A “Pure Michigan” dual sport adventure – U.P. Edition – Eh!
Originally posted on FJRiders.com – August 26th, 2019 – here.
There are over 1,300 miles of ORV trails in Michigan’s upper peninsula. They vary in composition from groomed gravel rail beds to forest service roads to 2 track and single track. Rocky, sandy, hardpan dirt and mud. Forum member “Cannonshot” on ADVrider.com used these trails as the basis for his “Cannon Trek” called the Upper Peninsula Adventure Trail or “UPAT” for short.
I’ve ridden trails in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan over the past few years – there is a lot of sand in most of it – sand dune level sands. I was unsure what to expect in the U.P. With such uncertainty, it was a perfect opportunity to lure others along. They took the bait, hook line and sinker. A rough plan was formed and timeline set. We’d park at the K.I.Sawyer airport near Marquette, Michigan and ride as much of the UPAT as possible over 5 to 6 days.
Usual Suspects plus 1.
MrBill, CJ, and (new to the gang) Junyah would join in the adventure. A pair of WR2fiddies, a KTM690R and my DRZ400. They drove from New England and used my folks place in Croswell, MI as a stop over because it was on the way up north and it meant they could avoid traversing Detroit to get to my place. We made the drive north from Croswell Sunday morning with reservations at a local hotel in near Marquette, Michigan. We unloaded the 2fiddies at the hotel. Bill and I unloaded at the airport parking lot Monday morning. It was early. And cold…
Lunch stop on the way north – when pigs fly, you know there are great things ahead…
Monday’s plan was to ride from Marquette to Copper Harbor. I had no idea what the trail and travel time would be. The weather was perfect, the roads & trails were a mix of gravel and two track. A highlight of day one riding was seeing a wolf – it was standing in the trail as we rounded a corner; it paused long enough for everyone to roll to a stop and catch a glimpse. I was not quick enough with a camera to catch it unfortunately.
6:30am at K.I. Sawyer airport – it was cold…
Quick stop to ‘adjust the load’ trail side…
Slate quarry on a quick side trail.
Bike shot…
The trail ahead.
Mud hole on the exit – the preferred path was to the left. It was deep; I dropped in and the bike stopped. I let the clutch out and the front end dropped further in so I stopped.
Gee – this is going to suck…
KTM recovery kit deployed – Bill has been waiting to use that on a Suzuki; this was not a mechanical failure, but a navigation failure…
Bike is standing there waiting for me to get my stuff together…
Lunch stop – food porn – 1lb sweet roll…
After running about 30 miles of open gravel – everyone said it was really dusty, but I didn’t notice any dust… Some creative navigation found a way around it after confirming that the road was closed.
Next few shots are in Copper Harbor after dinner in front of the campground.
Lighthouse.
Day 2 – Copper Harbor (Fort Wilkins State Park Campground) to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.
On the ride out, you never know what you might find laying in the road…
Is that mine? Yes Bill…
On the trail leading out to the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Lake Superior shore line.
Keweenaw Rocket Range site.
Rest stop along the shore of Lake Superior, south of Copper Harbor – this is a “FJR” worthy road…
Coming into Houghton from the north, we followed some stretches of snowmobile trail – this is abandoned rail road beds – like the roads in Ohio – flat, straight, but not boring…
Once south of Houghton, we were treaded to some more nice (not) smooth trails. Somewhere in this stretch, the fender bag with my spare tube and tire irons that I relocated from the fender to under the straps of my rear bag, got ejected. Another donation to the trail gods…
“Did either of you guys see my fender bag back there?” – Nope…
The UPAT took us over the Firesteel tressels – pretty cool drone footage from a local ADV rider below. My slightly less dramatic footage is below that.
From traillink.com: “At 2 miles, the trail heads northeast and merges with the former railroad line and its level surface. Not long after crossing MI 38, you’ll cross the first of three steel bridges over the Firesteel River, which total 1,300 feet in length and clear the rivers by 85 feet, creating one of the trail’s scenic highlights.”
From CrispADV on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/UkaqVi2Q94s?wmode=opaque
My slightly less dramatic footage.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/FyQewcwVfms?wmode=opaque
The DRZ became the mud hole recon hole – “Nope, don’t go this way…”
CJ trying to show is kinder, gentler side – suggesting that I slow down and smell the flowers…
End of Day 2 was at the Big Bear Campground at the edge of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State park. Great little private campground – even had wi-fi! Bill’s post ride routine was park the bike, strip down to his speedo, then set up camp.
Those do not make good S’Mores…
Day 3 –Wednesday – Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park to Lake Henry Lake with detour to Hancock Yamaha.
Tuesday evening, it was discovered that an ugly noise one of the WR’s was making was a cracked front sprocket. We would locate a replacement Wednesday morning and back track to Houghton to get it. Junyah offered to go along so we could stay on track, but leaving one of the expedition members to be stranded alone is not in the op plan. We make the ride back north via pavement together, watched as he did the swap – Bill even supervised – and we retraced our path (via pavement to the campground to continue on our way south.
This was sitting in the showroom – apparently motocross bikes up here do not come with wheels…
Shiny parts – new chain with the new front sprocket.
Antique grader and happy operator!
We finished the day up on some fine Forest Service roads / trails ending up at Henry Lake campground. No water, no trash, and free! Bonus was plenty of mosquito’s, which kept Bill fully clothed…
Day 4 – Lake Henry to Gwinn
Temps dipped into the upper 40’s that night – a crisp morning that took us into Wisconsin on some great twisty pavement and gravel roads. Quick stop here to warm up with some coffee and a donut.
Look – big bike friendly!!
More trail bounty – or is it Bill’s gas can??
A “spirited” pace on some more great forest service roads / trails – CJ knocked over the sign on the way by, so he did the right thing…
“Captain?” – “Captain.”…
“Have either of you seen my gas can?”
We hit some sand in the next section. Bill was complaining about it. I found a spot for him to call someone who could serve him some cheese to go with that wine…
I almost did a hero wipe out – saved it though. Pretty sure Junyah bit it though…
Slightly concerned – trail is deteriorating– just keep going though – it’s only 2 more clicks…
He things I’m serious when I say it’s only 2 more clicks – it’s probably another 40 miles…
Me, waiting – hopefully they didn’t get eaten by a bear. Or sand dragon…
This was the end of the ride for me. A text message and a few phone calls from work forced me to make the drive south Thursday night to address an HR issue Friday morning. Left the airport lot at 7pm, home by 2am, at work the next morning with a “you are no longer employed with this company” conversation with a direct (now former) employee.
The story goes that the 3 amigos ended up setting up camp and sleeping alongside the road at about 11pm because they got lost. I wasn’t there, so Bill, CJ, or Junyah will need to confirm details…
This ride will happen again – I was pleasantly surprised at the varied terrain in the U.P.; Cannonshot did a spectacular job putting this loop together and we only got in the western half of it – very nice riding.
Maybe next time I’ll stop and smell the flowers.
Or Maybe I’ll just ride…
Wayne