UP Ride

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Thi past weekend I took a trip up to northern Wisconsin and did some riding in the UP. I actually did a little planning for this trip and bought a set of wheels off ebay and spooned a new set of Karoos on. New Camelback backpack too! I ended up getting two days to ride and had a great time. This was the first time I spent any real time dual-sporting. I got some tracks off Cannon's and 2trakR postings in the Central GPS. My jumping off point was from Marenisco.

Day 1 - I just wanted a small shakedown run. I did the Marenisco-IronRiver trail. I stopped and putzed around, took some pics, checked my mileage, and generally just had fun sightseeing. The pics I took came in handy later. About 2/3 of the way out I discovered I had broken my license plate off. I decided to head into Iron River, get gas, then look for my plate on the way back. I went fairly slow and couldn't find it. Later that night I checked my pics and discovered I had lost it between my first two photo stops. 90 miles on the first day. About 4-5 hours riding.

Day 2 - I wanted to try and find my plate since I knew roughly the section I had lost it. I found it about 500 ft from my first photo stop. I turned around and headed back to Marenisco. I really had no plan for this day. I was concerned about finding my plate and wasn't real comfortable riding outside the ATV trails without it. I had a 2trakR track loaded into my GPS and figured I would just follow it for awhile. it was almost all forest road and it took me from Marenisco to Bergland to Rockland, then up near Greenland, southeast to Sidnaw, south to Iron River, then back on day 1's route to Marenisco. The day started beautiful. The riding was great. I just kept going... I was south of Sidnaw and got slammed in severe thunderstorm. Blinding rain, hail, trees coming down, 2-3 inches of water flowing across the forest road.... I was getting kinda nervous. Middle of the Ottawa National Forest with no help around, no cell, ....lol. Finally it stopped hammering down as I slowly got towards Iron River and finally quit raining when I was on my way back from getting gas in Iron River and was headed back to Marenisco. Beautiful day again by the time I got back to my truck. About 230 miles in 8.5 hours.

Here some pics from the trip... (Yeah, I know, I suck with a camera... )

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[markhas]

I was there in the same place in late June and early July. Watched the 4th of July parade in Marinesco. Those endless green canyons are really pyscodalica. Also took a quick tour of the Ottawa National Forest and can't wait to get back to do some serious camping.

[Resq47]

Are those shots of the gravel pretty typical of that run? I'd like to get the Strom up there one of these days...

[GB]

let's see more of the UP

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Originally Posted by Resq47

Are those shots of the gravel pretty typical of that run? I'd like to get the Strom up there one of these days...

Yeah... for the most part. I was following a track posted up by 2trakR. I wasn't sure what I was gonna get into. Some of it got kind of vertical on the ATV trail section... I would say I (average rider) could ride 90% of it on my GS.

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This pic is my first one of the whole trip. See the dark green further down the trail? A few feet from that is where I found my plate...lol.

[kingbee]

That's right in my back yard. Lots of fun riding at this end of the UP. Our daughter is spending this weekend with a friend, so Queenbee and I are going for an overnight ride. We'll leave Ironwood Saturday A.M. and work our way over towards the Sturgeon River Gorge area. The hike to the top of Silver Mountain is worthwhile, BTW. Not sure where we'll end up for the night but hopefully it's somewhere we can take a dip- it's gonna be hot this weekend.

Thanks for the pics.

Cheers,
Dave

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Originally Posted by kingbee

That's right in my back yard. Lots of fun riding at this end of the UP. Our daughter is spending this weekend with a friend, so Queenbee and I are going for an overnight ride. We'll leave Ironwood Saturday A.M. and work our way over towards the Sturgeon River Gorge area. The hike to the top of Silver Mountain is worthwhile, BTW. Not sure where we'll end up for the night but hopefully it's somewhere we can take a dip- it's gonna be hot this weekend.

Thanks for the pics.

Cheers,
Dave

It really is beautiful... I think this winter I'm gonna plot out a trip to DS into an area then hike to waterfalls. Just checking Topo, it seems there's quite a few in the area...