Jacob Usher
The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was a freight ship that sunk on Lake Superior on her way from Duluth to Detroit in 1975. This is a well known story today in part due to the Gordon Lightfoot song about it. The song starts with the line ‘The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down.’ The Edmund Fitzgerald has been in our minds a lot as we’ve gotten closer to the Great Lakes, and today we officially crossed the Chippewa River.
Gordon Lightfoot’s song also contains the line ‘the gales of November came early’. On this June morning, the gales came extra early. Michael, Friend, and I were camped on a roofed wooden platform. Our tents were not staked. I at least had my rainfly half on, but the others did not. I woke up at 4:40 am from water dripping on my face. I shot up instantly and tried to close my rain fly.
The wind hit us like an explosion and lightning started pouring down around us. Next thing I knew, we were out of our tents yelling and scrambling to stop everything from flying away and getting soaked. Lightning struck a nearby telephone pole and the street lights went dark. I picked up my tent to move it and it nearly flew away even with all of my stuff in it. Luckily I held on and ran to the other side of the platform. I pointed my tent into the wind, closed the fly, and dove in abandoning Michael and Friend who were still trying to get their flies out.
The storm forecast for Glidden, WI—the ‘bow echo’ indicates high straight line winds
Brian camped in a more sheltered spot and stayed more dry. He was probably hotter when he went to bed though. We were able to laugh about the storm during breakfast. The start of the day was overcast and humid. We enjoyed the temporary cooler weather before the heat of the rest of the day and tomorrow. Eventually the clouds cleared, but the humidity stuck around. We followed gently winding roads over rolling hills with nice views of flowers and lakes.
Michael tries to salvage his tent after the storm had cleared
We ate lunch near Mercer WI. We found a park that met all our requirements for lunch. These are a picnic table, shade, and a lake to swim in. We ate lunch and cooled off in the lake.
Friend, Usher, and Brian cool off in Grand Portage Lake
We spent the rest of the afternoon on bike paths with lots of twists and turns and shade. This was super fun for me because all the dips and turns kept my mind super engaged. We also found some opportunities to exercise muscles we don’t use as often.
The Manitowish Waters Bike Path, and nearby shenanigans
We finished out the day on a nice low-traffic road. The wind must have gotten lighter because we got swarmed by the most black flies we’ve seen so far. They don’t bite much if you keep pedaling, but stopping is not an option. We made it to our campsite with another lake to cool off in. We are definitely feeling the heat right now and the ‘extreme heat warning’ will continue into tomorrow evening.