Mayday! Adventure Tour

The Lake Superior Circle Tour has become a popular vacation destination. The short version is about 1100 miles, but side trips to the Keweenaw peninsula or Whitefish Point in Michigan or up the Gunflint Trail in Minnesota will add to that. Most folks take motor homes or campers, some choose to travel by motorcycle. There are even a rare few who will make the journey by bicycle.

Four hearty teams of adventurers left Superior, Wisconsin, on Saturday, April 29th, for a lap of Lake Superior. These adventurers chose to eschew modern comforts by driving elderly and arcane import autos. Kevin Clemens, writer for European Car magazine and organizer of the drive, was solo in his Citroen 2CV6 Club. Andy Lindberg and his wife Linda were in a similar car. Rich and Liz Stadther chose to rough it in a Morgan 4/4, while Tom Moerke would also be making the trip alone in his MG Midget.

The Odd Entourage travels through downtown Bayfield.
Photo by Randy Jokela
Large Statuary Liz Stadther gives a wave at the first of many large roadside attractions.
Photo by Tim Winker

The plan was to leave Barker's Island Inn in Superior at 8:00 am. The plan quickly fell apart when the windshield wipers on Kevin's "Duck" quit working. With light rain and 40 degree temps, the wipers were pretty much a necessity. But in true French tradition, they chose that moment to go on strike. An application of rain repellant helped some, but the flat, nearly upright windshield on the 2CV did not allow the water to whiz into the wind like it does on more aerodynamic machinery. Fortunately the rain quit as the travelers headed east, so the wipers would not be needed for awhile.

The cars headed north on Wisconsin Highway 13 for the loop through Port Wing, Herbster, Cornucopia, Red Cliff and Bayfield, accompanied by yours truly and friend Randy in my 21-year-old Saab 900 to take some photos. By the time we hit the Bayfield town limits (population 600... in the winter months) they were ready for a rest room break, which became a coffee break and a photo op. The Stadthers were determined to take photos of their Morgan at any large statuary along the road. The first opportunity came just south of Bayfield at a huge apple identifying a roadside market.

Then it was on the road again, working slowly (as quickly as one could pedal a 2CV) toward their first night's lodging in Marquette. Other overnight stops were to include Wawa, Ontario (Sunday 4/30), and Thunder Bay (Monday 5/1) with the return to Duluth/Superior on midday Tuesday 5/2. Since they will complete the tour after this paper's deadline, any other adventures will have to appear on the web site vintagerally.net.

A family vacation in 1965 was my first trip around the Big Lake. In addition to Dad and Mom Winker there were my two sisters and younger brother Mike all stuffed into a 1963 Chevy II Nova station wagon. Dad rented a homemade camping trailer for sleeping quarters. Memorable stops on that trip were the Indian burial grounds in St. Ignace (which I think are now closed), picking blueberries for pancakes at Rainbow Falls in Canada, and how chilly it was along the North Shore. The border crossing at Pigeon Falls was not yet finished, but we drove to a spot near the future crossing on the Canadian side and hiked in to see the High Falls. At that time there was just a narrow path, but both sides of the river now have overlooks that are more easily accessible.

In 1985 I made the trip again, this time as a sort of competition called the Gitchee Gumee Breakfast Club. It was a non-stop rally with an average speed of 52 m.p.h. run over Easter weekend. Bob Hansen and I accompanied Doug Daun in his Audi Quattro. Weather looked good as we left Duluth, but began to turn very snowy after we passed Marathon. It got worse; so bad in places that trucks and buses could not get up the hills. After crossing the border at Sault Ste. Marie we headed west again via M28. The snow was blowing so hard that whiteouts were common. We were held up several times for vehicles that had slid into the ditch, including at least one snow plow, and by closure of both M28 and US 2.

While we chose the northern route, most of the teams on that 1985 event took the southern route and hit the snow about Marquette. Nearly all of them were stopped by closure of the Trans-Canada Highway at Wawa and spent the night there. The one car that did make it through was a rented Renault Alliance driven by Jim Cich. He managed to get well ahead early on and kept ahead of the worst weather. He and his crew were the only ones to complete the tour at anywhere near the allotted time. Every one else was hours late.

Lack of time and/or money have kept me from making the Circle Tour again, but I'm hoping there will be a 2nd Annual Mayday Adventure Drive, better publicized, with a few more teams of hearty motorists in vintage cars to complete a lap of Lake Superior.