Lake Superior Ride (IBA)

[NightShadow]

Another ride in the bank. Got a bit wet from Parry Sound to Sudbury. We started ride and air was in the low 50's. Not long after we left it dropped big time. Was as low as 36 F for some time. Good thing I decided to take my winter stuff. During the day we happened to see one black bear - one large Coyote that walked right in front of us ( seemed like he was not in any hurry) a few deer and some other smaller critters. Oh and a ton of bugs - large and small. The roads north of Sault Ste Marie were in great shape and tons of hills - curves - sweepers. The scenery was out of this world - rivers - streams - lakes - rocks. Ride from Thunder Bay to Duluth MN was very warm to start and got very cold as we got to the waters edge on the 61. It was high 80's & dropped to low 50's in less then a minute. Almost froze our *****'e$ off as we had put all our heavy stuff away. Coming back across under Superior was warm enough but no interesting roads and mostly straight and very flat. Once my bud and I were finished we had to go have a well needed coffee and some dinner. (Tim's & Mac D) the only thing open. If any one thinks this is an easy ride - we invite you to go and try it. This was prob the hardest ride either of us has done and we have done a ton. All the lakes are now done so just one more left to do. The all 5 lakes in one shot. Will have to look at this some other time.

A Word OF Caution

As my bud and I were coming home on the 17 we had to slow to stop for road work. We made sure we used brake to let car behind us know that we were slowing. As we had stopped and and car behind was stopped - A big ***** pick up was prob not paying attention. I had the music in my helmet loud and could just hear some screeching behind me and saw the truck swerving back and forth. By the time it was done they had stopped just past us on the gravel and less then a foot from the ditch. Now if they had not finally stopped on the gravel then they would have hit the car behind us - then us - and the bike in front of us. That is how far up they stopped on us. I only caught the last of it in my mirror. I had no time to warn my bud. A few of us got very lucky. So when you make a stop - Please check your mirrors every time to see if peeps are paying attention and slowing down.

This is what bike looked like on every gas stop

 

[Rotten_Ronnie]

Anymore pictures?

I'm glad you didn't get rear ended there.

 

[JAMUS]

I'm dying to do this ride! Will probably have to wait for next year but do post more pics/ share more of your adventure.

 

[NightShadow]

Sorry R R - Don't have any other pics - Have to do this ride in under 24 hours ( Was close to 22 hours ) - no big Hwys and was very cold for a good part of the day. I normally take tons of pics but this year have been leaving my camera at home. I will have tons of pics in Sept for our West Coast trip. Jamus - The Canadian side is very beautiful ride - From Thunder Bay to Duluth MN is Ok but a lot of small towns. (We did this on the American long weekend so did take us a bit longer and many festivals going on in all the small towns.

 

[adv_round]

I'll add my short story - not a trip report, just my experience.

I did Superior circle tour a month ago. I did it clock-wise, not sure how much it matters.

South end of the trip though states is mostly flat and not that exciting. There are so many places that are designated and marked as "scenic overlook" with nice parking areas, but those all had much the same look, so I skipped most of them.

Now - Duluth and north/west edge of the lake are really cold, foggy and unpredictable.

I left home and had nice weather all the way up to about 50km before Duluth - there, temperature dropped by about 10 degrees in an instant... The closer I got to Duluth, the worse it was getting - misty rain, dense fog, and getting really cold (it was around 4pm, and temps dropped from 27 to 15).

Reason for this is the cold water of Superior and the air immediately above it are getting mixed with "fresh" air blowing from the west. It is pretty much like that foggy mist around the fridge door when you open it on a muggy hot day.
Superior is such a huge body of water that it never really warms up - At the end of June, there was still ice in some spots, away from the Sun.

Anyway, Duluth is OK. Downtown is low and near water, and it was cold. I had a room for the night and it was just OK. It rained most of the night. In the morning, forecast looked really bad, and I realized if I leave on that day, I will follow nasty storm front all the way home. I decided to stay for another day.
It was the right call, as that evening and overnight, nasty storms rolled through that actually caused major flooding just 200 km to the south (St. Paul).
Now, about the "staying for another day" - it was absolutely the right move... but it wasn't all that smooth - When I asked if I can stay another night in the room, I as told it's booked already... for real. I packed my bike and went to Mcd - closes one was in the "suburb" of Duluth Heights. Here's interesting fact. This area is only couple of clicks from downtown, but it is on the hill. I left Downtown where it rained and it was still around 15 degrees. This area uphill was sunny and 25 degrees. I kid you not. I made the trip couple of times and that is just how it was - town:cold with rain, hill:sunny and hot. Freaking weird.
From McD, I called around and realized all the hotels and motels in this and surrounding towns are fully booked! It isn't a huge town, so - One concert, soccer tournament, gun show, rhubarb festival and couple of weddings is all this town could accommodate

I didn't plan on camping but brought a tent only (it packs small). This was my only choice. I found a campground that took a pity on me (and I believe it was only because they thought I was on bicycle, not motorbike) and agreed to give me a spot for overnight. I stopped at local Dick's Sporting Goods and picked up warm sleeping bag and mat. Now my bike was really loaded, I didn't count on this extra load, but seeing how cold it was going to be, it was the right call again.
I made it to the campsite, and it was actually nice. I was given a spot near pavilion, and owner even told me to park my bike under the pavilion... that was super nice. I made a quick work of setting up and unloading bike, and just as I was done, rain started, and it turned into that nasty storm.
It wasn't exactly comfy sleep... cold, wild thunderstorms, seagulls... it was bad but I got some sleep. When I woke up and got out, I realized tent was in 2" of water. I have no idea how inside was still 100% dry. I was really glad bike was mostly dry under that pavilion roof.

Packed up and headed North. This is where it gets unpredictable. As road is right by the water, fog is constantly appearing and disappearing. One minute you're cruising in the sun, then around the bend, you're in fog and can see no further than 5-6 car lengths. Also, clouds roll up from behind your back.You could be in nice weather, then in some fog for a little while, and when you get out of it, you see dark clouds all around. Even when everything looked nice and sunny, I still couldn't see the lake even though it was only 100 feet away, as it was always covered by thick blanket of fog.

I was trying to outrace this nasty dark cloud, and was doing pretty good, got some distance on it. Had to stop for gas. While paying, there were 2 registers and both were taking forever... 10 minutes, no kidding. One was buying some fishing crap, other was bent on getting rich - by a lottery ticket, or two, or two hundred... I was fuming (pump didn't have CreditCard swipe thing, so I had to pay inside). Sure enough, by the time I was done, rain was just starting. Got rain-suit on and rolled rest of the way up to Canadian border through rain and fog (rain suit did its job, thank God).

Just before the border, there is an outlook stop - that was one of the highlights of this trip. You can see fog sweeping in and out, like waves splashing on the beach sand, but in hypnotic slow motion...

As soon as I crossed the border, weather was back to nice. It was kinda heartwarming, it was nice to be home
On Canadian side, there are two mountain chains and road is in the middle, so you're protected from the lake and all that fog and cold

Seeing mountains was nice, after boring flat rides. Rest of the way was beautiful - especially once you leave Thunder Bay, all the way back to Sue.
I had some more rain in Thunder Bay, but that was it... As far as scenery - it really was amazing - I won't bore you with that - get out there and see it.



One more thing - I noticed my Ventura Sport Pack was looking a bit wobbly. Mounts were solid, but rack rail was becoming deformed at the mounting points (feet) - Last leg of the trip, as I was packing up in the morning, it looked bad - so I decided to give it a bit of a backup plan - I tied bunch of zip-ties around it - and it worked! Half way home at one of the gas stops, I realized "feet" are sheared off, and it is now help in place by zip-ties. I kept checking on it all the way home, but it worked

Would I recommend this trip? Absolutely!
What would I do differently? I would take much more time. I will probably do this trip again, when I have like a month to do it... There are just so many beautiful things and places along the way to stop and explore/enjoy.

 

[matthew]

Nice pictures and interesting write up about Superior. Mariners consider it an inland sea and for good reason.

 

[Rotten_Ronnie]

Beautiful pictures. How long would you recommend for a comfortable circle tour? I thought four or five days?

 

[NightShadow]

Nice pics - Weather is always unexpected so expect the worst . I found the American side a very boring ride. The Canadian side was really worth it.

 

[adv_round]

Beautiful pictures. How long would you recommend for a comfortable circle tour? I thought four or five days?

Thanks! It really depends. There are things I wanted to do but knew there won't be enough time (Pukaskwa National Park - I would take at least a day there), then there things I was planning on, but weather wouldn't allow it (Apostle island sea caves), and then, there were things I could have done along the way, but skipped it to avoid running short on time, and not reaching next destination before dark. For example, Eagle Canyon Adventure was great, and I wanted to do the zip-line (it looks sweet). Once at the hilltop (long bridge), I realized they don't staff the platform (slow day), so if I wanted to do it, I would have to walk back to entrance shop, then walk back to platform... 45minutes to an hour... I wasn't comfortable with that much of a set-back... and reluctantly left (for now ).
Just having some flexibility and not constantly worrying about staying ahead of the weather and on schedule would be nice.
In my case, I took 6 day altogether (including extra day in Duluth and 2 days for home-to-Sue and back) so effectively 3 days of riding around the lake... double that would be much better IMO...

 

[STARSHIP]

Apart from putting lots of mileage and risking falling asleep on your bike, what is the allure of IBA?

 

[NightShadow]

STARSHIP

First u have to enjoy riding
As to falling asleep - It doesn't get to that point and if
it does then you take a break or have a quick nap.
If you need to get somewhere quick- it is done
It is a challenge to do and not a lot of riders can
say they have done it. Especially when it is more then
1000 miles in 24 hours. ( I have done a few )
It's a way to see some of the country here and in the States
How many peeps you know can take 4 to 6 or even 8 weeks off
to travel. Not many. ( I can )
It's a way to keep costs down
This is not for everyone


Here is an example
My big trip this year - Down to approx 16 or 17 days
unless a bike failure
First 2 days to get to Colorado
- prob 1000 miles first day and second 800K
- next is Mt Evans and if time Pikes Peak
- next is twisty roads through colorado to
grand Junction and the National Monument.
- Down the road to the Arches in Utah & over to
Bryson Canyon - Zion - Grand Canyon
- from there out to San Diego
- Day off bikes for washing & oil changes
- IBA run from San Diego - Jacksonville Flordia (under 50 hours)
- Most likely a day off the bikes
- Then up to our fav spot - Dragon
- Then a 2 or 3 days to get home doing some Hwy and Twisty roads
- You now have a trip that is way under 3 weeks
- As I said - time and money & enjoyment