Duluth is built on a hillside so steep that the streets look as if they were drawn by someone who had never seen a slope. The city climbs from the western tip of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world by area, up a long ridge that gives a view of the harbour, the ore docks and the gleaming water from nearly every neighbourhood. At the foot of the hill, in Canal Park, the Aerial Lift Bridge rises to let ocean-going freighters pass in and out of the harbour, and the sound of its horn is as much a part of the city as the gulls. Tourists crowd the pier to watch the ships come in, some of them a thousand feet long.
Superior is not a calm lake. Storms build quickly, and the autumn gales have sunk many ships, including the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, which went down off the Michigan shore after leaving a dock near here. Water temperatures stay cold all year, so even in August a swim is a bracing act. In summer the lake cools the shore, and when the rest of Minnesota swelters, Duluth can feel almost chilly with a breeze off the water.
Highway 61, the North Shore Scenic Drive, leaves town along the lakeshore and runs for about 150 miles to the Canadian border. It is a road of long views, with the lake on one side and the dark forest on the other, passing rocky points, rivers that tumble into the lake over small waterfalls and fishing villages. The surface is good, bends are gentle, and traffic builds on summer and autumn weekends, when the colours peak in late September. Slow vehicles and lots of pull-offs make this a leisurely ride rather than a fast one. Deer, and sometimes moose, cross the road at dusk.
Duluth has about 86,000 people, so fuel, food and everything else are easy to find. The Skyline Parkway, an old boulevard on the ridge above town, gives a quiet alternative to the main streets with views over the harbour. Smoked fish, wild rice soup and fresh bread are local favourites. The best time to ride is June to early October, and be ready for fog in the early morning.