Duluth, Minnesota Shamrock Tour®
A few months ago, I read an article in the New York Times describing the recent real-estate boom in Duluth, MN. Disaffected Sun Belt residents, tired of the costs, crowds, and climate pressures of life in the Southwest, are increasingly relocating to Minnesota’s Arrowhead Region. I guess the secret is officially out.
While the rest of the country is just discovering Duluth, Midwestern motorcyclists have been in love with this gem at the westernmost tip of Lake Superior for ages. All the same things that make Duluth such a welcoming place to resettle—the laid-back “Minnesota Nice” lifestyle, millions of acres of readily accessible public woods, and hundreds of miles of dramatic freshwater coastline—also make Minnesota’s North Shore one of America’s best destinations for motorcycle touring. So, I gathered my riding buddies Brad and Gio, and headed way up north to check the area out.
Built into a steep cliffside that towers 800 feet above the lake, Duluth is a naturally dramatic city. Approaching downtown from the north along the precipitously steep descents of Lake or Mesaba avenues, you might think for a moment that you are in San Francisco instead. Gazing out across the impossibly broad expanse of Lake Superior won’t do anything to change your perception, but it isn’t an ocean—it’s just the world’s largest freshwater lake, containing roughly 10% of the globe’s surface freshwater.
Entering the Iron Range
Lake Superior is a magnificent sight, especially north of Duluth where deep teal waters contrast sharply with the iron-rich red cliffs that define Lake Superior’s North Shore. My first day’s ride explored the nationally designated All-American Road called the North Shore Scenic Drive, also known as the Voyageur Highway, which stretches along the 150-mile length of SR 61 between Duluth and Grand Portage, ending just south of the Canadian border.
Motorcycle & Gear
2013 BMW R 1200 GS
Helmet: Arai Quantum-X
Jacket & Pants: Aerostich Roadcrafter Classic One Piece
Boots: Red Wing Classic Moc
Gloves: Aerostich Insulated Elkskin
Luggage: Kriega Overlander 60
Comm System: Sena SMH10R
Red rocks indicate iron ore, and northern Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range is—as it has been for the past 100 years—the primary iron-mining district in America. It’s impossible to avoid evidence of that history along this route. Two Harbors is the first city north of Duluth, and the waterfront there is dominated by a pair of 1,300-foot ore docks rising seven stories above Agate Bay. These immense docks are used to load over 12 million tons of taconite ore annually from trains to freighter ships for delivery to steel mills in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
A few miles farther north, in the town of Silver Bay, you’ll pass the massive Northshore Mining facility. This sprawling, 28,000-acre plant, which covers a half mile along the Lake Superior shoreline, is where raw taconite is crushed, ground, separated, concentrated, and baked to create the pellets that go onto the ships at Two Harbors. You can see it all from a scenic overlook on a bluff above Silver Bay. Stop and snap a quick pic with Rocky Taconite, the plant’s taconite-pellet mascot, on your way up the bluff.