Day 13 – Copper Harbor, MI to St. Ignace, MI

Looks like rain... again

After a very nice day in Copper Harbor, it was time to head out, completing our loop around Superior. Checked the weather: more rain. The weather system that had us grounded in Thunder Bay stalled and was now moving north. Great. The rain gear is really getting a work-out this trip. The day before I lost one of my gore-tex glove covers, so I would need to improvise. The now empty 1-gallon zip-lock that had once held a bundle of cigars would now keep my left hand from becoming waterlogged.

After breakfast, we headed south down the peninsula. Temperature was hovering at around 49 degrees and the skies were threatening. About 20 miles into the ride the first raindrops fell. We stopped to put on the rain gear (and my Zip-lock) and continued south. Conditions deteriorated significantly from there.

The weather was awful. The further we rode, the worse it got, until we were dealing with torrential downpours and gale force crosswinds. The last 50 miles or so were along the shore of Lake Michigan. There were whitecaps as far as you could see and actual surf at the shore. The wind coming off the lake was wicked and it was all we could do to keep the bikes upright and in our lane. It was a white-knuckle ride if there ever was one.

We turned off at the first decent hotel we saw in St. Ignace, very relieved to have survived this leg of the tour.

The rain and the wind was still howling at 7:00 when we wanted to get some dinner, so we called a cab, which took us to the Mackinac Grill, a local favorite. Warm food and some adult beverages managed to take the edge off the day’s ride.

We turned in for the night hoping that conditions would improve the next day.