Adventures
North of Lake Superior’s North-Shore drive
A bike weekend
in
I’m sitting in my
Friday,
I tried to get out of the
office earlier, but it took me until
I continue driving after
dinner into the darkness. The roads are good, no traffic, my only worry driving
through the forest raods is wild life jumping out in front of the car.
Eventually I get to the
Saturday,
I get up at
I start pedaling around
It brings back memories of
the trip 3 months ago from Two Harbours just 30km East of here. Every now an
then there is a nice lake which offers sweeping views of the land. I take a
short rest on a bridge over
The road has some long
straight-aways with rolling hills, and the tall trees still offer comforting
shade despite the approaching noon-hour.
Suddenly I get to a sign
marking road construction work ahead. Well, there is only one road, so not much
you can do about it. The pavement is being renewed, everything torn open for
now. The heat and dry weather of the last weeks causes this to be extremely
dusty when cars pass by. After initial gravel there is deep sand which makes it
impossible to ride on my small tires. For a moment, I am reminded of the desert
tracks in
A little bit later I reach
a store which serves as a meeting point for a distant relative of mine from
The gentleman in the
picture below is my cousin’s wife’s mother’s cousin’s son! My cousin (Rudolf),
his wife (Leena, from
After 1 hour of talking
and finnish bread and soda I need to move on. Brad comes along for some 10km or
so. He is a big fan of the recumbent bike. Having had knee surgery and hip
problems, he is not comfortable on the regular road-bike anymore. He marvels at
the comfort and ease of riding with the recumbents! The mesh seat and
integrated camel back look like the right outfit for this hot day. I stop
periodically, eat a cereal bar and take a few pictures marveling at how much
nicer the weather conditions are right now as compared to 4 months later in
December!
After another 10km I reach
a small lake and decide to go for a nice swim. The water in
The first 10km after the
swim are great: With water-cooled head the heat isn’t so bad! After ½ hour the
heat is getting to me again. Maybe I haven’t been drinking enough? Maybe it’s
the slight onset of headwind which makes me work harder. In any event, I am
getting tired and exhausted, even though I have barely crossed the 100km mark.
Too many stops, too much heat; I don’t find a good rhythm. So I decide to take
a break in the next little town called Embarrass (no kidding), which holds the
following distinction as per my new map: “Lowest average temperature in the
lower 48 states.” Hard to believe: I am in the coldest spot of the continent,
and I am dying from this heat! Next to a little weather booth I lay down in its
shade and take a nap with the refreshing breeze. The booth features newspaper
clips with stories about record cold temperatures. Just a few years ago, a century-old
state record was broken: The temperature reached a new record low of 60F below
zero (- 51C). It’s close to 90F today, so some 150F (83C) warmer than in that
February - quite a big span!
I continue North in search
of cooler air and cool drinks. I find a soda machine next to an outfitting
store offering canoe tours. I stop for two cans of ice cold lemon drinks and
chat with Brent, the owner of the outfitter store. He talks about the tourists
he sees up here all summer. He speculates about my chances of finding a motel
room in Ely, still quite busy with tourists this time of the year. He even
offers a bunk bed and shower in his store, but I thankfully decline, as I still
have another 40km or so to Ely.
After the nap and long
chat the
Good timing, perfect
light; you can even see the shadow of the camera halfway across the road.
In Ely there are several
motels, but all of them are full! I check at least five motels from a local
tourist guide brochure. No luck! One resort is a bit out of town along a gravel
road to the tip of a peninsula with little cabins right along the lake shore.
Again, all booked solid for tonight! Some kind of fishing contest plus the nice
weather has filled up all motels in this tourist spot. I chat with some guest
at a boat deck who takes this picture at dusk.
So where am I staying
tonight? Since I have to carry everything in my little back pack, I travel
light and didn’t bring sleeping bag, not to mention a tent. The whole situation
reminds me a bit of the motor-cycle trip to and from
After riding around for 45
minutes I still haven’t found anything. I stop at another motel, which has its
“no vacancy” sign illuminated outside. I figure I ask in the office
nevertheless. They don’t have a room, but they do know of a lady who offers
private bed & breakfast! 10 minutes later I am at that ladies doorstep – so
it did work out after all. I take a shower and hurry on over to the Italian
restaurant for dinner. I am the last guest. More pasta for tomorrow…
Sunday,
After a solid 8 hours of
sleep I wake up at
I leave town passing the
I start to get tired and
hungry again, even though I have ridden only about 50 km. I check on the map
and look for Isabella, a small village with a café which I still remember from
3 months ago this May. I start counting down the km. To keep my mind of the
hunger and discomfort, I am trying to think of the many good things, the quiet,
peaceful ride, the splendor of the early morning and the glorious day our here
in the wilderness. Strangely, I also think about what would happen if I had a
defect which I couldn’t fix out here! But my bike has not given me any trouble
other than one flat tire all summer.
All of a sudden, I feel a
grinding resistance to turning the pedal which signals my brain in a split
second that something major is amiss: The bottom bracket on my bike has come
loose and is about to fall out! I can move the pedals with the axle about ¼
inch sideways left and right. The outer ring of the bottom bracket had come
loose and everything else with it. I need to stop and think! I don’t have the
tools to fix this, and what’s worse, there is probably no bike shop or similar
within 100km from here! How could this be? Well, I had the bike in the shop a
few days prior to check on a small play I had noticed in my bottom bracket.
They opened it and put it back together; the play was still there, nothing they
could do; I basically will have to buy a new replacement unit. They put it back
together, but didn’t tie it down strong enough. The frequent bumps along these
roads apparently were sufficient to rattle the outer ring loose. Unbelievable!
I barely stop and move to
the side of the road when a vehicle is approaching. Still puzzled with what
happened and not sure what to do, I signal the car to stop. I ask them whether
they can give me a ride to Isabella, now maybe 5-8km down the road. I put the
bike in their SUV and they give me a quick lift. 10 minutes later I get out at
the café in Isabella. Even though they offer me a car ride all the way back to
But first things first. I
am HUNGRY. So I decide to ignore the bike situation for a moment, and order
homemade blueberry pancakes with coffee. How many pancakes, the chef asks. I
suggest to start with two. They taste delicious, absolutely perfect. So I
immediately order another two, which makes the chef all smiles. When he
presents the check sometime later, he quips: “Want another two?” I respond in
best
While eating there is a
conversation about how we can possibly fix the bike. Various people and friends
venture out scouring for tools. The bracket came loose on the drive side, which
makes it hard to get to the ring without taking the pedal off. But that can
definitely not be achieved without the proper tools. What to do?
It turns out I can screw
in the ring holding the ball bearings with my fingers since everything is so
loose. At the end we use a small pointy screwdriver to tighten the inner ring a
bit more. The question now is how to tighten the outer ring securing the
bracket to the bike frame. The only chance is to use a hammer and the
screwdriver and carefully tap on the outer ring to “screw” it on tight. It
hurts me inside to hammer away at my Titanium bike, but I don’t have much
choice.
I leave the cozy
athmosphere of the café. I hope the ring will hold locked and start pedaling
again. I watch the ring while riding the first km and hope for the best. After
about 4 km the ring comes loose again. Should I return to the café? Stop
another vehile? What to do? I continue up a hill to get a better position to
maybe stop oncoming vehicles. Luckily, on top of the hill I notice a farm house
with a rather large garage next to it. I knock on the door and ask the people
for help.
The old farmer walks me
over to his garage and starts searching his toolboxes. I feel oddly out of
place with my high-tech bike in the old barn with lots of old rusty machines
and tools. But when you have nothing else and all day to figure out a way to
get back you just have to get creative with whatever’s there. So I find a
bigger screwdriver and bigger hammer. I realize that I need to give the outer
ring a hard whack with the hammer, so it doesn’t come loose again. It hurts
even more hammering harder than before, but if I want to ride back to Duluth
this better gets tightened up good.
Again I start riding
looking anxiously down while pedaling and hoping for the best. I didn’t know it
then, but this fix held up all the way back to my car for the next 140km or so!
The wind has picked up and blows in my face! But I am close to the edge of the
plateau I have climbed yesterday, followed by a long drop down to the North
Shore of Lake Superior.
Going down the slope is
not quite as much of a rush as I remember from May, probably due to the
headwind I am riding into, which slows me down considerably. Anyway, after
passing the little town of
The next 15 minutes I
dangle my bare feet in the warm lake water. At those rest stops its always
tought to move on – how tempting it would be just to relax for another hour!
Back on the bike I
continue downhill towards
I pass the famous Split
Rock Lighthouse but keep moving. I do stop at the bridge atop
Continuing the ride I
notice there is a lot of traffic, a striking contrast to the first 1 ½ days of
this loop. The scenery is great, and the wide shoulder makes the traffic
somewhat bearable. Plus it’s a smooth surface and with the tailwind I am
blazing down the
There is a good breeze,
the water stretches to the horizon just like the ocean, and I’m thinking to
myself: Life is good! Another wedding is in progress along the park and beach
of this resort. T’is the season for celebrating weddings, I guess.
Once I’m back on the bike
I have to negotiate the crowded streets of Two Harbours. The heavy traffic
backs up and I carefully scoot by the long backed up lanes of cars. On the
other side of town most of the traffic takes the 4-lane Expressway, which means
hardly any traffic on the old shore drive, now simply called the scenic drive.
With the tailwind it is a
lot of fun, but still quite hot. I notice another bike rider far up front,
maybe 1km ahead or so. For some reason I switch into comp mode and pound hard
to close the gap. But it takes a while. Quite a qhile actually! Amidst the action
I sweat like crazy and lose track of the many km flying by. Eventually I catch
the rider up front and we start chatting. His name is Ryan, and he lives up
near Isabella and heads for some family get together in
I explain to Ryan where my
car is parked and he offers to show me the back roads via the
Finally we get within 1km
of where my car is parked and Ryan needs to turn into some side-street and says
Goodbye. I continue on slowing down the last mile, taking in the sweeping
views. Finally on the parking lot, I am within a few hundred meters of the
200km mark! I roll to the end of the parking spot which offers the best view of
the
There is a bit of a
Mediterrenean flair in this sunny and hot August afternoon. Looking down to
Lake Superior from aloft reminds me of the
As nice as it is here, I
still have 400km to drive back to
I’m back in