Traveling south from Mackinaw City along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan we passed Wilderness Park with it’s sand dunes and then followed part of M-119, the tunnel of trees heritage road. The road was very narrow with no center line and passed grand stately homes. We stopped for lunch at Good Hart and met some vacationers, Jack, Darcy, and Madison from Ann Arbor. They were riding bicycles while staying in the area. When we got to Bay City we stopped to try and figure out where to get on a bicycle path when another bicyclist stopped to see if we needed help. Bill has been spending summers in this area since 1940, he said. He told us to follow him and he’d lead us to the bike trail. He described camping along the beach in areas now occupied by houses, and how the area has grown. It was great riding a couple of miles with Bill, he could really pedal. We continued riding to Boyne City where we were planning on staying, but no motel room was available. So we rode another 5 miles to a Michigan State campground for the night. 75 miles today.
Greg
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
We are in Brevort, Michigan. Brevort, (that’s emphasis on the Bre, then vort not vert, according to the motel staff), is a small resort area along the north shore with one motel, a couple of restaurants, and a little market that sells smoked fish and gasoline. Saturday and summer has made the traffic on Highway 2 heavy in both directions today. From here, there are vacation destinations no matter which way you go. This is our last night in the UP of Michigan. According to our waitress at dinner those who live here in the upper peninsula are called yoopers, and those who live in the lower peninsula are called trolls. She explained, it’s because yoopers live above the bridge, and trolls live below the bridge. We met a couple of bicyclists who stopped here for dinner nd are then continuing riding. Lauren and Eric are on a 16 day bike trip using Warm Showers. Warm Showers is a cooperative arrangement where a person stays at peoples houses while on a bike trip, and in exchange agrees to offer their own home to bicycle travelers.
At breakfast we asked the waitress the meaning of Escanaba. Was it a Spanish word, or French? And did she know how many people lived in Manistique, our days destination? She smiled and laughed, and said we asked too hard of questions, then brought us a menu. She said the menu told the story, it was an Indian word, although she said she had never read the menu. Escanaba was an Ojibway word that described a prime deer hunting area. Indians would come from hundreds of miles to hunt red deer here. The title of the movie Escanaba In Da Moonlight suddenly made a little more sense. I asked our waitress if she’d seen that movie. She said no, and laughed again. The ride today was following the shoreline of Lake Michigan, it was a very nice day and lots of people were swimming. We met another bicyclist from Eugene Oregon, named Paul Nelson. He’s been riding for over 4 months and is circling the United States, starting and finishing in Eugene. We went downtown Manistique for food and found the streets blocked off and vendors setting up for a downtown festival tonight. Later I went down to the festival, it’s very much a small town annual event. There was a stage with 3 guys playing music, a beer garden, and about 3 blocks with no traffic allowed, a few food vendors and 2 or 3 hundred people.
Greg
We left the casino and Ottawa National Forest with sunny skys and no wind. The road was a series of sweeping ups and downs that gradually became ever more expansive. In Iron River we stopped for lunch, Rutabaga pastys. There was a sign saying pass-tees, not pay-stees. There was also a history of Pastys; they are a Cornish miner food that was common in the 1800’s made from pie dough, ground beef, and potato, or some close variation. After lunch we rode to Crystal Falls. Crystal Falls is built on a hill, the courthouse is on the top of the hill and it’s down hill, I mean steep in every direction. We met a couple of people at the top of the hill and asked them about nearby towns, distances, motels, and food etc. The guy we were talking with said he owns a bike but only pushes it up hill in Crystal Falls, then coasts down hill. We went on to Sagola, an old logging town about 15 miles away. There we found a single motel and a single bar that was the only cafe type place in town. Patrons of the bar are interested in our trip, several mention they have seen us on the road today, others offer advice on which way to go and how to cross the bridge from the Upper Peninsula to the Lower Peninsula (actually bikes aren’t allowed, they must take a ferry). The motel has only four rooms, but they are used to renting to bicyclists and have some anecdotes about previous guests, including a guest who has been riding for 5 years, world wide, 40,000 miles.
Greg
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