• Date Circle Tour Completed
• Favorite Spot and/or Experience
• Member

November 2005
Cherie Leppi and I completed our clockwise six-night Lake Superior Circle Tour on November 17, 2005, but we could have spend another couple days easily if the mid-November weather was better for outdoor activities. There was a little bit of snow in the South Shore in a few spots and that was the first view of snow covered trees is a wonderful sight to see. Whitefish Point and Copper Harbor’s waves were great. I like the view of Grand Marais, Minnesota, from afar when coming from the south. The view of the city and the lake are wonderful as are all of the people in Grand Marais. The highest point in Minnesota is at Eagle Mountain which is a 30-minute drive from Grand Marais. The seven-mile round trip hike to the top was a nice way to spend four hours in the woods. We have talked about it and someday we will take the trip again and go counterclockwise.
Bill Brinda, Duluth, Minnesota

December 2006
Favorite spot: Bluefin Bay.
Ryan & Rebecca Currens, St. Louis Park, Minnesota

July 2006
In July of 2006, my father (Sam Ricco), brother (Luke Ricco) and I completed the Lake Superior Circle Tour on our motorcycles. We started the trip from Muskegon, Michigan, with our first stop being in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. We continued into Canada, staying in Schreiber, Ontario, then continued on and through Minnesota, next stopping in Superior, Wisconsin. From Wisconsin we passed back into Michigan along the shore of Lake Superior, stopping to visit the Porcupine Mountains and the Lake of the Clouds. We continued through Houghton and Hancock, Michigan, on our way to Copper Harbor, Michigan. After leaving Copper Harbor we traveled through Marquette, Michigan, and stopped in Munising for the night. We ended our stay in the U.P. at Mackinaw City before riding back to Muskegon, Michigan (2,100 miles). The best parts of the tour were the small towns we passed through as we progressed along the lake. Other great features of the ride included the incredible scarcity of people and towns and the expansion of wilderness we traveled through in Ontario, Canada. We actually stopped for moose in the road along Provincial Highway 17. You can’t get lost on that road because it is the only road around. I have traveled the shore of Lake Superior many times in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but was amazed by the difference in the shoreline of Canada. I will definitely do this tour again and will encourage others to experience the tour.
Tony Ricco, Howell, Michigan
Sam Ricco, Muskegon, Michigan
Luke Ricco, Muskegon, Michigan

June 1963
Highlights: Sault Ste. Marie and the Soo Locks.
Barbara Schilling, Duluth, Minnesota

September 2006
Highlights: Route 61 in Minnesota and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan.
Sandy Haefner, O’Fallon, Missouri
Carol Gerber, Defuniak Springs, Florida

• Date Circle Tour Completed
• Favorite Spot and/or Experience
• Member

July 1999
My husband and I completed the Circle Tour (from Duluth up through Canada and around) as our honeymoon from July 12-18, 1999. I had a map of the lake that had hotels and places to stop on it and planned our trip out. I had hotels set up for each night ( I wasn’t going to sleep in a tent on my honeymoon) and we set off stopping at places that we saw along the way. Our favorite stops were the Panorama Amethyst Mine (Thunder Bay), Old Woman Bay, Katherine Cove, Marathon (we had to stop here when it rained so hard, we couldn’t see), Whitefish Point and Houghton/Hancock, among many. We did the tour in seven days and next time would probably add at least a day. We thoroughly enjoyed our whole trip and hope to do it again when our three kids get older.
Sarah & Benji Pearson, Superior, Wisconsin

mid-1960s
We left Grand View, Wisconsin, which is located about 20 miles southwest of Ashland and Chequamegon Bay, intending to spend about thee or four days going around the lake through Duluth, on up to what was then Fort William and thence down to Wawa where I remember we stopped and I bought a pipe and a pair of Hudson Bay wool socks. And thence down to the Sault. As we arrived at the Sault, we noticed a line of cars - lined up - for what we did not know. We found out soon enough. What we did not know was that there was no bridge on which to cross at the Soo, as there is now, but that we had to wait for a ferry boat, along with everybody else. So, there was a line. We will wait. A young man came along on a bike and asked if we wanted to buy a paper. I said to him, “We won’t have time to read a paper.” And he said, “Oh, you’ll have plenty of time.” We found out what he meant as we came to the next corner and saw that the line of cars extended around several blocks, and our wait would amount to a couple of hours. Which it did. I bought a paper. And we finally got on the boat and were ferried across. Ah, yes, the good old days. We found out something else, that we should have known, the U.P. is about as wide as Wisconsin is high - better than 250 miles - and it is about 35-40 miles between towns, and, not watching the gas gauge, we ran out of gas. Now what? Well, I had brought my car-top boat along and had the motor and a three-gallon gas can of gasoline in the trunk. But how to get it in the gas tank? A-ha! We used the rolled-up newspaper as a funnel and got the gas in the tank, and did manage to make it to the next town, where we filled up, and it was but a few hours later that we completed our Circle Trip, winding up back in Grand View. A great trip and one I’d like to take again some day. I should have mentioned, my traveling partner this time was my cousin, Knute Wallin from Grand View, former principal of the high school in Greenwood, Wisconsin. And one other bit of information, there is, on the map you sent along with the magazine this time - the map of Lake Superior, and we had noticed it before - there is a town about I’d say 20-30 miles south of the Soo by the name of “Goetzville.” My brother, who lives in Minoqua, and I were wondering what it consists of and what its history is, and if the founders might be of any relation. Our grandparents came from Germany back in the 1890s. So - could be. Anyway, this next summer we plan on taking a trip to Goetzville and among other things have our picture taken by the town limit sign, assuming there is a sign.
William E. Goetz, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin