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Ta da! Good morning sun!
Yes, it was another beautiful sunrise over Lake Superior! The tents were wet from condensation, but that’s to be expected when camping by the water. It took me awhile to get packed up. I put my shoes and socks on when I got out of my tent, only to realize I had to take them off because I had to filter water (inefficiency). I wanted to get my tent down ASAP so it didn’t look like we had camped overnight. Oh, weird thing last night…after dark, a car pulled in, and two people got out and sat at our picnic table. They sat there for a long time! Maybe they were looking at the full moon? Maybe they were waiting to see if the Northern Lights would appear? I don’t know…they had to have seen our tents (the moon was quite the nightlight). A mystery for sure…
We hit the road at 8:30. In less than a mile, we were back on the gravel.
Or maybe I should say, sand. Again, it was damp, so pretty easy riding.
We popped out onto new pavement at Lake Gratoit, and our steepest climb of the day.
Nice, smooth, 13% grade hill! It was a heart thumper!
I caught up to Lani (she’s a much faster climber, as most people are, than me) at the next turn back onto gravel. The Central Mine (copper) was just across the Hwy. There was a museum that showed a movie. We headed on over.
The movie told the history of the mine, and the town. It was a pretty big operation back in the 1800s. As late as 2006, reunions of descendants have gathered there in July to sing songs. Not many of the buildings are left, but a few have been restored.
Info sign.
After our visit, we returned to the route, and got on a “rail trail” (probably the old rail line from the mining days). It was quite bumpy, and slow going. When we got to a turn that would take us to the Hwy, and the tiny village of Phoenix, we went off route to go to the Phoenix store. I had an ice cream bar, and an A&W Cream Soda. It was delicious!
We opted to ride the 2 miles on the Hwy back to the route. We’d had enough of the bumpy rail trail. We made the turn onto Cliff Dr. It was mostly paved with sections of gravel. I think where the gravel was, the road had gotten so many potholes that they just put down gravel. It wasn’t bad.
A view of the cliffs from Cliff Dr. There was also another Copper Mine. Not surprising, it was called the Cliff Mine. They had dug a horizontal shaft into the cliff side before then sinking shafts down. It was a very productive mine, but nothing remains like at the Central Mine.
A section of the gravel.
See the birds? They were vultures (probably Turkey vultures). There were about 5 or 6 of them. Something must have been dead along the road (or they sensed we were getting close, and were waiting).
The route turned onto an ATV/Snowmobile trail (there are so many…a big source of winter entertainment). It was very washboarded in sections, and more of that sandy dirt. We came to the Hwy again. We were very close to Calumet, so we just did the last mile I to town on the Hwy. We stopped at the only store we saw, and got something cold to drink, and some salty snacks. Did I mention it was 86 degrees?
Because there isn’t much camping on the route, we went off route at Calumet to go out to McLain State Park. The park is right on Lake Superior. It was just 8 miles (a lot downhill) to the Park.
We were quite happy to be there…until we pulled up to the booth, and saw a sign that said, “Campground Closed”. Fortunately, the booth was open (the park wasn’t closed, just the campground). We went in to inquire about this wrinkle in our camping plans. The two young gentlemen said the campground was closed because they are renovating the sewer system. We played the old-ladies-who-were-very-tired-and-couldn’t-possibly-go-any-further card, and asked if there was anyway we could stay. The young men, taking pity on us, called the boss, and they gave us a campsite afterall! We paid $20 for an “auxiliary” permit, and they told us we could camp on any site from site 100-119. They didn’t want other people to see us. Turns out the Unisex restroom and shower was open, so we were even able to shower!
We walked down to the lake to get away from the gnats that were covering anything that was a bright color.
Little gnats like my gas tank.
Lake Superior. If we hadn’t been able to shower, we would have gone in the lake.
Somewhere in the distance is Copper Harbor.
So, today we started from one side of the Keweenaw Peninsula, and crossed all the way over to the other side. It reminded both Lani and I of riding the Baja Divide (she did it in 2018) where we went from the Pacific to the Sea of Cortez. The only difference is that this is all Lake Superior.
The route for today.
Tomorrow we go back inland. I’m not sure if we go back to the other side.
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