Ghost bike? But very high in the tree. That must have taken some doing to get it that high.
We had two options about 7 miles into the ride today. We could follow the route on an “overgrown” ATV track, or we could follow pavement into Wakefield, and rejoin the route afterwards. When we got to the turn for the ATV track, it didn’t look bad at all, so we opted to stay on the route.
We were going along just fine. Then the route turned onto a FS road. I said to Lani, “Except for this slimy green puddle, the road doesn’t look any worse.” Then I started to go along the edge of the puddle, and promptly sunk over the wheel rim into goopy mud. I was on solid ground on the side, but poor Billy wasn’t. I had to give a good yank to get him out of the mud.
This is after I scraped off as much as I could. Notice the big glob on the brake caliper. I’ll get back to that in a moment.
We went around a gate. It wasn’t that the track itself was overgrown, it was the foliage on the sides that was encroaching over the track. So, it was more of a whack whacking while riding. Sometimes, I would try to ride in the middle. That was better, but I couldn’t really see what was under the grass. Anyway, we were managing. It was also trending down, so that made it easier. Then we came to this.
This was taken from the other side. We didn’t cross here, but went downstream a little ways. Lani got her bike across without getting her feet wet. I was trying to get Billy across, but kept getting stuck where there was not a step except into the water. Lani came to my rescue. She took Billy, and got him to the other side. There was a steep bank. She said, “Push from behind.” But, I wasn’t across the stream yet. She thought I was pushing, and she muscled Billy up the bank…by herself! I said, “Wow! Sheera, Princess of Power just took over!” She said, “You weren’t pushing?” I bowed down to her power! We had a good laugh.
The rest of the track was not too bad. We had to dodge some puddles, but no more mud debacles.
We popped out onto a proper gravel road, and before long we were back to pavement coming into Bessemer.
The last gravel of the Northwoods Route (for us).
We stopped at the park in Bessemer. It was a nice park. A woman was setting up a birthday party for her 10 year old granddaughter.
We got out of her hair, and made our way to the Iron Belle Trail.
There were, at one time three railroads that converged in Bessemer. Now there is this trail.
Quite nice…reminded me of the Chehalis Western Trail at home.
However, this one had a few trestles. Miles of the trail were sponsored by various entities. On one mile post, the sign said, “King and Queen”, and underneath it said, “It’s a small kingdom.” I thought that was pretty funny.
We got off the trail to go to Stormy Kromer. It’s a famous hat company. I was hoping to get one, but alas, it was Sunday, and they were closed.
I guess I just get this photo (I’m sure I could order one online…)
If you can zoom in, the story is pretty good.
Back to the Iron Belle. Next stop was resuppling at Walmart (right off the trail). Back to the trail again. We continued in to Ironwood. Here, the Northwoods Route and the Wisconsin Waterfalls Loop intersect.
I had two more things I wanted to do…laundry (it was high time), and a shower (also necessary). I looked up laundromats, and found the closest one was actually in Wisconsin (we were still in Michigan). We rode there, crossing the state line, into the town of Hurley.
We found the laundromat, and now I have all clean clothes again!
Next up was a shower. We had thought we would stay at Curry Park CG in Ironwood. They had showers. We work our way to the route (now the Wisconsin Waterfalls Loop), and in the process, cross back into Michigan! When we got to the campground, it was right on a busy road. Lani didn’t want to stay there, and I didn’t really either, but I wanted a shower. Soooo…I took a shower there (even though it was for registered campers only), and we got out of town, and crossed back into Wisconsin!
This is on US Hwy 2…the same Hwy 2 that is in Washington!
Right away, on the route, we came to our first two waterfalls. Not surprising, one is called Interstate Falls. We actually haven’t seen that one yet (in the morning). There’s a parking lot and a trail that goes to the falls. But, there is another waterfall called Peterson Falls. It’s on our route map, but not on anything else. No signage or anything. We went down a dirt road and got deeper into the woods. We came upon a great stealth camp spot, left the bikes, and walked to the falls.
Peterson Falls.
WWF Loop Waterfall #1.
We returned to the bikes and set up camp.
My tent.
Lani’s down in the trees.
I was going to call today’s post, “It Feels Like Fall”. While it was sunny, the wind made for a pretty chilly feel to the air. As I am writing this, I’m sitting in my down pants. The forecast is still for warming back up again to the upper 70s this next week. Who knows…this might be the only time I wear these pants I’ve been carrying???
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