Day 17- Lake Superior Circle Tour- Au Train to Negaunee
Day 17
We started the 17th day of our Lake Superior Circle Tour with coffee and still warm cinnamon rolls from the Au Train motel/grocery/bakery. Then we headed back out onto highway M-28.
It wasn’t too terrible to ride on M-28 early in the day when there wasn’t much traffic yet. There were some areas that didn’t have shoulders, but there were other areas there were six-foot wide shoulders. So it was either really uncomfortable riding or perfectly relaxing riding.
We really ended up dragging our bikes rather than riding them through sandy Lakenenland.
Around lunch time, we stopped this really kooky place on the side of the highway, called Lakenenland. This is a free sculpture park with hundreds of weird sculptures created out of scrap metal by Tom Lakenen.
Look at how buff that deer is!
Ian found a bike touring buddy in Lakenenland in the U.P.
Lakenenland is one of the quirkiest roadside attractions that we have been to.
Lakenenland, near Marquette, Michigan, is the definition of offbeat American roadside attractions. It’s homemade, humorous, and whimsical. It reminded us of the International Car Forest in Nevada or Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. For some reason, no matter where you go in the US, there are people who feel compelled to create places like this. Whether it’s a giant concrete blue whale or the world’s largest chest of drawers, there is something unique and heartwarming about the homespun creativity of roadside attractions.
Some of the sculptures at Lakenenland are absolutely massive!
There are a lot of penny farthing sculptures at Lakenenland.
The sculptures are made out of old junk and scrap metal.
At Lakenenland, there is a loop that you can walk or drive around to see the sculptures. We tried biking around the loop, but it was incredibly sandy, and our skinny road bike tires immediately sunk into the sand. So I say we tried to bike around the loop because it was mostly us dragging our loaded bikes through the sculpture loop.
There are a lot of owl sculptures in Lakenenland.
I really liked these big-eyed owls in a tree.
These polished metal sculptures have a more…well polished…look than the rest of Lakenenland.
There are many animal sculptures, like spiders and alligators. A super buff deer greets you at the entrance. There are two giant red dogs playing with a ball and a lot of owls. Really, there are a lot of owls.
Some of the sculptures are political. This pig is pooping on an America worker.
Of course, you can find some U.P. colloquialisms like ya’s in the sculptures.
Some of the sculptures are cutting political commentary, like the “corporate pigs.” Some of the sculptures are interactive, like a slot machine where you can actually spin the slots. And there are sculptures you can make interactive—like when Ian tried to climb inside of a skeleton chair.
Some of the sculptures are not interactive.
Unless you decide to make them interactive.
There is also a cabinet of giant curios inside of a giant boat, a man on penny farthing, a pig on a penny farthing, and a pooping pig. Some of the sculptures are more abstract, a bunch of rusty junk just welted together in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Many of the sculptures are just abstract pieces.
We liked this big boat that was filled with car parts and traffic lights.
Some of the sculptures just feature old unique metal parts.
Many of the sculptures are Yooper humor. There is the log with a bunch of bowling balls stuck into it that says “Lost? Remember, bowling balls only grow on the north side of the tree.” Or the two trolls getting more beer from the cooler. Or the giant red snowmobile that you can climb on top of.
Where did he get all these bowling balls!?
Many of the sculptures in Lakenenland celebrate the culture of the U.P.
It’s so fun to find something like this that you had absolutely no idea existed on your bike tour.
There is way sculptures here than you would expect from what you can see from the road. It just keeps going further and further back, until you reach a snowmobile trail, which is a popular way to visit Lakenenland in the winter season.
Look at that Hulk leg!
Lakenenland is on a popular snowmobiling trail. Too bad there was no snow or we could have taken this for a spin!
After exploring all the spots along the trail, we went and sat in the huge timber gazebo and ate Pull n’ Peel Twizzlers and spicy biltong, and drank warmish beer. You have to eat nutritious lunches if you are going to pull of 50-70 miles every day.
One of three things in this picture is nutritious.
Someone had built a fire at Lakenenland earlier in the day.
Kalahari Biltong was one of our favorite snacks for bike touring.
The tables in the gazebos are made of the roots of trees and giant saw blades. Someone had started a fire in the giant stone fireplace. It was really too hot for a fire, but it did add a lovely romantic ambiance to our lunch.
The pavilion at Lakenenland is made of massive rocks and timbers. It’s a great place to stop for a picnic lunch.
After Lakenenland, we continued west on M-28. From here on out it wasn’t too bad to bike on. In Harvey, we headed north on Highway 41, and we were able to get on a bike trail that took us along the shore of Lake Superior into Marquette. From the trail, you can see Marquette’s massive Presque Isle Ore Docks, which are still used to load freighters with ore from Upper Peninsula mines.
This little bluetooth speaker really kept me moving on long days of cycling.
Marquette, Michigan has excellent infrastructure for cyclists.
The ore dock in Marquette, Michigan is still commercially active.
From the lakeshore, we turned and headed into downtown Marquette. Marquette is a beautiful and historic town. We headed over to Ore Dock Brewery, where they had a really wonderful indoor/outdoor seating area, and a stellar tart raspberry beer. They had free popcorn that was kind of bad and stale, but obviously we still ate a lot of it anyway.
We met some really nice people from the Lower Peninsula. We talked to them about their cabin and we told them about how we were nearly finished with our 1300-mile bike tour around the lake.
Downtown Marquette feels like it’s thriving unlike many of the mining and logging towns around Lake Superior.
Ore Dock Brewing Company had some of the best beer that we found around the Lake!
We stopped at a visitor’s center in Marquette to fill up on water.
We headed out of Marquette on the Iron Ore Heritage Bike Trail. It was really difficult to bike after the beer, because I think that our metabolisms at this point in the bike tour were in hyperdrive. The good news is that it burns off quick, especially if you ate half a bushel of popcorn while you were drinking the beer.
Eventually the trail turns to gravel, but it’s a hard packed pea gravel, and it’s actually totally fine to bike on. The trail runs through an area called Old Town Negaunee or the “Caving Grounds.” The town of Negaunee was built around a mine, and the ground beneath the town literally started to crumble. Once buildings on the outskirts of town were lost, over half the town had to be relocated. Today there are staircases, sidewalks, and roads that lead to non-existent houses and stores. Many people believe this area is haunted, and it does have a really spooky feeling.
The Iron Ore Heritage Trail running from Marquette to Ishpeming is a wonderful place for cycling.
Ian trying to assist some old man having issues with his Corvette.
Right before Negaunee where we had arranged to stay with a host on Warmshowers, the bike trail turns to pavement again. When we arrived in Negaunee, we saw a guy with a something wrong with is classic Corvette. Of course Ian had to stop and see if he could fix it. I was like, what are you going to fix it with? Our tire spoons? Our emergency spoke kit?
After the Corvette was “repaired,” we proceeded to our host’s house. Warmshowers is like Couchsurfing, except that hosts open up their homes specifically for traveling cyclists. We wheeled our bikes into her garage, took warm showers and cleaned up, and we even did a load of laundry, which was the first time on the whole tour we had clean clothing.
Watching a community concert in the little town of Negaunee, Michigan.
We had dinner with our Warmshower’s host and a group of her friends, and after dinner we had cheesecake from the bakery that she owns. After dessert, we headed down to the bandshell that is a few blocks away to watch the community band. For such a small community, they have a pretty good band, and we were very impressed by the number of people who had turned out to watch. It seemed like there was a real sense of community pride. Between music, cheesecake, and good company, the whole was night was basically a touring cyclists dream!
You never know what you are going to find when you bike tour around Lake Superior.
See our full route on Strava!
POSTS ALSO TAGGED:
Abandoned Places, Art, AU TRAIN, Beer, BIKE ROUTES, BIKE SAFETY, BIKE TOUR PLANNING, BIKE TOURING, BIKING, Biltong, CYCLING GEAR, FOOD, FRUGAL TRAVEL, Ghost Towns, GREAT LAKES, HISTORY, Iron Ore Heritage Trail, Lakenenland, LAKE SUPERIOR, LAKE SUPERIOR CIRCLE TOUR, Main Streets, Marquette, MICHIGAN, Negaunee, Outdoor TEch, Roadside Attractions, Trails, TRAVEL, UPPER PENINSULA, WarmShowers
What are your favorite roadside attractions on the Lake Superior Circle Tour? Leave a comment to share your favorite destinations!