June 27-29 to WI/MI

[NWI_Irish96]

Have a trip scheduled for June 27-29.

June 27: Chicago -> Iowa City -> Waterloo -> Rochester -> Twin Cities -> St Cloud -> Duluth

June 28: Duluth -> Ironwood -> Houghton -> Crystal Falls -> Marquette -> Sault Ste. Marie (ON)

June 29: Sault Ste. Marie -> Flint -> Point Edward (ON) -> Farmington Hills -> Toledo -> Chicago

Objectives:
Clinch only segments of I-94 I'm missing (Minneapolis-St. Cloud, Port Huron-St Clair Shores)
Clinch segment of I-75 I'm missing north of Knoxville, TN (Sault Ste Marie-Birch Run)
Clinch 3di (380, 535, 675, 475, 696, 275, 280)
Clinch several counties in IA, MN, WI, and MI, including all I'm missing in Michigan UP (Gogebic, Ontonagon, Houghton, Keweenau, Baraga, Iron, Dickinson, Marquette, Alger, Luce, Chippewa)

I generally do these trips solo, but if this sounds interesting to anybody, I wouldn't mind a companion. Approx 10-11 hours each day in the car. Would need passport.

[JREwing78]

Those are some hard days behind the wheel with barely getting a whiff of the scenic nature of Northern Wisconsin and the U.P.

At least you're in the part of the year that you're unlikely to be spending much time driving in the dark; it's daylight between 6am and 10pm (or 5am and 9pm, depending on which side of the time zone you're in).

[7/8]

Today I learned there's a village called Point Edward, Ontario, despite driving through it several times. Pretty surprising it didn't get amalgamated into Sarnia, which is what happened to most villages in the province.

Good luck with the trip!

[paulthemapguy]

Woof, those look like some lengthy drives! Or maybe I'm seeing things.  But I historically have trying to avoid driving more than 8-9 hours in a day if I'm driving by myself. Heck, these days I try to keep it to 7 hours tops.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I would recommend booking a hotel in Duluth early if you haven't already. Even though it's a Tuesday, the changes in lifestyle habits of the last few years mean it's busy in the summer no matter what day you go and not only on weekends anymore. It's bad on weekdays and worse on the weekends.

[Rothman]

I would recommend booking a hotel in Duluth early if you haven't already. Even though it's a Tuesday, the changes in lifestyle habits of the last few years mean it's busy in the summer no matter what day you go and not only on weekends anymore. It's bad on weekdays and worse on the weekends.

^This.  It actually may already be too late.  Last year, hotels were booked for the summer way early from Duluth and up the North Shore.

[NWI_Irish96]

I would recommend booking a hotel in Duluth early if you haven't already. Even though it's a Tuesday, the changes in lifestyle habits of the last few years mean it's busy in the summer no matter what day you go and not only on weekends anymore. It's bad on weekdays and worse on the weekends.

^This.  It actually may already be too late.  Last year, hotels were booked for the summer way early from Duluth and up the North Shore.

Already have hotels booked in both Duluth and Sault Ste Marie

[NWI_Irish96]

I have re-evaluated the length of the days I had scheduled and trimmed this trip back a bit.

First day will now skip Iowa/I-380 and just head straight up to the Twin Cities and St. Cloud before progressing up to Duluth. If I can get out of Chicagoland in good time I may use US 12 some instead of I-94 between Wisconsin Dells and Black River Falls.

For the second day I really wanted to hit both of the end of US 41 and Dickinson County, but doing both meant a 12 hour day to Sault Ste. Marie, and there aren't any hotels between Duluth and Sault Ste. Marie that I can get free with rewards points. I'm much more likely to go back at a later date to get Dickinson County so that got cut.

For the third day I cut out the Ohio/I-280 segment and just head straight home from Detroit.

Still going to be over 10 hours the first and last days and close to 11 the second day, but at least now I'm not doing three 12-hour days.

[NWI_Irish96]

This trip has been modified further.

I discovered that I-535 is completely closed in Duluth until Fall. I'd really rather save my trip there for a time when I can clinch it.

The first day will now wind through Wisconsin, netting me Wood, Clark, Taylor, Price, Rusk, Sawyer, Bayfield, Ashland and Iron counties, ending up in Ironwood, MI.

Second day will still go to Sault Ste Marie, but from a much closer starting point. Third day remains unchanged.

I'd still get 30 new counties and finish off all Michigan interstates except I-275 south of I-94.

[paulthemapguy]

This trip has been modified further.

I discovered that I-535 is completely closed in Duluth until Fall. I'd really rather save my trip there for a time when I can clinch it.

Thanks for the warning.  I'll definitely hold off on my trip up through Duluth to International Falls until next summer, then.

[NWI_Irish96]

This trip has been modified further.

I discovered that I-535 is completely closed in Duluth until Fall. I'd really rather save my trip there for a time when I can clinch it.

Thanks for the warning.  I'll definitely hold off on my trip up through Duluth to International Falls until next summer, then.

Yeah, I'm unlikely to ever make it to Duluth more than once, so I want to be able to get all of I-535 when I do go.

[paulthemapguy]

Same!  I'm not much closer to Duluth than you are.  I'm considering collecting Minnesota route shield photos to make a full Minnesota shield gallery (that's my version of clinching/collecting). But it's going to require trips that are 4 days of driving at a minimum.  So it'll be a massive undertaking if I ever get it started.

[Flint1979]

Have a trip scheduled for June 27-29.

June 27: Chicago -> Iowa City -> Waterloo -> Rochester -> Twin Cities -> St Cloud -> Duluth

June 28: Duluth -> Ironwood -> Houghton -> Crystal Falls -> Marquette -> Sault Ste. Marie (ON)

June 29: Sault Ste. Marie -> Flint -> Point Edward (ON) -> Farmington Hills -> Toledo -> Chicago

Objectives:
Clinch only segments of I-94 I'm missing (Minneapolis-St. Cloud, Port Huron-St Clair Shores)
Clinch segment of I-75 I'm missing north of Knoxville, TN (Sault Ste Marie-Birch Run)
Clinch 3di (380, 535, 675, 475, 696, 275, 280)
Clinch several counties in IA, MN, WI, and MI, including all I'm missing in Michigan UP (Gogebic, Ontonagon, Houghton, Keweenau, Baraga, Iron, Dickinson, Marquette, Alger, Luce, Chippewa)

I generally do these trips solo, but if this sounds interesting to anybody, I wouldn't mind a companion. Approx 10-11 hours each day in the car. Would need passport.

You'll be passing me on June 29th if that schedule holds up. You'll be super close when you clinch I-675.

[Flint1979]

Also keep in mind how far and few towns are apart in the U.P.

It's nice if you like the outdoors but the U.P. can get pretty boring if you don't like that kind of stuff. Still though the driving around is fun.

I totally underestimated some drives up there, it takes about 3 hours to get from Iron Mountain to Copper Harbor. I did that in 2020 and never thought that it would take that long to drive to Copper Harbor. When I checked into a hotel in Norway which is close to Iron Mountain I told the person working at the front desk that I was from Saginaw and just looking for something for the night and she said Saginaw? That's about a day's drive away. I said I know I just drove it.

[GaryV]

My son was a student at Michigan Tech.

My daughter was on a robotics team that got an invite to the World Festival in Atlanta.

We looked it up. Atlanta? That's only 2 hours farther than Tech. Sure, let's go!

[Flint1979]

You could also clinch M-58 when your in Saginaw then you'll see what I see every day. M-58 is only 5 miles long so it doesn't take too long.

[NWI_Irish96]

Trip Report Part 1 of 4

Background

In the summer of 1999, I was living in Battle Creek and had to go to Milwaukee to be in my college roommate's wedding. Rather than just take the short way around Lake Michigan both ways, I decided to make a multi-day road trip out of it and follow the Lake Michigan Circle Tour counterclockwise around the lake. I camped at Manistee and Manistique before arriving in Milwaukee for the wedding (oversleeping the second night forced me to skip Door County in order to not be late to the rehearsal dinner, and I've yet to make it there).

That trip was my first real road trip specifically designed to drive new roads, so in a sense it was the beginning of my road-clinching hobby. The next summer was a much longer trip, to Yellowstone and back mostly via I-94 and I-90. Since returning to the Chicago area in 2017, I've been working on collecting counties and highway mileage in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and this trip went a long way towards counties and highway mileage in Wisconsin and Michigan.

[NWI_Irish96]

Day 1: June 27 - Home to Ironwood, MI

Left home at 5:30 am in order to avoid morning rush in Chicago. Nothing new to see until getting north of Milwaukee, so the first part of the trip was a very straightforward I-80/94 -> I-294 -> I-94 -> I-41. The first venture on to new (to me) roadway was US 45 between Richfield and Oshkosh, including visiting Fond du Lac for the first time.

From Oshkosh I continued north on US 45 and then headed west on US 10, picking up Wood and Clark counties. Backtracked a bit on US 10 to CTH V, which I took north to pick up WI 13 at Spencer. I followed WI 13 north, picking up Taylor and Price counties. At Prentice, I headed west on US 8 into Rusk County. At Ladysmith, I turned north/west on WI 26 into Sawyer County.

At Heyward, I went north on US 63 into Bayfield County to its end at US 2. Heading east on US 2 brought me to Ashland County and Ashland, where I stopped for my first-ever view of Lake Superior:



Finally, I continued east on US 2 just across the state line to Gogebic County, Michigan, where I ended my day's travels at Ironwood.

[Flint1979]

Day 1: Home to Ironwood, MI

Left home at 5:30 am in order to avoid morning rush in Chicago. Nothing new to see until getting north of Milwaukee, so the first part of the trip was a very straightforward I-80/94 -> I-294 -> I-94 -> I-41. The first venture on to new (to me) roadway was US 45 between Richfield and Oshkosh, including visiting Fond du Lac for the first time.

From Oshkosh I continued north on US 45 and then headed west on US 10, picking up Wood and Clark counties. Backtracked a bit on US 10 to CTH V, which I took north to pick up WI 13 at Spencer. I followed WI 13 north, picking up Taylor and Price counties. At Prentice, I headed west on US 8 into Rusk County. At Ladysmith, I turned north/west on WI 26 into Sawyer County.

At Heyward, I went north on US 63 into Bayfield County to its end at US 2. Heading east on US 2 brought me to Ashland County and Ashland, where I stopped for my first-ever view of Lake Superior:



Finally, I continued east on US 2 just across the state line to Gogebic County, Michigan, where I ended my day's travels at Ironwood.

To me the hardest county in Wisconsin to get was Green Lake. I remember it being off the beaten path and I had to backtrack to get there. Depending on where you are headed M-28 is a better route to go east-west on than US-2 in the western U.P.

Actually Gogebic was my last county in Michigan that I clinched.

[NWI_Irish96]

To me the hardest county in Wisconsin to get was Green Lake. I remember it being off the beaten path and I had to backtrack to get there. Depending on where you are headed M-28 is a better route to go east-west on than US-2 in the western U.P.

Actually Gogebic was my last county in Michigan that I clinched.

I'm actually already home. I'll have Day 2 and 3 reports later today.

[Flint1979]

To me the hardest county in Wisconsin to get was Green Lake. I remember it being off the beaten path and I had to backtrack to get there. Depending on where you are headed M-28 is a better route to go east-west on than US-2 in the western U.P.

Actually Gogebic was my last county in Michigan that I clinched.

I'm actually already home. I'll have Day 2 and 3 reports later today.

Lol I just realized today is the 30th.

[NWI_Irish96]

Day 2: June 28: Ironwood, MI, to Sault Ste. Marie, ON

My only time in the UP was the aforementioned 1999 trip where I only hit the counties bordering Lake Michigan. This day's main goal was to hit the rest of the UP, as who knows when I'll ever be back. I started off east on US 2, then took M-28 east from where it branched off from US 2. A northward turn on US 45 and an an northeastern turn onto M-26 took me through Ontonagon County and into Houghton County. At Houghton, I went north on US 41 into Keweenaw County. I could have just turned back around, but I wasn't going to get this close to the northern end of US 41 and not go all the way there, so there I went:



On they way back down the peninsula (which I believe is actually an island), I took M-26 from Laurium back to Hancock before switching back to US 41 and heading south into Baraga County. Still needing Iron and Dickinson counties, I left US 41 for US 141 down to Crystal Falls. At this point, I briefly interruped my county collecting in Michigan to make a loop via US 2, M-189, WI 139, WI 70, WI 55, MI 73, and US 2 to collect Forest and Florence counties in Wisconsin. Back in Crystal Falls, I went east on M-69 and north on M-95 to bring me into Marquette County.

M-28, concurrent with US 41, brought me into Marquette. It was raining heavily, so I didn't get to explore the city like I'd wanted to. I proceeded on east on M-28 to continue the long trek over to I-75. This brought me through Alger and Schoolcraft counties and into Chippewa County. On the way up I-75 to the bridge, I took BS I-75 through Sault Ste. Marie, MI, before rejoining I-75 and heading over the International Bridge. This was my first time crossing a border in over 20 years, so I was a bit nervous, but it was quick and painless. I had outrun the rain by this point so I did manage to explore a bit before settling down for the night.

[NWI_Irish96]

Day 3: June 29 - Sault Ste. Marie, ON, to home

I started off the morning with this view from my hotel room:



Unlike the first two days, the final day of the trip was an interstate-heavy day. Other than the Mackinac Bridge, I'd not been on any of I-75 north of the M-54/M-83 exit, so it was straight down I-75 to Flint with the following deviations:

Quick foray off the Alger exit to venture into Gladwin County
Short trip down US 10/Bus US 10 to get Midland County
The I-676 loop around Saginaw
I-475 through Flint

From Flint I headed east on I-69 to cross the Blue Water Bridge for the first time. Had a quick lunch in Point Edward before heading back to Michigan. The wait to cross here was longer than my other three crossings combined. Next was I-94 down to I-676, one of the two segments of I-94 I was still missing (the other is from St. Paul to St. Cloud, which was skipped over during a western trip so I could visit the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota). My final new interstate mileage of the trip was I-696 from I-94 to I-75, and from there it was I-696, I-274, M-14 and I-94 back home, through lots of construction, traffic, and rain.

It was a lot of driving in three days, but I tend to prefer covering as much mileage as possible per day. Lots can change before next summer, but the current plan is to get the rest of the counties in Wisconsin I'm missing, get I-535 at Duluth, and that section of I-94 I'm missing.

[Flint1979]

Day 2: June 28: Ironwood, MI, to Sault Ste. Marie, ON

My only time in the UP was the aforementioned 1999 trip where I only hit the counties bordering Lake Michigan. This day's main goal was to hit the rest of the UP, as who knows when I'll ever be back. I started off east on US 2, then took M-28 east from where it branched off from US 2. A northward turn on US 45 and an an northeastern turn onto M-26 took me through Ontonagon County and into Houghton County. At Houghton, I went north on US 41 into Keweenaw County. I could have just turned back around, but I wasn't going to get this close to the northern end of US 41 and not go all the way there, so there I went:



On they way back down the peninsula (which I believe is actually an island), I took M-26 from Laurium back to Hancock before switching back to US 41 and heading south into Baraga County. Still needing Iron and Dickinson counties, I left US 41 for US 141 down to Crystal Falls. At this point, I briefly interruped my county collecting in Michigan to make a loop via US 2, M-189, WI 139, WI 70, WI 55, MI 73, and US 2 to collect Forest and Florence counties in Wisconsin. Back in Crystal Falls, I went east on M-69 and north on M-95 to bring me into Marquette County.

M-28, concurrent with US 41, brought me into Marquette. It was raining heavily, so I didn't get to explore the city like I'd wanted to. I proceeded on east on M-28 to continue the long trek over to I-75. This brought me through Alger and Schoolcraft counties and into Chippewa County. On the way up I-75 to the bridge, I took BS I-75 through Sault Ste. Marie, MI, before rejoining I-75 and heading over the International Bridge. This was my first time crossing a border in over 20 years, so I was a bit nervous, but it was quick and painless. I had outrun the rain by this point so I did manage to explore a bit before settling down for the night.

You did the same thing I did when I got to Keweenaw. I remember a BP gas station at the county line and thought I'm not done with Keweenaw yet I'm going up to the northern terminus of US-41. I went up there, I remember a 55 mph speed limit sign, a dead end sign and a deer standing in the middle of the road as I approached the cul de sac, I scared the deer off into the woods. On my way back I took M-26 the entire way which was a bit longer but fun.  Actually you went backwards compared to the way I was doing it as I was heading west and south into Wisconsin after I was done with the western U.P.

[Flint1979]

Day 3: June 29 - Sault Ste. Marie, ON, to home

I started off the morning with this view from my hotel room:



Unlike the first two days, the final day of the trip was an interstate-heavy day. Other than the Mackinac Bridge, I'd not been on any of I-75 north of the M-54/M-83 exit, so it was straight down I-75 to Flint with the following deviations:

Quick foray off the Alger exit to venture into Gladwin County
Short trip down US 10/Bus US 10 to get Midland County
The I-676 loop around Saginaw
I-475 through Flint

From Flint I headed east on I-69 to cross the Blue Water Bridge for the first time. Had a quick lunch in Point Edward before heading back to Michigan. The wait to cross here was longer than my other three crossings combined. Next was I-94 down to I-676, one of the two segments of I-94 I was still missing (the other is from St. Paul to St. Cloud, which was skipped over during a western trip so I could visit the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota). My final new interstate mileage of the trip was I-696 from I-94 to I-75, and from there it was I-696, I-274, M-14 and I-94 back home, through lots of construction, traffic, and rain.

It was a lot of driving in three days, but I tend to prefer covering as much mileage as possible per day. Lots can change before next summer, but the current plan is to get the rest of the counties in Wisconsin I'm missing, get I-535 at Duluth, and that section of I-94 I'm missing.

You missed the Zilwaukee Bridge that's always a fun bridge to cross lol.