Exiting Berry Patch Bakery & Café, cookies in hand, ready for a day's ride
INTRO • DAY 1 • DAY 2 • DAY 3 • DAY 4 • DAY 5 • DAY 6 • DAY 7 • WRAP-UP
DAY
7 — Friday, August 14, 2009
Paradise to Sault Sainte Marie
LUNCH STOP: None
ROUTE: Hwy 123 south to Curly Lewis Memorial Highway (a.k.a. Lake Shore Dr) — Lewis Memorial Hwy east to 6 Mile Rd — 6 Mile Rd east to Sault Sainte Marie
TOTAL MILES: 59
We arose at the usual time — 7:15 a.m. — and walked down the road for breakfast. But no place was open. So we skipped breakfast and went back to the motel and prepared for departure.
We got started at 9:30. Before we left town, we stopped at the Berry Patch Bakery (now open) and purchased some baked goods to eat on the way. I got two large cookies — one chocolate chip and one macadamia nut. Bill got a blueberry muffin and peanut butter cookie.
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Exiting Berry Patch Bakery &
Café, cookies in hand, ready for a day's ride
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We saw this sign everywhere —
Jilbert's must be a U.P. ice cream monopoly
At the south end of town, on Hwy 123, is a small school — Whitefish Township School. As we approached it, Bill said, "If there's a car in the parking lot I'd like to go in. Several of the administrators — including superintendent Pat Rawley and her assistant Nancy Smith — are patients of mine."
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THE school of Paradise and
Whitefish Township
Indeed, there was a car there and the gymnasium door was open. So we stopped and went in. Just inside the door, working, was one of Bill's patients, Yvonne Taulbee. She and another gal — Sherry Gentry, a teacher at the school — were setting up a table of muffins for 225 runners in a 25K run that was happening later that day. The run was being held on the North Country Trail and culminating at the Tahquamenon Upper Falls.
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John with Yvonne Taulbee (middle)
and Sherry Gentry (right), two of the
incredible, dedicated staff of Whitefish Township School
If you happen to be a city dweller, the "inner workings" of this school are fascinating. Yvonne and Sherry gave us a short guided tour, including the boiler room. Here are some of the fascinating things we found out about the school. It has 54 students — grades kindergarten through 12. The annual graduating class typically consists of four to six kids. They heat the school by a wood-burning furnace. The fuel is wood chips delivered, apparently, from nearby lumbering operations. The gym is compact but highly functional. The distance between the "top of the circles" on the basketball court is about five feet.
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Go, Rockets, Go
For basketball games, bleachers are set up on the stage at the end. Also, the side boundary lines of the basketball court are about 30 inches from the walls. So, spectators sit or stand there, as well. Can you imagine the intensity of a high school basketball game with fans, students, and parents positioned ON the boundary line of the court? Yvonne noted that this has the effect of causing some spectators to tend to assume the unwelcomed role of ad hoc referee.
The school competes in four sports, including basketball, soccer, and volleyball (I don't recall the fourth one). Every team is multi-gender (both boys and girls) and contains students from grades 6 through 12. They must do this to field a complete team. (Remember: the average senior graduating class is five students.) When one first hears of this, having multi-gender sports teams seems quite backwards. But when viewed from another perspective, it could be characterized as cutting edge — ahead of its time.
The school is part of a "league" of about eight similar-sized schools located within about a hundred mile radius. I don't recall the exact names, but a couple of them are church-sponsored. One of them is a school on Beaver Island; another is on Mackinac Island. Yvonne explained that when they play a game at another school it's an overnight operation. The entire team travels by bus to the other school. They take air mattresses and bed rolls and the team, including the bus driver, sleep in the school's gym. She then noted that one of her many duties was serving as this bus driver, and that spending a night sleeping on a gym floor with a multi-gender team of 11 to 17 year olds can be quite an experience.
The gymnasium takes up about half the square footage of the building. Rearward of the gym is a single short hallway with appended classrooms and offices (and boiler room). Sherry pointed out that to work there you had to be multi-functional and very flexible. A fact that the present day clearly proved, as these two women were there on a Friday summer morning in August, setting up muffin tables for refreshment for 225 participants in an upcoming 25 K run.
After our enjoyable and enlightening visit with Yvonne and Sherry, Bill and I continued southward on Hwy 125. Traffic was light and the sun was out. The only "negative" — if you can call it that — was a moderate headwind.
Along the way Bill took the opportunity to photograph a few things that caught his fancy, including the following.
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Years ago, as the mock license
plate reflects, there was a "movement" in the U.P.
to become the 51st state — to be called Superior. However, once folks realized
that
far more state tax money came into the U.P. than went out of it,
the movement subsided.
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Take the wood, leave your payment
in the jar
Wild blueberries propagate the U.P, especially in the Whitefish Point region. Which has caused Paradise to dub itself "The Wild Blueberry Capital of Michigan."
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Wild blueberries by the roadside
After about 12 miles we came to Curly Lewis Memorial Highway and turned eastward. (It's also called Lake Shore Drive.) This scenic highway parallels the Lake Superior shore, offering numerous spectacular, vista views of the water and shoreline. There are no businesses and very few houses. Traffic is light to nil. It's a super road for biking. The time now was about 11:00, the sun was shining with blue sky and small clouds, and the temperature was ideal. Bill and I peddled side-by-side for about 25 miles. For bicyclists it doesn't get much better than this. We took the opportunity to snap a number of photos. Here are some of them.
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It might be a long way to Tipperary,
but not to Ankodosh Creek
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Lewis Memorial Highway is a Biker's
Heaven
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This is the trail the hiker woman
was doing (photo P086, Day 5)
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Well, where did that Bill go now?
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One of many great Lake Superior
views
(seen from a small roadside rest stop)
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Good riding and great scenery extended
to the very end
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After a couple hours of eastward peddling, signs of civilization began cropping up. This first began in the vicinity of Bay Mills. Occasionally we'd see some interesting commercial establishments.
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Roadside market in Bay Mills
Pretty soon we reached Brimley. There's a small IGA market there that sells soft-serve ice cream. From the beginning of the week, Bill mentioned that we had to stop in Brimley for ice cream on the way home. We decided to make it our "Victory Ride Celebration" ice cream cone. So we imposed upon a nice woman coming out of the market to snap a picture of us. She gladly did, and — like so many folks we had met that week — was intrigued by a couple 60s-age guys spending a week biking the U.P.
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Victory Celebration Ice Cream Cones
(only a few more miles to go)
Also, since the beginning of the week, Bill had a particular photo in mind that he wanted to create. It involved road kill. We never came across any for the first six days. Finally, about eight miles from Bill's home, we did. It was an old road kill — so old that well-weathered bones and teeth were showing. Still, Bill seized the opportunity.
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We stopped for nothing
At Bill's driveway we were greeted by a thoughtful Welcome sign, created by Bill's wife Pam and her sister Nancy.
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Home, at last ... Sault Sainte
Marie city council, working in
conjunction with Pam and Nancy, erected a commemorating sign for us
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