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Published: December 9th 2009
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Since the snow is thinner to the south, I decided to ride north Tuesday. I rode 28 miles up to Houghton to visit the guys at Keweenaw Motorsports and get a cup of coffee. They are a Skidoo dealer and really good guys.
Dan, the service manager, has helped me several times when I had something wrong with one of the machines and got me back on the trails. Marty is the owner and I talked with him about news on the new machines. He told me that Skidoo is going to put their very advanced fuel injection system called Etec in the 800cc engine next year. They only have it available in the 600cc engines now. It is a real leap forward in 2 stroke engine technology. It produces a cleaner exhaust than 4 stroke engines and gets fantastic gas and oil mileage, over twice what my current sleds get. He said they will have demos in the dealers in February and will start selling them in the 2011 model year. Hmmm.
After leaving them, I crossed the bridge joining Houghton and Hancock and headed to Calumet. I wanted to stop at Shute's Saloon there. It opened in 1890 and still has the same bar, bar back and interior decoration since those days. It also has a large super expensive Tiffany glass canopy over the bar back. It's a throwback to the days when Calumet was the metropolis of Copper Country. Unfortunately, the bar fell victim to the economy and was closed down. The good news is that one of the locals told me that a new owner has bought it and is refurbishing the place and plans to reopen in a couple months. This whole area was booming at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. It's rich in copper and mining drove the booming economy and population growth. There's still a lot of copper here, but unfortunately strip mining for copper in the west was far more efficient and the last mine in copper country shut down in the 1950's. Now there is less than half the population as there was 100 years ago.
Unable to get into Shute's, I continued riding north to the Cliffview Inn near the little town of Mohawk. It's one of the regular stops that Rich, Kevin and I make on our
trips up to Copper Harbor at the northern tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Holly, the owner, was tending bar and there were a couple other local guys there. I caught up on my bs'ing and got a lot of the local gossip. That's how I found out about the new owner of Shute's. After here, I headed back south and stopped at The Parkview for a bowl of soup. Shelly, the bartender is expecting her first baby in March, a boy.
I rode124 miles Tuesday and about 60 on Monday. It's currently Wednesday morning and I'm using the wifi at the Parkview to post this. The snow storm is starting up with winds up to 40 mph. They are calling for 15-20 inches of snow in the next couple days and the snowmobilers are heading up this weekend. Both Krupp's and the Parkview are fully booked for the weekend.
Time to go riding.
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mrpuggle
non-member comment
you are crazy
how is it that you like to be so cold? how is that fun for you? the weather is icky in chicago and i am not leaving my house! you? you would probably go out and play in it. glad you are enjoying your trip. drive/ride safe. i will be drinking some hot chocolate next to the warm toasty cracklin' fire.