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This was the first big road trip in the Bronco since picking it up in June...we travelled up through the Mitten, across the Mackinac Strait to the U.P., and back down through Wisconsin across 10 days. This wasn't a wheeling trip for me (although we did hit a bunch of access roads), but rather a chance to really break in the Bronco on a long road trip, and get a fair amount of hiking and MTB done. What I found was that the Bronco is much more at home as a touring vehicle than I ever thought possible.
We loaded up the night before leaving, with an assortment of bikes and a full cargo area. Access to the tailgate was going to be restricted for this trip due to the bikes, but I didn't find this to be as much of a problem as it would have been in my Jeeps. Access to the cargo via the rear doors was workable for the duration of the trip. With 4 people in the cabin, however, we were definitely pressing the limits of payload on this vehicle. We began to set off northbound for the initial trip through Indiana and Michigan.
We stopped just south of the Mackinac Strait, and woke up next morning to cross over into the U.P. via the Mackinac Bridge. A pause just north of the Strait showed Lake Huron to the left, and Lake Michigan to the right.
A stop at the nearby Father Marquette memorial, affords a more elevated view of the Strait and Mackinac Bridge.
We headed west into the U.P. on US 2, along the beaches and dunes of the northern Lake Michigan coastline. Hungry for breakfast, a stop for Pasties was in order--a treat that was a historical favorite of loggers and miners in the U.P. If I recall correctly, more money was made mining copper in the U.P., than in the entire California Gold Rush. The logging of timber in the U.P. provided a primary raw material that went into the earliest vehicles built by Ford, and Henry Ford owned lots of land up here for that purpose.
After the energy boost, it was time to hop back on US 2 and continue west.
We loaded up the night before leaving, with an assortment of bikes and a full cargo area. Access to the tailgate was going to be restricted for this trip due to the bikes, but I didn't find this to be as much of a problem as it would have been in my Jeeps. Access to the cargo via the rear doors was workable for the duration of the trip. With 4 people in the cabin, however, we were definitely pressing the limits of payload on this vehicle. We began to set off northbound for the initial trip through Indiana and Michigan.
We stopped just south of the Mackinac Strait, and woke up next morning to cross over into the U.P. via the Mackinac Bridge. A pause just north of the Strait showed Lake Huron to the left, and Lake Michigan to the right.
A stop at the nearby Father Marquette memorial, affords a more elevated view of the Strait and Mackinac Bridge.
We headed west into the U.P. on US 2, along the beaches and dunes of the northern Lake Michigan coastline. Hungry for breakfast, a stop for Pasties was in order--a treat that was a historical favorite of loggers and miners in the U.P. If I recall correctly, more money was made mining copper in the U.P., than in the entire California Gold Rush. The logging of timber in the U.P. provided a primary raw material that went into the earliest vehicles built by Ford, and Henry Ford owned lots of land up here for that purpose.
After the energy boost, it was time to hop back on US 2 and continue west.
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