Atv Ontario Canada

In Mighigan Upper Peninsula Touring Motorcycle

One of the reasons why the ride is the spirit in the face of street life with a can do attitude, and another is for the joy of seeing the landscape is developed. If that's part of his psyche riding, too, you will feel at home in Upper Peninsula of Michigan, or "UP" as the locals call it. Stretching 310 miles from Sault Ste. Marie near the east end of Ironwood, near its western border, is a wild land separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Mackinac Bridge, and from Detroit (293 miles south) by the major cultural differences.

Born and raised in the west Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and can remember in elementary school singing the unofficial state song, "Michigan, My Michigan" (to the tune of " Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum "). In the 1970s I used to go up in the UP on vacation. Despite moving to California more than 30 years ago, still come back to my hometown, but had not returned to the UP since 1975. That's why I was particularly excited about the opportunity to ride there one day fall last October.

On this last trip I found refreshing UP unchanged, and instead of my Honda CB450 early 1970 I was riding an Electra Glide Classic taken from Bald Eagle Harley-Davidson in Marquette. I also accompanied by Brad Kolbus, from Munising, in his Road King, published a guide Rider UP seems to know everyone, and knows where to go and what to see.

Right after we started riding along the shore of Lake Superior by the Bay Marquette, Brad immediately drew closer to a vision like something out of Star Wars film to ask: "What the hell is that?" It was a huge structure, massive and gray, and hundreds of feet long, a succession of tall, concrete arches close-set extends out into the water. Brad told me that was the Baja Puerto Mineral old Dock, now no longer in use. Wagons full of iron ore it deviates, the workers went down slides and mineral rocked noisily holds enormous mineral companies that serves to connect here.

Then we ride to the west where there are signs of the season Autumn is approaching: pontoon boats on blocks, firewood stacked on porches and the leaves turn yellow. We arrived at Big Bay, this small city was the scene of a murder in 1951 that inspired the book Anatomy of a Murder, and the 1959 film by the same name starring Jimmy Stewart and Lee Remick. We take lunch Thunder Bay's Inn, which was the setting for scenes in the classic film. The pub where we had dinner at the hotel was built for the filming.

Despite Michigan Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario are known as "The Great Lakes," are actually large inland seas. In Munising me on a boat 60 foot observation for Cruising the picture Rocks National Lakeshore. The captain informs us that only contains enough fresh water Superior to cover the entire continental United States to a depth 5 feet! It's cool and windy day, and once we clear that Grand Island in Lake Superior proper, where the waves began to rock and roll. Most customers leave the cold, wind open viewing area at the top of the glass seats in the main deck, because I think the abandonment of my lunch overboard. Along Pictured Rocks are treated in a humorous, running through the rock walls have been eroded by eons of wind, rain and temperatures below zero, and painted in shades of brown, tan and green with runoff from limonite, copper, iron and manganese. We sailed past caves, arches and a rock called Indian Head. A range misty waterfall drops like a veil of striated cliffs.

The next day Brad and I travel from the east in M28 Munising along what is called the Seney Strait, "25 miles straight through the bush full of scrub and pine trees. Thirty-some years ago I had stopped to commemorate Seney was here, where Highways 28 and 77 intersect, a young Ernest Hemingway had disembarked the train in 1919. Wounded in World War I, Hemingway had gone hiking fishing north of the Fox River, and later fiction on experience in one of his Nick Adams stories called The two hearts Rio Grande. But wait, Two Heart is really far north of here, Hemingway made a mistake? Nope. Like a true fisherman, had misnamed the river in an attempt to maintain favorite fishing spot a secret.

We rode east on a tree-lined road of two lanes, and passing the signal of Deer Park I remember camping near him in the lake in the Muskallonge 70. My night was enlivened when five raccoons came blowing from the lake, begging on its hind legs. I gave them some bread, and half an hour was later roasted marshmallows over the fire when something touched my shoulder. Surprised, I turned around to find a raccoon, and when I turned the other escapes with the marshmallow two others were roasting hot conditions in the dark with the whole bag between them! They do not wear bandit masks for nothing!

Lake Superior is cold, whitecapped in this gray and windy day, and when the rain starts I piled into my electrical equipment and turn the thermostat to "weld." The fairing and reduces Classic worst weather to keep me, and disturbing dirge Gordon Lightfoot "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" plays through the stereo in our journey to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point. The song tells the Sea catastrophe that occurred on November 10, 1975, when the mineral company sank in a storm with 29 men, only 17 miles northwest of here. In the museum's boathouse I meet Tom Farnquist, executive director of the Great Shipwreck Lakes Historical Society. The speculation is that the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was too close to Caribou Island about 40 miles northeast of here, where the sea 35 meters in 45 feet of water allowed the company to the strike fund, that damaged its hull and caused her to leak. She eventually broke in two and sank in 535 feet of water near Whitefish Point. Farnquist dived on the wreck and personally helped to restore the ship's bell, which includes the centerpiece of the museum.

Dinner was at the horns Restaurant in Sault Ste. Marie, which was full this Friday night. Yes, it's a Yooper all right, with trophy heads and stuffed wildlife arranged along the walls and between joists. Suddenly, a siren sounds, lights flash and we ask the waitress what the hell is going on. "Oh, yes, every time open a barrel again, "he explains.

In the morning we crossed the street from our motel for a view of the famous Soo Locks. Unfortunately, at this very moment there is no ship in sight. The International Bridge looms in the distance with Canada just across the road.

It is a road trip 55 miles south of Mackinac Bridge, then headed west on Route 2 through low scrub with Lake Michigan on the left. In Blaney Park Brad introduces me to Steve Zeller that puts in an annual event called Motorbike Blaney Park Rendezvous. He gives us a tour of the camp which led to expansive 3,000 runners last year, the 2010 rally be held June 18-20.

The thumb-shaped peninsula hanging garden on Lake Michigan, and is home to Fayette Historic State Park. Fayette was established in 1867 as an operation with huge cast iron furnaces, a large dock and homes, about 500 people lived and worked here. When the market Charcoal iron was reduced, the operation was suspended in 1891 and Fayette was abandoned. Today, it has been left as a ruin arrested, a gift from the past unpainted houses with their foreman, the old stone castle hotel and rest of the cast in the picturesque port of snail shell.

We stop at Nahm in the inn of Nahman, a bed & breakfast with 14 charming rooms and a full bar and a restaurant. Brad introduces me to the owners of Charley and Laurie Macintosh (who seems to know everything the world) who are planning a bike event there in the near future. Next door is the old general store, which was abandoned in the 50s with some of its goods intact. Its owner, a man named Pat, gives us a tour of its time capsule interior.

Brad takes us north County H13 in Algiers, and this autumn Sunday afternoon enjoy the leaves turning and the Harley feels surprisingly agile after the road of hills and gentle curves. Each few kilometers a track or two tracks, is in the yellow wood, where the muddy dirt bikes and ATVs go, we long to follow them in the jungle.

From there is the west, to visit Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, near Ishpeming. As a former Michigander was as cheesy as I expected, with life-size dioramas a jeep driven by a deer hunter tied across the hood, deer card game, the place full of stickers and souvenirs Yooper. In the front is "Gus" world's largest operation or chain saw work (It's in the Guinness Book of Records) and "Big Ernie," the greatest weapon of work.

The ghost town of Fayette is a symbol of much of the UP which, unfortunately, is suffering economically.

Along the roads are abandoned homes and factories. Tourism is now the main economic engine of the area, and there is much about the UP for love. For me, the real charm of the place, pine trees and cedars, maples and birches, hidden lakes and bays, and rustic cabins, "is how the whole thing comes together. In this autumn Sunday rumble along roads secondary field house to the north, near Gwinn. Sunlight spot the red maple leaves and yellow, and there is a cold dampness in the air of a recent passing shower. We Tromp interior and the fragrance of wood smoke puffs from the chimney of stone. Many customers turn to nod and greet us. Hamburgers and haddock, ribs, whitefish and smelt to populate the menu, and a football match lights the big screen. This welcoming, friendly rustic confirms that this remains true … Michigan my Michigan.

– Bill Sterman

About the Author

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