Saturday, February 4, 2017

Jim's Lake Superior 1000 summary

This is copied and pasted from the Iron Butt web forum.
This was written by the Ride organizer JIM VANDENBERGHE. IBAJIM on ADVRIDER.


We had 11 riders start the Lake Superior SS1K Friday morning between 5:30 & 6:00 am.

ALL riders finished within 24 hours !! The first rider came in at 1:25 am and the last at 5:53 am. He stopped and took a 1 hour nap in Ishpeming, MI after starting to see things moving around.

One older gentleman on a 400 Burgman ( his first SS1K ) made it back in before myself & my new riding buddy Howie ( from CT ) by 15 minutes ! I think he made only quick BBG type gas stops the entire ride. We passed him up about 6 times during the entire ride. The Tortoise & the Hare story. And he also was detained for a period of time ( he was asked to "go inside" ) when we re-entered the USA at Grand Portage, MN.

Howie & I saw a young bear cross the road in front of us at about 1:15 PM before reaching Thunder Bay, ON.

At the end of the ride, I also heard that Dave Olson ( WI ) got a pic. of a bear and a mother moose with two calves. I'm hoping he will send me copies.

This ride was tougher than my BBG ride at the end of May. A lot of construction zones and much traffic between Grand Marais & Duluth. And all two-lane and 90Km / 55 mph speed limits.

If you are ever in Grand Marais, MN I recommend the Taco Shack.

Forgot to mention in my original post about the conditions on the bridge from Duluth, MN to Superior, WI. Yes, there is a bridge ( short-cut route) over the extreme western portion of Lake Superior between the two cities.

It was extremely foggy with high winds across the lanes. I was being blown back & forth even at 35 mph. I was concerned about being rear-ended by a cage. The wind didn't seem to be affecting the cages - they were all passing me up. My bike was completely cover with huge water droplets by the time we reached Superior, WI.

That was far worse than crossing the Mackinaw Bridge when going over the grating between the two center towers when maintenance has the right hand lane closed.

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