My wife did this trip report for another bike forum, thought I'd share it here as well.

Trip Report
Ride from Newaygo, MI to Copper Harbor, MI (the most northern point of Michigan up in the middle of Lake Superior)
June 13 - 16, 2009
Riding two-up on a 2008 Harley Davidson Ultra Classic

Day One Destination: Munising, Michigan
Left home at 7:50am Saturday. Wanted to leave at 7am, but we can never leave on a trip on time it seems!
It was sprinkling when we left, but the sky looked lighter-colored to the north, so we were headed out sans rain gear, knowing it’d clear up, which it did!
We decided to head north a little different way this time, as we always take the same way to the Mackinaw Bridge. So we took US-131 north to Mancelona, and then C-38 east to I-75. Once on I-75 we headed north to the Mackinaw Bridge. Our only stop was to gas up in Kalkaska. We made it to the bridge at 11:45am -- just in time for lunch!
After lunch we headed across the Mackinaw Bridge -- it’s a 5-mile long suspension bridge built in the mid-50s to connect Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas.


Part of the bridge has the “dreaded green grate” which is the road surface on the inner lanes of the bridge. Your tires “hunt” quite a bit on this, and going probably 3-4 miles on this stuff is a P.I.T.A. I think this is the first time we’ve actually got to cross the bridge and haven’t had to ride on it!


Water on the right side is Lake Huron; water on the left side is Lake Michigan:


Once across the bridge (toll was $3 for a bike), we headed west on US-2. The clouds were looking murky, but we knew it’d be awhile when we’d catch rain. This part of US-2 is the best and most scenic, running right along the edge of Lake Michigan. We turned north on 117 and about 3/4 of the way we ran into rain. Hard rain. We could smell the rain in the air, so we swung into an antique store parking lot and put our rain gear on under a tall oak tree about 3 minutes before it let loose. Lucky to find some place to stop off the road in this area, as it’s pretty desolate. I believe we rode in the rain about 80 miles, which was pretty much the rest of the way to Munising which was our destination for the night. We arrived at our motel at 3:45pm.
Animal sightings: 1 turkey, 8 deer, 2 eagles, plus we nailed a bird and killed it somewhere along 131 between Cadillac and Kalkaska.
Total mileage for the day: 365.2

Day Two Destination: Copper Harbor, MI
Left Munising about 10:15am (didn’t want to be awakened by an alarm clock!!) and headed west to Marquette via M-28. We weren’t in a real hurry as we only had a couple hundred miles to do and neither of us had been this far west in Michigan before. We’d be traveling along the Lake Superior shoreline and wanted to see whatever we could along this route. Once we had lunch in Marquette, we continued west on M-41 towards Copper Harbor.
In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (the U.P.), people refer to themselves as Yoopers. When we gassed up in Baraga, I noticed this old-Old-OLD building that housed a bar. This was a true Yooper bar if we’d ever saw one ---- Kodak moment! LOL


Another thing we noticed in the U.P. is that you can ride your 4-wheelers (quads) ANYWHERE in these towns. We saw literally dozens parked at gas stations, bars, restaurants, etc. We talked to one guy gassing up his quad next to us, and he said the cops don’t care if you ride your quad on the streets as long as you keep it under 25mph. So, if you want to take advantage of the U.P.’s snowmobile trails with your quads during the spring/summer/fall months, go up there!! It looks like it’d be awesome trail riding!! Some sights you’ll never see from the asphalt, I’m sure.

Heading into Houghton (home of Michigan Tech University) we ran into road construction. We had to detour around in the city. We almost got sideswiped by some young punk in a PT Cruiser going waaay faster than he should have been, approaching this big vertical-lift bridge. Brakes squawking, etc. That puckered us both up for a few minutes!
This is the vertical lift bridge:


After about another hour+ of twisties and sweeper curves, we got to our motel about 4pm. Copper Harbor is such a small, quaint village. It was so quiet, I kept catching myself whispering to Don as we walked around checking out the village! LOL
Cabin in Copper Harbor right on the Lake Superior shoreline:


Our motel was in desperate need of updating (think early 1960s wallpaper and late 1960s furniture), but it was right on the Lake Superior shoreline. Absolutely beautiful. We could look out our slider and to the left we could see the Isle Royale Queen ferry boat that takes hikers/backpackers to the Isle Royale island that is 50 miles north of Copper Harbor in Lake Superior.
View from the slider in our motel room:


Me by the Hawg:


Animal sightings: a couple turkeys
Total mileage for the day: 207.8

Day Three Destination: Two Rivers, WI
(just a few miles north of Manitowoc, WI, where the Badger ferry boat is)
Left Copper Harbor about 8:10am. We took a different route south down the Keweenaw Peninsula which was M-26. This was absolutely gorgeous!! The roads up there are great and the views are spectacular. The scenery was nothing like I’ve seen anywhere in Michigan, and I’ve lived here all but 5 years of my life. I had no idea lava rock stuck out of the water along the shoreline. I was amazed by the hills, valleys, hidden lakes, waterfalls, rock formations, etc., etc., etc.



But today we needed to make up some time. Riding in this part is slow and we needed to get down to Wisconsin. We were blessed by an Illinois guy driving a Lexus SUV that was in as much of a hurry as we were heading south on US-141. We “drafted” him going 75-85mph from well north of Amasa, MI to Iron River, MI. We arrived at our hotel in Two Rivers at 3:15pm. After checking in, we decided to go find the dock where the Badger ferry is, which we will be taking the next morning across Lake Michigan back home.
Animal sightings: 1 black cat
Total mileage for the day: 338.6

Day Four Destination: Newaygo, MI (home)
The mileage won’t be much today, as we will be taking the ferry across Lake Michigan, back to Ludington, MI where the other dock for the Badger ferry is.
We got to the dock about an hour before the ferry leaves. It is up to you to have your own tie-down straps, and it is up to you to ride your bike onto the boat and strap it in. There were two other bikes on the boat. One couple was headed back home to Sebewaing, MI (in the “thumb” of MI) and trying to beat the rain; the other was a guy from WI headed to New Hampshire to see his nephew get married.
The Badger ferry boat is the largest coal-fired boat in the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if AlGore couldn’t sleep at night if he saw all the smoke pouring out of the stack of this ship. LOL!



As close as I could get to the bow to do the “I’m the queen of the world” from Titanic. heehee!


The trip takes four hours to get across the lake. There’s another ferry that runs quicker (2.5 hours) from Milwaukee to Muskegon, but this ship has some history to it! It used to be a ferry for railroad cars, and the railroad tracks are still in the floor of the ship.

This vehicle was from Alaska. Never seen anything like this before:


Bustin’ loose from the dock and heading to Ludington:


The only pic taken of us together the entire trip -- thanks to some dude on the front deck of the ship:


Ludington lighthouse -- getting closer to home.


We set sail at 1:15 pm (central time) and docked in Ludington about 6pm (eastern time). The dude traveling to NH wanted to make it to Grand Rapids, MI by nightfall, so we invited him to ride with us, and we’d get him a half-hour north of Grand Rapids. We told him we know these roads like the back of our hands, and the route we took him on was much more interesting than droning down the interstate! He took us up on it, so we headed out of Ludington about 6:30pm and went east on US-10 to M-37 south. Gassed up in Baldwin, MI and headed south. We’ll never see the dude again and hope he has a great trip. I know we had an awesome time on our trip.
Animal sightings: none
Total mileage for the day: 100.1

Total mileage for the entire trip: 1011.7

Hope you enjoyed this report. It’s the first one I’ve ever done. It took me three hours to do this. If anyone wants to see more pics of the trip, let me know.

 

Sounds like an awesome trip. I plan on taking a trip close to yours, but I definately won't use the ferry in Muskegon. I'm from Ludington so we hate the ferry down there. You're probably glad you didn't do it this week, the Gus Macker basketball tournament is going on in Ludington so the traffic is pretty bad.

 

Great report and yes I'd like to see more pictures, my wife is from Pentwater and we are bringing the Ultra there 3 weeks in August and traveling up to Mackinaw area and into Thunderbay Bay area Canada

 

Loved the trip report. We went around the Lake (counter-clockwise) on our way to the 105th last year. By the way my Dad used to own a restaurant in Pentwater...I have spent many a summer there (the two weeks they call summer :-) ).

 

Nice up there eh. We rode around lake Michigan last year. What a ride.

 

Great article and pics. I grew up in MI and spent many summers in the UP. I have a buisiness account that has a cabin just west of CH and has offered it to me. Man, if it wasn't for the two day ride to get there......well maybe it is time for adventure.

 

Excellent report! I used to snowmobile in the UP all the time. I actually proposed to my wife while on a snowmobile trip there. We were right at the tip of the UP. It sounds like we will have to plan a trip there on our Harleys!