Rest Day 13- Mackinac Island

Today is a “Rest Day” but I will be riding a little bit.

The first thing you need to know about Mackinac Island is that it is pronounced “Mack-i- nah”. Don’t ask me why. The second thing to know is that there are no cars on the island at all. All transportation is by walking, bicycling, or by horse and carriage. And the third thing is that is a major tourist destination (meaning Tourist Trap). The last thing to know is that the island is on Lake Huron, not Lake Michigan.

So, after the big storm last night I was quite surprised that my tent was bone dry. The wind that blew after the storm passed dried the tent out. That made packing up my camp easy enough. I made my way down to the ferry terminal early to buy my ticket and make sure I was at the right place to catch the right ferry. There are two types of ferries running to the island. A fast one and a slow one. I was taking the slow, CHEAPER one! It was about 35 minutes to the island so it wasn’t that slow.

Once on the island, I had lunch first. Then I rode around the island on my bike. It was just over 8 miles and very flat as long as you stay on the island perimeter. It can get steep if you venture into the interior of the island which I did not.

Once done riding around, I just explored the “town” and the shops. The shops are mostly fudge shops and t-shirt gift shops. I just looked in the windows but did not bother to go inside.

After several hours, I had seen enough and it was time to head back to Mackinac City. I was going to take the 3:30 ferry back. Arriving at the ferry dock, there were about 150 people waiting for the boat. There was a fast boat and a slow boat leaving at the same time. 149 people got on the fast boat. I was literally the only person to get on the slow boat.

Imagine a whole boat to myself. Before shoving off, I was taking pictures of the captain and the wheel house and just talking to him. After we set off, he manœuvred the ship out through the breakwaters……… and then turned over the captain duties to me! He showed me where to steer toward and how to use the radar and other instruments. I ended up piloting the ship the whole way across the lake until it was time to dock and gladly turned over control of the ship back to the captain. That was fun, and probably a once in a lifetime experience. Oh, now you can call me Captain Greg!

Once back on dry land, I headed out to Wilderness State Park. This ended up being a ten mile ride. So much for the “rest” day. The campground was already pretty wet from last nights storm. I did manage to find a fairly dry spot to pitch the tent however. The thunder storm du jour began around 7:00 in the evening. I headed for the tent. This storm was going to be a big one, I could just tell. This was going to be a long night.