Blogs from Copper Harbor, Michigan, United States, North America

I waited quite a while this morning for the temperature to get above 32 and by 11:00 AM, I decided I had to get on the road even though the temperature was only 29. It had gone down to 27 last night. There were still some light snow squalls going on, but for the most part, the highway was just wet. I did run into a bit of ice at one point and the Spyder wiggled around a bit which was disconcerting. I also ran into a bit of slush at a couple points in the middle of the lane. Other than that, it was an enjoyable enough ride. All I can say again is thank God I brought my snowmobile bibs. Without them, I would have frozen or I just wouldn't have been able to ... read more

Isle Royal National Park It wasn’t quite the longest day of the year, but the next day when we began to see the certainty of land a few miles in front of us. Emerging out of the grey waters, the dark strip of an island slowly grew larger and more textured. I could see the outlines of the ridges that make up Isle Royal first. The definitions of rocks and trees became more real the closer we approached. After three hours of sloshing across calm, but boring water, the approaching island yielded a certain measure of excitement. As we got closer, the excitement became a bit more palpable. Just what was this island we call Isle Royale? What in the world had we gotten ourselves into? The first thing you notice is this isn’t just one ... read more

Middle of Lake Superior, Michigan We are moving along a nearly glass surface at about 15 mph. There is a split of land behind us, but absolutely nothing but wide horizon in front. You can kind of see where the lakewater meets the cloudy sky, but the colors are close to being the same. Water temperature out here is about 38 degrees. That’s according to the captain - I personally didn’t measure it. The air temp, especially with a 16 mph wind chill, is only around 40 degrees. People go outside to the bow of the boat to see the smooth lake, but they don’t stay very long. We’re on the Queen IV, a passenger ferry. It is one of three different boats that ferry passengers over to Isle Royale. Isle Royale, as the name implies, ... read more

Contributing Photographer: Michael Weinstein We awoke to a freezing drizzle in Copper Harbor. This is probably the worst condition for riding. The drizzle freezes to the visor of your helmet within seconds and reduces visibility to close to zero. By the time we finished breakfast across the street at the Pines Restaurant, the drizzle changed over to snow, thankfully. It snowed hard after that all morning. We rode back over Brockway Mountain, but it was snowing too hard to see much of anything. We rode down to trail 124 which runs southeast from Phoenix to Gay. I have several fovorite trails in this part of the world and Trail 124 is one of them. The trails that make my favorite list are always scenic and remote with stretches of curves and some straightaways. 124 is all ... read more