Iron River, Wisconsin

Another state finally! It’s always exiting to cross another state line. I think this is my 25th state on my bike. I’m glad to be in Wisconsin, but Michigan was great to us. For the most part the roads were good and the trails were great. What really sets it apart though, is the kindness of the people who live here. As I lay here typing this, my mind goes back to all the wonderful and generous people we met. People like Jackie in Saugatuck who got us a motel room when she saw we were “stealth” camping. Or Darrel at the campground in Petoskey that gave us $50 dollars to try our first pasties. The very sweet but sad lady that insisted we take the $100 dollar bill she offered while we were eating in the shade of the fuel island’s roof. At a coffee shop, Dwight giving us his phone number in case we ran into trouble and needed anything. All our Warmshower host. With so many kind, caring and generous people it’s impossible not to love Michigan!

My last post was from our stealth camp at Tioga Creek Roadside park. We left pretty early and were on the road by 8 am. By noon when we stopped for lunch we had already covered 30 miles. Lunch was potatoes and pork from the night before. I also had blueberry muffins that I had got while dumpster diving. The muffins were still in their wrapper and were not even outdated! They were a bit smashed though and I had to eat them with a spoon.

We rode 70 miles to Gogebic lake campground. We got to the campground around 7pm. The wind was gusting at 25mph so we decided to use the tent instead of our hammocks. Our campsite was really pretty right next to the water.

We had a Warmshower host lined up in Bessemer for the following night. Bessemer was only 30 miles away but rain was predicted. We got an early start and hoped we would make it to the WS host before it started. We didn’t quite beat the rain and were soaking wet by the time we arrived in the town. Because of the time change to CDT and our early start,we were a couple hours earlier then our agreed time so we went to a little bakery. The Bread Of Life Bakery. We got a doughnut and a cup of hot coffee each and a bag of fresh dinner rolls. They even gave us some soft butter. The rolls were so good! After that we went and hung out in a laundromat. We were wet and chilled from the cold rain and the heat coming off the dryers sure felt good. Around 2 pm we met Russ, our host for the night.

Russ was a great host and after changing into dry clothes and relaxing a bit, he showed us around his area. One of the places he took us was to Copper Peak and the historical ski jump there. It is the largest artificial ski jump in the world. Unfortunately it was mostly obscured by the rainy,foggy weather. For dinner we went to a local resturant. We had fried haddock. It was good.

We headed out on the Iron bell bike trail. The trail goes right by a transfer station that had a set of scales for trucks to drive over. We asked the attendant if we could weigh our bikes. He said sure! My bike with me on it weighed 460 pounds! No wonder uphills are so hard. Haha

Russ rode with us as far as the town of Ironwood. In Ironwood we went to a fantastic coffee shop. Sharon’s Coffee House. I got a piece of carrot cake, it was huge and Rose and I shared it. Growing up my mother always made me a carrot cake on my birthday. It’s my favorite. This was good cake but not as good as the ones my mom makes.