July 24, Day 28 Monday Iron River to Gwinn, Michigan

Spence McElroy of the WATVA met me outside the motel and we took off at 9:45 for Gwinn.  He rode with me to Crystal Falls, Michigan.  

It was great having someone like Spence to ride with.  He is few years older than me(hope he doesn’t mind me printing that) but is a very healthy young at heart atv’er.  Once again the trails were great and we were on a railroad grade for the first part of the day.  

Spence left me at Crystal Falls and I rode the rest of the way by myself.  Within a few minutes of leaving him I ran into my first problem.  I was on old highway highway 69 and a construction crew had just started working on a bridge this weekend.  The entire bridge was gone and there was no way I could get through.  I finally went back to Michigan 69 and luckily there was a local guy there with a pick up.  I told him how I had to stay on legal roads, so he loaded my atv in his truck and took me down the highway and back to the other side of the bridge.  I started on the east side of the bridge so there was about 100 feet of trail that I did not go on.

The rest of the day was great.  I followed the edge of old 69 until Peterson Rd and then Channing Rd.  These eventually turned into gravel, sand and dirt.  I went through the VERY little town of Ralph and then followed county rds until Channing.  From there I followed county rd 12 which turned into Turner Rd, then county rd 581 which turns into 584, which turns into 438.  Right before county rd 557, I turned north on the old Perrin Truck Rd which took me into the south edge of Gwinn. 

Most of this trail was great and through dense forest.  Gwinn has big signs welcoming you into the town and it has a list of numerous restaurants and motels on the sign.  However, once you hit that sign, there are about a zillion little atv trails that lead many directions and if your not familiar with the area, it takes awhile to figure out where your at.

The biggest event of the day was Jon arriving at the airport.  We forgot about the time change so Rod was about 2 hours late picking him up.  When he got there, Jon had a sign saying “will work for food”.  The second biggest event of the day was eating at Jerry’s restaurant because Rod got his first meat loaf in the last few weeks.  They serve around three lbs of meat loaf and home made mashed potatoes for a few dollars.  

I then forgot I was supposed to get a few miles further for the day and we checked into a motel in Gwinn.  Tomorrow is going to be a very long day as we have to add 30 some miles to the day we had planned.  Fortunately I’m in excellent physical condition due to all of my training before this trip.  It should be a piece of cake, plus it will be great to make Jon suffer on his first day.  I’ll tell him it was the shortest day I’ve had and to quit whining.  

That’s it for the day.  I can’t believe we will be on our 29th day by tomorrow.  This trip has gone way to fast.  If it happens again(which I’m thinking why not) it needs to be a few days longer so I can stop and visit more people and take a few side trips.  The experience and scenery to this point has been great, but one of the best parts of the trip has been talking to a lot of people that live in very small communities along the way.  It’s something you don’t do when your zipping down the interstate at 75mph.  There’s a lot you can learn if you talk to people in small towns. Most folks love their little communities and would not leave for anything.  The problem is, their kids are not staying and the towns are losing their population.  It’s sad.
 
 
 

Click Here Photos from Today!!!