A Lifeline in a Land Forsaken: Bike Traveling Michigan

Grand Marais, Upper Peninsula, Michigan

Grand Marais is 50-miles from anywhere. One of the northern-most communities in Upper Peninsula Michigan, tourists typically find the historic fishing village on their way out west to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

After the late-1800 lumber boom, the community, part of the Burt Township, dwindled to a population of 200-300 residents. Lake Street sit nexts to the West Bay, hosting less than a handful of restaurants and hotels keeping the community alive. But Grand Marias couldn’t survive without the school, one local said. This year, the first through twelfth grade school has 35 students enrolled.

There’s three ways in to Grand Marias, from the South, East and West. Gas, water and electricity are almost non-existent on the roads leading in. Coming from the East is an unpaved trail that would be both treacherous and lonesome for the unprepared traveler in winter months.

​There’s no law enforcement in the community, they are reliant on the eyes and ears of one another. Residents joke about the impossibility of keeping secrets in Grand Marias. But out of the remote and lawless nature of the land, a moral code was born. “One thing is for sure, if you don’t pick up a hitchhiker, you are breaking the law,” a lifetime citizen said.  This unwritten consensus is the lifeline in a land forsaken, doomed by harsh weather.