Lake Superior Circle Tour: Grand Marais to Thunder Bay

Biking from Grand Marais MN to Thunder Bay ON

Day 5

Exsanguination: noun/

1. The action of draining a person, animal, or organ of blood;

2. Something you will become familiar with breaking camp every morning while biking around Lake Superior

Once we had dragged our bikes out of the abandoned wayside we had called home for the night, Day 5 of our bike tour around Lake Superior got off to a good start. Our route for the day would take us north to Grand Portage, across the Canadian border, to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Highway 61 was quiet at the early hour, and past Grand Marais there is much less traffic. We had 16 cool and pleasant miles of cycling along the mostly wide shoulder from the Flute Reed River to Grand Marais. We were settling into the rhythm of bike touring.

The shoulder of Highway 61 is wide and traffic is low from Grand Marais to the Canadian Border.

Grand Portage, MN

In Grand Portage, we went to the giant gas station/casino complex where we bought coffee and ate breakfast. We sat on the grassy lawn below the gas station and took all our gear out to dry in the sun from the torrential rain we had endured the previous two days. After spending a year and a half traveling in our camper van conversion, we are pretty comfortable spending weird amounts of time at rural gas stations.

This stretch of the Lake Superior bike tour from Grand Marais to Grand Portage is one of the most pleasant, despite being further from the lakeshore.

We had 70 miles planned for today, so we didn’t have time to stop at Grand Portage National Monument, which preserves the history of the Anishinaabeg Ojibwe and voyageurs. North of Grand Portage, the road was even quieter. The only cars venturing this far north seemed to be pickups pulling fishing boats.

Our main obstacle this morning was one of the biggest climbs on the Lake Superior Circle Tour—Mt. Josephine. The route from Grand Marais to Grand Portage is almost entirely flat except for this peak in the Sawtooth Range. The view from the top allows you to see islands, like Isle Royale, out on Lake Superior. In reality this climb, was nothing in comparison to the climbs that were to come in Canada.

We stopped just before the border at Ryden’s, one of those Northwoods places that stocks a little bit of everything—they say “If we don’t have it, you’re too picky.” We exchanged some cash for Canadian bills.

Ontario, Canada

When we reached the Canadian border, we only had to wait behind three cars at customs. Crossing the border on bikes was really easy and no different than in a car, although it does feel a bit weird. It felt like a big accomplishment that we had made it to Canada on our bikes. We stopped at the Ontario Travel Center before heading north.

Neebing, ON

The shoulder of Highway 61 north of the Canadian border remains really wide, and there is very little traffic. You’re far from the lakeshore, so these miles were fairly unmemorable. We stopped in the tiny “town” of Neebing, where we ate a lunch of oatmeal at the picnic table in front of the volunteer fire station.

Thunder Bay, ON

This was our longest day yet, and we were really flagging as we neared Thunder Bay. About five miles south of Thunder Bay, we turned right onto Mountain Road. Taking Mountain Road into Thunder Bay makes entering the biggest city on the Lake Superior Circle Tour fairly easy. Mountain Road takes you through quiet residential areas on the outskirts of Thunder Bay.

The James Street Bridge is closed to cars, but you can still cross it on a bike. This will allow you to avoid Highway 61, which is closed to bicycles in Thun...

When you hit Chippewa Road/61B, turn right and ride on this busy road for only one mile, before turning left on James St S. The trestle bridge that crosses the Kaministiquia River looks it is closed, but pedestrians and cyclists are still allowed to cross on the narrow wooden sidewalks along the side bridge.

After continuing about five blocks along James St., a bike trail starts on the right side of the road. We continued along this bike trail until right before we hit the railroad tracks, where we turned right onto another bike trail that took us to the public library where we stopped to make a plan.

It was a gray and humid day, and we still weren’t sure where we were going to stay. We had struck out with our options for the night for finding a WarmShowers host in Thunder Bay, so we decided we had earned a night in a hotel. We picked out a room in a barebones Econolodge—a cyclists paradise, the kind of place that doesn’t bat an eye when you wrestle your fully loaded bike up the stairs and into your room

Entering Thunder Bay on Mountain Road and the James St. Bridge keeps you from cycling on busy arterials. Planning your Lake Superior Bike Tour in advance can help you know which roads are safe for biking and which ones should be avoided.

Thunder Bay is a city primarily composed of strip malls and parking lots. We used our Google Maps on our phone to navigate through the sprawl to the hotel. Fortunately we were able to take bike trails part of the way there.

A shower has never felt so good. Ian walked the few blocks over to the Sleeping Giant Brewing Company, one of the breweries on the Lake Superior Ale Trail, so when I got out there was a four-pack of an IPA that tasted like grass waiting.

More importantly we had ordered a meal I had been dreaming of eating again since I was 13, when my family got a flat tire on a family vacation in Thunder Bay. Based on the recommendation of the mechanic changing our tire, we ate panzerotti’s from Caesar’s Place. And on Day 5 of our bike tour, the greasy paper sack of deliciousness I had been dreaming of was delivered to the door of our hotel room

Now you might be asking, “What’s a panzerotti?” It’s like a smaller calzone. It’s deep fried and filled with cheese and meat and vegetables, and served with marinara sauce on the side. Caesar’s Place has been making panzerottis for over 40 years and while the saddle of your bike would probably taste good after biking 70 miles, we would highly recommend getting a panzerotti from Caesar’s while on your Lake Superior Circle Tour.

Day 6

We decided to take a rest day in Thunder Bay, because we found a WarmShowers host who was willing to let us stay with him for a night. We had some items we needed to pick up before we headed into the most remote Canadian portion of our bike tour around Lake Superior.

We lounged in our air-conditioned hotel room, gorging on the free continental breakfast until check-out time. We went to a bike shop called Rollin’ Thunder to buy a more capable bike pump and some chamois cream for our poor raw butts. We also learned that it was Free Root Beer Day at A&W so we got free root beer that we sat outside on the curb and drank our root beers.

Next we headed to Atmosphere, which is like a Canadian REI, where we just bit the bullet and bought an actual two-person tent. We suffered for the first quarter of our tour with a tiny tarp tent that was really only big enough for one of us. We endured not being able to sit up in the only little space free of mosquitos for miles and waking up with wet fabric clinging to our faces. Before heading into the Canadian wilderness we needed a shelter that could actually accommodate two tired bodies.

I think that the sales people found it a bit unusual when two desperate looking cyclists were suddenly lying in all the tents on the sales floor. When we bought the Marmot Tungsten ultralight tent in less than 15 minutes, they must have decided the weirdness was worth it.

We got a few more basic supplies, and after finishing our errands, we headed to our WarmShowers host in a quaint neighborhood of Thunder Bay. Our host, Tim, offered us tea, which we drank as we tore through our panniers to determine what extra weight we could send home in along with our old tent. This is a common ritual for anyone who has traveled for more than a week by foot or bike.

Tim kindly drove us to the post office so we could mail our stuff home. He kindly waited with us for 45 minutes as an exasperated pregnant mail clerk who looked like she was about to give birth had to repeatedly restart her computer multiple times as the custom system crashed. We had to list all the things in the package for the customs slip, and one of the items was the big tube of chamois cream that we had transferred a portion of into a smaller bottle. She didn’t know what chamois cream was so we had to explain it. Her response: “I’ll just write personal lubricant.”

We ate dinner with Tim at a neighborhood barbecue spot called Man Vs. Meat. We enjoyed hearing all about his past tours, and learning about the tour from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico that he had planned for the fall. It was great to be in the company of a fellow cyclist for the night rather than the company of mosquitoes.

See our full route for Day 5 and 6 on Strava!

Route From Grand Marais Minnesota to Thunder Bay Ontario

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BEER, BIKE ROUTES, BIKE SAFETY, Bike shops, Bike Tour planning, BIKE TOURING, BIKING, Border Crossings, BRIDGES, Caesar’s Place, CAMPING GEAR, Canada, Casinos, Cheap Eats, Cities, CYCLING GEAR, FLUTE REED RIVER, FOOD, FRUGAL TRAVEL, GRAND MARAIS, Grand Portage, Grand Portage National Monument, GREAT LAKES, HIGHWAY 61, Isle Royale, Kaministiquia River, LAKE SUPERIOR, LAKE SUPERIOR ALE TRAIL, LAKE SUPERIOR CIRCLE TOUR, Libraries, MINNESOTA, Mt. Josephine, National Parks, Neebing, NORTH SHORE, NORTH STAR BICYCLE ROUTE, Ontario, PANNIERS, Pizza, PUBLIC LAND, STEALTH CAMPING, Sunsets, TENTS, thunder bay, TRAILS, TRAVEL, WarmShowers

Have you taken on the Lake Superior Circle Tour by bicycle? What are your recommendations for a Lake Superior Bike Tour?

Day 5&6- Lake Superior Circle Tour: Grand Marais to Thunder Bay