Lori's saddle worked loose and was a little wiggly, so as we were riding she suddenly pulled over at the trailside repair stand, lifted her bike onto the bars, and tightened it up. I was glad, because otherwise I would have had to go to the terrible inconvenience of reaching into my handlebar bag to retrieve my Allen wrench.
I always thought iron ore came out of the ground and was shaped into pellets, but it's a several-step process. This has some definite potential to be boring, so here’s a six-sentence condensation from three pages of reading to make it slightly less painful than a visit to the dentist: 1. The iron is mined, then ground down to a powder, called “liberation,” which includes several steps. 2. It’s separated from the impurities by a magnet (if it’s magnetite) or flotation (if it’s hematite). In the latter, chemicals are added which cause bubbles to attach to the iron particles, which results in them floating to the top to be skimmed off. 3. A binder is mixed with the iron slush, then turned into pellets by placing it on inclined pans where the rolling action causes the moist material to form into spherical balls. 4. The pellets are heated up to 2,500 F (1,350 C).
....and, voilà! Pellets are a higher-strength material, resulting in higher yields of iron and less energy to get it, along with fewer emissions.
Bill ShaneyfeltSome kind of Bolete. Porous underside as opposed to gilled underside of most mushrooms. Some are quite poisonous and some that look similar are considered excellent. I avoid eating them due to the ease of confusion.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/48702-Boletaceae Reply to this comment 3 months ago
From this location on the Iron Ore Trail, we were intrigued by the vintage movie theater so we took a detour to check it out. The sign on the right side of this picture, for those of you who were raised in the era of the movie "Tron," does NOT say "Trontown" as I initially thought.
As we were climbing off the bikes, a woman entering the Negaunee Eagles Club ("Home of the Past Grand Worthy President Fred E. Smith"!) asked about our trip. After The Usual Questions and the Customary Shocked Responses, I mentioned that I'll be heading back to Iowa City next week for my wife's birthday.
"Oh, so.... you two... aren't married?" she replied with a smile, then raised her eyebrows and nodded conspiratorially, as if it's completely understandable for two grown adults in their 50s and 60s to be utterly unable to contain their lust, and aren't we clever by taking a 3,500-mile bicycle trip to conceal an affair because there's absolutely no other way we could do it, and that she won't be sharing our illicit secret with anyone other than the people she speaks to in the next 48 hours.
I sighed inwardly then, after very briefly considering asking her if there are any motels nearby that rent by the hour, decided instead to ask where a good place for lunch is. She directed us next door to The Midtown Bakery and Cafe.
The town of Negaunee (pronounced "nuhGAWnee") was a happy accident, one that Lori called a "pop-up town," and we enjoyed our brief visit there.
When I saw this RAGBRAI shirt I asked JoAnn about it and we talked for about 15 minutes. She's a retired Physical Education teacher, and has toured all over the world on her bicycle... she listed at least 20 far-flung places, all of which sounded marvelous.
We got a late start this morning, which is quickly becoming our M.O., then, as a result of several pleasant conversations, lingered longer than we had planned for lunch. By the time we left Negaunee it was 3:30 and we had only pedaled a paltry ten miles... but really, who cares? We'll get there.
One of today's Points of Interest is Jasper Knob, in Ishpeming, which is a small mountain containing banded iron. The iron mines have extracted most of the banded iron in this area but this landmark, Jasper Knob, has been spared, as well as a similar piece of banded iron on the campus of Michigan State University.
As we were pedaling up the steep grade to the small residential area at the top of Jasper Knob we spied this rather magnificent gate, and steps that lead to nowhere.
Once at the top of the road, we located the entrance to a near invisible hiking trail that takes you to where you can see the banded iron near an overlook of downtown Ishpeming.
Seeing this blocked-off section near the trail, not knowing how far the hike was, and not finding a place where we could safely stow our bikes, we opted out of trekking to the top.
After rolling back down Jasper Knob we left the Iron Ore Trail and pedaled through Ishpeming toward M-41. Here you're looking at Shaft C of the Iron Cliffs Mining Company, which started as an open pit mine in 1867 and eventually reached a depth of 1,358 feet. Over the years it shipped more than 30,000,000 tons by the time it closed in 1972, and was the longest operating Iron Mine on the Range. It’s now a museum with seemingly out-of-place Egyptian Revival obelisks (not pictured) standing over shafts A and B. Unfortunately, it’s temporarily closed.
I know how to “eat” and “drink,” but I'm not sure how to “sport.” Regardless, I'm not missing out on a place that has the "Best Secretions" (or so I thought at first glance).
Ishpeming also houses the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association. It's in Michigan instead of New Hampshire or Wisconsin, both of which have older ski clubs, because this is where skiing became structured, official, and nationally organized. Thus, Ishpeming is considered the birthplace of organized skiing and houses the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame and Museum as well as the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association. I didn't realize this until after we left town or I would've stopped in for a tour. The building itself is architecturally interesting. Here's another borrowed picture from the internet.
This is within a few hundred feet of where The Iron Ore newspaper was located, the defendant in of one of the most famous libel trials in U.S. history. In 1915, this Ishpeming paper ran an editorial piece entitled “The Teddy Way” which accused Teddy Roosevelt of getting drunk “not infrequently.” He won the case and was awarded the sum of 6 cents. Because an edition of the newspaper was 3 cents, Roosevelt stated the award was “twice the cost of a good newspaper.” The Iron Ore closed its doors in 1951.
We really wanted to see a moose on this trip, so not only did we keep a keen eye out for one but also developed our own made-up moose calls. They sounded somewhat like the death throes of an animal caught in a chipper shredder. Shockingly, they didn’t work.
I wondered where they get their bear bait, then noticed several dozen abandoned, loaded touring bikes stacked up in a pile so I decided to skip this attraction.
....because the Upper Peninsula has more than 3,000 miles of groomed snowmobile trails. Lay them out into one continuous line and it would be like snowmobiling from Bangor, Maine to San Diego, CA - but without the snowmobiling part in San Diego.
These white sections crossing the roads are snowmobile paths. I assume they're white so the snow on them will melt more slowly than if they were darker.
"Works Good! Make an Offer" --- Tempting..... but I'm gonna say no to this one, although I will at least make an offer: "You carry this thing wherever I go, along with a gas and electric supply, and I'll pay you twenty bucks."
When we arrived at Van Riper State Park, which I kept referring to as "Van Rider" before finally realizing my mistake, there were Halloween decorations everywhere.
Our tents were close enough to the toilet so that about every 15-20 minutes or so the wind direction would briefly shift and we'd catch a small wave of that distinct melánge of chemicals and poop.
