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I'm planning a 3000 mile trip around some of the Great Lakes

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10K views 45 replies 11 participants last post by  Pioneer4x4  
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#1 ·
My route will be similar to this.
http://mapq.st/1PYh6v7
I live just east of Pittsburgh, PA, and my furthest point will be the "Northwest Angle"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Angle
Which is a stub of Minnesota that you have to drive through Canada to get to. I was wondering if anybody lives along that route, or if anybody has suggested stops. I will be passing through Harrison, MI at some point to visit my Sister, other than that it is pretty open. I was thinking of stopping here in Barrie, ON.
Barrie Brewery | Craft Beer Brewery | Redline Brewhouse
I will probably be taking the trip in 2-5 weeks, not sure when yet. And it will probably be a 6 night, maybe 7 night trip.
I didn't know where to post this thread, since I live in Northeast region, but will be in Canada and Midwest regions as well.
 
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#2 ·
All scheduled and booked. I am leaving this coming Saturday the 16th. If I side trip to Winnipeg, it might be close to 3300 miles.
 
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#3 ·
I realize that you are already mapped out, but you are missing one of the prettiest drives on highway 61 between the Canadian border and Duluth.
 
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#5 ·
My hotels are set, but not the exact route, I'll check that out. I am not certain on how I will approach Thunder Bay.
 
#4 ·
It's worth getting off I-75 through the northern Lower Peninsula of MI to see Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Charlevoix and Petoskey. Some of the best roads in Michigan are along the western lake shore.


Enjoy the ride over "Big Mac" (the Mackinac Bridge), and consider some time on Mackinac Island.


Eat some pasties! After you cross Big Mac, it's a short detour west on US 2 to Suzy's Pasties. (and it's a short "a"). You will find them all over the U.P, but Suzy's is a sure thing.


Google for information on Tahquamenon Falls, Whitefish Point and the Shipwreck Museum, all near Sault Ste Marie in the Michgan UP. All worth the detour.


Also, if you detour through Detroit, you can visit the Henry Ford Museum, which has a really great selection of cars.


Have fun!


Jim
(born in Sharon PA, now in Colorado, but spent 25 years in Michigan and I miss the Northern Lower and U.P.!)
 
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#6 ·
JimF said:
It's worth getting off I-75 through the northern Lower Peninsula of MI to see Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Charlevoix and Petoskey. Some of the best roads in Michigan are along the western lake shore.
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I may, my sister lives in Harrison, and I was there briefly last August when I went to the Woodward Dream Cruise

JimF said:
Enjoy the ride over "Big Mac" (the Mackinac Bridge), and consider some time on Mackinac Island.


Eat some pasties! After you cross Big Mac, it's a short detour west on US 2 to Suzy's Pasties. (and it's a short "a"). You will find them all over the U.P, but Suzy's is a sure thing.
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Hmm, food, :grin: I just looked, I didn't realize that bridge was so long!

JimF said:
Google for information on Tahquamenon Falls, Whitefish Point and the Shipwreck Museum, all near Sault Ste Marie in the Michgan UP. All worth the detour.
Click to expand...
Already in my plans, thanks.


JimF said:
Also, if you detour through Detroit, you can visit the Henry Ford Museum, which has a really great selection of cars.


Have fun!
Click to expand...
I went there last September with my Brother in Law (He's a huge Ford guy) mainly for the Model T Birthday event at the old factory (I rode in 2 of them, 1 a 2 seater roadster!) and we toured the F150 plant, and the Museum. Might go back this year again with him, if not Woodward.
 
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#7 ·
Also, I have a full day in the Northwest Angle (2 nights) and I may run to Winnipeg. I can honestly say I will never be anywhere near there again unless I take a train ride some year. (Plus they have a Lego Store, there aren't any close to my house, sounds like a good reason for 5 hours in a SLK)
 
#9 ·
Safe travels and enjoy the drive. I'm feeling a little jealous. I would love to take a long drive at some point, but off my radar right now. Post photos if you get a chance.
 
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#10 ·
I'm open to suggestions on a good way to post about it. (without saying to the world, hey, look at me all alone, come steal my car)
I am NOT on facebook, and have no intention. I will take a **** load of pictures, and video. Maybe some in-car video, but I doubt it. I will have enough technology with me to do it, and I typically remote to my home PC anyway.
Day 1 - Saturday is my longest drive, then the last day is my 2nd longest getting home again. I have no idea how long border crossings will take (6 of them, 2 are trivial, 2 of them at the same place in the same direction(Sault Sainte Marie)) and how much I will stop for kicks. I will have to waste some time at Niagara Falls, but I have been there many times and have seen and done all I care to.
 
#12 ·
It's Catch 22.

You've already posted your route.

Total safety means waiting until you return.

All depends on how 'at risk' you feel.

We've got a uk Lakes tour coming up.
Nearly a dozen cars, so avoiding posting will be pointless in our case.

Nowhere near that distance though.
 
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#15 ·
Shame you would have been passing through the GTA on the 16th as I am planning meeting up some Eastern Ontario members on that day so will be heading Eastward. :frown:

You've certainly chosen a very nice route once you get out of the GTA. Hwy 17 is generally open wide and a great road surface; it's very tempting to put your foot down but be aware of the OPP, just pick your spots if you want to open her up. I drove that route from TO to Thunder Bay last year...non stop 14 hours(shared the driving), watch out for the Moose now and then. Check with some Ontario websites re road closures and construction delays because they are always doing something on that Highway as part of the Northern Highways Program.

I am sure you'll take your camera for some great views. Also be careful because there can be quite a distance between gas stations even though they may not seem far apart on the map; several hundreds of kilometres in some cases, many are no name brand and some of the remote stations are run by First Nations so you may not exactly get the octane rating you want....but you'll get a lots of smokes>:D

Best of luck on your trip, looks like you have sunshine in the forecast for most days and temperatures in the high 20's.
 
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#17 ·
CHELZEE said:
Shame you would have been passing through the GTA on the 16th as I am planning meeting up some Eastern Ontario members on that day so will be heading Eastward. :frown:

You've certainly chosen a very nice route once you get out of the GTA. Hwy 17 is generally open wide and a great road surface; it's very tempting to put your foot down but be aware of the OPP, just pick your spots if you want to open her up. I drove that route from TO to Thunder Bay last year...non stop 14 hours(shared the driving), watch out for the Moose now and then. Check with some Ontario websites re road closures and construction delays because they are always doing something on that Highway as part of the Northern Highways Program.

I am sure you'll take your camera for some great views. Also be careful because there can be quite a distance between gas stations even though they may not seem far apart on the map; several hundreds of kilometres in some cases, many are no name brand and some of the remote stations are run by First Nations so you may not exactly get the octane rating you want....but you'll get a lots of smokes>:D

Best of luck on your trip, looks like you have sunshine in the forecast for most days and temperatures in the high 20's.
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Sorry, you lost me on a couple things "GTA" and "TO" (Toronto?) And high 20's, dang gotta do some math, 25*2*.9=45+32=77 0:)
I am a camera guy (hell, a gadget guy) Thanks for the tips on fuel, I will need to fill up about twice each day. The gasbuddy app seems to work for Canada as well as USA, so that might help. Thanks for speed tips as well, I may keep a log of top down time for kicks, and I guess the more time top down, the lower my speed will be. I really tend to slow lane it with top down. Also do I need to run with my headlights on in Canada? I'm looking up driving law differences now. We do things different than a lot of places here in "Piksburgh", hell, we even use our turn signals a lot here. I'm debating pre-reserving a slot on the Tobermory ferry, but you have to be there 1 hour before or lose it, and I may take the 7am, so 6am kind of sucks.
 
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#16 ·
Great Lakes trip

I understand if you listened to everyone's suggestions you would have a 5,000 mile trip and 3 months spent, but if you (on this trip or some other time) have the opportunity, do yourself a favor and visit the 1000 Island region. It starts east of Lake Ontario and empties the Great Lake system. I grew up here and it is some of the best boating in the World, with 1800+ islands plunked into the middle of the beautiful St. Lawrence river. Just take a look at some of the photos on the home page here.

Homepage | Visit the 1000 Islands

Have a great trip!
 
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#18 ·
Vjdslk said:
I understand if you listened to everyone's suggestions you would have a 5,000 mile trip and 3 months spent, but if you (on this trip or some other time) have the opportunity, do yourself a favor and visit the 1000 Island region. It starts east of Lake Ontario and empties the Great Lake system. I grew up here and it is some of the best boating in the World, with 1800+ islands plunked into the middle of the beautiful St. Lawrence river. Just take a look at some of the photos on the home page here.

Homepage | Visit the 1000 Islands

Have a great trip!
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Exactly, I am doing it in a week with really only 1 down day, and I may burn that on the road as well. Everywhere I look along this route seems like nice relaxing locations, but my wife can't stand long road trips trapped in a car, so I will probably not be back to most of these areas.
 
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#19 ·
I really tend to slow lane it with top down. Also do I need to run with my headlights on in Canada? I'm looking up driving law differences now. We do things different than a lot of places here in "Piksburgh", hell, we even use our turn signals a lot here.

I think only Nova Scotia is mandatory for DRL's so as a visitor from the US I don't think you need to have them in Ontario, but I would have them on anyway.....and of course you can turn right on red except where signed, not that you will be encountering many traffic signals once you get out of the GTA..Greater Toronto Area, TO = Toronto or 'Torono'...watch you don't get attacked by racoons, avoid skunks and black bears....watch out for Moose, Deer, snakes and the OPP...oh sorry I think they are the same species>:D

As you know every speed limit is in kms so you may want to set your speedo to kms once you cross the border, some signs will just have a number '80' without 'kms' - max speed through towns is generally 50 except where sign posted. If you are travelling up the 400 although the speed limit is 100kms, you will be standing still as others pass you anywhere between 120-140, lane discipline generally doesn't exist:surprise: braking distance between cars...what's that:surprise: 50 over any speed limit and be prepared to have the car impounded and you taken away in handcuffs:surprise: so best you keep your top down0:) deemed as 'stunt driving'...not 'speeding':surprise:

Once you get a few miles north of Barrie things tend to die down in terms of traffic volume.

Have a great trip...

One last thing...if you have a beer ..alcohol limits are pretty tough when getting behind a wheel,
 
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#20 ·
CHELZEE said:
I really tend to slow lane it with top down. Also do I need to run with my headlights on in Canada? I'm looking up driving law differences now. We do things different than a lot of places here in "Piksburgh", hell, we even use our turn signals a lot here.

I think only Nova Scotia is mandatory for DRL's so as a visitor from the US I don't think you need to have them in Ontario, but I would have them on anyway.....and of course you can turn right on red except where signed, not that you will be encountering many traffic signals once you get out of the GTA..Greater Toronto Area, TO = Toronto or 'Torono'...watch you don't get attacked by racoons, avoid skunks and black bears....watch out for Moose, Deer, snakes and the OPP...oh sorry I think they are the same species>:D

As you know every speed limit is in kms so you may want to set your speedo to kms once you cross the border, some signs will just have a number '80' without 'kms' - max speed through towns is generally 50 except where sign posted. If you are travelling up the 400 although the speed limit is 100kms, you will be standing still as others pass you anywhere between 120-140, lane discipline generally doesn't exist:surprise: braking distance between cars...what's that:surprise: 50 over any speed limit and be prepared to have the car impounded and you taken away in handcuffs:surprise: so best you keep your top down0:) deemed as 'stunt driving'...not 'speeding':surprise:

Once you get a few miles north of Barrie things tend to die down in terms of traffic volume.

Have a great trip...

One last thing...if you have a beer ..alcohol limits are pretty tough when getting behind a wheel,
Click to expand...
Thanks for all of that, good info. I was playing with the dash settings today, and looking at the speedo, I was amazed that there weren't any small Km/H tick marks like every other car I can think of, so I figured, I'll activate the digital display and set it to Km/H, when I switched , I was stunned the speedo dial instantly jumped and the whole car was in Km mode, very cool! I figure it might be like when I drove my El Camino to Area 51 north of Las Vegas, cattle would walk out onto the winding roads, and turtles in other places.
 
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#21 ·
It's been 3 days since he's been gone and not a word:surprise: maybe he hasn't got out of Ontario yet......or did he get lost in the Toronto traffic>:D I hope he didn't pack Pokeman Go or he is in real trouble....he could be anywhere:surprise:

Does anyone have any updates on his progress? :|
 
#22 ·
Have a great trip, sounds like fun. I've never been in that area, except Niagara Falls in 1974. I'm taking a road trip to New England in a week or so for 3 weeks. Can't wait to get away from this insane FL. heat...post pics
 
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#23 ·
Not a word from him......he must have been eaten by the bears :surprise: and I was looking forward to looking at the photo's too...oh well.
 
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#24 ·
Been normalizing, I got back Saturday night. I took about 500 pics most aren't interesting to anyone but me.
Stats - 8 days driving, total 3539 miles, 70 hours 13 minutes driving. MPG 30.8 over the entire trip!
I spent the first 4 days entirely top down except for 1 hour of rain in Michigan after crossing through Sault Sainte Marie, about 2200 miles, and maybe 2500 total miles top down.
The first couple days were normal driving speeds with traffic and some full throttle passes as needed (which the 350 totally amazed me). Then by the 4th day I came to the conclusion that I had plenty of time, and no real rush so I would just set the cruise on the speed limit and slow down to let people pass as needed, or even pull over when no passing zones were long. That plus Michigan & Minnesota having ethanol free premium, and then running top up after baking in the car for 8-9 hours a day, I ended up getting as high as 33.9 mpg over 384 miles averaging 50 MPH (speed limit was 90 KMH/56MPH) counting stops and multiple construction zones.
Metric was 6.9l / 100 Km over 618 Km avg 81 Km/h.
I drove on some boring, some amazing, some crappy roads. Most of it was very nice wooded wilderness. The loop around Lake Superior was much nicer than what I saw of Lake Huron, but the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry ride and drive after was beautiful.
I had about 110 miles of dirt/gravel roads the longest stretch was 45 miles and took me about 1:20. I had 10 border crossings between USA and Canada and only got grilled once, but I was in no rush at all and didn't care.
 
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#25 ·
Some panoramas I made are here
https://photosynth.net/userprofilepage.aspx?user=Pioneer4x4&content=Synths
on pages 1 & 2. Some aren't named well, but they are all geotagged (feel free to look or ignore the older ones there...)
You can scroll and zoom in a lot and move around them, some are 360 degrees, most aren't.
Here are 2 pics of my car on the trip, one is my butterfly collection and one is my dust collection.
 

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#26 ·
Hey 4x4, hubby and I will be leaving 8/18 driving to the 'burg for a family wedding. We're actually staying for about a week, maybe we can get together? We are travelling in the GLK not the SLK. I drove up about 4 years ago in the SLK...never again.

On the trip back to Tampa we'll be stopping by Gatlinburg, TN to look at property for our retirement.

I hope we get to see you for lunch/drinks at one of the favorite haunts!

Looks like you had fun on your trip!
 
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#27 ·
simplyslk said:
Hey 4x4, hubby and I will be leaving 8/18 driving to the 'burg for a family wedding. We're actually staying for about a week, maybe we can get together? We are travelling in the GLK not the SLK. I drove up about 4 years ago in the SLK...never again.

On the trip back to Tampa we'll be stopping by Gatlinburg, TN to look at property for our retirement.

I hope we get to see you for lunch/drinks at one of the favorite haunts!

Looks like you had fun on your trip!
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Sounds good, I will be working on my El Camino around that time, I need to get it ready for a road trip to Detroit for the annual Woodward Dream Cruise (If I go)
What area will you be staying in? Feel free to PM me as well. My wife and I are frequently thinking of retirement locations, but I hate hot, and she hates snow.
 
#28 ·
We will be staying right in Downtown Pgh. (Hotel Monaco) for a couple of days then to Seven Springs.

I will PM you the details! We like TN because of the four seasons...not too hot and not too cold! Can't take the summers down here with the heat and humidity and we're certainly not shoveling the $hit, oops I mean snow when we retire.
 
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#29 ·
Here are a couple more pictures.
A big chair, kind of funky
A deer, I also saw a fox, but missed it with camera. I did not see a moose :frown:
The recovered ship's bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald
Funny sticker in the gift shop of the shipwreck museum
Giant Santa in Christmas, Michigan.
 

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#30 ·
Border check in phone in the Northwest Angle of Minnesota. You must drive through part of Manitoba Canada to get there so no real need for manned security since you cannot get to the mainland USA from there, and to go back to Canada is trivial as well, since you had to drive through Canada in the first place to get there.
My best day of driving fuel wise.
The exterior of the Northern Michigan Superior Dome in Marquette Michigan. (Largest entirely wood dome structure in the world.
My car on the ferry from Tobermory Ontario
Cute lighthouse near Tobermory
 

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#32 ·
Routes of my trip to the farthest from home, and then back. I stayed in Angle Inlet Minnesota 2 nights and the day between I drove to Winnipeg, that added a total of 65 miles of dirt roads
I stayed over night in
1 - Tobermory Ontario - Tobermory Resort
2 - Paradise Michigan - Freighters View Cabins
3 - Ironwood Michigan - Indianhead Motel
4 - Angle Inlet Minnesota - Angle Outpost Resort
5 - Angle Inlet Minnesota - Angle Outpost Resort
6 - Thunder Bay Ontario - Prince Arthur Waterfront Hotel
7 - Sault Sainte Marie Michigan - Long Ships Motel
 

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#33 ·
I saw all 5 great lakes Erie, then Ontario, Huron, Superior and Michigan
I was in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota in USA, and Ontario & Manitoba in Canada.
I met many super nice people, some weird ones as well. Every body talked funny fer sure, eh, and one lady actually figured out I was from Pittsburgh area by how I talked. I told her "Yinz guys talk funny n'at, yous need to read (red) up this room the floor is kinda slippy" It got a laugh...
Somewhere around Nipigon Ontario, I was at a scenic view, and talked to a guy on a bicycle. He was cycling across all of Canada west to east, and had put on almost as many kilometers as I had. He was on the road for 32 days so far averaging 120 km per day.
 
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#35 ·
Sounds like you had a great road trip. Interesting to find out how you found the 400 and Hwy 17 to drive? Not sure what time you crossed the border when you started your journey? No moose......clearly didn't go off road enough and into the bush>:D
 
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