Day 43 – Marquette to Seney (T.D.: 113.6km; S.T.: 5h55min)

The thunder and lightning storms we squirmed under for most of the evening had thankfully dissipated by the time we got out of bed this morning. Uncharacteristically, we spent the early part of the day enjoying some leisure time at the campground – doing laundry, reading, and walking to the lakeshore to dip our toes in the (surprisingly) warm shallows of this giant freshwater sea. Lake Superior, it is said, never gives up her dead, so we were hesitant to go in any further.

With a batch of clean clothes in our panniers, we finally began riding at around 11:30, a very late start to the day. It was a beautiful ride along the lake, though, all the way to Munising, where we stopped for lunch and to contemplate our options for the rest of the day. We had been toying with the idea of staying in a motel at some point during our American sojourn, and tonight seemed like a good candidate. While there were plenty of motels (and cheap ones too) in Munising, we decided to press on to Seney, which would get us close enough to the Canadian border (150km) to get there in one day – particularly after a cushy, restful night in a warm bed.

The road to Seney stood in stark contrast to the first part of our ride today: it was a very long straight ride through the woods, and not particularly scenic.

Bored, tired and hungry, we arrived just as the darkness was settling in. A motel was looking ever more appealing. Unfortunately, the only place in town had no vacancy, so we were forced to race to a municipal campground not far away before it got too dark to see. There we set up a camp, had sandwiches for dinner, and, disappointed, settled down for another night in the tent. (We love our tent, really, but the expectation of a nice motel room made it seem a bit sub-par tonight).

Stats:

Av. Spd.: 19.2km/h

Mx. Spd.: 46.4km/h

Biggest surprise: Christmas in August! Ho ho ho!