Day 18- Lake Superior Circle Tour: Negaunee to Kenton
Day 18
Starting your morning at a bakery is always a good thing when you are bike tour. We left Negaunee, Michigan on the 18th morning of our Lake Superior Circle Tour with our panniers and frame bags filled with delicious baked goods from our previous night’s Warmshowers host, Mary Beth, who owns a bakery. Fully fueled up with sugar and butter for a long day of riding, we hit the trail—we literally left town on a paved trail, which was an absolutely refreshing way to ride after being on the stressful M-28 and Trans-Canada Highway.
Saying goodbye to our Warmshowers host, Mary Beth, in Negaunee, Michigan.
We loved biking on the Iron Ore Heritage Trail after spending so much time on highways.
We took the Iron Ore Heritage Trail from Negaunee to the city of Ishpeming, which was maybe only six miles away. Ishpeming is kind of a grungy little town, we stopped at a gas station where we ate some sandwiches. From this point onward, we would be away from Lake Superior until we reached our final destination in Ashland, Wisconsin.
Leaving Ishpeming, we had to get back on US-41/M-28 heading west. There were at least 11 miles of construction that we had to ride our bikes through. For about half of that distance, the workers had placed the construction barrels right in the middle of the paved portion of the shoulder so we had to dodge and weave around them. Riding through construction can be challenging, here are a few tips.
We past the non-towns of Champion and Michigamme. The riding was really pretty terrifying, and we were both just counting down the miles. For this reason, we wouldn’t necessarily recommend the Lake Superior Circle Tour as a fun bike tour, unless you are up for a feat of endurance rather than a pleasurable cycling experience.
With these last few days of riding having been so rough and just being generally exhausted by the entire tour, we made the decision to skip the Keewenaw Peninsula and just head straight over to Ashland. The Keewenaw is the large peninsula that juts up from the middle of the South Shore of Lake Superior. While the Keewenaw is a beautiful area, and Copper Harbor at its tip is a cool community, riding up the peninsula would have added two days to our tour and kept ups on busy highways for longer.
Eating lunch in Ruth Lake Picnic Area just off of HIghway 41 in the Upper Peninsula.
We ate a lunch of delicious baked goods from Mary Ann’s bakery.
We stopped at the Ruth Lake Rest Area to eat lunch, and by lunch we mean left over beer (which was still cold because we had our insulated Stashers bags) and the delicious baked goods from Mary Beth. This was a really nice place to stop for a rest along the stressful highway. Ruth Lake rest area is technically on Campendium, a free camping website we frequently use. It would be easier to park a camper van here, but you could probably get away with tucking a tent into the woods (especially if you have a subtle green tent like ours!).
Eventually M-28 separates from Highway 41 (which travels up the Keewenaw), and the road becomes a lot less busy. The highway was quiet, alternating between towering, open pine plantations and thick deciduous forests. The pavement was a good quality, there was no construction, and there was about a two-foot shoulder. The land was flat or rolling.
Thanks to our Stashers insulated bike bags we could keep our strawberry milk, beer, and clean socks cold.
We spotted these dramatic pink hollyhocks outside the grocery store in Watton.
We stopped in Watton, which is less of a town, and more of just a single grocery store. We were able to get some carrots and other fresh foods. While there and while we had service, we made a reservation at a small hotel down the road. We were done with trying to find a parcel of public land or stealth camp at some rest area.
We also made friends with a self-declared “Old Finn” at the Watton Grocery Store. He had a very crazy Finish last name that sounded like maybe it was Obojolujulu? He told us all about the history of the area and how he had lived here his whole life.
Ian biked with two Stashers bags and a camera box on his bike.
I think these flowers were the inspiration for my Stashers bag!
Ian sewed this frame pack himself. Find out how to sew your own here.
We continued along M-28, and while we lost our shoulder after Watton, there was so little traffic on the road that it didn’t really matter. Everyone gave us a really wide berth. We jammed out on my Outdoor Tech bluetooth bike speaker and just started to enjoy the ride.
We entered the Ottawa National Forest and we bike through really beautiful stands of Norway Pine. Then there were some other areas where they were logging. We saw a lot of good potential camping spots, but we had no regrets about reserving the motel room at the Two Rivers Motel. While we love free camping in our van, having a hotel room in while bike touring is just plain nice.
Ian biking on Highway 141/M-28 just outside of Walton, Michigan.
Biking on M-28 really wasn’t so bad after it diverges from US-41.
Just after dinner time, we arrived in Kenton, Michigan, which has two bars, and not much else. We headed into the bar that was open, which was called UP Chucks. We ordered two Reubens and drank a beer at the bar while we waited for the proprietor to cook our sandwiches.
UP Chucks is really a classic Northwoods dive. You have the classic knotty pine paneling, the giant two person chainsaw hanging above the bar, lots of taxidermy, and framed pictures of albino deer. It felt like a place we might never have discovered or even thought to go into if we weren’t bike touring.
UP Chucks has this sweet two person chain saw. And some type of weasel…?
No UP bar would be complete without the photos of albino deer and moose.
There were two other patrons at the bar watching a golf tournament very enthusiastically. It was fairly obvious from the banter with the bartender that these two were locals. It was also fairly obvious that us in our tight little bike outfits clearly were not. Fortunately, you just get to this point when bike touring where you lose all sense of self-consciousness.
The shoulder on M-28, west of where it splits from US-41 is not very wide, but there is so little traffic and the area is extremely unpopulated so it’s not bad riding.
I would not have made it through our bike tour without this powerful little bluetooth speaker for listening to music.
We took our sandwiches to go. Ian had ordered some sort of monster 1-pound of meat sandwich, but fortunately he agreed to carry the sandwiches on his handlebars. We still had to bike two miles to get to our motel. It felt like the longest two miles ever because I really just wanted to eat those delicious Reubens!
Ian had to carry two pounds of corned beef on his handlebars for two miles!
It turns out that a pound of corned beef is really a lot of corned beef.
After biking about 70 miles for the day, we arrived at the Two Rivers Motel, where they made us lock our bikes up outside, which was really irritating to us. But they were adamant that bikes are too dirty to go inside, even though if we are being honest the motel is downright grimy on its own.
This hotel was pretty affordable, and kind of the only option.
We were pretty annoyed because they made us lock our bikes outside in the parking lot.
The Two Rivers Motel in Kenton Michigan
Ian tackled unloading and locking the bikes and I took a shower in the world’s tiniest bathroom, which was also stocked with Delta In-Flight magazines for some reason.
After eating our delicious sandwiches from UP Chucks, we were very satisfied with our decision not to bike up into the Keewenaw Peninsula and just head straight back to Ashland, WI to wrap up our Lake Superior Circle Tour.
See our full route on Strava!
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Aero tech Designs, Bars, BEER, BIKE ROUTES, BIKE SAFETY, BIKE TOUR PLANNING, BIKE TOURING, BIKING, Bluetooth Speakers, Camp Food, CAmping Gear, Cheap Eats, Construction, Copper Harbor, CYCLING GEAR, FOOD, Forest Service Land, Frame Packs, Free Camping, FRUGAL TRAVEL, GREAT LAKES, IRON ORE HERITAGE TRAIL, Ishpeming, Keewenaw Peninsula, Kenton, LAKE SUPERIOR, LAKE SUPERIOR CIRCLE TOUR, MICHIGAN, National Forests, NEGAUNEE, Ottawa National Forest, OUTDOOR TECH, Panniers, Public Land, Ruth Lake, Stashers, Tents, TRAILS, TRAVEL, UPPER PENINSULA, Watton, WARMSHOWERS
Have you spent time in the U.P? Or done the Lake Superior Circle Tour? Share your favorite undiscovered places by leaving a comment below!