Day 76- Lake Michigan

As advertised, the weather this morning is overcast and not raining. It is not supposed to rain today, but I am going to start off with the assumption that it will at some point. I am wearing warm clothes and my rain coat if for no other reason because it is fairly cool out.

The U-P seems pretty nice so far. There is more cleared acreage than Wisconsin, but it is heavily forested were it hasn’t been cleared. It is also flatter terrain than northern Wisconsin, but not totally flat. Also, the forest has slightly changed to the point that it is mostly conifer trees now. Un other thing. The rivers flow much clearer than the mid west.

I am back on Adventure Cycling Route now. I don’t have the maps but I have the towns it goes through. For that reason, from Crystal Falls I am taking Hwy 69 and not Hwy 2. It seems like a decent road with less traffic than Hwy 2 also.

Also, the weather has really improved through the morning. I stopped and got out of the cold rainy weather clothes and got a short sleeve shirt. Much better now.

As I got to the end of Hwy 69, another surprise. I have crossed into the eastern time zone just before the town of Escanaba. No more time zones. This is the last one!

Escanaba is the goal for today. Once I turned onto Hwy 2 for the last 9 miles I picked up a great tailwind. I really flew into town. Even before finding a llCe to stay or eat, I wanted to see Lake Michigan. I was anxious to see it even though I will be following it for many days to come.

Escanaba is on a bay so when you look out on the lake, it seems big, but not BIG. That will change in the coming days.

Now on to the other important things like dinner and finding a place to camp. Dinner was easy enough since I had already ridden past a brew pub that liked good. The bad news was that it turned out there were no campgrounds in Escanaba and I would have to ride 8 more miles after eating to Gladstone.

This has been a long day already. These 8 additional miles will push me up to 93 for the day. A new record, one that I did not intend on setting. The high mileage days always create a question about the next day. We will see how anxious I am to get back on the bike in the morning.