Tour de detour

We knew about today's 20 mile detour ahead of time. What we didn't know was just how steep our bonus miles would be. We are in the Gogebic iron range. While I wouldn't call them mountains, they are respectable hills.

We stumbled upon the Iron Bell rail trail. We didn't know it existed, but it was a very pleasant way to start the day. The trail appears to have just been paved. There are lots of miles of old SOO line tracks that have been turned into trails in this area, but few are paved. That's what comes of having an 8 month snowmobile season and a 4 month cycling season.

The Iron Bell line was busy during the iron boom. The only commodity to haul these days is lumber, and that's done by trucks.

We passed the site of an old turntable built in the 1890s. The original turntable was turned by hand.

The rail trail let us avoid the first few hills. That didn't last long.

The views were still quite nice once we returned to the road, although the shoulder of the road is not exactly peaceful and quiet.

When we arrived at our destination we met a couple, Charles and Darlene, from Winnipeg. Can you guess what happened to their car?

Here's a hint, it involved a creature that Americans usually encounter on the last Thursday in November. They're stuck here for a few days until their car can be towed to Ironwood for repairs.

Michigan means every bottle comes with a 10 cent deposit. It also means some of those bottles contain Vernor's.

Because we crossed back into the Eastern Time zone today, this will be our latest sunset of the trip, but far from our longest day.

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