We are now officially done with our Lake Superior Circle Tour and are in a little hotel in Sault St Marie, Ontario.
My fears of running out of gas along the way were unfounded. In fact I don't think we ever fell below 1/3rd of a tank before we refueled. I never used the extra fuel bladders that I purchased for this trip. They remain new/unused, but strapped to the motorcycle. We always checked at each point where we bought fuel and asked about the next available fuel point; that turned out to be a smart move as some fuel points were OFF the main road. Had we stayed on the main road we might have missed a few fuel points but asking for fueling points worked.
Pretty much missed most of Thunder Bay, but we did get to spend some time at the Terry Fox Memorial. WOW. As an American we know little to nothing of him. It was worth he stop. And it was hard to read all the things and not get a little weepy eyed.
As for lodging we have not slept in a tent since Grand Marias, MINN. It has been cold enough at night that we both appreciate the warmth of a motel. Not sure what the low was in Grand Marias, but I'm sure it was in the 40's and even with a couple shirts on and a mummy bag rated to +20 it was a bit chilly. Didn't help that it also rained during the night and the wind was blowing.
Overall we've had great weather. Daytime temps in the 60-70's every day. Got rained on for less than 5 minutes one day, I think that was actually just outside Chalevoix, Michigan, but I'm not sure if I'm correct on that location. We found an abandoned bank that had a covered drive-thru and parked under that until the rain stopped. Maybe a 30 minute delay and we were back on the road. Every other time it rained it has been during the night. So no rain issues while riding.
The bridge in Duluth, combined with the traffic, just sucked. It was a bit of an unnerving ride over that bridge. Probably shouldn't have been but we had an oversize load with us, a van that didn't see us and wanted our lane, and generally were a bit rattled after that experience.
People all over have been amazing. One motel, about 8 miles east of Terrace Bay, had no food. Some guy offered us his pick up truck to drive back to Terrace Bay if we wanted to go into town for dinner. Other people all over were similarly friendly. Of course we are staying in little places, 8 and 10 room motor court type motels built in the 40's, 50's and 60's and doing our best to interact with locals.
There was a fatal crash on the TransCanadian highway 40 miles east of our hotel and we were getting ready to leave. Hotel owner came out to us and told us to stay for a while because the road was closed. Road was actually closed for about 12 hours from what we could tell. We were among the first half dozen allowed through the accident site and it was horrific. Got to Marathon, which is only 4 or 5 miles east of the accident site and we were the first to get into the town from the west so we got bombarded with questions. Another 100 miles(?) down the road in Wawa we were recognized by other travelers who came through the accident and chatted with them for 30 minutes. They had met one of the victims.
Today we met a couple hikers. The husband was injured with a twisted ankle, both had big backpacks and were hiking the coast south. With our bikes packed we couldn't help but we talked with them for quite a while. They were about 15 miles from their destination at a roadside rest stop that was along the trail. 15 miles later we saw them at their car, one of the others who stopped in the rest stop while we were there drove them down to their car, despite the fact that they were actually going the opposite direction. Again, just friendly people everywhere.
Dozens more stories I could tell but I'll just drop a bunch of photos, not necessarily in chronological sequence.
Lunch today:
Dinner tonight:
And we had an equipment failure. Kickstand on the lovely Mrs_Bob's bike broke.
My fears of running out of gas along the way were unfounded. In fact I don't think we ever fell below 1/3rd of a tank before we refueled. I never used the extra fuel bladders that I purchased for this trip. They remain new/unused, but strapped to the motorcycle. We always checked at each point where we bought fuel and asked about the next available fuel point; that turned out to be a smart move as some fuel points were OFF the main road. Had we stayed on the main road we might have missed a few fuel points but asking for fueling points worked.
Pretty much missed most of Thunder Bay, but we did get to spend some time at the Terry Fox Memorial. WOW. As an American we know little to nothing of him. It was worth he stop. And it was hard to read all the things and not get a little weepy eyed.
As for lodging we have not slept in a tent since Grand Marias, MINN. It has been cold enough at night that we both appreciate the warmth of a motel. Not sure what the low was in Grand Marias, but I'm sure it was in the 40's and even with a couple shirts on and a mummy bag rated to +20 it was a bit chilly. Didn't help that it also rained during the night and the wind was blowing.
Overall we've had great weather. Daytime temps in the 60-70's every day. Got rained on for less than 5 minutes one day, I think that was actually just outside Chalevoix, Michigan, but I'm not sure if I'm correct on that location. We found an abandoned bank that had a covered drive-thru and parked under that until the rain stopped. Maybe a 30 minute delay and we were back on the road. Every other time it rained it has been during the night. So no rain issues while riding.
The bridge in Duluth, combined with the traffic, just sucked. It was a bit of an unnerving ride over that bridge. Probably shouldn't have been but we had an oversize load with us, a van that didn't see us and wanted our lane, and generally were a bit rattled after that experience.
People all over have been amazing. One motel, about 8 miles east of Terrace Bay, had no food. Some guy offered us his pick up truck to drive back to Terrace Bay if we wanted to go into town for dinner. Other people all over were similarly friendly. Of course we are staying in little places, 8 and 10 room motor court type motels built in the 40's, 50's and 60's and doing our best to interact with locals.
There was a fatal crash on the TransCanadian highway 40 miles east of our hotel and we were getting ready to leave. Hotel owner came out to us and told us to stay for a while because the road was closed. Road was actually closed for about 12 hours from what we could tell. We were among the first half dozen allowed through the accident site and it was horrific. Got to Marathon, which is only 4 or 5 miles east of the accident site and we were the first to get into the town from the west so we got bombarded with questions. Another 100 miles(?) down the road in Wawa we were recognized by other travelers who came through the accident and chatted with them for 30 minutes. They had met one of the victims.
Today we met a couple hikers. The husband was injured with a twisted ankle, both had big backpacks and were hiking the coast south. With our bikes packed we couldn't help but we talked with them for quite a while. They were about 15 miles from their destination at a roadside rest stop that was along the trail. 15 miles later we saw them at their car, one of the others who stopped in the rest stop while we were there drove them down to their car, despite the fact that they were actually going the opposite direction. Again, just friendly people everywhere.
Dozens more stories I could tell but I'll just drop a bunch of photos, not necessarily in chronological sequence.
Lunch today:
Dinner tonight:
And we had an equipment failure. Kickstand on the lovely Mrs_Bob's bike broke.
I hate that photo, it's going to trigger nightmares 
Actually they were very nice, he's actually a Honda guy who just got a HD for a trip. They just started their trip into the US the same day and we were on 2 of the 3 ferry crossings with them. 
