I'm writing from the Detroit Metro Airport Super 8 Motel, the only major casualty from a 7.5-day bike trip in Michigan. Here's the route:
I started at the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center in Roscommon, Michigan on July 31. This was the last day of our MSTP retreat. There were two seminar sessions and one poster session at the retreat, with lots of games and drunken merriment mixed in. The day I started, I must admit I was suffering rather severely from hangover and lack of sleep. Fortunately I felt better once I started riding in the early afternoon after the morning's scientific talks. Here are some notes from the trip, with pictures at the end.
Day 1: Roscommon to Gaylord. Best sight was Lake Otsego on a sunny, breezy Sunday with lots of beachgoers. Spent the night in a motel to be sure I got a decent sleep.
Day 2: Gaylord to Mackinaw. Rode today on the Gaylord-Mackinaw Rails to Trails Project. Gaylord (aka the Alpine Village) is on a "plateau" of something like 1000 feet in elevation so the first part of the day was a gentle downhill. The trail was well-groomed all the way to Mackinaw. I dropped my things at the Teepee Campground a couple miles south of Mackinaw City and then pedaled into town to catch a ferry to Mackinaw Island. There I was amazed to find thousands of bicycles EVERYWHERE and horse-drawn carriages for the heavier loads and lazier tourists (automobiles are outlawed). I had a picnic on the lawn beneathe Fort Mackinac and enjoyed a sunny summer evening.
Day 3: Mackinaw to Fisherman's Island State Park (1.5 miles south of Charlevoix). It rained hard, pretty much all day. I was in northwestern Michigan now, so it was hilly as well. I took a wrong turn and ended up cutting across Michigan's middle finger (don't know any other word for it) rather than hugging the coast as planned. But this allowed my to see some very nice rolling farmland, so no problem. Rolled through the haughty resort town of Charlevoix and spent the night at a campsite on Lake Michigan.
Day 4: Fisherman's Island State Park to Traverse City. Relatively short day down to the surprisingly pleasant town of Traverse City. Had an awesome dinner at the Dish Cafe, and a slice of cherry pie from the Grand Traverse Pie Co.
Day 5: Day trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Best cycling day of the trip. Covered beautiful rolling farmland over Michigan's "pinky" finger. Somewhat serious climbs for Michigan, including a hill with a runaway truck ramp (!). Pedaled through Glen Arbor and Empire, the two main towns in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore. I hiked up the "Dune Climb" and got a superb view of Lake Michigan.
Day 6: Traverse City to Highland Lake Campsite. Long and at times tedious day through unremarkable terrain, but terrific campsite on secluded lake, where I went swimming!
Day 7: Highland Lake to Grand Rapids. Rain again for much of the day. Rode on the White Pine Trail for the last 20 miles into the city, then followed the Grand River to the Holiday Inn in downtown. I felt like splurging a little bit. Most impressive thing about Grand Rapids is the Grand River, which actually is pretty big. I recognized a lot of sites from the entertaining Grand Rapids Lip Dub Video.
Day 8: Grand Rapids Downtown to Grand Rapids Airport. Hardest day of the trip, seriously. I started out by going to the Gerald Ford Museum, where I decided that Gerald Ford was a nice guy but not a particularly good president. Then I rode (in the rain again) through Grand Rapids, and after a couple turns noticed that I was seeing the same street names I had seen a half hour earlier. Mentally I was not prepared for a wet, confusing ride and got somewhat upset with myself before I got my bearings. Eventually made it to the airport where I picked up a rental car and booked it back to Ann Arbor to exchange my bicycle and soaked gear for hiking boots and fresh clothes, because I was planning on meeting my dad in Yellowstone for a few days. Unfortunately, delays that accumulated throughout the day led me to miss my flight, so here I am...stuck in a motel a few miles down the road from DTW, but content to have an extra rest day before flying out tomorrow.
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| 110807 Michigan LP bike trip |
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