We wake up to a red sky, but it is from smoke. The orange glow as the sun rose was the giveaway and we had that sight all morning long. We again start early, about 6:30, as we have a long day to get through the upper peninsula of Michigan and cross the bridge to Mackinaw City.

Our ride in the morning took us through Duluth Minnesota first then into Wisconsin before we entered Michigan. During that ride the sun was orange and the sky stayed smoky. Before leaving Wisconsin we picked up some wild rice grown in the area that we saw for sale. Rick reminisced on how good the rice was, so we picked some up for dinners we would have at my sisters house in two days.

While crossing the upper peninsula, we cut across the center of it. I never knew how so thick it was in the woods up here. It is pretty remote and every time I looked into the woods I was amazed how dark and wooded it was. We continued throughout the day crossing the upper peninsula, with only one hiccup – had to deal with a speed trap but we got out of it without a ticket.

Later in the day we were along the Lake Michigan shore line as we approached our final checkpoint. We could see the bridge as we got close and pulled off just before crossing the bridge at the view point park to get our pictures.

I have only crossed the bridge once in 1984, when I left the state to move to California. At that time I went through the upper peninsula because I had never been here. Looking forward to cross it again on this lovely day.

The Mackinaw Bridge is a 5 mile bridge, connecting the Upper peninsula with the lower peninsula. Started in 1954 and completed in 1957, the total cost was roughly $96 million, with the cost broken down as roughly $3.5 million to design, $26 million for the foundations, and $45 million for the superstructure. The balance was servicing the bond debt while construction until the bridge open for tolls.

It was a beautiful day to cross, sunny without much wind. The bridge is a 4 land bridge for I-75. We stayed in the outside lanes which were paved as the center lanes are a grate.

We crossed, found our hotel in Mackinaw City, and then congratulated each for finishing the Great Lakes/Cabot Trail tour. It was bitter sweet. Sweet that we finished it, bitter that the adventure came to an end.

2023-07-15 video

The sun sets about 11 pm up here as we are pretty far north. But we manage to get to sleep early enough to be ready to roll by 6:30. We didn’t plan to leave that early, but the mornings come early too up here.

The bikes parked outside our rooms revealed that there is a smattering of drops of water that came down. The skies are cloudy, but the forecast called for sunny sky’s today, or at least last night they did. It is a nippy 56 degrees so we start off with jackets, gloves and gators and I start with my summer convertible pants but with the legs on. We roll out of our motel at 6:30 am and continue west towards Kakabeka Falls, 300 miles away. We also plan to do checkpoint #11, Split Rock Lighthouse and we have a room in Two Harbors MN reserved, so we have almost a 500 mile day.

The roads are empty this time in the morning and even though the speed limit is 90 kmh (56 mph), we are traveling at 83ish mph with the road to ourselves. I keep a sharp eye out for critters this early in the morning. About an hour into the ride the clouds are still up there and darker. We start to feel sharp raindrops hitting our face. No raining per say, but enough drops to sting.

But several minutes later there are more drops and the street is getting damp, and later a bit wet – but no hard rain, just hard sprinkle. We slow down to about 65 mph and my pants are starting to get wet from the overspray from my tires. The sky too is getting darker – we thought we would have sunshine and clear skys by now.

I think this leg is were we get all our construction jobs as it seems we are constantly getting the “one lane road ahead” or “Flagman ahead” signs constantly, and sure enough, we are stopping a lot today. At one stop, it was long enough for Rick and I to wash our hands and for both of us to put on our hoodies. I also swapped out my pants for my rain gear pants. This one construction stop was thankful as we were able to change our gear.

We get rolling after this one long construction stop and the fog has rolled in a layer around the hilltops. It looks like it might rain, but it never did, and as soon as we passed through this hilly section, the fog lifted and the sky was blue! We enjoy this until we hit the next construction flagman, then the next one, then the next one…. I think we lost a total of 1 hour of riding time due to the bunch of construction that was going on in this section.

Even though we had to deal with the construction we had some great views of this upper region of Lake Superior. And when we did ride along the shoreline, it was cold! We continue west and the day again turns to a high clouds, so the sun is not really out in full force. By 12:30 p.m. and 200 construction zones we reach Kakabeka Falls.

This is a beautiful park in this small town just 10 telephone poles up the road and to your left. We pull in to take our pictures and also walk around the park. Pretty big falls and not too many people around.

By 1:30 we leave and we are heading towards checkpoint #11, Split Rock Lighthouse by Two Harbors Minnesota. But in 25 miles, we will be crossing the border and will be back in the states. We have been in Canada for 8 days and for me it was a fun experience. The people we friendly, curious and helpful, wanting to show off their Canada and be helpful. With just 22 miles till we got to the border and we were at another construction stop ,the man in the stopped car ahead of me got out, noticed I was looking at my GPS and he was telling me the border is just 22 miles away and this should be the last construction stop. It will feel good to be coming back but at the same time, it is a closure on this part of the adventure that was an experience.

We cross the small border crossing and are now about an hour from checkpoint 11, Split Rock Lighthouse. The sky seems to get smokier as we proceed along the lakes edge. There is definitely smoke from some fire. We continue to Split Rock park, and drive down to an vantage point. What we find after a short hike is a classic image of what a lighthouse should look like.

We then leave the park and head to our hotel in Two Harbors and call it a day after we eat at a local craft brewery place where I get to try some Cheese Curds. Oh boy…

Tomorrow we have our sights set for the final checkpoint, Mackinaw Bridge and the completion of the Great Lakes/Cabot Trail Tour ride.

2022–07-14 video