Our Warmshowers host in Marquette had repair stands and plenty of bike tools so it was a good chance to do some maintenance as our brake pads were worn badly, the callipers needed servicing and the chains had both hit .75% wear. Plus a good wash was in order. That used up the morning so in the afternoon we headed over to Presque Isle Park on the north end of Marquette as we had heard a lot about it. It is a very picturesque spot with lots of steep shorelines and heavily wooded hills. One of Marquette’s lake freighter terminals is located there too and the scale of the terminal isn’t apparent until you realize that the little rectangular things on the top are actually rail cars. Very impressive. This morning we bade farewell to Sarah, our Warmshowers host and very accomplished mountain biker and Bikepacker. She has raced Downhill and bikepacked from Marquette to Montana and then down the Great Divide trail to Mexico. She had some great stories. We picked up the Iron Ore Heritage Trail a half block from her house and followed it east out of town. The trail was improved, or paved for the first 12 kms or so out of town and then became a very rideable crushed limestone surface for another 5 kms or so and then turned into a typical ATV trail, rutted, chewed up and washboard! Sarah had mentioned a spot with a lot of metal sculptures and we came upon Lakenland, the work of a metal sculptor extraordinaire. It’s accessible from both the highway and the rail trail so a lot of people were there enjoying the unique creations. We headed back down the trail and as it was becoming rougher and more difficult to ride, we moved to a road that paralleled the trail and which took us to the tiny community of Deerton where we stopped for lunch at a school playground. We continued east on the road as it became smaller and less maintained until we came through an area that was very wet with lots of water stretching completely across the surface. Thankfully the water was mostly about a half a foot deep and the bottom quite firm so we were able to ride most of the “water hazards”. At one very flooded section we spotted the rail trail through the bush and moved back to it with the surface being in much better shape now. It took us all the way into Au Train where at the Au Train General store we stopped for a Beef Pasty (rhymes with nasty) a flaky pastry filled with ground beef, potatoes, vegetables and seasonings. Super tasty and just what we needed after a high output afternoon. We stopped at the nearby beach and then back on to the rail trail, for about 100 metres at which point we completely bogged down in ankle deep quad churned sand. Pushing our way to the highway we pumped up the tires and rode the noisy shoulder to the Munising Campground, our home for tonight just a few metres away from the shore of Lake Superior. We had barely stopped when we were approached by a fellow who asked us if we needed anything, and said he had some cold local beer if we were interested. Well, the tent went up in a hurry, we showered in record time and made our way over to the rather large RV of Marcus and Missy, who it turns out are full time travellers. They both have jobs that they can do remotely so two years ago they sold their house and bought their RV and have travelled all lower 48 states and parts of western Canada. Lots of great stories from both of them. They are avid mountain bikers so they wanted to know all about our trip too. It’s true, you meet the greatest people on a bike!