Yoop There It Is: My Time in the Upper Peninsula
After leaving Mackinac Island, I rode across Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula. The ride was stunning with the sun beginning to set to the west, but also a little nervy as there were strong winds, low guard rails, and some lanes that only had metal grating for a drive surface.
I camped near Carp River, which offered stunning views of Lake Huron and the night sky.
The next morning I headed a few miles south the town of St Ignace for some Taco Bell:
Atmosphere: Fun designs on the wall, a country radio playlist if I recall correctly
Facilities: Average cleanliness
Staff: I ordered on a screen - don't believe I interacted with any staff
Food: Solid but unspectacular, met expectations without disappointing
My secondary reason for heading St Ignace was laundry (don’t do your laundry in St Ignace - it’s highly overpriced compared to other laundromats in the UP and their outlets charge extremely slowly). After 3 hours of laundry (and blog writing), I stopped by the fish trolley for lunch:
Whitefish Point
Full of local whitefish, I took the scenic route north to Bark Dock on Tahquamenon Bay of Lake Superior:
After a few hours of swimming and sunbathing at Bark Dock, I turned northeast and set my sites on Whitefish Point - a protrusion (peninsula?) jutting out from the UP into the eastern corner of Lake Superior. I spent some time walking the shoreline and waving to Canada, but unfortunately arrived too late to visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (gotta save something for my next visit).
I camped near Whitefish Point that evening.
While the beach access was incredible, just about everything else about the campsite the campsite was from hell. Harriet got stuck in the sand and some other bikers had to come to my aid to drag her out. The mosquitos were also worst I have ever seen. They’d bite me through my clothes. If I stood still for 3+ seconds, my (covered in pants) legs would be lined with 20+ mosquitos per leg instantly. They’d bite my face (most mosquitoes in other places at least respect Ron Burgundy’s no touching of the hair or face rule), and when I covered my face with a ski mask they’d still go for my eyes. They made life so unbearable that I skipped dinner and crawled into the tent just as soon as I could get it set up (around 7:30 pm). In hindsight, maybe I should’ve paid more heed to the sign 2 miles up the road indicating that I was driving through a mosquito hatchery. Why someone would ever intentionally breed, incubate, and hatch mosquitoes is beyond me.
Tahquamenon Falls
Tahquamenon Falls is one of the most famous attractions of the UP, known for its root beer colored river (in the UP this phenomenon is seen as unique, but as you’ll see in later blog posts, it is occurs elsewhere in this beautiful country).
I hiked 4 miles from the Lower Falls to the Upper Falls, and on the way up I met Ken from Fort Wayne, IN. It’s been a tough year for Ken: he got a hip replacement and recently lost his Dad and his brother. He was in the UP for a reset - immersing himself in nature to ease his grief. He had hiked the rather strenuous 4 mile climb 25 years earlier as a younger man, but wanted to prove to himself that he could still do difficult things after his hip replacement.
At the upper falls overlook, I met Nancy and Theresa from Port Huron, MI. Neither had to babysit grandkids that week, so they were seizing the opportunity to spend a few days in the UP. They said I had great eyes and should do motorcycle modeling after I finish my trip - add that to the list of potential post odyssey careers.
At the Upper Falls, I also met a guy from Donegal, Ireland who works for an injection molded auto parts supplier in Ann Arbor.
There was a brewery at the Upper Falls, and since I had really been moving on the trail, I felt I earned a beer and a burger. I had lunch with a couple from Northern Michigan who were regulars at the brewery. They were big fans of Cleveland as they had visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their honeymoon a few years back. Side note, the beer at the brewery was fantastic - would definitely recommend stopping there if you ever make it to Tahquamenon Falls.
After the beer and burger, I had to hike 4 miles back down to the lower falls - a much less enticing proposition after a beer and burger. On the way down I met a couple from Quebec who converted a trailer into a camper with a bed and motorcycle storage - a smarter way to bike around the country. They drive to a location in the truck, and if the weather is nice, they can pull out the bikes and ride them around for an afternoon without having to drive everywhere or in the rain. On their way down to the UP, they had stopped to see their favorite band, Slipknot, in Toronto. In the future, they want to take 6-12 months off to the Rockies.
With rain on the way up and sunset coming earlier and earlier, I ended up abandoning my plan to camp near Grand Marias and instead pulled off at a state campground about an hour south - luckily I was pretty much packed up the next morning before they came around checking passes.
Pictured Rocks
I started on the western edge of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and worked my way east. At my first stop, the Log Slide near Au Sable, I met a couple from western Pennsylvania who had scheduled their trip around the planned C-section for the birth of their 4th grandchild only to have the baby come early while they were still in the UP - what can you do? I also ran into a group of Australians that I had seen the day before at Tahquamenen Falls. They trudged down the 500+ foot sand embankment to the lakeshore, so naturally I followed - in my full riding gear.
The way down was easy. The way back up, not so much, but I was due for some higher intensity cardio.
Later as I walked along the shore to the Au Sable Lighthouse, I saw the remains the of an 1800s shipwreck. The stretch of lakeshore from Munising, MI to Whitefish Point is known as Graveyard Coast due to the plethora of shipwrecks that have taken place there (most in the late 1800s/early 1900s; none more famous than the aforementioned Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975), and the shores around Au Sable were particularly dangerous to wooden ships due to the limestone reef that is less than 6ft below the surface in some places.
The Au Sable lighthouse was constructed to help address this. Light keeping was a difficult and dangerous job. Not only did they have to lug 5 gallon pails of kerosene up hundreds of steps in all conditions, but they had rescue passengers from shipwrecks within a mile of the lighthouse.
The part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore you’ve probably seen pictures of (i.e. the pictured rocks) is all the way at the east end of the park, near Munising. While I was considering taking a boat tour, it was late afternoon by the time I got there and the fog was heavy, making me think it wouldn’t be worth the price tag. Besides, I feel like I got solid views from the Castle Miners overlooks and beaches, even if the photos didn’t turn out great.
That night I camped in the Hiawatha National Forest, where I found what seems to be a deer scapular bone at the campsite:
I tried to get a fire started for 45 minutes and came tantalizingly close 3-4 times (small flame for about a minute), but the small twiggy stuff I was able to find was so water logged that I couldn’t get a self-perpetuating fire to sustain. Apparently I've lost the touch I developed working at camp this summer.
Marquette
When I rolled into Marquette, it was so foggy that I could hardly see the lighthouse at Presque Isle, so instead of walking Presque Isle Park, I decided to head to the YMCA for a “spa” day (lift, run, hot tub, sauna, shower). At the Y, I met a guy who had a friend on the China season of survivor, and I picked his brain on the behind the scenes of the show in preparation for my upcoming application video.
After recovering at the Y, I did laundry again as just about all my stuff needed washed after 7 straight nights of camping, most of it in the rain. By the time my laundry was finished, it was late enough that I would likely be setting up camp in the dark (campground was 45 minutes away) and I felt like I hadn’t seen as much of Marquette as I had hoped to, so I found a cheap hotel. They offered a free breakfast which helped me further justify the decision.
As I was checking into the hotel, I met Mark, who was on a bikepacking trip that had started in Florida. He’s currently trying to bike to as many Atlas Obscura locations as he can. He took his first bikepacking trip over 40 years ago and has now biked to more states than he’s driven through. He’s led a pretty interesting life outside of his bicycle touring too. His first career was as a librarian in Texas. Realizing he’d need a master’s degree to advance any further in his field, he decided to consider other options and eventually went back to school to become a Physician’s Assistant. He spent the rest of his career (until he retired a few years ago) as a PA specializing in Pediatrics and said he felt like that was his true calling. His wife may have had an even bigger change in careers. She had been a fork lift driver then moved to a medical scribe role. As she scribed for doctors, she got the feeling she could do everything they were doing, so she took the MCAT and scored in the 97th percentile. After med school, she took a job with Mayo Clinic, which led to her and Mark moving to Iowa. They’ve been in eastern Iowa since and love life in the Midwest. Mark’s got some pretty cool stories from his travels here.
After swapping stories with Mark, I headed into town for a late dinner. The fog on the drive in was surreal - I could barely see 50 feet in front of me, and it gave all of Marquette an eerie feel. A friend had recommended Blackrock Brewing, so I grabbed a beer there and tacos and burgers (I was pretty famished after 8 days in the wilderness) from the food trucks nearby.
Thursday night football was on while I was at Blackrocks. Because I know the question is burning in your mind - Marquette is definitively a Green Bay Packers town.
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness
After breakfast with Mark the next morning, I rode to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park where I hiked to the Lake of the Clouds.
I tried a couple different trails and overlooks. While the hike down to the lake was neat, I found the Escarpment Trail was offered the best views and some peaceful solitude - in my mind it is a must do if you go to Porcupine Mountains.
My Final 24 Hours in Michigan
I planned to camp in the Ottawa National Forest at a dispersed site just south of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, but was unable to get there due to road closures. Instead, I found an overgrown trailhead off of a service road in the national forest and set my tent up on the flattest strip of ground I could find. With the weather having warmed up a bit (to the high 60s/low 70s), the mosquitos were merciless, so I climbed in my tent as quick as I could. It was a good thing I did, as it soon started to thunderstorm violently. At one or two points during the night, I clearly heard a large creature walking around my campsite - it sounded as or more heavy than a human, but I tried to convince myself it was just a deer, as I had left my self defense knife on the bike. Suffice to say I didn’t sleep soundly.
The next morning, a bear hunter from mainland Michigan rolled in his truck just after I rolled out of my soaking tent. He was there to lay down bait (hundreds of pounds of expired granola, 5 gallons of peanut butter, 5 gallons of Dunkin strawberry frosting) to attract bears to the hunting perch he had set up a mile down the trail. He told me that the area was full of bears and wolves and that it was almost definitely a bear or a wolf I heard snooping around my site the night before, and showed me his trail cam footage of 4 bears (a 600 lb mama and 4 overgrown cubs) from the day before. He’d to return in 2 weeks to actually hunt once the season officially opened. He told me his 13 year old som got a 450 lb bear last year that his older son taxidermied. He said bear meat is pretty tasty - very red but a bit greasy for some people’s taste.
After quickly rolling up my wet tent, I rode through some pretty fall colors before stopping in Wakefield for breakfast. Throughout the whole UP, I had seen advertisements for pasties (pronounced with a soft "a" like apple) and felt I couldn’t rightly leave the UP without trying them, so I popped into Randall’s Bakery.
I ended up having more than just pasties at Randall’s - I got a cream cheese danish, a fried donut, several cups of coffee, and a lot of local gossip. Far as I could tell, the waitress was the daughter of the owner and one of the clientele was her grandfather who was going to change her oil and fix a dent in her car in exchange for a free pastry. Another local with a heavy Wisconsin accent told some other regulars about how’d he’d miss snow plowing when he moves south in a few weeks (presumably to mainland Michigan). The town he’s moving to only got 12 inches of snow last year - all in one storm - and he found it funny that that had been enough for them to cancel school for a day or two. He figured he might be able to make a few extra bucks plowing snow for the town if they get another heavy storm this winter.
After Randall’s, I got back on the bike and before I knew it, I was in Wisconsin.
It’s incredible the people you cross paths with on the Odyssey! And I guess the bears and mosquitos too…
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