Day 1 - Keweenaw Penninsula RIde - The Adventure Begins

Day 1 - July 1, 2010 – 50km Baraga to Hancock
Photos by... Pam Dawes :: Eugene & Roberta Vandal :: Jim Restall :: Debra Spear :: Pat Jokela & Jim Sidlar
Our timing for dry weather was impeccable. On the first day, the rain stopped at 1:00pm (2 hours before the start), and started again at 3:00pm on the last day (Sunday), just 2 hours after the last riders rolled in. We had 2 hours buffer on either side – whew!

On the morning before the start of the tour, as I was marking the route at 11:30 am, the rain started coming down. At first it drizzled so I was still able to spray paint the directions, but as the rain got heavier, there was no use painting anymore. The paint was hydroplaning and flowing downstream. This paint is cool because it only lasts a few months.

Louise and Theresa were riding their bikes and helping me out before and during this deluge. As we checked out the Green Light bar/restaurant in Chassel, we saw the weather forecast. I looked closely at the radar movement which indicated to me that the rain was close to finishing. With this knowledge, I bet both girls that the rain would stop before the ride start, and, low-and-hehold, it did! They both owed me a beer.

By 1:30 a significant number of riders had already arrived, and some (Elaine and Dave) already got a head start and were on highway 38 (at the Baraga Casino) by approx 2:00pm. Eager beavers – actually, it was Elaine’s first multiday ride. She wanted to have a bit of a lead before the stronger riders got going.

More and more people arrived and it became almost like a reunion party in the parking lot of the Baraga Casino. As always, the casino has graciously lent us the space to park our vehicles in their parking lot. People were greeting each other, pumping tires, loading Big White (Ang’s truck) with their baggage. Fortunately Roberta Vandal (aka Rob or Robbie), volunteered to drive her (and Gene’s) SUV and be the SAG/tailgate support. For Big White, Louise and Theresa were the first to volunteer to drive.

By the time we started, the road was dry. We headed down hwy 38 and turned left onto hwy 41. The road was a bit busy, but we had a nice wide 2 meter shoulder (with rumble) to separate us from the traffic. During the first 10 km or so we were riding along the picturesque pines trees and views of L’anse Bay which is a the southern end of the bigger Keweenaw Bay (pronounced Key-when-aw), which is on the biggest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Superior.

It was overcast with a slight headwind. Al and I were the last ones to leave, but two others – Barry and Christine underestimated the time to get from Duluth to Baraga, so they were about 45 minutes behind us. We are a hardy group who promote and encourage a “can do” attitude. Barry and Christine did not whine, instead they took matters into their own hands and drove right to the Green Light in Chassel where we were gladly being served pitchers of beer and brats. Get this – a pitcher of beer and two brats (which include a piece of corn on the cob and potato chips) costed $19. Ang discovered this place during the woman’s ride just a few days ago.

A funny thing about the time is that the Keweenaw Penninsula (KP) is in the Eastern Time Zone which caught many people by surprise. We are used to crossing the international border and changing from Eastern to Central Time, and usually don’t go far enough east to get back into Eastern Time. I’ll be sure to remind everyone next time.

In Chassel, Barry and Christine loaded Big White with their gear, drove back to Baraga and started riding one or two hours after us, and caught the group at the Keweenaw Brewery Bar in Houghton (pronounced Hoe-ton).

The people in the bar were very friendly and boisterous and inviting to our big group of Canadian visitors (for the first time, my ride had no Americans). Some of us got a bit stuck down below the Brewery at a free live music concert just beside the bike path which paralleled the Portage Canal. The previous approximately 5 km of the route took us along this more scenic and much quieter.(than hwy 41) road.

The Houghton-Hancock bridge with the ski hill nearby is quite a site, but the traffic can be, at times daunting. Daunting for maybe 100 metres, but daunting none-the-less. Getting off hwy 41 means crossing 2 or 3 lanes of sometimes impatient drivers. We also had to be a bit careful of the expansion joints on the bridge, where some thin bike tires can potentially get caught. We suggested to walk those two little sections. This area is steeped in mining history.

Ryan, the receptionist at the Best Western Copper Crown did a great job in directing all 41 of us. Some noisy, some quiet, famished (if they did not already eat in Houghton) and many were ready for a sauna, hot tub, swim, or shower and, of course more visiting. At one point, in the parking lot of the motel, the two Rogers – Roger K and Roger Q exploded out of a taxi with Q dangerously brandishing a fat bottle of beer of which he immediately offered me a swig. Many of us now look to them for advice if we need local rides in vehicles. I had a taste of the beer, it was good.

We were fun and kind of loud, but we had over ¼ of the rooms of the motel, and were out of there before dark in search of gastric appeasers (food).

Many people splintered into different directions. I found myself with a handful of others eating at Nutinni’s on Route 41 just a two minute walk from our motel. We had a blast, and met another 10 of our cyclists there. The food was great, filling and affordable. Some of us were having exuberant fun, in fact if you had your just been listening you would have thought that our side of the establishment was the bar side. We got there just 10 minutes before closing, but instead of being rushed out, the owner thanked us for our business and we thanked him for serving us so late.

The day was only 50km but a lot of fun was packed in that short distance.