Munising – The ExhaustNotes Blog

By Joe Berk

The destination on this fine day was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, part of the National Park Service network. It’s situated in the Hiawatha National Forest along the shores of Lake Superior, which is the large body of water you see in the above photograph. Pictured Rocks lived up to its name; the drive to get there was even better. It’s part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and once we left the freeway on our ride out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, the roads were majestic. We hit it at just the right time, too, which was in mid-October when the leaves were turning colors. You might think I turned up the saturation in the photo below. I did not. You’re seeing it the way it came out of the camera (my Nikon D810, a 24-120 lens, and a Hoya polarizer).

The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore area includes sandstone cliffs, beaches, waterfalls, and sand dunes. There are many lakes in this area as well. The roads are lined with forests. It’s a nice area, and my thoughts were that it would be well suited for exploring on nearly any kind of motorcycle in the summer months (it’s cold in the fall, and from what I understand, really cold in the winter). Speed limits were low (I think the highest we saw was 55mph, many areas were 40 or 45mph, so a small bike would do well here). All the roads were fairly straight with few curves; a big touring bike like a Harley or a Gold Wing would be fine, too.

The temperatures are brisk this time of year. We had frost on the windshield in the morning. This is a good time of year to take in the changing colors, though. The leaves and the ride were incredibly scenic.

Once we entered Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, we found that it’s not like the Jersey shore or the Grand Canyon’s South Rim; we couldn’t just ride along the edge of Lake Superior and take in the entire shoreline. Nope, the way to see this National Park is by riding to a series of points along the lakefront from the interior. Getting to each involves taking different roads to their ends where they meet Lake Superior. That’s okay, because doing this in the fall with the leaves turning colors makes for a beautiful ride.

The town where we stayed the night is Munising (pronounced just like it’s spelled: Muni Sing). There is at least one glass bottom boat tour in the area, although we didn’t do that.

We couldn’t get anyone to recommend a restaurant in Munising, and after trying one, we understood why. But that’s all right. There are several shops in town that sell pasties, and the pasties are great. Muldoon’s Pasties is the one we tried. (Pasties are not what you might be thinking. They are actually pastries.) We had the chicken pasty and then a cherry one for dessert, and they were awesome. That one chicken pasty you see below was more than a meal for both of us.

For this trip, we flew from Atlanta (where we stopped to visit with an Army friend and mentor) to Milwaukee, where we rented a Mazda CX30. It’s an all-wheel-drive automobile that was okay, but not okay enough for me to ever consider buying one.

The CX30’s fuel economy was good, ride comfort (while better than a motorcycle) and road noise were not. It would probably be an okay car for the area (they get a lot of snow up here in the winter). We put about a thousand miles on the Mazda and had no issues, other than the tire pressure indicator nearly constantly flashing. That seems to be a common occurrence with Enterprise Rental; the car we rented in Atlanta had the same problem.

We’ve got more good stuff coming your way: The Harley-Davidson Museum, World War II military motorcycles, the Green Bay Auto Gallery, the National Rail Museum, the Miller Beer tour, the Pabst Mansion, and a few other stops. Hang in there, click on the pop-up ads to keep the lights on and the content flowing, and as always, stay tuned.

There must be a lot of potheads in Michigan. I believe I saw more marijuana stores in Michigan than any place else I’ve ever been (and coming from the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia, that’s saying something). There was one cannabis store after another, especially in the Upper Peninsula.

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