A Michigan Higher Peninsula Motorbike Journey in Autumn

As a resident of Minnesota with incurable wanderlust, I’ve visited Michigan’s Higher Peninsula just a few occasions, together with doing the 1,300‑mile Lake Superior Circle Tour twice. However one space of the Higher Peninsula – identified regionally because the “U.P.” – I had but to discover is the Keweenaw Peninsula, a 150‑mile‑lengthy wedge of land that appears like a protracted dorsal fin jutting into Lake Superior. Earlier than Previous Man Winter introduced an finish to the using season, my buddy Craig and I squeezed in a mid‑October trip, making a giant loop across the U.P. the place we loved the realm’s wealthy historical past, unparalleled surroundings, and glorious motorcycling roads.

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We met up simply east of Minneapolis in Hudson, Wisconsin, on a cool, clear autumn day. Craig was on his KTM 890 Journey, and I used to be on my Harley‑Davidson Pan American, which I name “Filth Glide.” With no rain within the forecast, we have been excited to hit the street.

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We crossed into Michigan on U.S. Route 2 and continued northeast on M‑28 to Lake Gogebic, the state’s largest inland lake. The lengthy, finger‑formed lake is a well-liked spot for out of doors actions yr‑spherical. It has 13,380 acres of excellent fishing water, and there are many alternatives for mountaineering, mountain biking, looking, tenting, and winter sports activities. Surrounded by huge hardwood forests, it’s an awesome place to see fall colours. It additionally will get an annual snowfall of almost 300 inches and has a superb snowmobile path system.

For motorcyclists, a loop round Lake Gogebic is an gratifying scenic trip. M‑64 hugs the western shore, and East Shore Highway hugs the opposite facet, and there are parks, lodges, and eating choices dotted alongside the almost 40‑mile route. On the lake’s northern finish on the junction of M‑28 and M‑64 is Bergland, which has locations to eat, drink, and keep, in addition to a museum highlighting the native historical past of mining, logging, and sports activities.

After having fun with the surroundings of the lake, we continued up M‑64 to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Michigan’s largest state park and residential of the Lake of the Clouds. Masking 60,000 acres with 35,000 acres of previous‑development forest, the park has waterfalls, rivers and streams, mountaineering trails, a campground, and miles of scenic Lake Superior shoreline.

Our trip as much as the Lake of the Clouds scenic overlook was rewarded with a kaleidoscope of fall colours and surroundings that lives as much as the lake’s identify. After just a few images, we have been again on the bikes and adopted M‑64 alongside the southern shore of Lake Superior to Ontonagon, the place we turned inland on M‑38 to M‑26, which runs up the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula, also referred to as the Copper Nation area.

At Houghton, we crossed the Portage Lake Elevate Bridge and continued north on U.S. Route 41. With the solar fading, we rode to our in a single day vacation spot on the AmericInn in Calumet. The lodge is inside strolling distance of eating places, shops, and the Keweenaw Nationwide Historic Park, which showcases the realm’s 7,000‑yr historical past of copper mining.

See all of Rider‘s Midwest U.S. motorcycle rides here.

We wandered via Calumet, a small city that was within the coronary heart of Michigan’s copper mining business. Its historic downtown has reward outlets, galleries, espresso homes, saloons, and eating places. We made our approach to the Michigan Home Cafe & Crimson Jacket Brewing Co., which is within the former Lodge Michigan that was opened by Bosch Brewing in 1905. As we speak, it’s a restaurant and brewpub, and the Oatmeal Specific stout was the right alternative for a fall night.

The subsequent morning, we availed ourselves of the AmericInn’s complimentary breakfast and trudged out to our frost‑lined bikes. We continued using on U.S. 41 in a northeasterly course to Phoenix, the place we turned due north on M‑26, which curves its means alongside the Lake Superior shore, providing superb views and passing via nature and wildlife sanctuaries.

Earlier than the city of Copper Harbor, we turned on to Brockway Mountain Drive, which steadily climbs up and over an eroded volcanic prominence that rises 720 toes above Lake Superior’s waterline. At West Bluff, we stopped to admire an unbelievable vista of the massive lake to the north and the autumn‑coloured forest to the south. 

We cruised again downhill to Copper Harbor, Michigan’s northernmost city, which overlooks its namesake port close to the outer tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Surrounded by Lake Superior, its microclimate is cool in the summertime and comparatively delicate within the winter. Copper Harbor has an enchanting historical past, and the city is a good base camp for exploring the peninsula or a launching level for journeys to Grand Isle Nationwide Park.

After gassing up, we headed south on U.S. 41 after which Homosexual Lac La Belle Highway to the Bete Grise Wetlands Protect and the southern shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula. We stopped for lunch in Houghton, which is positioned on the Keweenaw Waterway that cuts throughout the peninsula and was as soon as on the epicenter of the area’s copper business.

We rode south on U.S. 41, which runs alongside the western shore of Portage Lake after which Keweenaw Bay to L’Anse, the place we returned to the mainland of the U.P. We adopted U.S. 41 east to Marquette, a Lake Superior port metropolis identified for delivery iron ore from the Marquette Iron Vary. With a inhabitants of 20,000 and residential to Northern Michigan College, Marquette is the most important metropolis on the U.P. We pulled into the Hampton Inn Marquette/Waterfront, which lives as much as its identify with an incredible view of sailboats and different vessels carving up the bay. Being a energetic faculty city, Marquette has quite a few bars and eating places to select from. We had dinner on the historic Vierling Restaurant & Marquette Harbor Brewery, named after Martin Vierling, who constructed the constructing in 1883 and ran a “gents’s saloon” on the location till Prohibition. Renovated and reopened within the Nineteen Eighties, the institution has a historic wood bar with giant home windows overlooking the harbor. 

Firing up the bikes the subsequent morning, we rode east on M‑28 to Munising after which on H‑58 for just a few miles to Pictured Rocks Nationwide Lakeshore. We rode as much as Sand Level, which has good views throughout the water to Grand Island, a nationwide recreation space.

The street to Munising and Sand Level was good, however the winding curves of H‑58 rivaled a few of the greatest roads we’ve ever ridden, with intensive twists and turns carved via the forest and alongside the Lake Superior shore. We continued east to M‑123 to go to Tahquamenon Falls State Park, which covers 50,000 acres. The Higher Falls is likely one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River and is about 200 toes throughout and drops 50 toes. The Decrease Falls are a collection of smaller falls cascading in lots of instructions.

East of the park, we made our means as much as Whitefish Level, which is called the “Graveyard of the Nice Lakes” and residential of the Nice Lakes Shipwreck Museum. There have been 550 identified shipwrecks within the space, and no less than 200 of them are off Whitefish Level, together with the well-known SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975 and was memorialized in a well-liked track by Gordon Lightfoot.

We made our approach to the southern facet of the U.P. on the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the place we spent the night time in Manistique, a leisure mecca for boating, fishing, tenting, and snowmobiling. Within the morning, we rode south on the Backyard Peninsula to Fayette State Park, which overlooks Huge Bay De Noc and was residence to one of many U.P.’s best iron‑smelting operations throughout the nineteenth century. When the iron market declined, the Jackson Iron Firm shuttered its operation in 1891.

Our return route west on U.S. 2 took us to Iron Mountain, residence of the Pine Mountain Ski Leap and the annual Continental Cup, one of many world’s greatest ski leaping occasions.

Subsequent we wished to take a look at an attention-grabbing phenomenon known as the Paulding Mild, a mysterious mild that seems on the finish of a deadend street in a valley positioned between the cities of Pauling and Watersmeet off U.S. Route 45. The sunshine has been reported because the Nineteen Sixties, and varied legends declare the sunshine is the results of paranormal exercise, the ghost of both a railroad brakeman who died in a prepare collision, a murdered mail courier, or a Native American dancing on powerlines.

Craig and I arrived on the location at nightfall and waited for the sunshine. At first we noticed nothing, after which…wait…what’s that? Certain sufficient, a faint mild appeared off within the distance above the tree line. On and off it went, so we determined to pursue this thriller for ourselves. We rode down a steep, sandy, rock‑strewn powerline street to a slim, rickety bridge that crossed a creek. As I hit the partially rotted bridge, I believed, Pan Am, don’t fail me now! Charging up the hill on the opposite facet, we tried to seek out the supply of the sunshine however to no avail. In 2010, college students at Michigan Tech mentioned they solved the thriller, claiming the Paulding Mild is attributable to headlights on a faraway freeway. I just like the ghost tales higher.

The subsequent day, we returned residence. It’s all the time bittersweet when a enjoyable bike journey involves an finish, however the beauty of exploring a brand new space is figuring out we will all the time come again for extra. Michigan’s Higher Peninsula presents seemingly countless alternatives for using and recreation, with a wealthy vein of historical past that runs via the realm like its deep deposits of copper and iron.

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Michigan Higher Peninsula Motorbike Journey Sources