Biking on US-2

One of my biggest worries before the trip was riding on US-2 in the UP. It's the only east-west road across the bottom of the UP, and so it is a main corridor for trucking traffic. It could have been deadly.

Instead, it turned out that US-2 has a huge paved shoulder all the way from Escanaba to St. Ignace (except for one large hill 5 miles away from St. Ignace, and the actual approach to town that has a very not-helpful "bike path" sidewalk along the road, in which all the crossing driveways do not have a true curb cut). So although it was hectic with all those trucks roaring by, it did not feel particularly dangerous.

Except for the detour around the Cut River bridge, which was a nightmare. All traffic was rerouted onto newly paved local roads that were the size of driveways. No shoulder, winding road, one lane in each direction, for about five miles. So there we were, expected to share the road with semis and gas trucks. Actually, it's probably more accurate to say that we were expected NOT to share the road--indeed, not to be on the detour at all, although I don't know what they would have preferred we do. There was so much traffic in both directions, it was nearly impossible for the traffic behind us to pass. Every once in a while I just pulled off the road to let them by. If we had done that for everyone, however, we never would have made any progress.

I think if we had known how bad it was going to be, we might have figured out a way to hit that detour at 6 am, or ride under water, or something. It did not help to generate a calm and relaxed feeling for the day's ride.