Giving the bikes a break. Note our fancy rain cover for the luggage on the Vulcan.
LAKE SUPERIOR
Over the course of 8 days in July 2009, we rode our motorcycles around Lake Superior. Ehren rode his 1996 Kawasaki KLR and Britt rode her 2002 Kawasaki Vulcan. Starting in Duluth (easy, as we lived there at the time), we rode north to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and stayed our first night at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.
On just the second day of the trip we discovered Ehren’s KLR had a rear flat while stopped at a gas station in Nipigon. At the time we had no tools to deal with it as we were quite green when it came to motorcycle travel (this really was our inaugural trip, as Britt had gotten her motorcycle endorsement AND Ehren had gotten his KLR just that spring). Luckily, after inquiring at the gas station, the attendant fetched someone from the attached cafe (interrupting his morning coffee) who said he could help us out. He had us follow him back to his garage where he, indeed, had a motorcycle tire-changing machine! As it turns out, he used to own a motorcycle shop. After thanking him profusely (and kicking ourselves for being so unprepared) we continued on our way, spending that night somewhere near Pukaskwa National Park.
Britt and the Wawa Goose.
On a shady forest road in the U.P.
The third day saw us continuing around the lake, stopping for the night at Lake Superior Provincial Park. We camped out every night on this trip. On the fourth day we spent some time in Sault Ste. Marie, watching the ships go through the locks on their way to and from Lake Superior and staying at the Soo Locks campground. On day five we made our way down to the Mackinac Bridge, crossed it and ate a pasty in Mackinaw City, and then went back over the bridge to continue north. It gets a little fuzzy after that, as we mostly stuck to sandy forest roads along the south shore of the lake. We think we made it to Tahquamenon Falls State Park that night (we weren’t very diligent with taking notes or helpful photos for posterity).
Enjoying the view at Lake of the Clouds.
We went through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the sixth day and stayed in a forest service campground somewhere between there and Marquette. On the seventh day we rode around the Keweenaw Peninsula (checking out Fort Wilkins near Copper Harbor) and camped out in Porcupine Mountains State Park. On our last day (number eight!) we visited Lake of the Clouds and then headed back to Duluth. Not a bad trip to break in the new-to-us KLR.