NORTHERN LAKE MICHIGAN LOOP, Part 4

Muskegon, MI to Sleeping Bear Dunes

August 5, 2018

This is the day we finally get this bicycle tour to actually be a bicycle tour. Following our simple breakfast at the hotel we got on our way back to Muskegon and the County airport where we were to drop off the rental car. First, we made a stop at Walmart to get some fuel for our one burner stove. We were not supposed to bring any flammable materials on the train, so we followed the regulations, left our fuel canister home, and planned to get some when we arrived in Michigan. Task completed, we headed to the airport. Once there, we parked the car and got the bike put together. We took a few laps around the parking lot to verify that everything was working correctly, and thankfully it was. We attached the trailer, loaded the panniers onto the bike and again took another couple of laps around the parking lot. While feeling heavy, which it was with 90 plus pounds of gear, everything felt stable and more importantly everything worked. Could it be that we begin biking today? It was just past 9:00 in the morning when we took the first pedal strokes of the bicycle tour.

Stop at Walmart to pick up some stove fuel.

A small friend stopped by to see what we were doing.

Ready to get this bicycle tour going.

Let the pedaling begin..

As we pedaled away from the airport, I took a look over at the pickup truck we had rented. I felt a little apprehensive to be leaving a mode of transportation that was reliable and would get us to where we needed quickly and easily. Given the rough start, my confidence in bicycle travel was a little shaken, but my thoughts quickly turned to the bicycle tour and all of the experiences we had to look forward to. Being on a bicycle as the primary means of transportation allows you to experience so much more than you can in a car. The smells, the sounds, the ability to quickly stop and see something you might otherwise have missed, the people that come up to you curious as to what you are doing. Most of the time things go well. You pedal along, looking at the world around you. Sometimes things become difficult with steep hills, heavy traffic, rain, flat tires, mechanical failures, etc. Fortunately those are rare and you can typically just focus on getting to where you want to be at the end of the day. We had finally reached the realm of things were going well, and we were enjoying ourselves.

It was only a couple of miles down the road from the airport to where we would pick up the bicycle route we would follow north to Mackinaw City. It was a slight down hill, and we cruised along nicely. So far everything was working and feeling great. We followed streets for a while and eventually ended up on the Muskegon Lakeshore Trail which takes you around the bay in Muskegon. Once on the other side of the bay, we were once again back on the streets and headed out of town.

Sites along the Muskegon Lakeshore Trail

More views...

...and more.

Around noon we took a break for lunch. We pulled off the road at the end of a driveway with a small garden with a few flowers and a bicycle re-purposed as a lawn ornament. While we were preparing to eat our peanut butter with Wasa crackers, we found we had lost our block of Wasa that was strapped to the back rack, on top of the tent, under our wide brim hats that we typically wear when off the bike at our campsite. Apparently the bouncing around had loosened the hats enough for the Wasa to fall out. Unfortunately the Wasa also took Laura's hat with it (and her hat had additional mosquito netting to go with it). We looked down the road with the thought of going back to look for it. But not knowing where it fell off, probably 15 miles back at the bumpy parts on the Lakeshore Trail, we decided to let it go, much to Laura's disappointment.

Road side garden.

Lunch break.

We continued northward along the road and very soon, like 500 feet down the road, we came upon a rail trail. Turns out we were at one end of the Hart-Montague Trail State Park which is essentially a rail trail that runs from Montague, MI to Hart, MI, approximately 25 miles, and paved. But it was up hill most of the way, although only about 200 ft of rise in about the first 15 miles probably doesn't really count as up hill. It does require constant pedaling. The last 10 miles were more down hill, but still required pedaling. Go figure. We arrived in Hart and found a nice little park to take a break. I stretched out on the ground and promptly dozed off, but I did awaken when the ice cream shop next door opened.

Along the Hart-Montague Trail.

Rarely will we pass up an opportunity for ice cream.

As we rode along, we really had no idea how many miles we had actually ridden, or how many we had to go. I was just following the red line on the map, keeping track of time, guesstimating distance, and looking ahead to where campgrounds were located. Our goal was to get to Ludington, MI and the Ludington State Park campground which I estimated would be about 60 miles total for the day. I was wrong, it was more like 80 miles, but again, at the time, I really did not do the full calculation in my head. After leaving Hart, Laura mentioned her knee was really beginning to hurt. We stopped and raised her seat a little. Continuing on, she was still feeling pain. The next town was only a few more miles down the road, so we pushed on, hoping that some rest and stretching might help. We arrived in Pentwater and Laura immediately went to work stretching her legs while I wandered around a bit. Pentwater was actually a very nice touristy town, unbeknownst to us before arriving (I was expecting a couple of marinas with nothing more). After consulting the map and determining we still had about 20 miles to reach Ludington State Park, we made the decision to stay in Pentwater at Mears State Park. It turned out to be a good decision. The State Park campground was right on the water, with a beautiful sandy beach, and sandy campsites. Although a bit tightly packed, it was comfortable.

Mamma duck with babies.

Shelter next to public docks along the main street of Pentwater.

After making the decision to stay and getting ready to head to Mears State Park.

Our campsite. A little tight, but all we needed.

Trying out the beach and taking a swim.

Dinner time.

August 6, 2018

Hitting the road the next day, we worked our way through forested dunes to Ludington, and further on through agricultural fields to Manistee. Fortunately Laura's knee was nearly back to normal and did not cause any more issues. After Manistee we arrived at Orchard Beach State Park. A bit of a misnomer as, we later determined, there was no beach, at least any that we could see. Lake Michigan was at an extreme level of high water which resulted in the beach being nearly inundated. In addition, the wave action was working to erode the bluff over the beach. As such, the stairs down to the beach were all blocked off, and we had to enjoy the water from afar.

Breakfast in Pentwater.

The Spartan in Ludington. Sister ferry to the Badger that we will be taking later in the trip.

Campsite at Orchard Beach State Park.

Enjoying another dinner at camp.

Stairs to the beach which we were not allowed down.

Waiting for sunset.

The sunset at Orchard Beach State Park.

It was during our stay at Orchard Beach State Park that we witnessed an example of the less desirable side of human nature. We had just returned to our campsite after taking a walk around the campground when, a few campsites away, we noticed a young woman walking down to the campsite of an older gentleman. All seemed amicable as we watched the woman asking something of the man. To set the scene, the older gentleman was flying three flags outside of his RV. The American flag, the Dutch flag, and the Confederate flag. In overhearing the verbal exchange, the woman asked the man to remove the Confederate flag as she found it offensive. I suppose at this point the man could have taken the high road and either agreed to take down the flag, or politely refuse. But no, he had to call out loudly to his wife who was in the RV to come out and see this person who wanted the Confederate flag taken down. A shouting match ensued as the wife, in raised voice, exclaimed how they had family from both the north and the south and were proud of their heritage, and they were of Dutch decent. Additionally the two flags were both American flags and should be displayed, etc. In a moment that I would consider poor judgement, the young woman took out her phone and started recording the exchange. Well, this enraged the man who started going after the young woman. She starts yelling help, at which point I decided I had better intervene, but fortunately the young woman's husband comes over to break things up. After some more yelling from both sides, the young couple returns to their campsite, eventually packs up and drives away. After they left, the older man struts around his RV exclaiming how they had won. Another example of having the choice to take the high road and deciding not to.

Needless to say, the episode left us feeling a little disenchanted, but we find these events to be so extremely rare compared to the nice, kind, inquisitive people we find out there. Case in point, elsewhere in the campground, we came across  an older couple with a teardrop camper trailer. These campers are small, and generally shaped like a teardrop. We have become increasingly more interested in these little campers (we saw one on our trip to Canada last year), so decided to go talk to the couple. They were from Maryland and were traveling around the northeast. They bought the camper used (in Connecticut of all places) and had been modifying it over the past couple of years to suit their needs and taste. The man was quite proud of his work and upgrades (which was very nice and of quality work), and enjoyed showing us the trailer inside and out. They were a lovely couple and we really enjoyed talking with them.

August 7, 2018

Starting out the next day we set our goal for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which would be a 60 plus mile day (I actually did accurate calculations this time). We made a stop for breakfast in the town of Onekama. This town is where we joined the M22 scenic highway. Apparently the people of Michigan take their highways seriously and we started seeing t-shirts, stickers, and signs all emblazoned with M22. The diner we ate breakfast was even named M22-Grill! Admittedly, it is a beautiful scenic drive and warrants the attention.

Outside the M-22 Grill.

After breakfast we came to our first big hill of the day. Really the first big hill of the day on the only day we really had any big hills. This hill was about 1.5 miles of climbing at about 4% average slope. Doable, but was a slog. We made it to the top without walking. Success! Further on, just north of Arcadia we met or second big hill of the day (after a stop for a malted milkshake in Arcadia). This hill, while shorter in length (just under a mile), was steeper at about 7% average slope. Needless to say, we only made it half way up before we started walking the bike. I find when climbing hills on the tandem I start having an internal debate about expenditure of energy. Do I expend the energy trying to ride the bike, or do I expend the energy walking the bike? Usually walking wins out if I am having this internal debate, and Laura generally agrees. At the top of this hill was a lookout over Lake Michigan, so we stopped to take in the view and rest a bit. Lots of people were coming and going to also take in the view, and several showed interest in our bike and what we were doing. Pictures were taken, comments made, advice given, words of wisdom and concern for our safety shared. It is a nice feeling that people take such interest in a couple of people riding a bike.

The Arcadia Ice House

Laura ordering our malted milkshake (which was awesome)

Lookout over Lake Michigan

Continuing on we had one more sizable hill to get up and over, but this was a manageable one at just over 1 mile and about 4% slope. We took a break in the quaint town of Frankfort before moving on to the half of the day. We were expecting more hills, based on comments from a local, but other than a slight rise none appeared. We rode along some nice lake shores and came to a crossing of the Platte River. At the river crossing was a water sports shop with canoes and kayaks and other boats for rent. We stopped for a bit and watched the comings and goings of people and wondered about the ability of some people to get themselves safely down the meandering river.

Taking a break in Frankfort.

Photo-op with bear at Riverside Canoe Trips.

Watching the comings and goings of people in boats.

We still had 15 miles to go, and it was late afternoon so we moved on. Fortunately it was fairly flat the rest of the way. Starting up a small incline, however, we noticed a farm stand to the right. We promptly stopped. When we ride our tours we always plan at stopping at farm stands along the way, but either we don't find any, or they appear only in the morning and we don't want to carry fruit around all day. We lucked out with this one as the timing was perfect, and were able to pick up some fresh cherries. Quite delicious. Eventually we arrived at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Purchasing some fresh cherries.

Arriving at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

NORTHERN LAKE MICHIGAN LOOP, Part 3

South Bend, IN to Muskegon, MI

August 4, 2018

Although we had expected to be sleeping in a bed on the first night of our tour, we assumed it would be following a 58 mile bike ride through southwestern Michigan, and at the home of friends, not still in the city of South Bend in a hotel. Regardless, we enjoyed our complimentary breakfast, then grabbed the tandem to head out to pick up the rental car, about four miles away. Wait, you might be saying. The tandem does not work due to the timing chain not being connected. True enough, but by leaving all of our gear in the hotel room until after we pick up the rental car, we figured we could ride the bike on the fairly flat streets of South Bend with one of us in front steering and braking, and the other in back pedaling. I somehow got the coveted seat on the front (I guess it was for navigation purposes) and Laura became the engine. Immediately out in the parking lot, Laura's crank started hitting the chainstay tube on the bike as she pedaled. Turns out I had put the spacers on the wrong side of the crank when I had put the bike together, which shifted the crank more to the right side of the bike, causing the left crank to hit the bike. Luckily it was a quick fix of pulling the crank, swapping the spacers to the other side, reattaching the crank. We were off.

Our route took us through Notre Dame University, which was fortunate because I had wanted to see the campus of this well known institution, just out of curiosity. The campus was quite nice, but we quickly became disoriented due to a charity run that was working its way through the campus. We had to detour several times to avoid the throngs of people running, and find our way to the other side of campus. Eventually we made it, slightly off course, and worked our way to the rental car office. This added another two miles to the four, but Laura managed to get us there. Looking back on this little ride I find it rather ironic as the running joke with people as they pass us when we are riding normally is to inform me that "she is not pedaling on the back" (which of course is untrue). This time, with me on the front, it was truly a case of "he is not pedaling on the front". And to make it even more interesting, no one said a thing.

Arriving at the rental car office, we were able to procure a pickup with a club cab which made it much easier to carry the tandem as we did not have to break it down, just put it in the bed of the the pickup. We went back to the hotel, grabbed the cases, grabbed the panniers, got them in the pickup and off we went. First stop would be Niles, MI which had a bike shop so we could pick up the Powerlink for the timing chain. We bought a couple of the correct size Powerlinks along with a patch kit (to have fresh glue), and a couple more inner tubes. I put on the Powerlink and was done with the task in about 30 seconds. My previous attempt from the day before with the incorrect sized link lasted a good 30 minutes before I realized the problem. Goes to show you how much easier life can be with the right equipment and parts.

Niles was one of the towns we would have biked through had we been riding the bike, so, we decided to drive along our intended bicycle route to Mattawan, MI to see what we were missing. In general it would have been a nice ride, fairly flat, and I am confident we would have made the 58 miles in the original 8 hours allotted. but instead of arriving on our loaded tandem on Friday evening, we arrived on Saturday at noon at the house of friends John and Barbara Copperider. We had a lovely time with them as it had been about 15 years since I had last seen them. Laura and Barbara, both educators, had a lot to talk about. It is always interesting to hear about the status of education in other states, particularly from those who are directly involved. Leave it to say, there appears to be issues with the educational systems no matter what state you are in, but the teachers somehow do their best to make it work for the benefit of the students.

With friends John and Barbara Cooperider.

After our visit, we continuing driving towards the Lake to the west. When we rented the car, we decided on Muskegon, MI as the drop-off town, and the new starting point for this tour. This would put us slightly further north than we would have been if we were on the bike which would provide us with a little more time and a little less distance to cover to get to Mackinac Island, our make or break point. On the drive, we stopped first in Holland, MI, a very cute small city with a beautiful central park and the unusual appearance of narrow beds of flowers directly against the curb of the road on many of the streets. I found this odd because being a state that receives significant snowfall, I know they must use road salt to keep the roads clear of snow in the winter and this is typically not good for anything growing next to the road. We found out later, that being Holland, they have a very large tulip festival in the spring. The city plants thousands of tulip bulbs along the street edge during this time then come back later and dig up the bulbs. The house owners are allowed to plant their own flowers after the bulbs are taken up. I will say it looks very nice.

Flowers along streets of Holland, MI.

A little more driving and we finally made our way to the Lake shore. The vastness of Lake Michigan is impressive, and it is hard to image that it is a fresh water lake, not a salt water ocean. In many of the towns along the shore you will see tee-shirts being sold in stores explicitly stating no sharks, no salt, the Great Lakes (or something to that effect). We would also add no jelly fish and no clumps of seaweed, at least none that we ever saw.

Heading north along the Lake the next sizable town was Grand Haven. It became readily apparent that some festivities were underway as the streets and many houses were decorated patriotically and chairs were lining the streets with lots of people milling around. We knew not what was going on, but it was certainly the precursors to a parade. Turns out we had wandered into the end of a week long festival for the Coast Guard and this was the final day of festivities that ended with a parade, that we heard later lasted about two hours. They take their Coast Guard seriously in Grand Haven, as we all should, and it was evident. It also became quickly evident, that since we were just south of Muskegon and the drop off location for our rental vehicle, that no hotel rooms were available. Stopping at one hotel to inquire, we were informed that there would be no vacancies anywhere in the three county area. After some contemplation, we made the decision to head inland towards the city of Grand Rapids, MI. Being a sizable city we assumed there would be plenty of hotels, and we were hopeful it would be far enough from Grand Haven that some rooms would be available. we headed east on Interstate 96. After about 15 minutes of driving on the interstate, we saw a Rodeway Inn off an exit. We pulled off to give it a try. They had one room available, sort of. It was blocked off as not available because the air conditioner was not working. To us this sounded perfect because, 1) they had a room they were willing to rent us, 2) Rodeway Inns are a budget chain hotel, and 3) We should get a steep discount making this a cheap night. Wrong we were on two out of the three points. Yes, they were willing to rent us the room, but it was a $140 a night room. But, they could give us a generous 10 percent discount for the broken air conditioner. Seriously? Only 10 percent.? we took it anyway because we had no idea what we would find further up the road.

Maybe no AC, but the bike got it's own bed for the night.

Dinner at Arby's. I like their Beef n' Cheddar sandwiches.

After dinner we decided to take a walk around to see the area. The hotel was located in the typical commercial development of an interstate exit with a few gas stations and fast food restaurants scattered around. Further down the road we came across the typical small shopping center, past which was a large dairy processing facility behind chain linked fences and security booths. Even further down the road was the promise of a town center. Turns out we were on the outskirts of Coopersville. Walking into town we found it very quaint with a nice little Main St., historical museum, and a tourist railroad. Overall a nice place, and we were glad we made the effort to walk and explore a little bit.

Tomorrow, maybe this bicycle tour will actually begin?

NORTHERN LAKE MICHIGAN LOOP, Part 2

At South Bend, IN

The Amtrak train we took was the Lake Shore Limited (train # 449) that runs daily between Boston, MA and Chicago, IL. I had been checking frequently over the last couple of weeks the arrival status of the train in South Bend, IN to try and determine how well it kept to the schedule, which was to arrive in South Bend at 8:46 in the morning. If this held true, we would have a good two to three hours to put the bike together, store the empty cases to await our return trip to the train station, and have enough daylight to ride the 58 miles to Mattawan, MI to stay the night with friends. Needless to say, the train was regularly off schedule by the time it got to South Bend which is near the end of the route.  A couple of times it was near schedule. One day it was over seven hours late. Typically it was about one to two hours late. I hold nothing against Amtrak in this regard because they are at the mercy of the freight lines that own the tracks the train uses, and passenger trains do not always have the priority in such cases. With this little bit of information I figured (hoped) the train would arrive in South Bend by about 10:00 or so. I felt comfortable with this as I figured I would need two hours to get the bike put together. A noon departure on the bike, out of South Bend, seemed reasonable.

August 3, 2018

The reality was that the train arrived in South Bend at 11:00. Still, not so bad and I felt comfortable with the timing since the sun doesn't set until almost 9:00 in western Michigan. We were able to quickly get the cases with the bike parts from the attendant, and found a grassy area in the shade of some trees to start putting it together. Thinking back, I don't feel it was too difficult to get the bike together, and it took about two hours, except for one little part that created a very large problem. When I had taken the bike apart at home, I disconnected the timing chain that connects the two cranks together so we both pedal in sync, so it would be easier to pack and not get kinks. I tossed the old SRAM Powerlink (because I have read they should not be reused) as I had several spares. Well, I did have several Powerlink spares, for a 10-speed chain. The timing chain was a 9-speed chain. That means the 10-speed Powerlink was just slightly too small to link through the 9-speed chain (which is slightly wider), and I was not able to connect the timing chain. A person could ride the bike, in the back, but you needed really, really long arms to be able to steer and stop. Or the second person could sit in front and steer and brake, while the person in back did all the pedaling. Not a bad idea other than the 90 pounds of gear that we had to carry, plus the cases we still had to deal with.

Getting ready to assemble the bike

Calling local bike shops to see if they have the necessary parts.

Still calling.

The wrong size Powerlink was problem one, but we found a bike shop that carried it a couple miles away, so we would just walk, or ride, or do whatever we needed to get to the shop before it closed. First we just needed to get the four cases into storage at the train station. Hence problem two. The station manager was happy to store our cases. For six dollars per case, per day. Since we would be gone three weeks that would be over $500 dollars to store cases. We pleaded, and she was sympathetic, but regulations did not permit any other option. Uh, not going to happen. Granted, this falls on us as we did not verify ahead of time with the station what storage costs might be. We naively thought that once they saw we were on a bicycle tour they would be agreeable to store the bags for at most, a nominal fee. So, what to do? By now it was nearing 2:00 and we needed to get on the road. Laura started calling around to try and find a place to store the cases. Hotels, fire stations, police stations, churches, warmshower hosts, all either said no, or did not pick up. We were getting desperate now.

Laura calling around trying to find someone to store our cases.

 

I love trains, but the loud crossing horns and rumble of fright cars did not make using a phone very easy.

 

Still working on a solution.

We came up with a plan B. Rent a car, drive to Mattawan, MI, store the cases with friends, and start riding the next morning. If you have done enough bicycle touring, you will know that plans will typically have to change for any number of reasons. These particular reasons fall into the realm of stupidity and naivety, but all these become learning experiences. Back on the phone to rent a car. Called one company and they quoted a ridiculous price of $300 for a 24 hour rental. Called around some more, and found a car for about $100 a couple of miles away, but we had to go and get it. I started walking/jogging to go get the car while Laura stayed with the bike, gear and cases. About a mile in, I received a call from the local car rental agent (apparently we had rented through the national office). They did not have any cars available. Nobody had any cars available for that day. I stopped, turned around and headed back to the station.

We came up with a plan C. Find a hotel room, rent a car for the next day, get a taxi to get the cases and gear to the hotel, and I would walk the bike. We found a hotel about four miles away (did I mention the South Bend train station is on the edge of town?) and booked a room. We successfully rented a car for the next day. We called for a taxi. He would arrive in about 15 minutes. We proceeded to move all of our stuff to the other side of the station to expedite loading the taxi. At this point we discovered a young gentleman on the other side of the train station dealing with his own issues of getting some place. He was carrying two large suitcases and needed to get south, further into Indiana. None of his friends were willing to come and get him. He wanted to take the bus out of South Bend, but the bus station was a few miles away, and the last bus was leaving soon. We were sympathetic, but not sure what we could do. He was thoroughly unhappy with his friends. At this point, a nice woman riding by on a bike noticed our gear and stopped to see what we were up to. She said there was some fair going on in the center of town, and if we were staying the night, we should stop in. Sounded fun, but I did not expect we would go given the day we were having. The taxi then arrived, and fortunately it was a mini-van. We talked to the driver and offered to share our cab with the stranded gentleman. We loaded our four cases, six panniers, and his two large suitcases into the mini-van. Laura hopped in front of the cab, and I started walking with the bike. As I walked, well actually scooted along with one foot on a pedal and the other pushing on the ground, the woman on the bike came back. She asked if she could help me get the missing Powerlink, but I declined saying I would deal with it tomorrow. She rode off, and came back again, asking if there was anything else she could do. I said I was fine and thanked her for the offer. I scooted along on the flat streets of South Bend towards the hotel. I made good progress too. I arrived at the hotel shortly after Laura and caught her checking us in. We got all the cases and gear into the room and put the bike in there too and headed off to find some dinner. By this time it was about 6:00, and we realized we had not eaten since shortly before getting off the train that morning.

Relaxing in the hotel after a long day.

What we learned after all of this is that there are usually many solutions to a problem, you just have to think it through. It also helps to have the financial means to help make it happen. We are fortunate in that regard. This is all part of what makes these trips an adventure, the good and the bad, and the unexpected. Tomorrow will be a new day and we will see what it brings.