The Admiral's Epic Trip Up North, part 3 · 2:19am Jan 31st, 2021
Marquette.
I slept late, but still got up before the Econolodge hotel staff. I wasn’t the only one; another guest also was interested in an early departure, so we both decided to shove our keys (the typical plastic keycards) through the mail slot on the door and get on the road.
I needed fuel for the van, but first there was one landmark I had to see in Marquette, and I didn’t even need a map to find it—I could see it from the hotel. It’s kind of hard to miss: the iconic Lower Harbor Ore Dock is nearly a thousand feet long (300meters) and 85 feet high (26 meters), and it’s been taken out of service. The tracks don’t go there any more, but the dock itself is left behind.
Incidentally, the Lake Superior and Ishpeming railroad still operates a dock in the upper harbor, which is even bigger but less photogenic. If I’d remembered it was there when I was in Duluth, I would have gone to see it.
After fueling, it was time to head west again, following US 41. Further west than I’ve ever been in the upper half of the UP, past towns like Humboldt and Wobic and Nestoria, past Lake Michigamme, all the way to the junction of US 41 and US 141.
Not the actual junction, just a really pretty lake
At that point, I would make a decision—I could continue towards L’Anse and beyond, all the way up the Keweewana peninsula, all the way to Copper Harbor, which is as far north as you can go in Michigan without a boat.
Ultimately, I made the decision to turn south instead, heading for Iron Mountain and Escanaba.
I also accidentally went into Wisconsin, which wasn’t part of my plan.
Back in October, Michigan was doing pretty okay when it came to the pandemic. Not great, but things weren’t totally out of control. Wisconsin was a different kettle of fish (or perhaps more appropriately, barrel of cheese) . . . one of the options I had considered when I was in Gary was to go through Chicago and then north, follow along the western shore of Lake Michigan and also incidentally circumnavigate the only Great Lake an American currently can (y’know, ‘cause we’re banned from Canada ‘cause we’re probably infected . . . can’t blame them, honestly). But that would have meant stopping at least once in Wisconsin, and while north of Milwaukee it was probably a small risk, it was one I thought better to avoid.
Luckily, Covid can’t keep up with a minivan on a mission, so after a brief sojourn through memorable Wisconson towns like Ridgetop and Spread Eagle, I was safely back in Michigan.
Not actually Wisconsin, but close.
I’m honestly not sure what Escanaba is known for (besides being in ‘da moonlight); they’ve got a paper mill and a big pile of ore and another ore dock I managed to miss . . . I really ought to look for interesting destinations before I’m on the road with little to no cell phone service. Google satellite view also reveals an abandoned railroad yard that now has a decently-sized boat sitting next to the turntable.
They also have pasties, of course.
From there, I was back on the coast of Lake Michigan, sometimes practically in the water, other times more inland.
US 2 eventually terminated in St. Ignace (although if you’re driving east, you can pick it up again in Rouses Pt., New York, and follow it to Houlton, Maine), and I went south and back over the Mackinac Bridge.
I got off the highway as quickly as I could, and moseyed over to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. There’s a road there I’ve always wanted to drive—M119, also known as the tunnel of trees.
The easiest way to get there from the north was along some questionable rural roads, which were actually good preparation for what was to come. It was also less-touristy, which was nice.
The Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee/North Carolina is well known for being curvy and narrow, and I submit that M119 and Lakeshore Drive also fit into that category. It’s not as hilly, and maybe not quite as curvy, but it’s narrow, it’s lined with trees on one side, and on the other there are either trees or a dropoff into Lake Michigan.
Along the way, I caught up to some guy who was running it in hard mode; he had a dump truck.
If you follow it all the way south, past Wequetonsing, you wind up in Petoskey. There’s a state park there, and they had open spaces, and I surprisingly made it there before they closed for the night. All the more surprisingly, since I took an ill-advised detour. Up north, my GPS kept wanting to yeet me off into trees, but in lower Michigan it was more on the ball, and it knew that the road was open to the campground. I didn’t know, so I went all the way around, found out I couldn’t get to the campground from the south, and then went back around.
Petoskey is known for Petoskey stones, and once I got settled, I walked down to the beach and found a couple little ones, then just watched and listened to the wind and the waves.
And that was the third day of the Admiral’s epic road trip.
Petoskey stones? I now have an excuse to get the wife to travel there.
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Yes, and you can also stop by the homes of various well-known FimFic authors which honestly isn’t much of a selling point. Petoskey stones have a lot more to offer than my lonely writer’s garret.
Looks like a great trip! I took a similar one in June when the pandemic was bottoming out in Michigan. Mackinac, Copper Harbor, Painted Rocks, and Frankenmuth on the way home.
Petoskey pet rocks?
One of my customers frequents a Mini Cooper race there. He'll swear up and down that he doesn't race his Mini. He just goes to the Dragon and drives around and times himself lol. Car has maybe 150,000 miles on it, but we've put 5 or 6 clutches in it, a turbo (and a half), and all sorts of tires, brakes, and performance parts/upgrades.
I could almost call myself a Mini Cooper expert, just by having worked on this one car. lol
That's some really nice scenery you're driving through.
Aaah Duluth's Ore loader. God that thing should be an eyesore but it just blends into the background so well! (I have family that's lived there since like... The 1890s.) It's a beautiful lil town with a lot of rich history.
That first picture is a prize winner! Watching the video clip put me into a peaceful, meditative trance. Great travelogue!
That Iron Ore Dock sitting alone looks more impressive and tourist friendly than the abandoned one where I am (Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada) that is dwarfed by the nearby grain elevators. Ours sits abandoned; there was some talk of reopening it (close to a decade ago) for a potential iron mine in the region and some pie in the sky ideas for a park but haven't heard anything in a long time. Was built towards the end of WWII and closed down in the late 70's/early 80's? when the iron mines in Atikokan closed up.
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old pic of its construction (a few others can be found at the same site - Gateway to Northwestern Ontario History)
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I miss even my short day trips across the border to Grand Marais, Minnesota. Still have a handful of items I got shipped to Ryden's Border Store in Grand Portage waiting for me for whenever the border may open in the seemingly distant future.
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It was! Mostly I use my vacation time to go to conventions, but obviously that wasn’t possible this year and a good old-fashioned road trip through northern Michigan and accidentally part of Wisconsin was just what the doctor ordered.
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I mean, they could be I suppose. I personally don’t find them as interesting as some rocks, but they are cool.
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If you’ve put five or six clutches in it, either it’s got a bazillion miles, Mini sucks at building clutches, or the guy does racey things with it. I only put one clutch in my S10 in a quarter million miles of operation, and I certainly abused it some. Not in terms of hole shots; a worn out 4-tech doesn’t really get off the line in any kind of a hurry.
Hey, I consider myself an expert at squarebody S-10s just because I’ve done so much work on them. Experience is experience, whether it’s on a lot of similar cars or a lot of work on just one.
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It really was. Northern Michigan’s got it made for scenery, IMHO. Unless you hate trees.
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Yeah, it’s one of those things that ought to be ugly because it’s industrial and functional, and yet it isn’t, and I don’t know why.
I would have liked to spend more time there, there’s plenty to see, but out of an abundance of caution, I chose to avoid any place people might be as much as I could.
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The ore dock’s really cool, and of course a local landmark. The fact that I got that good of a picture with just a cell phone camera and no real skill is more a testament to the scenery.
I probably sat on the beach listening to the waves for a good ten minutes or more before deciding to take a video of it. There is a certain solitude of listening to the waves lapping on the beach, isn’t there.
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Your first pic didn’t load, so I google mapsed it, and that does look similar to the one in Marquette. It’s in a more industrial area than the one in Marquette. You’re right that the grain elevators dwarf it; I don’t know where we do our grain shipping in the US but it’s not the UP since there are more practical ports. I’d imagine that there are some big ones in Wisconsin and/or the Chicago area, for grain shipped out of the Midwest. There’s also a lot of it that goes down the Mississippi, I think. For you guys, Thunder Bay is probably one of the nearest Eastern ports where you can put it on a boat.
I don’t go to Canada as much as I should, given that it’s reasonably close, but I also miss being able to do so. Assuming we don’t mess up the vaccine rollout too much (and so far, we’re doing it as well as we did quarantine), the US will be safe in 2022 or thereabouts.
Thanks for continuing to share this. :)
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Dude, I shit you not. The first time I put half a turbo in it - which really made it fast again - the car was back in the shop the NEXT day with a burnt up clutch. You tell me what happened.
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Imagine what might have happened if you’d put a whole turbo in it. Poor car probably would have torn itself in half.
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You’re welcome!
I’ve got two more days to go, and at the rate I’m posting ‘em . . . well, I’ll probably have those two done by the 4th of July. . . .
Ahhh, my old stomping grounds. I grew up in Republic, (well, went to school there, but actually lived in Humboldt--correct spelling, unlike your post--township). You would have passed right by there on your way from Koski Korners at the M-95/US-41 Junction when traveling to Iron Mountain. My family used to have a cabin on a lake in Spread Eagle, but sold it when I was about 6 or 7.
The photos I took of the Fox Islands were from a plane I rented in Iron Mountain.
5446105
Heh. Well, good luck. :)
Do I spy a physical copy of Sam and Rose?
Also, Petoskey stones sounds like something that I should see a doctor about.
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I don’t know how I got that wrong, I was looking at the map as I typed it, lol.
It’s real pretty up there. I’ve actually been kind of idly looking at cheap land in the UP, not super seriously just yet, but kind of browsing what’s available and for what price.
Neat! That’s a bit of a haul, but I wouldn’t imagine all that far as the airplane flies. Google maps tells me about 110 miles, give or take.
That was a single, wasn’t it? My brother never liked flying singles over the lake, just in case. He did fly his Piper (IIRC, he’s since sold it) from Savannah to Mojave, although that was a multiple day trip, obviously.
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You do! You can get it here (assuming this is actually the correct link)
Only if they’re in you. If they’re on the beach, they’re perfectly safe.
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