Molson Bike Tour (North): 1,000+ Miles of Fun

Chuck and Mark coming into the U.P.

The vacation schedule was marked for a motorcycle trip with the Chenevert posse this past week with the riding options being north into the U.P. and into Wisconsin or south into Virginia. We even had a Plan C, if needed. Plan C would be where the sun was planning on shining for an extended period of time. Well, after an extensive weather search that went late into Sunday evening, all options seemed to have some form of rain in them so we rolled the dice and went with the U.P./Wisconsin ride. And a fine choice it was!

I met Chuck and Mark in Brighton last Monday at 7 AM. There is no better feeling than the first day of vacation, heading west and looking at the cluster of cars headed east for their work days. That is the definition of utopia right there. So I give Chuck and Mark about a two minute "happy vacation" greeting, we jumped on the bikes, dialed it in north and before you knew it, we were throwing up the tents in Munising after a beautiful day of riding. That night Mother Nature provided the fireworks as the south skies had some pinks, some blues, some purples and every color cloud out there (see picture below) with lightning doing its thing every minute or so. Not one drop of rain hit our area though. We were initially thinking about camping about 10 miles south of town so I think we made the right decision there; and got to see a cool firework show!

not color-enhanced - it was that pink (Munising)

The "red skies at night" theory proved true as Tuesday was nothing but blue skies as we rode along the water from Munising into Marquette. After breakfast in Marquette, I had to take the fellas to the mecca of the U.P., the Superior Dome. We wouldn't be true tourists if we didn't see that. From Marquette, we headed into Chassell where a friend of Chuck's was laid to rest there a little while back so he got to pay his respects to Larry B. Larry was a rider as well. I met him a few times and the guy always had a smile on his face. If there is a heaven, thanks for the weather this past week Larry.

After Chassell, it was Keweenaw Peninsula time. I have been on the peninsula before but never on the motorcycle. With a mix of routes 26, 41, 203 and various named roads, I put that cycle ride up there with the M-119/M-22's out there. Many winding roads and no traffic. There is nothing like it. In tourist mode, we made a visit to the Keweenaw town that the Gus family used to have blood, Gay, Michigan. A trip to Gay wouldn't be complete without a beverage at the only business in town, the Gay Bar. North from there, we rode into Copper Harbor. The fog was rolling in and the temperature dropped severely once you got within a mile of the city. The view atop Brockway Mountain was bizarre as the fog was blanketing the water. We called it a day after a beautiful ride back into Houghton. My giggle for the day came in Houghton. The city has two main streets that are both one-way so you sometimes have to loop around and down one of the steep hills in town to get from point A to point B. So we do this loop once and Chuck's bike catches this deep pothole near this stop sign. There was no damage to his bike but nobody likes that. Fast forward two minutes later when we had to loop around town again and up to that same pothole near the stop sign. Up rides Mark and into said pothole he goes. Maybe you had to be there but I literally laughed out loud on that scene. A thank you for the food and service to the folks at the Ambassador in Houghton. There is my plug for today.

Wednesday came and west we went to the Porcupine Mountains, specifically Lake of the Clouds. As I was walking up the path to the cliff for the view, I encountered something I recall not so very fondly from the last time I hiked here, the black fly! As I am typing this, the bite marks are still there from the handful that got me. I didn't see too many hikers with smiles on their faces. Keep walking is the best advice I can throw out there. Bites aside, the view was still beautiful as ever.

camp in Munising

The ride proceeded west into Wisconsin when the skies to the west looked bleak. Ten years ago we would have had to guess how big of a storm was heading our way. With the fancy phone era these days, however, Mark pulled out his phone, checked the doppler, saw the storm was definitely coming but wouldn't be a long soaker. We headed into Hurley, Wisconsin and waited out the rain. Hurley was interesting. For a city of maybe 2,000 people, they had probably 20 bars on their main street. The ATV/snowmobile scene apparently draws the crowds in from outside the area. The rain came, left, and we headed on our way to the final destination for the night in Bayfield, Wisconsin. Located right outside Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior, the city is quite beautiful, however, we got the road construction view as they were tearing up the roads in this tiny town. They have to be done sometime so no complaints. Chuck found us a great crib called Greunke's Inn. A house with a restaurant/bar on the main floor and roughly ten bedrooms to rent. It had a feeling like you were crashing at your old aunt's house with the uneven floors and the creaks. It definitely had character. After hearing us whine about not getting the Wisconsin supper club treatment (few beverages in us at that time), Lisa the waitress caved and honored our request. A great meal with lodging in the quarters upstairs; nothing wrong with that.

Alger Falls (Munising)

I parted ways with Chuck and Mark on Thursday as they were planning on staying in Wisconsin another day. I headed back east through the lower portion of the U.P. via U.S. 2/M-69 making it into Mackinac City for the evening. I once again escaped the rain as Route 2 was dry with blue skies; however, to the north towards M-28, the skies looked dark with what I can only assume was rain. Tough love for the Seney/Newberry scene.
The ride home yesterday consisted of the M-31 Petoskey/Charlevoix scene shooting over to M-131, into Cadillac for lunch, down M-115 into Clare, a beverage in Mt. Pleasant and down the freeway home. It's ironic that I finally did get wet coming back into town right about the same spot I met Chuck and Mark on Monday in Brighton. A great trip it is when the weather cooperates and the only injury was when I put my helmet on with my sunglasses on top of my head. "Has anybody seen my glasses?" I asked. After the pain on top of my head started to increase, I took off my helmet and found my glasses! Nice.

Trail Head