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TRound Lake Superior
My First Butt Burner 1500 - 1500 miles in 36 Hours
By Dan Salton
For some time now I've wanted to become a member of the Iron
Butt Association. What's that you say, never heard of it?
These are the folks that put on the bi-annual craziness known
as the Iron Butt Rally - 11,000 miles in 11 days. I don't
think I'll ever do that, but to become a member of the association
all you need to do is complete (and correctly document) one
of their "certified" rides, the two most basic of
which are the Saddle Sore 1000 (1000 miles in 24 hours) and
the Butt Burner 1500 (1500 miles in 36 hours). You can find
out more about them at: http://www.ironbutt.com/. Their Archive
of Wisdom, or AOW for short, was invaluable in preparing for
this ride.
I always thought that when I did my first IBA certified ride
it would be the Lake Michigan 1000 - around Lake Michigan
in 24 hours. But having seen most of the area around Lake
Michigan, I began looking for something different. I looked
at the map, crunched some numbers, and realized that I could
do a Butt Burner 1500 ride by leaving from Muskego, riding
around Lake Superior, returning to Muskego. According to Mapquest,
with a side trip to Wabeno, WI, that would require 1533 miles.
If completed within 36 hours I'd have completed a Butt Burner
1500. To make it a little more challenging, over half the
route would have to be completed without the use of the US
interstate highway system.
I decided to do this over a weekend, leaving before sunrise
on a Saturday morning, which would put me back home again
by Sunday afternoon if all went according to plan. And then
I decided to do a 1000 mile day on Saturday, finishing up
with the last 500 miles on Sunday. When doing a BB1500 you
can also do a SS1000 as long as you finish 1000 miles within
24 hours and document it correctly.
I posted to the Iron Butt forum about my planned route and
got lots of great information and adjusted my plans accordingly.
The biggest change was that I decided to circumnavigate the
lake counter-clockwise. This had several advantages, not least
of which was that I'd be able to do Highway 61 in Minnesota
along the northern shore of Lake Superior during low-traffic
hours. Fearing that fall-color tourists might be filling up
all the motels, I made a non-refundable motel reservation
in Grand Marais, about a half-hour from the US-Canada border.
After laying out my gear and packing my bike Friday night,
I went to bed and mostly tossed and turned. I woke up for
about the fifteenth time at 3:50am, and decided to get going.
After getting my initial gas receipt, I was on the road. It
was still dark, but the skies were obviously clouded. The
weather the night before called for overnight lows of about
60 degrees, so I laid out the gear I'd wear for those conditions
as if I was going on my usual 30 minute commute to work. Big
lesson - anything more than an hour on the bike requires a
lot more gear than what you'd wear for a shorter ride.. I
had medium-weight gloves on and just a thin layer underneath
my Roadcrafter, and an hour and a half into the ride had to
pull off the interstate and put on my electric vest and gloves.
Ahhh... much better.
North of Green Bay I stopped for gas and breakfast in Abrams
at a gas station/McDonald's combo. Regular unleaded for the
bike, pancakes for me. At 8:06am I pulled into Wabeno, my
planned "mileage extender" waypoint, and gassed
up again so I had the receipt even though it was less than
a hundred miles from my last stop.
Next up was, according to Mapquest, 5 hours of eastward riding
across northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
(the UP to locals), to Sault Ste. Marie. Between Escanaba
and Manistique I had to stop for a bathroom break so ended
up getting gas at the same time. There was a group of motorcyclists
warming up inside the station; I nodded hello to as I rushed
for the bathroom. They must have thought I was crazy, what
with my Roadcrafter suit with Camelback hose and electric
cords dangling.
Just after the station I'm driving on Hwy 2/41 where it's
a divided 4-lane highway, and assumed it had a 65 MPH speed
limit like similar highways in Wisconsin have. Wasn't paying
attention to my speed and suddenly noticed a police car going
by in the opposite direction. Looking down I was surprised
to see that my speed was up over 80. Yikes! I didn't see any
brake lights in my mirror though so just slowed down to 75,
and kicked myself for not paying closer attention. The throttle-meister
is a life saver, but my next bike is going to have electronic
cruise control.
Suddenly a mirror check showed a car coming up quick behind
me, and then I saw red flashing lights. DAMN! I pulled over
and pulled off my helmet and ear plugs as a female Michigan
state police officer walked up. She asked if I knew how fast
I had been going.
"Yes ma'am. I wasn't paying attention and I apologize
for that, and I was probably about 15 over?"
"No," she replied, "I got you at 82 in a 55."
What?! 55 MPH! I REALLY hadn't been paying attention. No
way I was getting out of this one. She was very nice about
it though and said she was going to give me a break and right
it up for only 65 in a 55. Then came the kicker - because
I was out-of-state I had to pay the $80 fine in cash right
there, provide a AAA card (???) or leave my license with her
and they'd mail it back to me after I mailed in the money.
Double damn! I only had $76 cash on me, am not a AAA member,
and I had to have my license to get back into the US after
crossing into Canada (next year you'll need your passport).
Without going into the whole story of what I was doing, I
just explained that I had to keep my license because I was
going into Canada, and without it my whole weekend and a whole
bunch of planning would be ruined. Taking further pity on
me she offered to take $70 and said I could send the other
$10 in the mail within 10 days. Whew!
Moving again, I rode the next hour or so kicking myself and
watching the clock. Figuring it out in my head, I seemed to
be going slower than planned. So of course, what did I do?
Realize that trying to go fast was what had gotten me into
trouble already and slowed down to go faster? No, of course
not.
Just before I got to Sault Ste. Marie (I didn't realize how
close I was - I need a GPS) I stopped for another bathroom
break. After that and a quick snack, I was back on the bike
and about a half-mile up the road when I realized I forgot
to plug my vest back in and reached down to pull up the cord
and put it in my lap so it wasn't dangling down in harms way.
Crikey! The "BMW" plug was gone, with nothing but
bare wires at the end of the cord.
I gotta admit I didn't handle the next few seconds all that
well. Instead of looking at the obvious location for the missing
plug - the socket - I assumed that it was lost and my attempt
was over. Based on my experience that morning I was definitely
going to need the vest that night and the next morning. Cursing
and swearing in my helmet, I turned around and figured I was
going to have to head home, but at least I might get lucky
and spot it lying in the road or in the parking lot of the
gas station I had just been at. I didn't spot it anywhere
on the short ride back, but back at the station I finally
looked down at the bike and saw that the plug was still in
the socket.
It dawned on me that when I pulled into the station the first
time I had just walked away from the bike without unplugging.
I'm amazed I didn't feel the tug of the cord or the back-lash
when it pulled off the plug. I can only imagine that I was
so frazzled from the speeding ticket and the last nine hours
of riding that my brain wasn't fully functioning.
But at least I now had a chance to keep going. Pulling out
the tools I'd packed the night before, I used the Philips
screw driver to split the plug apart, and then looked for
the straight blade needed for the wire connectors themselves.
$#&@!! My straight blade screw driver was missing, which
is when I remembered that I had counted on using the multi-tool
that is always in my tank bag for that if needed. Except I
had taken the multi-tool out of my tank bag months ago and
hadn't verified it was there the night before. Now what! Wondering
what McGyver would do, I (very carefully) used my pocket-knife
as a screw driver. After what felt like about a half hour
but was probably only about 15 minutes, the plug was fixed.
Getting back on the bike and continuing on towards Sault
Ste. Marie, I realized that I needed to have a mental checklist
that I went through every time I got on or off the bike. Am
I plugged in or unplugged? Are my bags all closed and secure?
TAKE YOUR TIME!!! (AOW #11!) It's better to sit still for
a few seconds and think through a mental checklist then to
end your attempt because of a stupid mistake. I think I'll
even come up with two checklists, one for getting on the bike,
one for getting off. There's plenty of unused "real estate"
in the instruments area on my R1100RS. Or maybe just a large-font,
red-lettered, bold type-face, "DID YOU UNPLUG?"
and add others as needed.
Within just a few miles I hit I-75 and turned north towards
"Soo", as the locals call it. Pulling in for my
pre-planned last-before-Canada gas break I carefully unplugged
my electric cord and put the bike up on the center-stand.
After gassing up and another quick head-check, I was on the
road and over the bridge into Canada. The Canadian customs
guy asked the usual questions ("No, No, No and No",
I answered) and I was off. The going was slow through Sault
Ste. Marie. That city felt like it went on forever and I didn't
get out of town and past the last stop-light until 2pm. In
fact, the whole time I was in Canada I felt almost like I
had been transported back in time about 20-30 years. My cell
phone never worked, no divided 4 lane highway, full-service
gas stations and almost no police cars were just a few of
the differences. If Canadians, at least those in the western
Ontario region, think that Midwesterners from the States are
a bit different, they must think left and right coasters are
from a different planet.
I was now getting into the part of the trip that I had really
been looking forward to, having never been to the Canadian
side of Lake Superior. The scenery was improving, and the
first time I saw the rugged and rocky coastline, with small
islands covered in trees just offshore, it took all my willpower
to not stop and take pictures every few miles.
I pulled into Wawa at 4pm, a trip that took two-thirds of
the time that Mapquest predicted, so I felt better about my
chances of making it all the way to Grand Marais that night.
I needn't have worried about moving too slowly on the Trans
Canada Highway. Maybe because of the lack of police cars,
people seemed to be more "European" in their driving
habits - they seemed to go as fast as conditions dictated
rather than some arbitrary speed set by a bureaucrat sitting
behind a desk. At first I was just tooling along at 15 KPH
over the limit, but after getting passed for the 3rd time
by someone who quickly disappeared into the distance I took
off after them and kept up. Probably averaged about 20 KPH
over, but when the road was straight and level they were going
faster than that.
Getting going again after Wawa, I kept up the good pace,
and after moving away from the lake and going through White
River, Highway 17 comes back to the lake shore near Marathon.
It was between Marathon and Terrace Bay that I was treated
to some of the most spectacular scenery of the trip. I finally
couldn't take it any more and stopped for a quick photo, though
of course I was in a hurry so it didn't come out as well as
I'd hoped. Some day I'd like to take two or three days just
between Soo and Thunder Bay. Moving at 110 kph it's impossible
to get a full appreciation for the grandeur of the area.
After getting gas again at Schreiber, just past Terrace Bay,
I quickly covered the 50 miles/90 klicks to Nipigon, where
I got some dinner. During the drive from Schreiber to Nipigon
I was riding directly toward the setting sun - a bit bothersome
- but the views of Nipigon Bay and the surrounding islands
and peninsulas were absolutely fantastic.
After a 20 minute break for a KFC Twister in Nipigon, it
was back on the road to Thunder Bay. It was well and truly
night time by now, and I was glad to see a LOT fewer "Moose
Danger" signs than I had seen along the eastern shores.
My electric vest and gloves were indispensable and I saw almost
no other cars after the final gas stop for the night in Thunder
Bay on the drive down to the border.
Arriving at 10pm the customs official had to come in from
a different room to open the drive-by window. After handing
him my license he asked, "How long have you been in Canada"?
After a second as my tired mind processed the question I
said, "Well, let's see, I entered at Sault Ste. Marie
at 2pm.".
Looking at my bike, then at my Roadcrafter suit, then in
my eyes, then back at the bike, he looked down at his computer
and typed something as he said "Moving pretty quickly,
weren't you?"
Oh shit I thought, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Well,
believing the truth is always better than lying; I plowed
on, "I'm trying to do 1500 miles within 36 hours, so
I'm not stopping much."
"Where you staying for the night?", he asked.
"In Grand Marais, at the Wedgewood Motel."
"You have a room reservation?"
"Yes sir, I do."
"OK", he said, "have a nice night and drive
safely."
I do believe he was sincerely concerned for my well being.
Mental, not physical.
Knowing the mile marker that the Wedgewood Motel was at,
I was able to count down the last 40 miles of my ride that
day. I realized as I found the motel at 10:30pm, 18 hours
after starting out that morning, that the gas stations in
town were further down the road. I made an executive decision
driven by sleep deprivation that the SS1000 mile certificate
wasn't worth it - I'd just go for the 1500 mile certificate
the next day.
The bed was warm and comfortable, and after setting the alarm
for 5:30am I quickly zoned out. I highly recommend this motel
to all LD riders or anybody enjoying the north shore of Lake
Superior; http://www.wedgewoodmotel.com/ for more info.
Waking up on my own at 4:50am, I wasted no time getting up
and preparing to go. Brush teeth, water in camelback, clean
clothes on body, quietly pack up the bike. As the motel owner
had asked on the phone when I made the reservation, I pushed
the bike down to the road. As I started the bike I looked
up at the still-dark sky and immediately spotted Orion, the
Hunter, looking down at me.
It was 5:25am. I took a moment to appreciate how lucky I
am to be living the life I do, then started the bike and headed
down the road.
After stopping for gas in Grand Marais, I moved on down Highway
61, looking out for wildlife. As the sun came up and the sky
did its sun-rise thing, I found myself wanting to stop again
and soak it in, but I couldn't bring myself to ignore the
call of the road. I limited myself to occasional glances over
my left shoulder, though mostly I kept my eyes glued front
and center.
I couldn't see a whole lot of the country-side until I got
half-way to Duluth, but once there was enough light I saw
terrain that reminded a lot of northern Wisconsin, just with
a real big lake out to the left. But as I got close to Duluth
it got rocky again and there were even a couple of tunnels
carved through some cliffs. Very cool!
As I drove through Duluth I saw the only deer of the trip
- two of them standing on a sidewalk in a residential neighborhood.
Hmmm, I've heard of "going local", but that's ridiculous.
(I think I was getting a bit loopy.)
After making my way through Duluth I stopped for breakfast
at a McDonald's in Superior. It was 7:30am. More pancakes's,
which I wolfed down as I checked in with the family via cell
phone for the first time since Sault Ste. Marie, and then
noticed that the TV they had going was showing the weather.
It looked like the whole bottom half of Wisconsin was covered
in rain. I was going to get wet.
I had some coffee with my breakfast. Now, AOW #3 says to
"Leave your…coffee supply at home", and while
that might be true for most people, my experience is it doesn't
work for me. I always have 2 cups of coffee in the morning.
Without it, by 10am my head feels "stuffy" and by
afternoon I get a headache. If I ever do the Iron Butt Rally
or some other truly extreme multi-day event I'll kick the
habit before I start. For now though, it's better to just
have a cup in the morning - my head feels much better for
the rest of the day.
Only downside to the coffee is that I soon have to go to
the bathroom again, so just 63 miles further down the road
I stopped in Spooner and got gas and took care of business.
The sky was looking a bit ominous to the south, but I still
didn't put on my rain gear, and opted instead to get going
again as quickly as possible.
Just north of Eau Claire it started to rain, and it looked
like it was going to be heavy, so I stopped on the side of
the road and put my rain gear on over my Roadcrafter. After
getting going again though it turned out to be only a light
rain, which the Roadcrafter could have handled fine on its
own. You win some, you lose some.
Since breakfast I had discovered a new riding position that
my butt was really appreciating. It had me leaning forward
with my chest on my tank bag, legs extended backward with
my ankles resting on the rear passenger pegs, and elbows up
on the handle bars near the mirror mounts, hands extending
forward up by the instrument panel. I called it "doing
the Superman". Here's a book idea - "The Joy of
Riding". You could have a whole chapter dedicated to
"positions".
Just before Camp Douglas it started to rain again, and I
got off the highway again for my final stop before getting
home to Muskego. I had my last mistake of the trip too, probably
due to fatigue as much as anything. Putting the bike on the
center stand at the gas pump, my foot slipped off the center-stand
lever, I lost my balance and control of the bike, and it went
over on its side. Dang it! Luckily there was no damage except
to my ego, so after gassing up and getting a quick bite to
eat I was back on the road.
At 2:30pm, 34 hours after I left, I pulled into Muskego,
gassed up for the final time, and went home to see my girls.
I actually felt fairly refreshed at this point, and think
I could have kept going if I'd had to, but 11 straight days
of this would be tough. I'd definitely need a different bike.
The R1100RS is a great bike, but it doesn't run as smooth
as some and needs electronic cruise control and a more comfortable
riding position (my knees get real sore).
Let me know if you have questions on the IBA, or are planning
your own IBA certified ride. I'd like to hear all about it!
Live life.
Dan Salton
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk despair
To try is to risk failure.
But risk must be taken,
because the greatest hazard in life
is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing,
has nothing and is nothing.
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