We’d
been watching the weather last night on our phones and knew that a storm was
heading in our general direction. Made
it to the cabin before any rain fell. In
fact, it wasn’t until we were crawling into bed that the first raindrops began,
the thunder rumbled and then I heard nothing else because then I was out like a
light. Surfaced once or twice in the
night to hear rain on the roof but nothing that kept me awake.
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The whistle blast of a nearby train nearly
brought both of us out of our chairs. It
sounded like it was rumbling right beside the campground; Kim wondered aloud
how many trains run at night. As close
as it sounded I was hoping that was the last for the evening. But I did hear one
more train in what I assume was the wee hours of the morning. Went right back to sleep though.
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The Cloquet/Duluth KOA is about 500 miles
from home; we don’t need to be home until Thursday so we have the ability to
take our time. There are no KOA
campgrounds until Munising which is farther than we wanted to ride in a day.
Weather the past couple of nights has been questionable for camping in a tent
for just one night. Nothing worse than
packing up a wet or damp tent. Decided
to do a hotel tonight which meant I had a bit of planning to do before leaving
this morning. Pick a doable distance and see if there was lodging nearby. But also to consider was the sights along the
way that would affect our time. When
Rapunzel tells me that 300 miles should take 5 hours I know that it’ll take us
longer. It just happens.
Eventually found a room in Bergland, MI, which
just happens to be within walking distance of Lake Gogebic. Get there early enough Kim could fish.
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On a straight shot across US 2, Bergland is
about 150 miles from Cloquet, MN. But
there was an interesting ‘stick out’ of land between Superior and Ashland, WI,
that seemed worth investigating. Highway
13 would take us out on the Bayfield Peninsula along the shore of Lake Superior
and the Apostle Islands Nat’l Lakeshore.
Weather looked to be cooperative so let’s go for it.
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On the western side of the peninsula there
was a band of muddy water along the shore of Lake Superior; Kim said that was
from all the little muddy rivers and streams feeding into it. And we sure saw enough of those. Brule River was the only clear river we saw.
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The
map showed maybe 10 towns along Hwy 13 so I figured there’d be plenty of
restaurants, gift shops, gas stations, etc.
Wrong! ‘Town’ proved to be a
generous term for those located on the west side. They are unincorporated
communities with populations between 100 and 200 with little to no visible
commerce along Hwy 13. Bayfield, on the east side of the peninsula, boasts a
population of over 500. It’s bigger
because it’s the jumping off place for the Apostle Islands and has the Nat’l
Lakeshore visitor center, gas stations, restaurants, stores and many affluent
looking homes. Red Cliff, the
northernmost community on the peninsula, is the home of the Red Cliff Band of
Lake Superior Chippewa with a population of over 2,500.
The west side reminded me of riding through
some areas of the U.P…lots of trees, marshland, an occasional farm and not much
else…the east side was more like a bustling port city. I like the west side better for riding but
then the gas tank was over half full also so the lack of gas stations wasn't an issue.
In Port Wing we ate lunch at The Port. It billed itself as a bar and restaurant but
mostly it was a bar with good food. It also appeared to be a hangout for the
locals to get the scoop on medical procedures, how much beer was sold and
consumed at a festival over the weekend, upcoming vacations, etc. Along with the gossip they were playing a
dice game with a 6 pack mentioned as the prize. It was hard not to listen
because the guys were talking kind of loud. Kind of like the old guys meeting for coffee
except it was beer.
Curiosity was piqued when we saw a banner that simply said "Testicle Festival" hanging over by some trees near the bar.
I googled it and
found that it’s an annual cancer fundraising event sponsored by The Port.
There is a 5K walk/run, music, various games,
a raffle, lots of beer and food which includes Rocky Mountain Oysters (bull
testicles). All proceeds stay local to help those dealing with cancer. Sounds like a good time and a worthy cause but I think I'd pass on the namesake delicacy.
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After a week of being in the Central Time
Zone we’re back on normal time. It may
take a day or two to adjust.
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We arrived in Bergland early enough for Kim
to do some fishing out on the break wall…but he was definitely in a race
against the weather. Dark clouds were
approaching from the west and northwest making for a very dramatic sky. It was
quite windy and the clouds were moving fast so we only got sprinkled on at
first. I was expecting to get rained on
but what really caught me off guard was the pea-sized hail. It only lasted a couple of seconds but enough
to make me squawk at the surprise of it.
A rainbow made an appearance also.
Kim caught 4 fish suitable for a meal…2
good-sized rock bass and 2 perch. But by
that time the rain had really started coming down, his hands were cold and he
wasn’t in the mood to clean and cook fish at 8 p.m. So he released them and we ordered pizza.
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Tuesday’s
miles: 199
Total
miles: 1280
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