Day 2 - St Ignace, MI to Copper Harbor, MI

The morning started out cold and wet as we headed out of St Ignace. After a not-so-fast-food coffee stop at the local McD’s we headed out on US 2 and within 45 minutes the drizzle had stopped and gave away to cool temps but sunny skies for the rest of the day. We knew it was going to be a good day for riding when 2 cranes flew above us – a sure sign that we were in for a nice ride. Speaking of cranes, we did see some birds – always in pairs – that looked like some sort of stork or crane along the roadside, but were not able to identify what they were.

We rode along the north shore of Lake Michigan and then cut inland before hitting Manistique and made our way to the south shore of Lake Superior. After fueling up in Munising, we took a short walk to check out Munising Falls and then over to the Miners Castle portion of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

From there, we followed M28 along the beautiful lakeshore to Marquette, where we stopped in at the local Harley dealership – Bald Eagle HD, and then grabbed some lunch at the Big Boy just down the road.

We continued heading west on US41, and after a fuel stop in L’Anse, we headed up towards Houghton and along M26 to our final destination in Copper Harbor, the King Copper Motel. M26 was a fun road to ride – narrow and tree lines, with some gentle twists and lots

of ups and downs along the way. It reminded us a bit of the Tunnel of Trees on the western side of the thumb of Michigan, but without all the homes. We made a quick stop at Jacob’s Falls and then when we got to Copper Harbor, we took a ride out to see the lighthouse. I could not find the access road that led right to the lighthouse, but we did find a roadside park that gave us a decent view of it.

It wound being a beautiful day for riding, with the sun shining open us for the majority of our 576 kms travelled. We did manage to stay to our planned route for the most part – we skipped going to Castle Rock just outside of St Ignace and instead took the I75BL through town to check it out. Once we got to Munising, we also decided to skip going to Sand Point and instead head over to Miners Castle.

We’re now two days into the new-to-us use of the intercom system on

the bike and starting to get used to it – I’m sure that by day 35, we’ll be pros!

For dinner, we took the short walk over to a local hangout, The Mariner North, for some food and cold pops to celebrate the day.

All in all, a great day for a tour of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula!