Today we had a 20 mile bike ride along Lake Michigan’s north shore before arriving in St Ignace. The area was beautiful with sandy beaches, an active surf with foot high waves, and sand dunes. Bicycles are prohibited from riding across the 5 mile long Mackinac suspension bridge, so we took the Star Ferry to Mackinac Island instead. The Bridge, as they call it here, is the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere, was opened to traffic in 1957, and is spectacular viewed from the ferry. Mackinac Island is also spectacular. The whole area here has a rich history. The Ojibway indians considered Mackinac Island to be sacred and the home of the Great Spirit. The British and US had battles on the Island during the War of 1812. The federal land on Mackinac Island was the second national park to be designated, in 1875, 3 years after Yellowstone Park was established. Today the entire island is designated as a National Historic Landmark. When we arrived we wheeled our bikes onto a commercial street filled with Victorian style buildings, shops, people and hundreds of bicycles. There were numerous carriages being pulled by horses. We followed the street around the island perimeter and it turned residential and then changed to a Michigan State Park. We were on a paved, very narrow, 2 lane road. There were quite a few bicycles on the road and the occasional horse. Motorized vehicles, with few exceptions, have been prohibited on the island since 1898. The road we are on is called M-185, and is the United States only State highway that doesn’t allow motorized vehicles. We ride about halfway around the island then cross over the top. On top we find an airport and cemetery and, of course, Fort Mackinac. We also find signs directing us to the Grand Hotel, of Somewhere In Time movie fame. At the Grand Hotel there are ‘guards’ making sure that only guests enter the hotel or the street in front of the hotel. We stop for lunch, catch the Star Ferry to Mackinaw City, and we are now in the land of the trolls. By the way, I asked one of the trolls what they called themselves here in the lower peninsula, she said, ‘I don’t know, I guess we’re Michiganders’.
Greg