HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RANDY !! 65 yrs old - another milestone met
August 11, 2013 St. Ignace --> Petoskey, MI - 55 miles
Awoke to a beautiful sunrise over Lake Huron. One thing I had not realized was that Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are connected - the separation of the two lakes is the Mackinac Bridge, a five mile span connecting St. Ignace and Mackinac City.
We rode the 1/2 mile from the Cedar Hill Motel to the Mackinac Bridge. Bikers are not allowed to ride across the bridge, and we contacted the bridge authority to arrange for transportation across the bridge. The cost is $5.00 per bike and they take you over in a pickup truck. The lady driver told us that she had transported probably 20 touring bikers over the past few weeks. I again felt like this confirmed we are probably a couple of weeks behind most riders who started a cross-country ride from the west coast along the Northern Tier.
From Mackinac City, we rode along the shores of Lake Michigan to Petoskey. What struck me most was the hodge lodge of different terrains we rode throughout the day. Started with terrain similar to what we had experienced through Wisconsin along small, mostly flat county roads. However, we then came upon roads that ran alongside the shore with beautiful views of Lake Michigan, and many beaches and places you could stop along the way. At that point, we began encountering more hills and inclines, and even arrived at the top of one hill to find sand dunes all around. There were sand dune "sledders" going down one hill. The route then turned somewhat inland onto more undulating county roads. A number of road bikers passed us coming and going and cheerfully waved. It was nice to see people out enjoying the lovely day and riding bikes.
We stopped at Cross Village and lunched at a convenience store, which was pretty much all there was. Then, proceeded up and down hills to Harbor Springs, a lovely town where we picked up a paved bicycle trail all the way to Petoskey, our destination town for the night. The disadvantage of the bike trail was that we were off road and if there were any available small motels we could not see them. When we arrived in town late in the afternoon, we had a hard time finding reasonably priced lodging. Plus, we were tired and hungry at that point and not thinking all that clear. We finally located a Days Inn, and were delighted to find that they had a special "biker's rate." Plus, they had a special Cafe Internet with all sorts of food available for free, as long as you ate it there. For example, they had 6 different kinds of soup; TV dinners; frozen pizza; several choices of cereal; chips; ice cream; breads for sandwiches; jello...on and on. Admittedly mostly unhealthy stuff, but you could find some relatively healthy items as well. I mostly filled up on various soups. It was nice not to have to venture out to find dinner. Another big plus was the popcorn machine in the lobby that popped popcorn like at the movies. You could take that back to the room.
My "neighbors" at the motel were this middle-aged couple from Ontario who had just completed their first 40 mile ride in the area and looked exhausted. They are just getting into biking and were especially intrigued when they saw me come in on my bike. Had a million questions about bike touring and biking in general. It was fun talking to them. Later, as I was returning from dinner, I found the man smoking outside the room and I commented "that's the first thing that has to go.." He took it well and sheepishly smiled - a cheerful fellow. When I returned again later after a popcorn run, he was out there again and sheepishly hid his hand behind his back - I laughed and told him no worries.
Tomorrow we head on towards Traverse City.
