DAY
1 • DAY 2
• DAY 3 •
DAY 4 • DAY
5 • DAY 6
• DAY 7 •
WRAP-UP
NOTE: Some of the DAY pages contain many photos. If your computer
has a problem downloading all of them (that is,
you get a blank image box with the little red X
in the corner), simply click your Refresh/Reload button OR re-click the link
for that DAY.
Author:
John Correll
(assisted by Bill Bacheler)
john@correllconcepts.com
Photographer:
Bill Bacheler
(assisted by John Correll)
bbacheler@charter.net
Published: August 2009
It was August 2008. My wife Janet and I had been married 41 years. I was now 64 years old. We had just finished visiting Tahquamenon Falls in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (a.k.a. "the U.P."). And, were now on our way home heading south on Highway 123.
We first visited the Falls in August 1967 on our honeymoon. We've been back three times since (yes, it's that good). As we were heading down Hwy 123 we came upon some cross-country bicyclists. As we passed them I wistfully murmured, "Years ago I used to dream about doing that."
There was about five seconds of silence. Then Janet uttered a statement that caught me fully off-guard and, in a way, changed my life. She looked at me and said, "So what's stopping you?"
I had no answer for it. In 1979, at age 35, I started bicycling. I've done it every summer since. In the first 15 years or so I thought it would be neat to do some cross-country cycling. But as the years passed and my body slowly aged I forgot about it — scratched it off my "dream list of things to do before I die."
So, after searching my head for an answer to Janet's vexing question, all I could say was "I don't know."
But that question wouldn't vacate my mind. It kept popping up for the next two weeks. Finally I couldn't take it any longer. One day after returning from a bike ride I announced that I had decided to do a one-week cross-country bike tour.
The first words out of Janet's mouth were "Who are you going to do it with?"
I responded, "No one. I'm doing it by myself. I don't know anyone else who bikes."
She said, "Well, okay. But I wish someone else were going with you."
About a week passed. Then one day while I was out walking I realized that I did know someone who bikes. It was Bill Bacheler — an old friend from childhood and long-time resident and prominent dentist of Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan (he's a partner in Sault Dental Associates). So I sent Bill an email asking him if he'd like to do a cross-country bike trip in summer 2009. I told him I figured we'd be doing 60 to 70 miles per day. His response came back quickly. "This sounds intriguing. But I'm not certain I'm able to get myself in shape for it … but I'm willing to try."
I told him those were my sentiments, too. At that time Bill and I were doing around 20 to 25 miles per bike ride. So we both had a ways to go to reach 60 to 70 miles per day. We decided that if each of us could get our trip mileage up to 45 or 50 miles by the time the colder weather came (around October), we'd have a reasonable chance of getting our self in shape the next summer for 60 to 70 miles per day, for seven days straight, with a loaded bike. As it turned out, we each reached our "pre-training target." So we concluded that over the winter months we would continue making plans for the trip. And, would commence serious training for it next Spring (2009).Over the winter we made the key decisions.
The trip would cover seven days from August 8–14, 2009.
It would be in the eastern half of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We chose Michigan's Upper Peninsula over the Lower Peninsula because the U.P. has less traffic. We would do a circular trip, departing from and returning to Bill's home in Sault Sainte Marie (a.k.a. "the Soo"). Sault Sainte Marie is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the U.S. — founded as a Catholic mission in 1668. It resides on the St. Mary's River, which is actually a strait that connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron and separates Michigan from Ontario, Canada. To the confusion of some folks, there's a sister Sault Sainte Marie city across the river in Ontario. Thus, there are two cities of identical name in different countries, separated by a river. Between these two cities are the Soo Locks, which enable huge 1000-foot freighters, or "ore boats," to navigate between lakes Huron and Superior. And, of course, there's a connecting bridge between the two countries at this point.
We settled
on the following route:
Day 1 — The Soo to De Tour Village (eastern tip of the U.P.)
Day 2 — De Tour to Trout Lake
Day 3 — Trout Lake to Blaney Park (about 15 miles northeast of Manistique)
Day 4 — Blaney Park to Munising
Day 5 — Munising to Newberry
Day 6 — Newberry to Paradise (about 10 miles south of Whitefish
Point)
Day 7 — Paradise to the Soo
We decided to stay in motels rather than campgrounds. We figured it would result in a pleasanter experience.
Bill came up with an acronym for the trip — EUPBT — standing for Eastern Upper Peninsula Bike Tour. We pronounce it "yoop-ta." If you live in or near the U.P. you'll understand the slight pun in that pronunciation. If you're not from Michigan, it might help to know that one of the common nicknames for the great people who live in the U.P. is "yoopers." We fondly embraced the EUPBT nickname during our trip planning.
Both of us approached the pending odyssey with excitement and, yet, with an underlying twinge of trepidation. Neither of us had done such a trip before. We weren't certain we could stack seven days end-to-end of 60 to 70 miles per day with a loaded bike.
Soon enough, Spring 2009 arrived. The snow melted and we commenced training. I live in the Detroit metro area and, so, had a few weeks head start over Bill in the Soo.
During May, June, and July we kept in email contact — checking with each other on progress and discussing solutions to problems arising from mileage increases. One of Bill's old friends, Dan Edson, joined in the email repartee, thinking he might be able to make the trip. But as it turned out he couldn't.
Quicker than either of us expected, the 12-week training/conditioning period came to an end. A few days before the starting date I called Bill to see how he was "feeling about this thing." We realized that we had much the same mindset. It was "now or never time." At our ages (me 65, Bill 64), either we did it now OR we'd likely go to our graves having never done it.
Once the trip began it took us a couple days of biking to settle into a groove. At first, our picture-taking was relatively infrequent. But it increased as the days progressed. On Day 6, for example, we took more photos than on Days 1, 2, and 3 combined.
The rest of this account is a verbal and pictorial depiction of our 7-day U.P. bike trip — or the first (and maybe last) Eastern Upper Peninsula Bike Tour, or EUPBT 2009. The story is delivered in seven parts, one part for each day. At the end of each part there's a link that takes you to the next day. Plus, at the end of it all there's a concluding wrap-up section.