Remember what I said before about Bryans navigating skills. Well, they were good but the maps still got confusing in a few spots.

Bryan took us down this rough, overgrown doubletrack and we had to cross a big tree. we realized that there was no way this could be the trail and the highway was only a hundred or so yards away so we headed towards it. Here is where Bryan had his first wipeout. We were going through the woods, not on any trail and over obstacles that would have been moderately difficult on unloaded bike, let alone one loaded down with camping gear. Bryan took a spill, got it back up and headed on. the last twenty feet were interesting because you had to drop down a steep hill into the ditch, then back up five or so feet to get back on the road. I decided to push mine the last couple feet!!

Bryan figured out our error and got us back on the right track.

A ride like this wouldn't be half as fun if everything went perfect!
Its like what the Strikingviking says, The Adventure starts when things stop going as planned!

Here I am on a section of the Bill Nichols ORV trail where you crossing the Firesteel bridges which are a series of 3 long bridges seperated by a couple hundred feet of trail. Each bridge is probably at least one hundred feet tall and its an amazingly awesome section of trail!!
Those rubber mats they put down are quite slippery so watch yourself!

looking down from the bridge.

http://www.copperrange.org/index.html


Heres some interesting info I found.
Three trestles, 516-, 597- and 554-feet long, span four ridges, cut to depths of 85 feet by the river, over a distance of only 2,500 feet. All were constructed by the Phenix Bridge Company of Phenixville, Pa., and still stand today, almost 100 years later. They were originally built with wooden abutments but these were replaced with concrete around 1910.

Time for a little break to answer natures call and to get some time off the ol' dirtbike seat.

I had a sheepskin seat cover on my seat and Bryan had a beaded seat cover on his bike. He loved the beaded seat cover because it distributes your weight well and gets a bit of airflow to your rear to help prevent Monkeybutt.

Heres the Houghton / Hancock drawbridge that seperates the Keeweenaw penninsula from mainland Michigan. You cross this bridge and then take a quick right and go underneath the bridge and your back on the ORV trail. You even get to ride right through town on the ORV trails which isn't really something you have to do with a dual sport bike. The ORV trails in towns have strict speed limits and frequent stop signs. It would be easier just to stay on the road til your out of town and then hop back on.

Somewhere after the town of South Range we were cruising along through and old mining area when Bryan hits a bump and jetisons his spare gas can. He had nearly lost it a few times before and I would honk at him and he'd stop and we'd fix it back up again. Well, this time I was a little too far back and he didn't hear me. I thought I'd quick stop and grab it for him but that took a little longer than I wanted to because I had to get off my bike and secure the can.

Bryan was gone.

I took off and came to a 3 or 4 way intersection and there were lots of track but I couldn't tell which were Bryans. I thought I saw a GPS wypoint to the left so I took that which took me too a town and then I saw another waypoint further down so headed towards that only to find that I had doubled back to the last road crossing..wonderful.
I now realized I had spent the last 10-15 minutes going in the exact opposite direction and decided to head back to that town and figure out where Bryan was. I rode though town and didn't see him. I even stopped and talked to a few ATVers at a gas station, they hadn't seen anyone. I looked over my maps and decided to head further up the road to where the trail crossed the highway and wait.

I stopped at a tourist info center and took out all my maps and sat down at a picnic table. I turned on my cel phone and sure enough there was a message from Bryan. I called him back and told him where I was and we met up again in 10 or so minutes. This little boo boo cost up at least half an hour and it was getting close to dark. We had wanted to make it all the way to the tip of the penninsula by dark but that wasn't going to happen. Bryan spotted a sign for a campground and we headed towards it and it turned out to be quite nice.

We pulled up and the host said it was $17 for a tent site or she'd give us a two bed cabin for $22. We took the cabin!!
We asked her if there was anyplace to get some beer or anything else to drink. Sure she said, but it was way back in town and might be closed by now. Well, a few minutes later and older fella stopped by with a couple sodas for us dusty travelers! The people that were camping across from us came over and brought us some food! you just can't beat some of the people you meet!
Day 1 - 260 miles

Start of Day 2

We cruise up to the tourist town of Copper Harbor for breakfast but make a little side trip first up the Brockway Mtn parkway, a pretty fun little ride.

Here is a cool old bridge in Eagle River

We camped pretty light since we didn't bring any cooking equipment with. What we would usually do is get up early and break camp, then head off on our way. We'd usually come through a town pretty early and have a nice leasurely breakfast than get back on the trail only stopping for the necessities. Towards evening we would decide where were could finish up and grab a sandwich and a couple beers then head off to a campsite. This worked pretty good for us.