Episode 040: 2024 Upper Peninsula Michigan Trip
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[00:00:00] Todd, you've heard of the old 96er? Oh, yeah. Well, it's not 96, but, uh, the Pine Tree Supper Club has a court jester that weighs in at 55 ounces. Ha ha ha ha.
Bottom Line
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The bottom line is the UP is just great riding no matter which way you cut it.
Mile Marker - Day 1
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So at the very end of August, we took off on a trip.
It was a four day trip to the UP. ~Um, ~so maybe we'll just break it down day by day. ~Um, ~and kind of give you the, give everybody the lowdown. So we went from Iowa to Escanaba, Michigan, which is just before it kind of flattens out at the top of the Lake Michigan. So early morning leave 151 to Wisconsin, which is kind of a nice diagonal road four lane,~ um,~ across Iowa to mineral point because, uh, Brad had been to this pointer cafe a number of times.
So it was perfect [00:01:00] timing. We showed up in Mineral Point and got a nice little breakfast. But then the kind of funny thing that happened is the company that I work for, actually one of the people that I work for, lives in Mineral Point. And so, ~um, ~right when we're walking out to leave, I took a selfie of the restaurant sign and me, and she was driving by when she got it.
So she pulls in the parking lot. No way. Within one minute. Wow. It was the craziest thing, so that was kind of fun, so. It was just one of those times you were taking the picture for her I was taking the picture for her. Yeah, I took a picture a selfie with me and I sent it to her Assuming that you know, who knows where she was when she would see it and she pulls in like right then So it was just one of those things.
It's like we talk about these cool things that happen You know on these motorcycle trips and that was just one of those like You couldn't have planned it to be better, right? So so yeah after mineral point we headed up south of oshkosh And we took a few county roads to [00:02:00] get there. But once you get to oshkosh and green bay Pretty much city.
So we jumped on the interstate Kind of gave us the fast lane through on the north side of green bay 41 is known as the world war ii veterans memorial highway And so that's cool. ~Um, ~just a nice piece of history there. I think they've dedicated a number of years ago You And then Marionette is kind of the end of Wisconsin, and that's when you jump the Marionette River, and you go to Menomonee, and uh, that's Do do do do do.
Menomonee. Do do do do. Sorry. So that's where you pick up highway 35 and you pretty much ride the Lake Michigan coast all the way up to Escanaba with that. And that is a great drive. So imagine you're kind of leaving Green Bay when you're looking across, do you see some land? That's Door County. So there's like an inlet.
Yeah. Yeah. So you kind of, if you think Door County, That's what you're kind of doing. You're writing up in that way. So not really an eventful, uh, Escanaba night but uh
Day 2 - Escanaba to Gaylord Michigan
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day two is Escanaba Gaylord where which is [00:03:00] Gaylord is on the the south side of michigan I guess do they call it the Lower Peninsula?
I've never heard it called that. Me either, so that's why I was like, confused when I started to say it. Gaylord is like, if you think noon on the Lower Peninsula, but probably up, about two thirds up. And the goal this time was to ride two down from Escanaba across the bridge. And then 23 which is on the Huron side of the lake because we had never rode that way before so But before you get to the bridge, I would just say I just love the north side of Lake Michigan I don't know what it is about riding and usually ~um ~West to east it's just a great Like kind of like a lake view that you would think.
I agree. I mean some of the houses, there's beach along most of it, but you can see the lake. ~Um, ~it's just beautiful. Now it is my understanding you don't necessarily want to be there in the winter, uh, because I think that's where you get a ton of lake effect snow that just blows hard up into that area.
[00:04:00] So, we were getting close to the Mackinac Bridge there and it looked like rain. So we took an opportunity to stop Uh, for lunch at a little place called the bear patch restaurant in and not ignog didn't ignite in and got in God and God and God in Michigan. Yes. Sorry.~ Um, ~tiny place.
I believe there's eight tables. Wow. And, uh, I think they worked on each thing one at a time, but it was really good food all made from scratch. And honestly, we needed to spend the time anywhere. We just would've got wet. So if you get a chance to stop at the Bear Patch restaurant, it's recommended. Those are my favorite types of places.
Oh gosh. I mean, this place looked closed. So it was good though. So then we got on the road, but it wasn't too much further, but we had to stop again for a pasty. Of course. So that was at Wildwood Pasties. That's Brevport. Side note. We can talk about this a little bit later in our tips and tricks and toolkits, but, uh, the, [00:05:00] the pasty trail or pastry trail.
I'm not, he's got a name spelled that way, but we'll talk about it. Uh, we missed out big time. So we've got another trip opportunity up there. There's actually a pasty trail and there's pasty trail with beer too. So like, I don't know, this could be a good thing. So, so we ran across the Mackinac bridge. What a beautiful day.
It was a little breezy, but other than that, it was just perfect. ~Um, ~that is where on the South side, then you'd go from two to 23. So we kind of hung a, eastbound route and then rode the ~um, ~coast down 23,~ um,~ All the way down to a town called alpina ~Um ~when we just cut back directly over to gaylord But where there was a great stop that we stopped at ~Um, ~brad might not agree, but it was a little place called seymour's long lake Again, another place that looked I was we weren't even sure it was open.
We had to get we needed fuel and We were running out and you, it looked like an, it definitely had gas pumps and it looked like an old [00:06:00] abandoned station almost like there was no lights on hardly, but you go in there and it was a great place. Like I had pizza, all kinds of things. So it looked like it was a, it was a popular snowmobile stop.
And that's what you do have to be careful of. Some of the places up there that get a lot of snowmobiles, they, uh, they,~ um,~ well, they, what do you call it when you put a. Hump in the middle of the road, you know, kind of a what it was. Oh, yeah a crown. Yeah crown Yep, there was a little crown there and one rider man almost lost the motorcycle So you just you do have to be paying attention when you're pulling up to some of these places Because you're trying to get gas But then you know just an inch or two in footing when you're not thinking and then that weight shifts You do have to be careful ~Um, ~he didn't dump the bike, but he did let his helmet roll all the way into the ditch, which I found amazing, and hopefully,~ um,~ is on the video, so.
And I think that happens every trip, someone dumps their helmet and it rolls. It was the best, because it was like the slowest [00:07:00] roll you could even imagine. And it was just like, vroom, vroom. Like was it going to stop, or was it going to keep rolling, oh, oh, it hit the, oh gosh, it went down in the middle of the ditch, so.
After I got done laughing, I went and got the helmet. I figured that was only fair. It was nice, yeah. So day three was kind of our long road back west. We were going from Gaylord, Michigan to Tomahawk.~ Um, ~the best day we found maybe to ride M 119, which is one of the best roads, absolutely bar none in Michigan.
~Um, ~we did that on a Saturday morning. Oh my goodness. Was it dead? And it was beautiful. Perfect. Again, just one of the coolest roads.
tom: My favorite ride is from the South to the North. When you're doing that, it's just a little bit better views and I think it's just the angle of the road, but it's, they're both good, which rides you up in the cross village and you can go up into there. And then we always end up going to bliss and funny enough, bliss kind of kind of a full revamp.
tom: They like, the inside was completely [00:08:00] redone. ~Um, ~new owner from what we heard. And, uh, so yeah, uh, that was the, uh, that was the,~ um,~ that was kind of cool to see that because sometimes we go and they're not always doing so well. So, so yeah, so back over the bridge then going from south to north and we found another pasty shop.
tom: And you stopped. We, well, we did. Letho's pasties, Pasties. Sorry. Lethos pasties. That was a, that was one of the original ones. ~Um, ~so they were old school. So that was a really, it was fun to stop there. Not a lot of frills. These, there's not options. Like no one's gone past the fusion yet. So someday I suppose, but uh, so then we got to, got to go back across that great section of a highway to Escanaba,~ um,~ that we were talking about.
tom: That was really good. But now when we got to Escanaba, we kind of turned west.
Burnt Rollways Boat Hoist
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tom: And we kind of noticed that we were a little ahead of time. And so Brad knew of this, the coolest [00:09:00] thing. ~Um, ~it's called the burnt rollways boat hoist.
Todd: Yeah.
tom: It's in Oneida County, Wisconsin. So what this thing is, is it's like, you know, there's so many leaks up there and not all of them are the exact same levels.
tom: Right. And so what this thing does is, and I don't remember which lake to which lake it does, but It will take your lake from the lower one, which I would say, it's dammed, you know, take your boat. It would take your boat. You said take your lake. Oh, take the lake is about 20 feet lower. So we'll take your boat.
tom: It grabs it, hoist it up 25 feet, moves it over and drops it in the other lake.
Todd: No kidding.
tom: Yeah, it's all, it's like an electric machine that, you know, like, like you can imagine. I mean, does it look like a crane? What? Oh yeah. Yeah. Like it just hooks onto the bottom, kind of like ugs the hole. Wow. Lifts it up.
tom: And then they do an [00:10:00] inspection of some sort. 'cause there's a certain type of, uh, plant that they don't want to get passed back and forth. So there's actually a pers an plant inspector there as well, but, Mm-Hmm. , when we were there, it was like a 1957, uh, crisscross. Cris Craft. Kriss Craft. Thank you. Yeah.
tom: Yeah. Unbelievable boat. I mean it was beautiful and Yeah, so the guy had it and he was very proud of it. It was very cool boat But yeah, it was neat to be able to see we got to see one boat go from each way cool And yeah, so burnt rollways boat hoist if you get a chance if you're up there, it's by Eagle River Just a cool thing to stop and see and yeah, it's kind of always running in the summer Yeah And it's, it's down some neat little roadways.
tom: And do you stop and pay to have your
Todd: boat moved or? Yes.
tom: I, well, I, I, I didn't ask if it costs, but I know they were tipping. So I'm assuming maybe it costs, but [00:11:00] yeah, I'd have to check into that one. But, but yeah, so what, quite the, quite the experience to see that for sure. So, and then we ended up staying at Tomahawk, which is a place we've stayed a number of times.
tom: We enjoy the Pine Tree Supper Club. And, uh, that is where, now, I unfortunately didn't try the court jester 55 ounce. I, uh, I had to, you know, restrain slightly. I only have the king's gut 28 ounce pry bar. Oh, all right. Well, I think the
Todd: 55 must be made for two people. They
tom: said that, but I still think we should try, you know, next time.
tom: Gotcha. I'll get myself worked up for it, you know. So that was day three. ~Um, ~and then day four. We kind of came out of Tomahawk, and Tomahawk's kind of in the middle of the state. And we headed, we headed west on the four lane over to Eau Claire. And, I don't know if you've ever stopped at a quick trip in Wisconsin, but there's, there's a couple.
tom: There's all of them. Oh, okay. [00:12:00] What are you getting at? Oh, nothing. We have quick trips here, what do you mean? Yeah, it's well, I'm just saying though Wisconsin. There's so many quick trips. It's like the Casey's here. Exactly Well, they fight about that. That's a fight for them So then we kind of found our way over to county j and as we talk about when we talk about Wisconsin roads anytime you find a lettered road, you're in a good place Because we had a plan to go to the best pie in America per USA Today 2024 and we found it at Stockholm Pie and General Store.
tom: This town is probably population 430 maybe? And I'll bet you there's 3, 000 people in there that day. It was unreal. It was on a Sunday and it was beautiful. We, we couldn't have, we didn't even plan it because I think we accidentally got over to this County J. M. And it just came in right on the street that the pie shop was on.
tom: It was great. It was really really great Were
Todd: people
tom: there to
Todd: shop were they there to? It was too small
tom: shopping. Like I [00:13:00] don't even know what I'd tell you like it was weird It was like a town that's starting. I I honestly believe that the stockholm pie and general store getting the number one Pie in the USA has just bloomed this town.
tom: Oh, okay. People were restoring the town. I see at the time I mean, wow, we actually ran into a gentleman. Well, we bought some I bought some farm apples So some the guy picked them this morning. He said that morning and then we took a tour We were just walking along and and um this this shot like an old I would call it a general store, I guess, with nothing in it.
tom: And this guy was restoring the whole entire thing. He had sanded the floors, put like vintage wood back up on the sides and just unbelievable. And next door to that, he kind of had his little man cave. And he had like a dragster, two engine dragster from the sixties, bunch of motorcycles and all kinds of stuff.
tom: He's like, Oh, come on in, take a [00:14:00] look. And it was, it was just one of those times again, where you just like. We're just looking in the window and this guy goes, you guys want to see these a little closer? And we're like, sure, of course. Yeah. So yeah, it was quite the thing. So what a, it was a really good journey.
tom: And then we ended up just coming back home, the river road. And coming back this way. So, so yeah. So, wow. It was, it was fun. ~Um, ~another good ride. ~Um, ~enjoyed it. Nothing broke down, which was kind of good. We didn't get into rain, which is rare. That's rare. Seems like so. So yeah, the UP for the win. But we definitely have to get up on this, this pasty trail now, but like, yeah, maybe we can combine it with Turk's Stormy Cromer run maybe or something.
tom: I don't know. That sounds good. I'm thinking spring next year. Yeah.
Toolkit
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tom: The toolkit today, we'll talk about backup root planning. So,
Todd: yeah, in general, I think, uh, [00:15:00] when, when you and Brad and our planning our routes,~ um,~ you usually kind of build in a few like shortcuts in case we need to like abort the day because of really bad weather, you know, bad storms and that you've got like a shortcut.
Todd: Yeah, let's let planned into the relics. Let's just get, yeah, we've, we've talked about that a lot.
tom: If you kind of like do some S. Find something that's down a little further, find something that's up. When you're planning that way, if you have to cut through the middle, you can make up time. Yeah.
Todd: Yeah. Yeah.
Todd: So, uh, is that what we're going to talk about here? Well, I mean, that's a good thing, right? Okay.
tom: But I think now what we found with this ride is that we also sometimes you might want to plan for An extra place to stop because that's what happened for us on day three We kind of got out of dodge and we ended up we were a little ahead of schedule So we were set to maybe get in the hotel at like three o'clock in the afternoon.
tom: We didn't have another plan So we could have just went back to the [00:16:00] hotel, you know checked into the hotel and and done something there But luckily brad kind of he goes I got a night. I think I know where this place is He goes i'm not 100 sure and so that's how we found the boat hoist Oh, and I mean he had been there before he had seen this.
tom: Yeah That's just another kind of the yin and the yang maybe of the trip planning too, is to have a few extra places on the maps. And then, kind of like when I was looking up, when I was preparing for this episode, I wanted to kind of see, okay. The two places that we stopped for pasties, I think was Leto and, uh, Wildwood.
tom: And I was like, okay. I, I thought they were good, you know, and I, I just was like, are they the best? Mm-Hmm. . And I found that they're not, you know, they're, they're, they're good. They're good places, but they're not the best. So I found, ended up and then found this guy, pasty guy.com. Oh, pasty guy dot com's got these pasty trail, you know, so like, I think we've talked about it before, but pre-trip planning, sometimes.
tom: Kind of [00:17:00] thinking about loosen up your question. I guess I'd say when you're when you're planning like maybe trying to figure out like luckily, I Found him now and the next time we go up there we can hit some of his ideas Yeah, right
Todd: And I just like the idea that plan to maybe get to the destination at three that way You can extend if you want to.
Todd: You can take an extra little or
tom: as you go along,
Todd: like,
tom: you know, we got, I mean, yeah, we're on track. Let's skip the extra or no, we're ahead of schedule. So let's go ahead and put something else in. Yeah. ~Um, ~and so we did miss his number one recommendation, 18 out of 20 on the pasties scale,~ um,~ Lawry's pasties, but that was all the way up in Marquette.
tom: So we were a little, a little ways off of that. Okay. ~Um, ~so I'm not a hundred percent sure had we, had we found that one, but I think it just goes to the whole, you know, be open, be, be agile. We've talked about that before. Don't have [00:18:00] too much planned. ~Um, ~that way you can kind of, ~um, ~you know, you can kind of add or subtract as necessary.
tom: Yeah. Cause what you don't want to do, we've talked about this, I think before is you just don't want to have it be where you're just drained and you really just want to get back and relax or vice versa. And you just, I mean, we've had days where we knew this trip was going to be one of those ones where the furthest point away was the middle of the trip.
tom: So you knew your motor and back and those, Can be okay, but they can also be draining. Yeah. Yeah.
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Todd: keep the spirit of adventure alive. And remember bikes, friends, and endless roads. The stories ride forever. Take care.
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