We do a decent amount of research before
heading out on our trips, but it never fails that when we get there, something
quirky pops up about the area we are visiting. Sue found out that Ishpeming is
home to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame and has a ski jump facility in
Negaunee. The training center, which opened in 1925, actually consists of five
jumps of different heights within a valley known as Suicide Bowl.
Neither of us had seen a ski jump in person,
so we took a ride over to take a look. We can’t imagine being crazy enough to
try it the first time! Below is a photo of the 60- and 90-meter hills. The
facility was closed when we arrived, so the the 40-, 25- and 13-meter jumps
were obscured by trees from our viewing spot outside the locked gate. Darn, we
missed our chance, since the 40 and 13 are covered in plastic for summer
jumping!
...and just for fun, here is a video of local
coach Zak Hamill trying the big hill with a POV camera.
At the start of a planned ride to the
southeast of Marquette, Sue and I were coasting down the steep hill on Third
Street when she hit a bump, and something popped on her Colnago. One of the zip
ties that anchor the brake housing into the little brackets running down the
fork to the disk brake caliper had broken. The cable was flapping all over the
place, dangerously close to the spinning front wheel, so it needed to be fixed
before we went any further.
There was a convenient bike shop just a
couple blocks back – in fact, we were amazed to find that there were FOUR bike
shops in the downtown area – unfortunately it was back up the nasty hill we
just descended. I saw the look on her face when considering that prospect, and
I quickly switched machines and sprinted back up the climb for the quick fix.
The Marquette Multi-Use Path provided a
gorgeous stretch of paved trail right on the Lake Superior shoreline for about
four miles. The trail veers slightly to the left at a Michigan Welcome Center
near the town of Harvey to cross through the wetlands area where the Chocolay
River (actually more like a creek) meets the lake.
The trail now had a crushed white gravel
surface, and soon a girder bridge with attractive art deco concrete abutments (another relic of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad) carried the
trail over Michigan Route 28. Except for a slight bend near the community of
Beaver Grove, it was a perfectly straight stretch of railroad grade for five
miles!
My original plan was to eventually circle
back north of the city and explore some of the Northern Michigan campus, and
Sue expressed interest in doing the same. However, she had absolutely no
interest in taking the hilly route I had mapped out, so she turned around at
this point to ride on her own.
A few miles later, to change up the scenery
on the way back, I made a left just past the Ojibwa Casino and rode on Rt. 28
for a short distance. I thought it was pretty amazing to find that only 15
miles or so of my planned 40-mile route included roads with no
traffic-separated bike paths! I will also mention that the roads I did have to
ride had huge shoulders that were remarkably clean, compared to the
debris-strewn versions I usually experience in Pennsylvania - that is, if any
shoulder exists.
I hung a right on Lakewood Drive and struggled
through a stiff headwind in the neighborhood along the shore back to Harvey. I
made a sharp left back at the Welcome Center to ride up into the hills south of
Marquette. With the breeze now pretty much at my back, I was flying up along
the highway, which had road-separated bike lines on each side and actually
featured a tunnel that passed beneath so that cyclist could easy switch over!
I was heading out toward the Marquette
Mountain Ski and U.P. Mountain bike areas, but the climbs were not
leg-numbingly steep, more of the long drag type. In fact, the whole three-mile section I rode
along County Route 480 was uphill, but only at a 3-4% grade at most. What made the riding difficult was the wind!
The roads are generously wide, and with the aforementioned shoulder on each
side, there wasn’t much shelter from the gusts.
The turn north on Michigan 553 was quite
welcome, not only to escape the wind’s full force, but to enjoy the long
downhill run back into Marquette. Except for a short incline past the in
entrance to the ski resort, there were miles of coasting, and a few times I had
to dial back the speed, as worst-case scenarios pop into my head when nearing
the 40-mph mark!
Rt. 553 connected with the Iron Ore Heritage
Trail, and I was again tackling the gradual climb away from Lake Superior. I
made a right turn on County Route 492, which eventually becomes Wright Road and
leads into the heart of the Northern Michigan campus.
I looped around some of the roads there and
found that, despite being founded in 1899, very few older buildings remained and, except for its
considerable size, the campus had more of the look of a modern community
college. I passed the expansive athletic complex, including the Superior Dome (photo above),
which lays claim to being the largest wooden dome in the world, then made my
way downtown to our apartment.
Despite some nagging lower back issues, Sue
had in mind a vigorous hike up Sugarloaf Mountain for a wonderful view of Lake
Superior and the hills north of Marquette. The hike was really very short and
really not so challenging, despite the sign which distinguished our “difficult”
route from the one that was “easy”.
We had recalled a long and somewhat
dangerous route taken in the White Mountains when the boys were very little.
The 2-3 hours we had spent scrambling up and down rocks, sometimes clinging to
slender tree trucks high above Frankenstein Cliff (great name) made the
twenty-minute walk up to Sugarloaf’s peak seem rather sad – it even had wimpy
stairs with handrails! The views were pretty wonderful, though:
I think Sue’s disappointment with the hike
was completely overcome by her true bliss, spending the afternoon relaxing on a
beach, reading through one of her ever-present piles of books. Since I didn’t
really have any intention of going in the cold water and, good book in my hand
or not, would otherwise get antsy sitting around for so long, we considered the
option of a drop-off. The art show going on nearby, which made parking
impossible, clinched the idea, and I left Sue to enjoy the solitary peace and
went back to watch the coverage of the Tour’s final stage.
Just a quick closing rant: this was the
seventh time in the last eight years someone from the Sky/Ineos evil empire has
won the Tour de France. Although there were certainly some thrills in the
individual stages, I grew rather sick of hearing the announcers saying that it
has been the most exciting Tour in recent years. That just sounded like a
commercial for Eurosport – whether an individual/team is competitive or gets
blown out, they still have the same result over and over again...a loss! That’s
not exciting for viewers of the event, just disappointing.
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