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Interested in Lake Superior Loop Ride after 2014 St Paul rally?

davidrossi

New member
Greetings. I plan to loop Lake Superior after the rally in July. Please contact me if you are interested in riding together. I am coming from Raleigh, North Carolina. I may (not likely) have my wife on the back. I will be riding a 1600 GTL.

Dave
 
Greetings. I plan to loop Lake Superior after the rally in July. Please contact me if you are interested in riding together. I am coming from Raleigh, North Carolina. I may (not likely) have my wife on the back. I will be riding a 1600 GTL.

Dave

One of my favorite rides. Plan enough time to stop at Two Harbors, Grand Marais, Gooseberry Falls, Temperance River, Rossport, etc., etc. CN Provincial Parks are excellent camping opportunities.
 
Lake Superior Ride

If anybody has done this before, can it be done in three days? I was thinking of overnighting at Thunder Bay, Wawa, and St. Ignace. Is this reasonable?

Thanks
 
If anybody has done this before, can it be done in three days? I was thinking of overnighting at Thunder Bay, Wawa, and St. Ignace. Is this reasonable?

Thanks

I think they'd be three pretty long days - especially if you ride to copper harbor.

If you do eat at harbor haus! :)
 
Three places of interest, Cascade, Temperance River, and a hike up Carlton Peak. Those are my favs from when I was a youngster. Me and my bros go every year. In the dead of winter my mind wanders back and plans the next trip.
 
If anybody has done this before, can it be done in three days? I was thinking of overnighting at Thunder Bay, Wawa, and St. Ignace. Is this reasonable?

Thanks

Tough one to answer, as so much depends on your riding style. I did it the other way in three days: North Bay ON to Agawa Bay Campground (just south of Wawa), Agawa Bay to Thunder Bay (hotel due to TORRENTIAL rains), and Thunder Bay to Duluth then east to the Apostle Islands. But my joy on the road is in riding, not stopping at touristy places or eating huge meals. And when I do stop it's to soak up some scenery and unwind before pressing on. Watch for moose early and late in the day.

Some recommendations: ferry across Georgian Bay (bring your own tiedowns), a series of small and very private coves on the east shore of Superior between Agawa Bay and Wawa, Ouimet Canyon on the north shore, definitely Sleeping Giant Parc near Thunder Bay. The view from the cliffs is breathtaking!. Two Harbors and Grand Marais on the US side are nice as well.

Pete
 
If anybody has done this before, can it be done in three days? I was thinking of overnighting at Thunder Bay, Wawa, and St. Ignace. Is this reasonable?

Thanks

I think that this is very doable. I have ridden a couple of times from Wawa to Thunder Bay, with lots of daylight left. The two stretches should not be difficult to do, taking in account the mileage. When travelling in that area on my K, I always top up my gas at every 2nd or 3rd community. From Thunder Bay to the Sault, you'll have a very scenic ride. I am not familiar with the route from Duluth to Thunder Bay. Have a good ride!
 
After stopping at Aerostich in Duluth, you really have one highway choice to Thunder Bay. That's #61 along Lake Superior. I drove Thunder Bay to Wawa last summer and got caught in heavy fog from before Nipigon to after Terrace Bay. Found four way flashers mandatory and a GPS. GPS was important to keep me on the road. I drove kms without it turned on and began to imagine the road turned here and there when it didn't. The fog was so thick it was like a sensory deprivation chamber and I was hallucinating the road. GPS solves that problem.

Good thing: In Schreiber stop at Voyageur Restaurant for excellent food made by people who care about food.
 
After stopping at Aerostich in Duluth, you really have one highway choice to Thunder Bay. That's #61 along Lake Superior. I drove Thunder Bay to Wawa last summer and got caught in heavy fog from before Nipigon to after Terrace Bay. Found four way flashers mandatory and a GPS. GPS was important to keep me on the road. I drove kms without it turned on and began to imagine the road turned here and there when it didn't. The fog was so thick it was like a sensory deprivation chamber and I was hallucinating the road. GPS solves that problem.

Good thing: In Schreiber stop at Voyageur Restaurant for excellent food made by people who care about food.

Rossport is another neat stop....I used to get my poutine and fresh trout here, but they closed. I now stop at Serendipity.
 
We started the same trip after the Aerostich Very Boring Rally last year. We did not get far before the high temperatures, high humidity and tourist traffic encouraged us to divert to the hospitable climes of the Dakotas and Montana. It looks like a wonderful ride if the weather cooperates.
 
Some buddies and I are thinking of doing the northern part of the circle on the way to the rally. We'd cross the hand of Meechigan in one day (from central O-H-I-O). Then cross at Buffy Sainte-Marie (or is is her sister Sioux?) and rotate counter-clock-wise. I'd thought that it might take a couple of days to get to Duluth. Then, the next day, on to the beeg rally at Saint Paul (or is it Saint Peter? :). We were thinking of taking the raft across Loche Meechigan on the way back. We only need for the snow and glaciers to hold off a bit during our trip; that's why we're glad the rally is held during global (or at least northern hemisphere) warming part of climate change.

I reckon that we'll need passports to sneak into Canada and avoid the draft. Oh yeah, I think that we'll need to get Canada proof-of-insurance cards (small yellow cards). Maybe we'll also need to load up our pockets with loonies to purchase litres of petrol - and re-calibrate our speedos from being inaccurate in mph to being inaccurate in kph (I'm thinking some blue painter's tape will be just the ticket).

I found the website (linked below) to have some useful info -
http://www.lakesuperiorcircletour.info/
 
To do the loop, is it necessary to cross into Canada? I haven't planned on taking my passport with me, as I have an overseas trip planned in August, and based on past experience, my luck would be to lose it in July :-(. My SO would not be very happy with that scenario ......:doh
 
To do the loop, is it necessary to cross into Canada? I haven't planned on taking my passport with me, as I have an overseas trip planned in August, and based on past experience, my luck would be to lose it in July :-(. My SO would not be very happy with that scenario ......:doh

It's definitely necessary to go into Canada....That's where a lot of the great scenery comes into play.
 
It's definitely necessary to go into Canada....That's where a lot of the great scenery comes into play.

Thanks for the advice..... Guess I'll just have to break the old mold and be really careful with my documents on this camping trip.....:uhoh
 
I reckon that we'll need passports to sneak into Canada and avoid the draft. Oh yeah, I think that we'll need to get Canada proof-of-insurance cards (small yellow cards). Maybe we'll also need to load up our pockets with loonies to purchase litres of petrol - and re-calibrate our speedos from being inaccurate in mph to being inaccurate in kph (I'm thinking some blue painter's tape will be just the ticket)./[/url]

Actually, where you really need a passport, is to get back into the U.S. Believe it or not, you could be turned away from the US without it. I met a gentleman from the east at the West Bend Rally who did not bring his passport with him. He scooted across from Buffalo to Port Huron via SW Ontario. An American border officer gave him a lot of grief not having the passport and only after fifteen or twenty minutes of disagreement was he allowed into Michigan. :scratch

With regard to your speedo, if you have a GPS, just go into tools/settings and change your mileage from miles to kilometres. Just remember to reset back to miles when you reach the US border.
 
The rally via Canada

Found this post interesting. I was just planning a route through Canada to the rally. Coming from western NY, to the Mackinac bridge to Sault St. Marie. The Trans-Canada highway is a pretty open stretch of road. Looks like a nice ride. I did find lodging to be a problem. Not many towns on that road. I'll end up in Terrace Bay. A little further than I wanted to go. Marathon would have been better but too expensive for my tastes and very limited. Also, I needed to look at gas stops. That was a lot of fun to sort out but I think I've got it scoped.
I am really looking forward to this rally. I retired last year and can spend the extra time on the Superior loop. This should be fun.
 
Found this post interesting. I was just planning a route through Canada to the rally. Coming from western NY, to the Mackinac bridge to Sault St. Marie. The Trans-Canada highway is a pretty open stretch of road. Looks like a nice ride. I did find lodging to be a problem. Not many towns on that road. I'll end up in Terrace Bay. A little further than I wanted to go. Marathon would have been better but too expensive for my tastes and very limited. Also, I needed to look at gas stops. That was a lot of fun to sort out but I think I've got it scoped.
I am really looking forward to this rally. I retired last year and can spend the extra time on the Superior loop. This should be fun.

If you don't mind camping, Ontario's Provincial Parks are great! I've camped at Pancake Bay, Neys, Obatanga, and Rossport. Also stayed at the Voyageurs Lodge. While you're there be sure to try the poutine.
 
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