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[TheHighwayMan394]

Hey folks. After thinking it over and consulting it with Moland, we have decided that July 30 and 31, 2016 will be the dates for the roadmeet. I apologize for the flip-flop on the meet selection polls. 

Anyway, to sum up again:
-This will be a two-day event; if you can only make one day, that's perfectly fine.
-Saturday 7/30 will be spent exploring MN 61 and Sunday 7/31 will be spent in Duluth/Superior and surrounding areas.
-I'm planning on basing both days out of Duluth for ease of people getting out of town Sunday, but if someone thinks another base site might be better for the MN 61 portion I'm open to suggestions.

Highlights for Saturday:
-Silver Creek Cliff/Lafayette Tunnels, Silver Creek Cliff sign and the trail that now follows the MN 61 alignment bypassed by the tunnels.
-Gooseberry Falls or Cascade River State Park (the latter includes a stop at the Cascade River Wayside)
-Old US 61 abandoned alignment near Grand Marais
-Old US 61 border crossing near Grand Portage

Highlights for Sunday:
-Aerial Lift Bridge
-Skyline Parkway
-Oliver Bridge
-Bypassed section of MN 23 near its famed Wisconsin section
-Possible reopen of MN 210 through Jay Cooke State Park by that time
-I-35 tunnels and extension

If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. We'd love to see you there.   

[Rothman]

Hey folks. After thinking it over and consulting it with Moland, we have decided that July 30 and 31, 2016 will be the dates for the roadmeet. I apologize for the flip-flop on the meet selection polls. 

Anyway, to sum up again:
-This will be a two-day event; if you can only make one day, that's perfectly fine.
-Saturday 7/30 will be spent exploring MN 61 and Sunday 7/31 will be spent in Duluth/Superior and surrounding areas.
-I'm planning on basing both days out of Duluth for ease of people getting out of town Sunday, but if someone thinks another base site might be better for the MN 61 portion I'm open to suggestions.

Highlights for Saturday:
-Silver Creek Cliff/Lafayette Tunnels, Silver Creek Cliff sign and the trail that now follows the MN 61 alignment bypassed by the tunnels.
-Gooseberry Falls or Cascade River State Park (the latter includes a stop at the Cascade River Wayside)
-Old US 61 abandoned alignment near Grand Marais
-Old US 61 border crossing near Grand Portage

Highlights for Sunday:
-Aerial Lift Bridge
-Skyline Parkway
-Oliver Bridge
-Bypassed section of MN 23 near its famed Wisconsin section
-Possible reopen of MN 210 through Jay Cooke State Park by that time

If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. We'd love to see you there.   

My favorite transportation feature in the area is this intersection of US 53 SB and the ramp from I-35 NB to US 53 NB: https://goo.gl/maps/7VGz5.

Although I-35 was extended through East Duluth a long time ago, the extension may be worth a drive-through.  Sort of Duluth's Big Dig.

Right now, I'm a distant maybe for this one.

[TheHighwayMan394]

D'oh! How did I forget to mention the tunnels? That's a pretty key piece of Sunday's adventures. 

[SSOWorld]

Interchange - the ol' can-o-worms?

There are two more noticable bridges which are good "make-your-own-meet" attractions being the Bong and Blatnik (US-2 and I-535).  Plus it gives you an Interstate you would never realize is there for Wisconsin since it's well disconnected from the rest if it weren't for I-35 and I-94 in MN.  Another good look at is any remaining ore docks in the area.

[Rothman]

Interchange - the ol' can-o-worms?

There are two more noticable bridges which are good "make-your-own-meet" attractions being the Bong and Blatnik (US-2 and I-535).  Plus it gives you an Interstate you would never realize is there for Wisconsin since it's well disconnected from the rest if it weren't for I-35 and I-94 in MN.  Another good look at is any remaining ore docks in the area.

The USACE VC is worth a stop as well.  It's near the Aerial Lift Bridge in Canal Park (the Land of Grandma's -- at least when I lived there, all the major restaurants in Canal Park were part of the Grandma's family of restaurants).

Can't believe the Great Lakes Aquarium is still open.

There's a company called "Vista Fleet" that does harbor tours.  The various docks and grain elevators are fun, but the scrap dock sticks out like a sore thumb.  As the tour guides tell you, the scrappers will gladly scrap an entire freighter for you.

[Alps]

Interchange - the ol' can-o-worms?

There are two more noticable bridges which are good "make-your-own-meet" attractions being the Bong and Blatnik (US-2 and I-535).  Plus it gives you an Interstate you would never realize is there for Wisconsin since it's well disconnected from the rest if it weren't for I-35 and I-94 in MN.  Another good look at is any remaining ore docks in the area.

US 2 button copy WB... still there?

[SSOWorld]

No idea.  They just rehabbed the bridge though.

[Duke87]

I don't recall spotting any button copy on that bridge a couple months ago, but I've seen too many button copy signs in my travels to remember them all so don't take that as a definite no.

Seeing as I already passed through Duluth and it's not exactly close to home I likely will not be attending, but it's too early to say for certain.

[TheHighwayMan394]

Interchange - the ol' can-o-worms?

There are two more noticable bridges which are good "make-your-own-meet" attractions being the Bong and Blatnik (US-2 and I-535).  Plus it gives you an Interstate you would never realize is there for Wisconsin since it's well disconnected from the rest if it weren't for I-35 and I-94 in MN.  Another good look at is any remaining ore docks in the area.

US 2 button copy WB... still there?

They are (or will be very soon) gone. The east end of the US 2 freeway alignment is being reconstructed into roundabouts. I think one of them was moved to ground level as a construction-zone sign the last time I was in Superior, but I don't know if they have removed it by now as construction has progressed.

[getemngo]

I'm in. If A.J. goes and we carpool, we'll be incorporating the Lake Superior Circle Tour (at least, the WI/MN/ON portions) into our trip. We've already clinched the Michigan portion and we both need parts of US 2 in Michigan, so we'd probably take a more southern route there.

[codyg1985]

I am going to do my best to be at this meet next year. It is on my top three to attend (along with Louisiana and Toronto).

[A.J. Bertin]

I'm in. If A.J. goes and we carpool, we'll be incorporating the Lake Superior Circle Tour (at least, the WI/MN/ON portions) into our trip. We've already clinched the Michigan portion and we both need parts of US 2 in Michigan, so we'd probably take a more southern route there.

YES!!!! I'm definitely planning on attending this. It's my #1 priority for road meets in 2016. My thought on the route we'd take (assuming you and Cody are okay with it) is that we'd have an itinerary that looks like this:

Thursday - Drive from Grand Rapids to Sault Ste. Marie (either Michigan or Ontario - TBD later).
Friday - Drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay.
Saturday morning - Drive from Thunder Bay to the start of the meet.
Saturday A.M./P.M. - Participate in Day 1 of the road meet.
Sunday A.M./P.M. - Participate in Day 2 of the road meet.
Monday - Drive from Duluth to Iron Mountain.
Tuesday - Drive from Iron Mountain to Grand Rapids.

I'd be curious if either of you guys had other thoughts or suggestions on the route. I'm also curious as to what other folks reading this might think of such an itinerary.

[TheHighwayMan394]

The only thing I might bring up is that you would be driving MN 61 before we have the meet, which if you don't want to "spoil" it before then that you might want to tweak that portion. But if that's something you guys are personally OK with that's obviously completely fine - and after all no one can drive MN 61 too many times, and there will still be plenty of things we won't get to see at the meet. 

[TheHighwayMan394]

I'm planning on blocking out a section of hotel for meet-goers, just so everybody knows. That won't happen until sometime in the new year but just to give everybody a heads-up. Obviously no one is obligated and if you would rather stay elsewhere that's fine.

[Brandon]

Should I go to this, and I give it about a 90-95% chance of going, I think I'd like to visit Isle Royale for once.  My plan would then be:

Thursday: Drive from Joliet to Grand Marais, MN
Friday: Drive to Grand Portage, MN and go to Isle Royale for the day; drive to somewhere in NE MN for overnight
Saturday: Get to Duluth in time for the meet
Sunday: Second day of the meet
Monday: Get back to Joliet

[A.J. Bertin]

Should I go to this, and I give it about a 90-95% chance of going, I think I'd like to visit Isle Royale for once.

Nice! I'd like to visit Isle Royale once in my life too, but I know that won't happen in 2016.

[vdeane]

Right now I'm looking at fall for the Capital District meet, but something tells me that a meet based in Albany, NY wouldn't have much conflict with a mini-meet based in Minnesota.

[noelbotevera]

Here's my 2 cents of suggestions:

Bong Bridge reconstruction
(probably can be done) Tour of some Twin Cities projects (it's 120 miles south)


That's it.

[TheHighwayMan394]

Here's my 2 cents of suggestions:

Bong Bridge reconstruction

Will happen. For the record it's rehabilitation, not reconstruction.

(probably can be done) Tour of some Twin Cities projects (it's 120 miles south)

People are obviously welcome to do this in their own time, but this won't happen at the Duluth meets. I might be entering dangerous territory saying this this soon but I said elsewhere that I would like a Twin Cities meet for 2017.

I do appreciate the suggestions though.

[TheHighwayMan394]

OK, a couple updates:

I'm ditching the mini-meet idea. It seemed fun at the time because of how much I wanted a fall meet, but the more I thought about it it just seemed kind of ridiculous to try to do that.

Also, I've sort of been torn a bit about the "Scenic Alignment" of old US 61 between Duluth and Two Harbors and how to include it in the meet. I'm not sure if it fits better on Saturday when we do MN 61 (which would mean people who want to clinch 61 would have to figure out how to get the 20 miles of MN 61 we'd be bypassing on their own) or if I want to do it Sunday given its close proximity to Duluth, although the con of that is the repetitive material involved. Thoughts? Note that I plan to include Scenic 61 somehow; there's no way that won't be part of the meet.

Here's a map for reference: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Duluth,+MN/@46.8969086,-91.8400079,11z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x52ae527e782e37ff:0x90fdbf76eb580c72

[froggie]

When (if at all) would you do Skyline Pkwy?  Given the relative proximity of its endpoint to old 61, you could combine the two to cut down on "repetition".  Of course, on whichever day you headed up to Two Harbors, attendees could take the expressway one direction and the old road on the return trip (or vice versa).

[TheHighwayMan394]

When (if at all) would you do Skyline Pkwy?  Given the relative proximity of its endpoint to old 61, you could combine the two to cut down on "repetition".  Of course, on whichever day you headed up to Two Harbors, attendees could take the expressway one direction and the old road on the return trip (or vice versa).

Skyline Parkway is going to be part of Sunday (Duluth/Superior in-town portion of the meet).

[TheHighwayMan394]

I've been approached about the possibility of re-flipping itineraries between Saturday and Sunday, which would mean we would be doing the local Duluth/Superior portion on Saturday and MN 61 on Sunday instead. I have no problem with doing this, but I wanted to see if anyone had concerns about it first since the reason I flipped itineraries was to make it easier for people to leave the region on Sunday.

The reason I've been asked to do this is that a number of people are planning on doing the LSCT beforehand. As I said I have no issues with flipping itineraries, but I wanted to make sure this wouldn't cause too many problems.

[Brandon]

Nope, no concerns, even thought I will visit Isle Royale on that Friday before.  I'll just see MN-61 twice, and in two different ways. 

[TheHighwayMan394]

I've made the changes official on the Facebook events. Since I know not all of you are following there, here's a quick summary of where we are at now:

Saturday, July 30: Duluth/Superior area portion. Lunch is planned be at Chester Creek Cafe, 1902 E 8th St in Duluth.

Sunday, July 31: MN 61 portion. Lunch is planned to be mid-meet in Grand Marais at Sven and Ole's Pizza, 9 Wisconsin St.