Author: Greg Pezoldt

This morning is NOT sunny. It isn’t raining either but it looks like it might. Time will tell what the day holds.

I got off to a decent start today. I will ride on the Sunrise Lake Road until I hit Road 80. Then ride south to Evart.

Riding on this sparsely traveled county road in the middle of nowhere today I experience the most surreal moment of my trip so far. Riding out there I was passed by the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile! Just came out of nowhere and was gone just as fast. Just as a note: it is the third time that I have seen it. It is always surreal to see it no matter where it happens.

Around noon, I rode into the little town of Weidman and I wanted to get some lunch there. I couldn’t find a cafe so I went into the market. Just as I went into the store there was a few really loud claps of thunder and then the skies opened up. I was save in the store but by only a matter of seconds. That was a stroke of good fortune. I got some food for lunch and ate it on a bench outside of the store under the awning. And I sat there for 3 hours waiting for the rain to stop. So much for an early arrival in Mt Pleasant. Finally about 3:30 the rain let up enough that I felt that it would worth it to try to ride. I had about 17 miles to Mt Pleasant and I could almost sprint that in just over an hour. As long as I knew that there was an ended in sight, I could handle the rain and getting wet.

So odd I went. And the rain just stopped and the sun came out! I wouldn’t be getting drenched at all it was beginning to look like. To make matters even better, the terrain flattened out a lot making the ride even a little faster.

So one thing is becoming clear to me as I get closer to Mt Pleasant. There isn’t a mountain there. There isn’t a hill there. I am not sure where they came up with the name “Mt” Pleasant.

I am heading for Mt Pleasant for a few reasons. One is that I need to begin heading more east to skirt around Lake Erie and second I have an invitation to stay at some new friends house for the night. Way back in Montana you might remember that I met 2 women from Michigan on the side of the road. They invited me to stay with them if I ride through Mt Pleasant so here I am! It is really helping me out. Camping is pretty “iffy” during the Labor Day weekend. Campgrounds tent to fill up fast so staying at their house takes some of the stress out of that element. Plus, I can do that laundry that I desperately need to do. And they can tell me all about their trip which is always fun.

So I got to Jenny’s house around 5:30. I felt right at home. She and one of her roommates Sammy had some friends over including Lynne who was Jenny’s travel friend who I also met. They were all nice. I got a shower, did my laundry and even got some dinner. They were great hosts. And I got a nice soft sofa to sleep on too. Life is good.

No rain last night and sunny skies again this morning. I am hoping to put in a big effort today. I am heading for Mt Pleasant and it is a 2 day ride to get there. I want to ride a long day today and minimize tomorrow’s ride. It’s a good plan if the weather holds up.

As I was tearing down my camp, I had a continuous conversation with Rodger, my camping neighbor. He and his wife were really nice people. But eventually, I had to take off.

First things first though. I pedaled over to the Brick Wheels bike shop to see if they could replace my broken spoke. They said they could and it would take about 30 minutes. That is pretty good service.

So far I have found that the bike shops will really help out cycling tourists if they possibly can. It must be some sort of unwritten rule.

Today as I head toward Mt Pleasant, I will be leaving the Lake Michigan shoreline. I will miss the continuous beauty that it provided. But the interior of lower Michigan is still nice and offered good riding. Much like earlier Midwest states, there are a lot of county roads to ride on and miss the highways. The roads are decent with rolling hills that never seem to stop. The forested countryside is broken up with large tracks of farmland.

I am heading straight south out of Traverse City in these country roads. Today, my legs are a little tired. All of the constant hills might be taking a toll on them. I usually feel better in the afternoon after my lunch break. I am hoping that today is no different.

The roads in this part of Michigan are like the roads in Iowa in that the tend to run either north- south or east-west. Hwy 115 is an exception and I am going to try it and see how the traffic is. Just to the northwest of Cadillac City is where I will intersect Hwy 115. It is getting late in the afternoon at this point and I am a little concerned about it. It is Friday before Labor Day weekend and there might be a lot of Detroit traffic heading for the lake. And i am not sure about the shoulder width either. I guess I am about to find out answers to all of these questions. Well, the answer is that this decision is a complete disaster. The traffic is fierce and the shoulder minimal. So I need to get off this road and go back to the inefficient south, then east routine that I dislike so much.

With this new plan, I have my eye set on a campground on Sunrjse Lake to camp at tonight. It is about 12 miles north of Evart and will leave me around 50 miles to travel tomorrow. I think that will work out pretty well. I have also met my goal of riding a long day. I need to figure out the mileage, but I got to the lake really late and had to set up the tent and cook dinner in the waning light of the day.

I am really looking forward to the shorter day tomorrow. I even hope to do laundry in Mt Pleasant. That in itself will make the long day today worth it.

I woke up to sunshine! Yes! It has been a while since I have seen a real sunny day.

Today , I am riding to Traverse City. I took off down Hwy 31 along the coastline. About lunch time, I came across a farm produce market. Good news! Michigan peaches are in season! I like peaches. Obviously, I had some along with lunch.

Next, I was able to get off Hwy 31 and took the east side road along Torch Lake heading for Elk Rapids. What a nice ride. And what a bunch of really nice expensive houses along the lake!

I ended up riding a bit back north to Elk Rapids before turning south again, just to get around some of the lakes in the area. Getting to Traverse City from there and missing the heavy traffic on Hwy 31 was a chore though. I had been given some turn by turn instructions from the tour lady from yesterday. That was the only way I was able to get through that maze and I was grateful again for her help.

The last 10 miles into town were on a nice bike path. The TART. I am not sure what it stands for but that is the name of the pathway. It went right past the Traverse City State Park where I was going to camp. I got my camp spot paid for then went in search of food and a cold beer. And I needed to find a bike shop again. Somewhere along the line I had broken a spike that I wanted to get replaced before it started to domino with more broken spokes. Luckily there was a bike shop right in the area that I found and would go there first thing in the morning.

So after eating an entire pizza and a few beers at the Filling Station Brewery, I headed back to the campground.

Back in the campground, I enjoyed talking to my neighbor campers Rodger and Melanie. They have family in the Cleveland area and gave me some contact information for them if I needed any assistance when I am traveling through that part of the trip. That was really nice of them.

We talked until dark and agreed to continue the conversation in the morning. They understood when I said I needed to hit the sack. I was pretty tired from a long day of riding.

It rained and rained all night. I stayed perfectly dry and warm, but I was in the tent for 14 hours!

Obviously, I got a tremendously slow start this morning. I barely made it out of the campground still in the morning. It stopped raining, but it was still looking like rain so I did something I had not done all trip so far. I wore my rain pants. The first time all trip I had long pants on while riding.

My route would hug the Lake Michigan coast today for the most part. And it would be a lot of navigating. Lots of turns.

The “Lower” part of Michigan still looks a lot like the U-P so far, but there is more farming down here. Still lots of trees and hills as it turns out.

I had lunch in Cross Village at a convenience store that sold sandwiches. It was the best I could do today for lunch. I did take a short cut straight south instead of the longer shoreline route to save some time today because of the late start.

Just before entering Harbor Springs, a bee flew under my bike helmet and stung me. That was not fun, no not at all.

Riding through Harbor Springs, I ran across a lady who was a ride leader for an organized tour through area. She loaned me their bike pump so I could top off my tires. She said my forehead was swelling up pretty good from the bee sting so she also gave me a small bag of ice to put in it. That seemed to help. She also gave me some navigation tips for traveling south and some camping information. She was a great help.

From Harbor Springs, I got to ride on bike trails most of the way through Petoskey and through Charlevoix.

My camp ground was just 3 miles out of Charlevoix. Fisherman’s Island State Park. It was very basic and sparsely used. Still it was nice, right on the lake shore. The wind was blowing on the beach so I took my rainfly down there and got it mostly dried out. That allowed me to set up a dry tent which is always my goal.

Getting ready for bed, I took off all my rain gear. It never rained a single drop on me the whole day.

It never rained last night! It did rain for about 3 minutes as I was packing my bike under the pavilion canopy though and the sky looked like rain was going to be a constant possibility today.

Today would be a pretty easy day. 47 miles to St. Ignace. This is the north end of the famous 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge. Bikes are not allowed on the bridge, but I have a plan for that.

The ride to St. Ignace was without incident. It did not rain a single drop during the ride. Once in town, I got a camping spot at the Straits State Park which is right on the lake shore.

Then I went into town and began researching my plan to get across the strait to Mackinac City tomorrow. I will take a ferry ride to Mackinac Island and spend the afternoon exploring the island and then take another ferry to Mackinac City on the south end of the bridge. Next, after I got the logistics of that figured out, I settled in for some food and beverage at one of the restaurants in town.

After all that, I rode the one mile back to the campground and got ready to settle in for the evening. Good thing I got back when I did though. The sky was soon filled with the sound of thunder and flashes of lightening. It was going to get wet tonight. That doesn’t really worry me. I trust my tent to keep me dry. As a matter of fact, once I was in the tent, I rather enjoyed the storm that followed. The sound of rain on the rain fly will always put me to sleep. And tonight was no different.

I was able and willing to get back on the bike this morning. I did not get an early start because I had to dry the tent out again this morning and I also am not used to the new time zone yet.

My route today is pretty easy to follow. I will be on Hwy 2 all day.

I stopped early for lunch today. With my late start, I did not eat any breakfast and my energy level showed it. I was hungry and needed some fuel. After lunch, I felt much better.

The riding in the U-P is interesting. First of all, people from the U-P are called Yoopers and they are proud of it. And they talk like Canadians but I doubt you would ever get them to admit that.

As for riding in the U-P, I am riding right along Lake Michigan for the most part, but I can only see it when the road is right in the shore. Otherwise, the forest obscures the view and you would never know the lake was there, even if it was just 100 feet off the Road. The wind comes off the lake but swirls when you get slightly inland. You get the wind from all angles as you ride. There are less bays as I get more on the extreme north shore and the lake has no end to it. There are also lots of light houses along the shoreline. With GPS, I don’t know how much they are used anymore, but they all have history and I enjoy seeing them.

Today, I had a goal. I wanted to get close enough to St. Ignace that can get there tomorrow. That means riding at least 70 miles today and the weather looks to be closing in on me this afternoon. To put an exclamation point on that, I received two text messages from letting me know there was some potentially serious weather coming from the west. I was very conflicted about this. My weather app said that any rain would hold off until around 8. I made a decision to try for Engadine as an end point for the day. It would be another long day at 83 miles. That would leave me with a very reasonable 46 miles for tomorrow, but I would have to ride hard to beat the rain and darkness.

Once in Engadine, there wasn’t much there. No campground or even a motel. It was going to be dicey getting to the next town by dark as well. Asking people at the town convenience store, they said it would be alright to camp at the city park and even use the covered pavilion as shelter if it stormed.

I took full advantage of it too. I slept on the pavilion stage and used 5 of the 10 picnic tables to spread stuff out onto dry things out from this morning.

I fell asleep waiting for the predicted thunderstorms to hit knowing I was going to be safe and dry.

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.

I woke up in the morning and it wasn’t raining. At least not yet. Not raining in the morning is a huge deal for me. It allowes me to pack away my tent dry. I keep it in a dry bag so it is guaranteed to stay dry that way, no matter even if it starts raining later on in the day.

I am off early this morning. I want to try to get some miles in in case it does rain this morning. As the fates would have it, it started raining within 15 minutes of my start. It rained pretty hard for 30 minutes so I stopped in a donut shop to warm up. And had a donut of course.

The rain stopped during my rest at the donut shop so after a while I set out again. It continued to sprinkle rain every now and then. Not to the point where I wanted to stop though. It was just a little annoying since I was always worrying if it was going to intensify at any time.

I stopped at one last Wisconsin tavern for lunch and had one last Spotted Cow beer. They do not sell it outside of the state.

After lunch, I hit the Michigan border within 2 miles.

And equally important, I am in the U-P! (Also known as the Upper Peninsula).

With the constant threat of rain, I am just riding from town to town and then reevaluating whether to ride to the next town or to hunker down. First I rode to Delma. I decided to carry on to Iron River. At Iron River it began raining again in ernest. I found out about a place to stay in case it continued raining at Chicaugon Lake that was about 16 miles away so I decided to ride on. I figured that even if the rain continued I could get a hot shower there since it was going to be a motel room today instead of camping. Sure enough, it was still raining and even intensified at that point so the motel room it was. And a good decision it turns out since it continued to rain until about 7:00.

Tomorrow, it is supposed to be overcast, but no rain. We will see.

After several days of a semi dry tent, this morning the tent was again soaked in dew. Thus, I did not exactly get an early start since I waited for the tent to dry out since the sun was out again today.

When I turned onto Hwy 70 yesterday, I have decided that is the line of demarcation for north Wisconsin. It also marks the point at which I am heading primarily east again. From now on, it is mostly east. Well, except for riding straight south through Michigan.

Northern Wisconsin is great cycling country, especially when you get off the Hwy system and onto the county road system. The traffic is predictably low up here. It is a beautiful landscape with heavy tree coverage and a lot of lakes. Maybe not 10,000 lakes like Minnesota, but a lot of concentrated lakes in a small area. The roads are curvy to go around the lakes. There are also lots of hills now. They are short, but they can be steep in places. So the riding is anything but boring. Actually, it would be a great cycling destination.

The wind has continued to be a tailwind this morning so I might get some serious miles ridden. My first stop today is in Lac du Flambeau at the Lake of the Torches Tribal Casino. And you what that means…..

All you can eat lunch buffet! And it did not disappoint.

After lunch (which included pie!), I set out for Conover. I was going to meet some more if Lou’s shirt tail relatives. John and Joyce are the parents of the spouse of Allen and Marg’s kid. We met for dinner and did some more route planning while enjoying dinner at an authentic northern Wisconsin tavern. An expérience that everyone should do at least once.

After our dinner, I decided to camp instead of riding any further. There was a park just 2 miles away from Conover. The camp host let me set up my tent on his campsite at half cost if a regular campsite. It worked out for me and I am sure he just pocketed the money I gave him. Win- Win.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. There is heavy rain in the morning forecast. This might disturb my sleep.