Bicycle Around Lake Superior!

Day 1:  Day 2:  Day 3:  Day 4:  Day 5:  Day 6:  Day 7:  Day 8:  Day 9:  Day 10:  Day 11:  Day 12:  Day 13 & 14:  Day 15:  Day 16:  Day 17:  Day 18:
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18 Days in 2008

Wednesday August 27- Saturday Sept 13

 We are back from our bicycle trip around Lake Superior and would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers for us!

We had an exciting time, we saw the Lake from every angle, ate some wonderful meals, and saw lots of kinds of roads on this 18 day, 1,300 mile trip from August 27th to Sept 13th, 2008. Many have said they followed our journey in the Daily Mining Gazette newspaper but wanted to know more, so we will summarize it a little here. 

 
Connie, Mary, Julie, Joan


Mary, Julie, Connie


7:30 am... On our way!



Julie's Trek Madone Project One OCLV Carbon Bike.
Since 2005, Julie road nearly 9,000 miles on this Lance bike before this trip.
 


Mary's Trek Alpha SL Bike
Mary purchased this bike after her bike tour from Nelson to Wanaka on New Zealand's South Island (left her old roadbike there)
she had about 4,000 miles on this bike before this trip.


Connie's Road Bike
Giant OCR 3 W
Connie prefers single track mountain bike riding;
she purchased this road bike
just the week before the trip; so Connie had about 100 miles on this bike before this trip.


Julie & Joan's Bike
Santana SE Sovereign
 Since 1996, Julie & her mother, Joan have logged 15,941 miles on their two tandem bikes!
Joan joined us later in the ride to bike tandem with Julie from Thunder Bay.

 Julie and Mary had planned this bicycle trip around Lake Superior for a long time to celebrate their "significant" (whisper: 50th & 60th) birthdays and to celebrate both their retirements this spring from "decades" of school teaching. As the time neared, they lost their volunteer sag driver so with just weeks before leaving, Julie asked Connie one Sunday after church if she would be interested in joining them on this road ride. Even tho Connie's experience was limited to mountain bike riding on mostly single track thru the local forests, she immediately said YES! to the chance to ride around Lake Superior.

Julie had it planned, we start in Chassell in the Western Upper Peninsula of  Michigan, first traversing the Upper Peninsula from West to East, thus, circling the Lake, some 1,300 miles, counter-clockwise. We stayed in hotels at night, getting a room with 2 beds plus a rollaway by calling ahead each night. So we each had our own bed, but the rollaway was often less than ideal! Next time, an air mattress to use instead of those rollaways would probably be a great improvement to bring along!  We usually were able to have "continental breakfasts" in the hotels and then ate the rest of our meals in restaurants. Connie had oatmeal along to microwave in case the provided breakfasts were just sugar donuts. Julie woke us up early in the mornings while still dark outside; after eating and packing, we were ready to start riding by the time the sun came up and it was safe to ride.  We bicycled until about 3 pm each day; by the time we checked into the hotel and had our showers, it was time for dinner. We ate regular sized meals each day, but sometimes ending our dinner meal with a great desert which we often shared. The desert was usually something chocolate, a favorite for Julie and Connie! (A few of those after dinner chocolates had so much caffeine that Connie found it hard to sleep.)  After dinner, calls were sometimes made back home, a few notes written in journals and a check of the next day's ride, meals and night's lodging. (after gripping the handle bars all day long, much of it "white knuckled" because of the narrow Canadian road sides and truck traffic, I found it difficult to grasp and write with a pen) We had a laptop computer along so when we had internet in the room, we checked on hotels for our next stop. Otherwise we used the "Lake Superior" book from LakeSuperior.com to find hotels, dining etc for the next day.  We used a very helpful webpage to determine how many miles our next day's ride would be using this webpage:
www.veloroutes.org/bikemaps

 Not long after dinner, we turned in for the night to get a good night's sleep for the next day ride.
 We had Julie's SUV along as a sag wagon with her awesome Draft Master hitch rack for 3 bikes on the back.  
 

Click on the days listed below, to see a few of our pictures taken by Connie, Julie and Mary and comments about each day of the trip. Also, we each answer the oft asked question
"
Would you do it again?" on the summary page.

 If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, Connie Julien, webmaster and bike rider on this trip.

18 Days: Wednesday August 27- Saturday Sept 13

 Day 1: Michigan; Chassell to Ishpeming, 82 Miles

 Day 2: Michigan; Ishpeming to Munising Aug 28;  62 miles

 Day 3: Michigan; Munising to Grand Marais, Mi Aug 29;  52 miles

 Day 4: Michigan; Grand Marais to Paradise Aug 30;  76 miles + 10 miles up to Whitefish Point

 Day 5: Michigan; Paradise to Sault Saint Marie, Mi Aug 31;  51 miles

 Day 6: Michigan to Ontario Canada; Sault Ste Marie, Mi to the Montreal River,  Ontario Sept 1;  74 miles

 Day 7: Ontario Canada; Montreal River to Wawa Sept 1;  67 miles

 Day 8: Ontario Canada; Wawa to Terrace Bay Sept 3;  50 +110 miles

 Day 9: Ontario Canada; Terrace Bay to Red Rock (near Nipigon) Sept 4;  71 miles + 8 miles into Red Rock off the hiway

 Day 10: Ontario Canada; Red Rock to Thunder Bay Sept 5;  60 miles

 Day 11: Ontario Canada to Minnesota; Thunder Bay to Grand Marais, MN  Sept 6;  85 miles

 Day 12: Minnesota; Grand Marais to Silver Bay – Sept 7;  56 miles

 Day 13 & 14: Minnesota; Silver Bay to Duluth - Sept 8 & 9;  71 miles

 Day 15: Minnesota to Wisconsin; Duluth, Mn to Bayfield, Wisc. Sept 10;  75 miles

 Day 16: Wisconsin to Michigan; Bayfield, Wisc to Ironwood, Mich – Sept 11;  62 miles

 Day 17: Michigan; Ironwood to Greenland – Sept 12;  74 miles + 26 miles (returning to Silver City)

 Day 18: Michigan; Greenland to Chassell LAST DAY!!  50 miles

 Day 19: one last ride: Eagle Harbor, near the tip of the Keweenaw to Chassell;  54 miles

 You asked, we answer: Would you ever ride a bicycle around Lake Superior again?!!

 
Map courtesy of Lake Superior Magazine
 

Day 1:  Day 2:  Day 3:  Day 4:  Day 5:  Day 6:  Day 7:  Day 8:  Day 9:  Day 10:  Day 11:  Day 12:  Day 13 & 14:  Day 15:  Day 16:  Day 17:  Day 18:
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 If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, Connie Julien, webmaster and bike rider on this trip.

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