Ride to Pittsburgh Day 1 - Home to the Hostel across from Harpers Ferry

 Max is starting a new year at Carnegie Mellon, and taking his stuff out there in my truck. I'm going to ride bike bike to Pittsburgh to get my truck back.

I'm going to camp the whole way, and take the C&O Canal Towpath and the Great Allegheny Passage trail. So I have all my camping gear. I'm not bringing cooking gear since there are plenty of places to eat along the route. The Titan of Touring there (Lynskey Backroads) is super stable and comfortable with this setup.

Here we are entering Ellicott City. The next 20 miles, to Mt. Airy, are pretty much all uphill.

I had lunch at this place by Mt. Airy a couple miles down 28 towards Damascus.

Looks like a dive bar, right? 

Except they have Thai Food. Check out my Pad Thai! It tastes like the monthly washing of the wok is coming up soon though.

I picked up the C&O Towpath at Point of Rocks, where there is this famous train station. It is in a shocking state of decay. Shame on CSX.

The towpath is so nice. The surface is super smooth in this part.

I'm staying at the Hostel, where there is no food nearby any more (the restaurant that used to be at 340 and Keep Tryst Road is closed.) So I got a sandwich to go at the Potomac Street Grill in Brunswick and ate it later. 

I've stayed at this hostel many time riding the towpath. It was out of business for a couple years after the pandemic, but it is open under new ownership now. I'm really glad it's open again. You can pitch a tent in the back yard for $20, and get a shower and hang out in the living room inside and talk to other cyclists.

It has the same maps on the walls as ever. This is great.

This was a pretty brutal day of riding. 69 miles, 4200 feet of climb, a couple 15% grades.
Here's the Strava Track: https://www.strava.com/activities/15504922062

UP Bike Tour - Heading Home Highlights

 Lake Michigamme in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan sure is far from home. I'm taking my time driving back. I'm still riding my bike every day, regardless of where I am. This update covers multiple days of my return trip home.

After I got to Lake Michigamme, I spent a day hanging out with family members. 

We took two pictures, so that we would have a picture of everyone. Barry (Steve's father) and I took turns being the photographer.

My brother-in-law Steve's family owns two lakefront cottages. One of them was originally purchased by his grandparents. The other one, pictured below, was where we were staying. It was owned by a woman for decades, and Steve's family bought it from her family when she passed. They have not changed one thing about it, and the hundreds of tchotchke's are as they have been for decades. This is a time warp classic lakefront cottage. Barry says "It's not a house on the lake unless it has knotty pine."

Amy took this picture of me sleeping instead of playing cards with them until 2 in the morning.

In the afternoon, we took a trip to experience "Yooper" culture at the tourist trap 20 miles down the road.

They have "the world's largest rifle" by the side of the road to get your attention.

For dinner, we had "Pasties", which are a local delicacy. A pasty is basically a big hot pocket with ground beef, onions, potatoes, and rutabagas. They were a staple food for miners. I forgot to take a picture until after we had eaten them all.

My bike ride for the day was riding into the small town of Michigamme, which is scenic and on the lake, but there is not much in it.

The next day, I drove to Traverse City, Michigan to visit my friends Dave and Betsy. It was about a six hour drive. You have to go over the Mackinac Bridge, which goes over the strait between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. It's the 7th longest suspension bridge in the world.

My daily bike ride was 25 miles out and back on a nice lakefront bike path  north of Charlevoix.

I got to spend the afternoon and next morning visiting Dave and Betsy.

They are spending the summer at Dave's family's summer house on Traverse Bay.

Betsy is on the historic preservation commission in Livonia, Michigan, where they live, and I was on the Howard County, Maryland commission for a few years, so we had a great time where Betsy showed me the weird architectural features of this house and we tried to figure out how it evolved. It was built in the 1890s, and in the 1920s it was given an Arts and Crafts makeover, with distinctive 3 over 1 windows and a large porch added.  I think the original house was an M-roof center hall design that faced south, parallel to the road (which was probably not much of a road then). This has always been a summer home, it has no insulation whatsoever. We crawled around the attic looking for clues. This was very fun.

The next day, I drove six hours to Put-in-Bay, Ohio. I am taking a day off here. Put-in-Bay is a small town on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. You have to take a ferry to get here. The easiest thing to do is park on the mainland and take the ferry over with your bike. The island is only about 3 miles long. Most people leave their cars the mainland and rent golf carts to get around the island.

My bike rides were riding around South Bass Island exploring. I rode on every road on South Bass Island.  

Put-in-Bay was the site of the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812. Commander Oliver Hazard Perry defeated the British, which gave the American Navy control of the great lakes. Perry had battle flags made saying "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP" and you can still get T-Shirts with this message all over town!

Here is the memorial to Commander Perry.

My dad used to take my brother and I fishing here when we were little. I remember him telling me that  the town of Put-in-Bay would not allow any old buildings to be torn down and they wouldn't allow any new buildings to be built. As a little kid, I thought this was really cool, and I have vivid memories of the unique historic buildings in Put-in Bay. Like the Roundhouse Bar on the left in the picture below.

Put-in-Bay has much new construction hidden away, and there are many, many more hotel rooms than there used to be. Now it is known as the "Key West of the Great Lakes" and it's a big party town. The historic core of the town on the square facing the harbor is still intact. I'm staying at the Victorian-era Park Hotel, which is the white building next to the Roundhouse. It's very authentic - the bathrooms are down the hall from the bedrooms, which is probably why it's the cheapest place to stay on the island.

Another thing I remember from childhood visits is a pizza place that had a big mural on the wall of drunk Italians trying to make pizza. I actually remember watching the artist paint it. The mural is still there. Every time I visit, I check to make sure the mural is still there.

Apparently the mural was painted in 1970. So I remember this from when I was 7 years old.

The pizza place is Frosty's. It's the brown building at the end of the path on the right in the picture. And the pizza is still good.

I spent two nights a the Park Hotel. My plan for my day off was to take the passenger ferry over to Middle Bass Island and ride my bike around, but the weather was foul and the ferry didn't run. So I hung out around town and took a bike ride in the evening when the rain stopped.

Not much happening at "Key West of the Great Lakes" when it's cold and raining.

I had a great basket of perch for lunch.

I'm glad I didn't go home in a big rush. It's nice to take your time.

Here are the Strava pages:

Riding around Michigamme: https://www.strava.com/activities/15264409034

Bike path by Charlevoix: https://www.strava.com/activities/15278406112

Riding around South Bass Island Day 1: https://www.strava.com/activities/15291631997

Riding around South Bass Island Day 2: https://www.strava.com/activities/15301983889

UP Bike Tour Day 6 - Iron Mountain to Lake Michigamme

 Made it!

It was a scorcher today. I was on the road at 6:30 AM to beat the heat. I stopped for breakfast at 10:30, after getting in 47 miles. After eating, it was brutally hot. I rode 21 more miles, taking it easy with shade breaks.

There was no messing around today. I took the highway with the direct route and the rumble strips on the shoulder most of the way (Michigan 95). It looks like this, mile after mile:

Sometimes there is a giant sawmill. 

At least there was no traffic to speak of because it's Sunday Morning.

Once it started getting warmer, I did 11 miles on a country road that ran sort of parallel to M95. My though was there would me more shade and that would be offset the rougher pavement and extra hills. I didn't take into account that when you are riding up a hill in the shade, the biting black flies come. Luckily I have bug spray.

Lunch was at the Summer Place in Republic, MI. I had French toast and polish sausages on the side.

For I think the third day in a row I had to ride over 40 miles to find a place to eat.

I got in about 10 minutes earlier than expected. My sister Amy was (of course) out on the lake fishing. She came in, with her son Nate carrying a stringer of huge fish (Northern Pike, Walleye, Bass). My dad started stroping his filleting knife, and an hour later, it was tasty delicious time.

I didn't remember to take a picture until we had eaten most of the fish.

Here's the Strava page: https://www.strava.com/activities/15256149987

UP Bike Tour Day 5 - Menominee to Iron Mountain

 This was the toughest day of the trip so far. I rode 68 1/2 miles, with 2200 feet of climb. Most of the climb was in the last 20 miles, and there were some 10% grades. The temperature was mid-80s but the humidity was reasonable. I was pretty wiped out when I got in. Which was at 3:00 PM on the dot, when motel check-in starts.

The motel is the Hotel Iron Mountain Inn and Suites. Based on the electronic key cards, it used to be a Super 8. Now it is independently owned by an older Indian couple. I would give it the Red Dot of Quality, except they have Bible verses all over the place. It's immaculately clean and everything works, although furnishings are worn and dated. But that's fine. It's only $72.

The owners are determined to keep it spotless. There is no coffee maker in the room, there are signs in the breakfast area saying no food is to be brought back to the rooms, and they were very reluctant to let me bring my bike into the room. "Aren't the tires dirty?" "The tires are no more dirty than the bottoms of my shoes." I promised there would be no damage to the room from the bike and I showed them this picture to reassure them.

Notice how there is a hand towel between the handlebars and the wall.

Turns out the other walls in the room are hardly unblemished. Despite the concern with eating in the room, the room has a refrigerator and microwave...

The room is quite nice, though. This is a great cheap motel all in all.

The motel is located far from everything except a Subway in the parking lot.

The only other restaurant anywhere close was an Italian place a half mile away. After a tough ride, do I want to walk in the heat to the Italian place which may or may not be any good and which may or may not have a long wait on Saturday evening, or do I want to make do with Subway? 

<sigh> It was Subway. It was not great, even for Subway.

The morning part of the ride was flat, beautiful, sunny, and cool. It doesn't get any better. With lots of cool wildlife! Here are some Sandhill Cranes!

And some Wild Turkeys!

And Art! It's a miniature Statue of Liberty by the side of the road!

The guy sitting in a lawn chair minding Lady Liberty came up to talk to me and offer me some cold water. He said the statue is owned by a truck driver who came upon it on one of his trips. It was going to be thrown out, so he took it and installed it in his yard here in the middle of nowhere in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He keeps the area around it mowed nice, I was told.

The first opportunity for lunch was 45 miles into the ride, at the Long Branch Saloon in Faithorn. That's "Faithorn", not "Farthorn". People are so nice up here. I did not see one vandalized road sign that said Farthorn.

That's my tractor parked out front too! John Deere 3203.

I parked my bike under a sign on the porch intended to educate me about the Constitution.

Up here in the UP it's the land of Trump. There are Trump signs everywhere. I don't think I've been to a place of business without a Trump sign except this motel. I'm just being chill and soaking up the vibe. Basically:
* It's really nice up here
* People are generally happy and content
* And somehow that means they like Donald Trump a lot.

Go figure.

I got to the saloon about 11:30 and I was the first customer of the day. But just a few moments later, three middle-aged women arrived and ordered Bloody Marys. They were served with every pickled thing imaginable stuffed in the top. These three women plus the bartender quickly formed what was basically a PTA Mom Coffee Klatch, except with Bloody Marys instead of coffee. And the conversation was held in a thick Upper Midwestern accent with many asides about "going down to the lake" and fishing.

Lunch was a winner winner...

It was quite tasty, although the chicken was pretty dry. I'm spoiled by Royal Fried, which is not actually fried, it's cooked in a giant pressure cooker like an Insta-pot. This chicken was deep fried, I watched them cook it from my seat at the bar.

There is an annual bike ride around the UP called "Tour Da Yoop" or something like that. Turns out there was a break stop in the parking lot of the saloon, where guys were handing out snacks and providing special Norway water. "Norway" refers to the town of Norway, Michigan, not the country, and no actual Norwegians were involved.

Can you tell which bike is not like the others?

Hint: The big Yooper tour is supported, and nobody has to carry their stuff in panniers. I spent the rest of my ride being passed by people on speedy carbon bikes shouting "On your left".

Here's the Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/15245848872