Day 4 - Calumet to Baraga Casino - 85km
I awoke late so missed a bunch of the group who had already hit the road. It’s nice that I’m actually getting some sleeps over 7 hours. This is, however, very unusual for me.
I again, decided to take a slightly different route, so I went down M203 alone to Hancock. It start was cooler than the previous mornings but refreshing.
After crossing the Hancock-Houghton Bridge, I looped under the bridge, then went up a tough climb up Quincy Street to Military Road. I realized that Quincy Street is impassable by car, but I was fortunately able to ride through a parking lot and side walk to where I had to get. The wind, again became tail and pushed me down the straight roads with occasional 90 degree turns (and felt like more downhill than uphill) all the way to Tapiola where I was excited to meet some of the other riders at their Feed Millrestaurant.
Some local people say that Tapiola (settled by Finns in the early 1890s) means "home of the forest king,". It's a tiny place which you could miss if you don't pay attention for only one pedal stroke.
I was surprised to see Ang and Jeff come into this great authentic restaurant 20 minutes after me. I thought I was the last! They explored some of Houghton and also got a flat, so somewhere there I must have leapfrogged over them.
Peter, Michelle and New Doug had a last wade only a few km from the finish at the Stergion River just after getting back onto hwy 38.
Since I had such a relatively late start, I missed many of the riders at the end. However, they left a great set of messages and thank you's on the parking lot with chalk. I couldn't get it all in one photo so I took a video clip of it all.
As the few of visited with a beer in hand, we were asked to drink our beer on the picnic table so that we'd be legitimate. Goodness, we're renegades right to the end.
It was great 4 days. New friends, new experiences, spectacular views, awesome roads with low traffic and beautiful views, refreshing swimming, great entertainment, and deeper comraderies were built. I want to thank everyone for their flexibility, humour, sense of adventure, and their individual personalities. Thanks also to Bob and Jeanne for letting us use Shamu as our SAG vehicle. We easily fit gear for 21 riders including a set of golf clubs and my guitar (which I never pulled out). Let's continue to keep this tradition of a yearly medium length multi-day ride.
So to all - Doug/Ruth, Peter/Sophie, Peter/Michelle, Kay/Lynn (all the siblings have one syllibal first names so they wouldn't be too confused - lol), Bob/Jeanne, Miriam/Ron, New Doug, Jeff, Gene, Iowans - Annie/Dave and Jerry, brother Ang, newcomer Teri, LET'S RIDE AGAIN!
-See you at the next adventure
-Frank Pollari
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