UP Adventure Trail (1300 miles!)

[Askel]

In addition to the bicycle dork thing, I also get into the motorcycle dork thing. I'd been talking about putting together a dirt bike/bicycle route for a while, but hadn't had the time to pull everything together. 

Well, shortly after completing a dirt bike ride of the Great Divide (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=603076), my buddy Bryan wasn't quite done yet and decided to put together his own 1300 mile loop around Michigan's Upper Peninsula:  http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14477275

(Be sure to check out his photo-essay. He pays close attention to a lot of the local history, takes amazing photos, and visited during what is probably the most scenic time of year.) 

I'm totally looking forward to riding this by bicycle next summer. The route is ideal- essentially a figure 8 based out of Gwinn. You could park your car in long term parking at Sawyer International Airport and choose either the western or eastern loops.  I know the western loop crosses or comes very, very close to some really nice single track if you need a fix.  I suspect there's some on the eastern loop as well. 

I've ridden much of the western portion already on a bicycle and done a fair amount of the eastern portion with Bryan on a dirt bike.  This is really some of the best the UP has to offer and Bryan does an excellent job of putting together the GPS files for navigation. 

[ScottM]

What's the percentage of pavement, would you say?  And are the dirt roads mainly gravel/non-technical?  Just curious what kind of surfaces there would be, not knowing anything about what a dual sport bike can/can't do.

[Askel]

I'm not 100% familiar with this particular route, but I'd guess it's probably way less than 25% pavement.  And of that, a significant portion is fun, low traffic pavement.  Bryan goes to great lengths to avoid using highway connectors. 

Most of the route is dirt roads and two tracks. I'd say his pictures represent the route well.  Anything that gets remotely technical has a go around for big bikes.  I think the biggest challenge might be sand on the eastern portion.  but then, there's go arounds for a lot of that. "Technical" is kind of a relative term, but as for bike- I'm thinking of running a cyclocross bike for the western portion. The sand on the eastern portion may need something bigger in the tire dept. 

Also, I'd suggest skipping the motorcycle singletrack.  Motorcycle singletrack is nothing like good mountain bike singletrack. Besides, the UP has a lot of great bicycle singletrack along the route: http://www.keweenawtrails.com/.  I'm hoping to integrate some on my trip next summer. 

   

[ruthslp]

i am going to look into the details he posted. i might be interested to ride it early/late spring 2011, if anyone else would like to meet up? or even xc ski it earlier if I can see places to stay along the route are close enough.

[mmeiser]

sweet route, anything in the lower peninsula?

[Askel]

Lots of sand, I've heard.   

This might hold some possibilities:  http://www.gldsmc.org/GLDSEXmi.html

My last trip through, I noticed large stretches of the North Country Trail were open to bicycles. That could be fun. 

[Mike Brown]

That looks awesome! 

[mmeiser]

Wow, looks awesome, makes me think about cancelling my post christmas run down the blue ridge mountains and heading for maninstee area.    

Trying to load the GPX on my android phone now, have been trying out a new app called Backcountry Navigator... allows user defined precaching. So far I love it... one small error though. Not sure what caused it but after I mounted the flash drives on my computer to upload the GPX BC navigator dumped or lost track of all the precached data I'd already downloaded. I'm sure it won't be an issue on the trail but still, damn.

Update: wait, my mistake... that was just USGS topo data, simply hadn't finished downloading, USGS data is really slow to download, but it's cool, mytopo data is pretty much the same thing but more readable.

[cjsbike]

Very interesting.

Since spring of 2010 I have been planning a route from Copper Harbor, Michigan to my home in Williamsburg, Michigan (Traverse City area).

The route will be roughly 620 miles with less than 10% paved road. 

Planned take off is the third week in June of 2011. 

No GPS tracks, just using my Michigan Atlas, area maps, and local knowledge to plan.  I have made up my own cue sheets.   

My official name for the beast of a bike packing ride, Super Yooper Tour.

This forum rocks!

-Chad

[Eric417]

How many days are you planning to finish the ride in?

[cjsbike]

I have 9 days, but I am shooting for 5-6 days.

Persons interested in joining me, can by all means. 

This will be a test run for an ultra backpacking race in the future.

More to come.

-Chad

[mmeiser]

FYI, potential trail covering about half the lower peninssula:

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,954.0.html

So about 2/3 down, maybe 3/4, need that last bit for a full Trans Michigan route. I can dream.   

[silence]

I've got almost this route planned for my own June trip.  I had intended to study the area a lot, but then decide day to day where to ride.  However, the western half of that is very very close to my general plan-  amazingly close.

I will be leaving from Rochester MN on the 11th and heading up through Wausau and then over to lake Michigan and up OR leaving from Wausau after racing the WORS race on the 12th.  After hitting the lake I had planned generally on riding to Marquette, Houghton, Copper Harbor and then back down along the lake.

I also intend to race in the Keweenaw Chain Drive on the 19th (likely more of a "tour" after the 550-900 miles I'll have ridden the week before.

I'd be more than happy to join up for part of this.

I will need to get back to southern MN (or at least close) by the end of the 26th.

We might be getting somewhere near a full loop around lake Michigan!

[cjsbike]

I've got almost this route planned for my own June trip.  I had intended to study the area a lot, but then decide day to day where to ride.  However, the western half of that is very very close to my general plan-  amazingly close.

I will be leaving from Rochester MN on the 11th and heading up through Wausau and then over to lake Michigan and up OR leaving from Wausau after racing the WORS race on the 12th.  After hitting the lake I had planned generally on riding to Marquette, Houghton, Copper Harbor and then back down along the lake.

I also intend to race in the Keweenaw Chain Drive on the 19th (likely more of a "tour" after the 550-900 miles I'll have ridden the week before.

I'd be more than happy to join up for part of this.

I will need to get back to southern MN (or at least close) by the end of the 26th.

We might be getting somewhere near a full loop around lake Michigan!

Sweet route!  I like it.

My dreams to complete the my own version of Trans UP (Super Yooper Tour) might be placed on hold because of a few uncontrolable inputs this summer. 

My route from Copper Harbor to Williamsburg is complete, oh man, it is calling to me! 

My route combined with JimL's lower Michigan route would make a complete Trans-Michigan! 

I will have to see how things go this spring before I tackle my Super Yooper Tour.  If I go, I will be in "Downtown" Copper Harbor on June 10 for a June 11 role out at 7am.

Have a great spring!

-Chad

[mmeiser]

I'm liking this idea of a Lake Michigan loop.

It may simply be like buying a car and then suddenly seeing them everywhere.

However there may also be a true trend going on in long distance bike routes on and off road. Certainly there's something on the rise with "gravel grinders". I wonder if it's just a phase or truely a new evolving demographic for cycling. 

Long distance rail trails networks for example are unequivecably on the rise, which is awesome but that doesn't mean anything about the popularity of biking... just they're a popular government spending meme at the minute.

Certainly some event like RAAM have been around forever... but I'd like to believe there's an increase in the amount of ultra-endurance bike geeks out there. Just like there's a trend in geeks across the board from anything from Linux distros to tuba playing.

Coming full circle, the idea of a Michigan loop is a classic motorcycling and possibly motoring theme just like motoring to the tip of south america.

Indeed there are some superb road routes along the west Michigan coast. I've driven most of it and ridden some. I've also ridden or driven most of the lake front from Michigan all the way to Wisconsin. I'm sure there are some superb backroads all the way around lake michigan with the exception of chicago where the best bet is probably to go straight up the lakefront.  There may be an alternative along the desplaines river or further out on the GIT (great illinois trail) but we're not talking quality stuff.

[mmeiser]

p.s. To reitterate scouting the southern route from the state line is on the very top of my list. I have no idea when I'll fit it in, but my guess is sometime in March, April or May. Hopefully mid-march. Just depends on how busy the shop is. I have to pick my moments.

[clydeone]

I can give you some routes on mapmyride from Holland down to the stateline I know this section very well (I live in Saint Joe) However most all of these routes are paved.  There is very little in the way of dirt roads that you can take along the lake.  If we want to build at least a dirt road route we will have to go further inland.  The other problem will be camping.  unlike further north all the land around here is privately owned -- most camping will be stealth.  

Should we just start a separate Thread for the Lake Michigan loop??