13 east to Bayfield and the Apostle Islands but I have done that route before and decided to take US 2 through Ashland to Ironwood and Hurley. From Hurley I headed south on US 51 to Minocqua WI. I am very familiar with the Minocqua area and I visit at least 3 or 4 time a year for snowmobiling and to visit my wifes relatives nearby.

I stayed at the Aqua-Aire Motel overlooking Lake Minocqua. $69.00 a night. This is a small 10 unit motel with very clean rooms, great beds, new flat screen TV's. The rooms are a little small but it is right on the edge of town and you can walk to many restaurants and bars. My plan was to park the bike and walk to dinner. I checked in and was talking to the new owner Tom. While I was inside it started to rain. I unloaded the bike and went to plan "B". Order a Pizza to the room!

Thursday Sept. 10th.

54 and Overcast. My plan was to spend the day riding in the area on the many back roads in the National Forest but the weather did not look that great. I headed for Home. US 51 south until it becomes I-39 through Wausau, Knowlton to buy cheese at the Mullins cheese factory, Stevens Pointe meeting up with I-90 at Portage then on through Madison, Rockford IL and Home!

Total trip 1783 Miles (By Garman Zumo 220 GPS). Averaged 356 miles a day. The VFR used zero oil, got anywhere from 38 to 42 miles per gallon and ran perfectly the whole way! I lubed the chain every night and did not have to do any adjustments.

I think the old gal enjoyed the ride as much as I did!

 

Hey maggot. That's frikken awesome. Nice pics. Sounds like you has a good time.

 

Did you stop for a Timmie's while you were here. Or well, at the other end of my country!

 

Not fair not taking the wolf to eat the chichins

 

Not sure what a Timmies is so I guess I didn't stop for one!

This end of your country is a pretty nice ride!!

 

Looks like I passed pretty close to you on Sunday morning before I hit Green Bay. I love the beach and lighthouse near you at Two Rivers. You live in a great area! If you haven't done it, you need to try this trip yourself!

 

Tim Horton's. It's a coffee and doughnut place. Our answer to Dunkin Doughnuts. Matter of fact, I read a couple years back that over night, all the Dunkin Doughnuts on Manhatan Island changed to Tim Hortons. There were over 400 TH franchises in US prior to that. I'm sure there are a couple thousand here.

 

OH.... Tim Horton's, yes I did see a few of those. So did I blow it by not stoppin'?

No Tim Hortons in the Chicago area.

When I was a kid all the Dunkin' Doughnut shops made their own doughnuts fresh every 4 hours. They were good any time you bought them! Now they all get their doughnuts from a central bakery and only get a delivery once a day. Probably at 3 or 4 in the morning. So if you have a taste for doughnuts at six in the evening your pretty much buying a doorstop. I don't want to buy doughnuts I have to soften in the microwave.