..In Michigan, they say there are two seasons: winter and road construction. Boy, are they right. Ed and I headed north on 75 to get to the Upper Peninsula. The goal was to get to Mt. Arvon, the highest point in MI. It’s on the west side of the UP. The entire day we kept getting slowed down by construction. At one point, Ed said ‘do you smell that awful smell?’ I said ‘yes’, but figured it was just a car in front of us. We finally pulled over, and the smell overwhelmed us. One of the auxiliary wires for Ed’s police bike had melted around his pipe. I told him at the previous lunch stop that his wire was burning a little, but that was before we ate. Once we ate, we were happy and had forgotten all about it. I pulled out a cable tie and he wrapped the wire to his engine guard. Now we’re back on the road. We get to Gaylord, MI, which is the last “main” city before going into Mackinaw City, the tourist area. It was so breezy. It felt good to me, and I said to Ed ‘this breeze sure does feel nice.’ He looked at me kind of strange and went in the store to get snacks and dinner for camping that night. I thought about it as I was waiting outside and realized that I’m such a dork. I’m riding a motorcycle. How can the breeze feel so good at this gas station when I’ve been on the road for X hours getting breeze in my face the entire time? I realized that the difference is that when I’m riding, I can’t appreciate it as much because I’m watching out for everyone else. When I’m stopped, no one’s going to kill me. Hee hee. Ed picked up the supplied and we got back on the road. Once we left Gaylord (no the Harley Davidson shop there isn’t Gaylord HD, for those that were wondering), we kept seeing signs about dropping off your firewood, and don’t take firewood across the bridge. Later we found out that there is an Emerald Ash bore bug that is killing a lot of the trees. The government has decided to try to confine the bug to certain areas, so they don’t want people carrying firewood from the mainland to the UP or the other way around.
We made it to the Mackinaw City and stopped in the visitor’s center. Camping was no longer on the agenda. We wanted to see the sights in this tourist town, get a good night’s sleep, wake up early and head across the bridge into the UP in the morning, so we figured setting up tents was a bad idea. Fine by me! We found a place to stay and rode into the downtown area. The Mackinaw Bridge is so beautiful. It’s similar to the golden gate bridge except it is ecru in color, and not in San Francisco. At night there are fancy lights on the bridge, but we didn’t see them. I tasted and stuck my feet in Lake Huron, while Ed skipped rocks across the water. We ate dinner and called it a night.
The next morning, we crossed the bridge into the UP. Of course, there was construction on the bridge. There are two lanes. One is grated, so we had to ride on the grated side for a while (talk about scary), and then after the construction we moved back to the paved side. Everyone in the mainland made it sound like the UP is completely desolate. ‘There is nothing up there’, they said. ‘You can just pull over and camp on the side of the road’ they said. Well, I found them all to be liars. The UP is beautiful. There are tons of trees, a four lane road and plenty to see. We rode along Lake Michigan for a while, and then headed north to see Lake Superior. We rode through more construction and finally we were on our way to L’Anse. We got to L’anse, and looked at the guidebook in order to find the high point. The lady at the gas station told us that the roads were gravel all the way to the highpoint. Gravel and logging roads are two entirely different things. At first, I thought ‘ok, this gravel isn’t bad.’ I was leaving Ed in my dust-literally, but it was fine. Then we headed into the woods, and the gravel started getting bigger and bigger, and the mud around the gravel wasn’t fun to ride in. Ok...it was fun, but at first I was a little nervous. We continued following the guide book and turned left when the road split or turned right when the road split all according to plan. Then I started seeing signs for Mt. Arvon. I’m glad I went the right way. All of a sudden, there is a big mud puddle in front of us. We stopped to see how much farther we had to go according to the book, and it didn’t say. Luckily, a truck with two people and a big German Shepherd came by. Ed asked if they were going to the high point. They said ‘yes’ and drove right through the small lake. I told Ed that I wished they had offered to give us a ride. I did NOT want to ride through the puddle. But, time was ticking. Ed rode through the puddle first, and I followed him. My chaps, jacket and jeans were soaked. I had mud on my face too. We made it to the “parking area”, and walked about 3/10 of a mile to the highpoint. There are pictures of us at Mt. Arvon in the collection. We asked the people with the dog to take our pictures and they did. Someone shot the sign with bebees or bullets (I don’t know), so the writing on the sign isn’t very clear, but there is a mailbox with notes and papers in it next to the bench, so that’s definitely the spot. We signed the book and headed back to the main road.
On the return trip, I thought “I’m going to be smart about this puddle. I’m going to button my jacket all the way so my yellow tank top doesn’t get dirty.” I did that, we crossed the lake, and because it was so hot, I unbuttoned my jacket. Well, about 2 miles down the road, a logging truck turned in front of me, and proceeded to leave ME in the dust for the next 10 miles or so. I felt like a motocrosser. I was riding over the rocks and dirt like it was my job. I was smiling and enjoying the entire ride (minus the dust of course). By the time we got back to the main road, I looked in my mirror, and we were both looked a mess. I had a dusty V on my chest from where my jacket was unbuttoned. Every inch that was uncovered was dirty. We were dusty, dirty and disgusting. Our bikes looked like they hadn’t been washed EVER. It made me laugh though because we would soon be on the street with regular people, and I know they would think we were wackos with Maryland tags. Nevermind the spectators, we still have daylight and time to ride.
We headed towards Wisconsin, and began the journey for WI’s high point, Timm’s Hill...
