Average age is from 70 (my cousin's friend) down to 20's. Heaviest in the middles, 40 to 55, more my speed. The tour sleeps mostly in tents pitched at schools, and uses the food and shower services at the colleges and high schools. I only did two out of 5 days, and the food ranged from good to awesome. The towns vary. The UP is not densely populated, it won't be like Milwaukee or Chicago. But towns have restaurants, ice cream, bars, and in Sioux Ste Marie, lot's of Great Lakes history to see, and really quite a good selection of restaurants. I'd expect Paradise to be a bit sparse, but (and I missed this, too) I heard Newberry had some decent places for a getaway. One crew of 30ish women were very talented at finding night spots and sometimes drinks for lunch, but I didn't get to go with them. Amazed at how fast they were after lunch!!
Being a big city kid, I would not say the towns are interesting; not like Chicago or Toronto. But it was a fantastic travel experience, to see the cultures of the area and how each town is affected by the times, given its history. It is the rural upper Midwest, but uniquely UP. The scenery is great - Great Lakes, ships, forests, unique wildflowers, surprising architecture, surprising hills, wildlife.
Rain while camping: tents were the mainstay, but shelter in the Student Union was possible at Sault Ste Marie. But just to be sure, make sure your tent is in good shape and you know how to anchor it properly. (A few people stayed in B and Bs. Can't say anything about how good those were.) We didn't have any real Midwest storms. Much worse were possible.
LMB makes a strong point to carry raingear while riding. SAGs are available, but they don't have capacity to carry 50% (75 riders) of the Tour.
Ask me anything else you'd like.
Most bikes were modern road bikes. A few pure tourers, a few all=rounders like a Rawland, and some vintage steel road/sport/audax bikes like my fendered Woodrup with generator lights. Some top-notch steel, a lot of good carbon, no tubulars, some people on hybrids with knobbies - for 5 days at 65 miles/day!!! One rider was a fellow BFer, as far as I could tell.
Quality of the road surfaces was really good, at least to the Soo.
Last edited by Road Fan; 12-16-11 at 09:30 PM.