Iron County has ideal cycling conditions! I’ve been trying to get out as much as possible on my brother’s bicycle while I am here. Riding through the countryside of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is one of my favorite things to do. The population density of my home Iron County (4 people per kilometer, which is the same as Canada and a little more densely populated than Australia. There are not a lot of cars or people (11,631) in a big space (3,140 km2). Iron County is closest in area to the Turkish side of Cyprus, which has a population of 358,000. There are also good roads for road cyclists and a variety of gravel roads, logging trails, former railways turned to trails, ATV trails, etc. to give cyclists many opportunities to ride in the forests. There are no high mountains, but many rolling hills which are strenuous, but not impossible to scale over a course of a ride.
Iron County is one of two “land-locked” counties in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Land-locked meaning not having a Great Lakes Coastline. It borders Wisconsin and is in the Central time zone as is the four counties that border Wisconsin. This is confusing when we have appointments in Marquette, the largest city in the UP (20,.629), which is in neighboring Marquette County, but is in the Eastern time zone. The entire Upper Peninsula is great for cycling with a low population density (300,000 people in the size of Switzerland).
Some people not from here complain that there are too many trees. Driving or cycling between towns means a monotonous band of green (in July) with breaks only for bodies of water, some homes, and towns. It does limit the views and if one goes into the thick forests, there numerous mosquitoes. The weather in July is ideal, not too hot during the day and cool evenings, but for much of the year, there is snow and cold weather. There is also a lack of cycling culture here. In the university towns of Marquette and Houghton, you see more cyclists but in overall, very few people ride bicycles here.
Logging is a positive and negative for cyclists. The positive is there are many logging trails that mountain and gravel bikes can explore. The negative of course, are areas that look blighted (above). Overall, it is a cycling paradise and one of the reasons I like to return home.
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