Family

Day 55. Davos Chalet to Silver City. 72 miles. 3363 miles TTD. 2594 feet elevation. Weather great with a little rain.

It might be a little difficult to tell that that’s a mountain. In fact, it’s the White Cap Mountain ski area where we stayed last night. I believe it had about 48 runs and 5 lifts. Considering that this is the Midwest, it’s a pretty neat area.

First thing this morning, Caleb, Ridge, and I pedaled down the road for 15 miles to Ironwood while Nick took the truck. The plan was for all of us to then ride the 50 or 60 miles to Silver City. Nick and I would then take two of the e-bikes back to get the truck later. But as we know, the best laid plans of mice and men.

Ironwood is in Michigan, so I’ve now entered the third and final US state on the route. There are about 500 miles more of the Upper Peninsula for me to ride, but it is exciting to check off another benchmark. In Ironwood, we stopped for breakfast. Ironwood’s not likely a town you’ll ever be in, but if you are, you really should get breakfast at the Pines Cafe.

The ride out of Ironwood was incredible on a paved trail for some 10 miles. It was an old railroad with some fun trestles to cross. There were raspberry bushes all along the side of the trail, and if we had been a couple of weeks later, we could have stuffed ourselves on them. Undoubtedly, you’ll note that I have many more pictures. That’s because it’s fun to have someone to ride with and to take pictures. When I’m taking pictures of an empty trail or road, it’s not very interesting.

After some refueling at our favorite convenience store, Circle K, in Wakefield, we began the trek north towards Lake Superior. The route took us down a bad road, where we ended up at the edge of a riverabout 3 ft deep. Thankfully, we only had to backtrack for a mile. Otherwise, the route was great, with very few cars, and the scenery was thick with lovely forest in every direction.

Eventually, we entered the Porcupine Mountains National Park. We only half believed they were mountains, but eventually, after a few somewhat difficult climbs, we conceded that they could be called mountains. As we descended the mountains on the other side and approached Lake Superior, we weren’t sure whether there was a fire or a dust storm. In reality, it was just fog on the lake.

It was slightly disappointing not be able to look out over the lake, but we were grateful to be just a few miles from our motel. We also realized not long before arriving at the motel that we had no way to charge the now-completely drained e-bikes, as we’d forgotten the chargers. This put us in a little bit of a panic because we had no idea how to get back to Ironwood to pick up the truck. Fortunately, capitalism is alive and well in the U.S. Nick offered the front desk $80 to have somebody drive us back, and lo and behold, he got a ride. We had a great dinner, and then he headed to Ironwood. Caleb, Ridge, and I enjoyed a walk along the shoreline with the fog lifting just a little. It was a wonderful day of riding with family in a very beautiful area.