A Rollercoaster for Mountain Bikes

Yesterday morning Ryan and I got up early, packed up camp, and hiked back to our car to start the drive to a little place called Copper Harbor. Once we got there, we pulled off the bikes and I packed up my day pack with a hefty first aid kit, Sam splint, triangle bandage and quick clot gauze. If there was a place where my sister’s crash course EMT training she gave Ryan and me was going to come in handy, it would be here:

Copper Harbor is renown throughout the mountain biking world because of the wooden structures and beautiful trails that are so well maintained on the peninsula. Ryan and I were loving life as we explored the different trails, marked as “green,” “blue,” “black” and “expert.” Ryan and I got to the black level which included these two trails below.

On the Edge: (click here if video does not appear below).

Stairway to Heaven: (click here if video does not appear below).

The trails really were like nothing we’d ever experienced before. The elevated wooden platforms certainly added a level of technicality we weren’t used to, especially when it started raining. Fortunately though, none of my first aid gear came into use, although Ryan did have a near serious wipe out when he caught sight of some giant bug on his leg. If only I’d caught that on video.

After three hours of hard, wet riding, we took the recommendation of a local and walked down to the harbor for dinner at a little restaurant called Harbor Haus. It was my impression that this place would be a local pub of some sort, but this was not the case. Instead, Ryan and I, covered in mud and sopping wet from the rain were seated at a table with linen tablecloths and china plates by a hostess wearing traditional German attire that was impressively clean. I don’t think we’ve ever been more self-conscious as we looked around at the other patrons who were nicely dressed and clean. Woops.

Nonetheless we were served wonderful, authentic German food, like this potato pancake with apples and feta. Ryan ate all of a one pound pork chop in about fifteen minutes. Regardless of our appearance, we really enjoyed dinner, which was well priced for the amount of food we ate, and the view of the harbor with a rainbow bowing above it was well worth the stop.

After dinner it was off to Porcupine Mountains SP to camp, and along the way, we passed into Central Time Zone, gifting us an extra hour of sleep. Something we were very grateful for after a long day of biking.

Today, we’ve officially left Michigan, and we’re currently in Wisconsin almost to Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Photos to come!