Lake MIchigan Circle Tour by Bike-May 24 to June 6, 2014

*NOTE:  I'm going to add and expand to this narrative that I have so far cut from Facebook posts and pasted here.  

Circle Tour Map

Day #1-73 miles. Chesterton, IN to Van Buren State Park..  Stopped in at the Swedish Bakery in Harbert, MI.  This has been a turn around point for some day trips. I (Tom) called the park ahead of time about camping due to this being the first day of the Memorial Day weekend.  The guy on the phone informed me that, although the campground would undoubtedly be full, there would be a place for us because we were biking.  When we got to the main gate, it was a different story.  The guy there said they were full,  When he called someone at the campground office, we got the same answer.  No camping spots available.  Not wanting to consider having to improvise on our first day, I asked to talk directly to the guy at the campground. We showed up at the camp office and the guy there was a kid who admitted he'd been on the job for a week!  However he agreed to talk to a ranger.  The ranger said that there were two camp spots open, and that it was routine for Michigan state parks to reserve two spots for bikers.  Relief!

Day #2-70 miles. Van Buren State Park to P. J. Hoffmaster State Park Tough going getting through Holland and Grand Haven! Steve found us Starbucks in  a Holland grocery store however!  Given what we'd been told at Van Buren State Park we showed up at the state park assuming that a biking camp spot would be available.  However nobody at this park had ever heard of such a rule.  Luckily they had one spot left!  We thought the people in the office just behind us were looking for a camp site as well.  For what it's worth I couldn't find anything in writing stating that there was any rule about holding sites for bike tourers, however I did read an article that suggested it's an unofficial policy in several states, including Michigan.  Be forewarned!

The last spot! 

Day #3-94 miles! First day with rain.  We rode on what Steve says is Michigan's oldest rails to trails trail, the Hart-Montigue Trail.  I got us lost around Pentwater! We probably added about 12 miles to the day.  Camped at Ludington State Park which is actually several miles north of Ludington at the end of a dead end road.   With the cold fog rolling in off the lake as we rode to the park, it was a surreal moment.  It's cooler by the lake!

We found the first of many wonderful coffee houses in Whitehall, The Book Nook and Java Shop.

Day #4-78.8 Miles. Ludington to Platte River Campground, Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. Coffee shop in Manistee, MI Goody's Juice and Java gets four stars. Weather conditions were highly influenced by variable breeze off the lake. Temperatures varied from 50's to 70's over distance of a quarter mile! Mosquitoes were out in force at the campground.  Steve and I broke out the head netting.  Nite nite!

Day #5-Possibly the coldest moment of the entire trip was while we were stopped at  Leelanau Coffee Roasting in Glen Arbor.   It was sunny but the wind was off the lake.  Steve and I had stopped here before during a snowshoeing trip to Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore

Day #5-Sleeping Bear to Traverse City State Park via Leland. We cut off a bit of Michigan's little finger! Bright sun, no fog and the last 16 miles on the Leelanau Trail from Sutton's Bay. Tomorrow Petoskey, then the UP!! 70 miles today. Trip miles~388

Day #6-Steve says these guys know how to grow apples! He should know, his dad and uncle owned an orchard!!

From the bathroom during our stop at King Orchards

Picture taken outside Petoskey.  Our bikes are facing the wrong way!

Day #6-Rode this bike trail along US 31 the entire distance from Charlevoix. Porter County could take a lesson from these guys about how to support trails after you build them. That's enough... I'm on vacation!

Day #6-Traverse City to Petoskey State Park. 72 miles. Had best and worst riding today. The best was the Little Traverse Wheelway, a connecting series of bike paths. The worst riding was stretches of US #31 with 3 feet of bumpy shoulder to ride on and trucks whizzing past. The amazing weather made it all better. Tomorrow Big Mac!

Greetings from Harbor Springs.  Another wonderful coffee house, The Stained Cup.  We got tasty breakfast sandwiches with tangy salsa!  Excellent!

Day #7-Petoskey to Brevort, MI. 70.75 miles. Bright sunny and warm. Wonderful rural biking through little forgotten towns like Cross Village and Bliss! We shared a ride across the Mackinac Bridge with Matt. He'd been bicycling basically the same route we've been following only he's doing it on a single speed bike! He's got half a bottle of orange juice and a large county by county atlas of Michigan counties bungee corded to the back of his bike on top of camping gear.  He's headed across the bridge to eat in St. Ignace just to say he did it, before returning to camp in lower Michigan.  We say our good byes at the drop off point at the north end of the bridge. 
 

Steve (right) and I after we get dropped of at the north end of the bridge.  That will be $5.00 each!  Matt's bike in the background.

Steve poses with our bikes after we make it over Big Mac!  There are pasties in our immediate future!

Once on the road, we stop at the first place we come across that advertizes pasties. Pasty or Pasties  is kind of like a huge Hot Pocket filled with potatoes and meat. It's a UP thing! Ours are all vegetable. We also became acquainted with the yearly midge infestation at the bridge and on the road to tiny Brevort.  A midge is some bug that hatches from the lake bottom each spring. Best thing about them is they don't bite, they just stick to you! We stopped at Gustafson's, a combo filling station grocery store,  in Brevort to  inquire about the campsite nearby, whether it has showers.  It doesn't.  Steve actually listed Gustafson's as a source of smoked fish on the extensive itinerary he made in the months preceding the trip.  We buy a pound of smoked salmon from them to have for dinner.  It turns out the woman behind the counter also owns the motel we just passed and she gives us permission to take our bikes into the room with us.  So we're taking easy in a cheap motel, doing laundry and planning the next couple of days.

Day#8-Beeline down US #2 from Brevort to Gladstone Bay Campground, Gladstone, MI. 116 miles! This may have been a mistake, I'll know in the morning. We did set ourselves up for a short day tomorrow. We might be done before the rains begin. Highlights were a bald eagle sighting and some kind words from a couple at a rest stop. Also a huge snake coiled but dead along the side of the road and a car-deer crash. This camp ground in Gladstone may have had the best showers of the trip!  Great sleeping weather!

Day # 9-Stephen Arndt and I got soaked in a thunderstorm on the way to a breakfast place we'd heard about, the Swedish Pantry, in Escanaba . Our hostess, Phyllis, gave us a tip for a shortcut out of town, free blueberry muffins and a laundromat to dry our clothes! Good stuff! Headed for Menominee.

Day #9-Gladstone, MI to Marinette, WI. 70 miles. Tough day. Rain, narrow- shoulder-with-semis-whizzing-by bike riding. With no good mosquito protection we'd opted for cheap indoor accommodations. On our way I noticed my left crank arm covered with lubricant. The bolts had loosened to the point that I could remove it by hand. In other words my bike is broke! I'll find out in the morning whether it can be fixed. I suspect I'll need to replace the bottom bracket, but does one of the two local bike shops have one? Tune in tomorrow. Go Hawks!

Day #10-Marinette to Green Bay (Brown County Fairgrounds Camping). 68 miles. Great experience with Marinette Cycle Center owner who verified that I hadn't broken the seal to the bottom bracket bearings, torqued the bolts tight and gave us flawless directions to Green Bay for $5.00! I've always tended to believe in the goodness of people and the experiences we've had haven't shaken that one bit. Rode in rain early and hot sun late. When we got to Green Bay we got on the wrong side of the Fox River and had to retrace our steps.  Somewhere along the way we met up with Jeff, a local bike guy and tour guide for the local cycling club.  He escorted us down to our campground and told stories of his years touring.  His free advice was to forgo trying to traverse Milwaukee or Chicago and take the SS Badger from Manitowoc across the lake to Ludington.  I don't think he understood we were trying to circle the entire lake.  Oh, well.  I re-learned today that I don't tan well! Onward.

Day #11-Green Bay to Kohler-Andrae State Park . 78 miles. Rode the predicted tail wind to Lake Michigan, cutting off Door County. A sunny warm day after two wet gray days was much appreciated. Coolest night of the trip tonight with temps in the 40's should keep the bugs down. A couple of long challenging days as we navigate Milwaukee and then Chicago. Steve and I have both ridden into Chicago from Indiana a couple of times so at least we have some clue about how to do it. Hope it helps on our last leg of the circuit! Stay warm friends!

Day #12-Kohler-Andrae SP to south side of Milwaukee. 72 miles. Little bit of everything today-Cold rain, country roads, two wonderful bike trails ( the Ozaukee Interurban Trail and Oak Leaf Trail), city riding, sunshine, and fog. I could go on about riding in traffic, especially city traffic, but for now I'll just say it's not for the faint of heart. I have nothing but respect for anyone that rides in a big city! Stephen Arndt and I are living it up in a swank hotel by the airport. Not our preference and out of our way. We had hoped to get to Racine but it took way too long to get through Milwaukee. In fact we're still barely in the city limits! We are truly out of place at the Hilton! Think I'll have a cold one!

Day #13-Milwaukee to Illinois Beach State Park (aka Adeline Jay Geo-Karis Illinois Beach State Park), 48 miles. Bittersweet last night of the trip. Went through Racine and Kenosha today. Two cities that seemed to have nothing in common. 
 

Another coffee house on our tour.  This one in Downtown Kenosha. They have electric trollies in the downtown district!  Could the sky get any bluer?

Nice to quit riding early and lounge around a bit before nightfall. As the trip progressed Stephen Arndt and I left ourselves less and less time to set up camp. We got better at it too. That skill will go unused for awhile now as we return to the lives we left two weeks ago. Funny how adaptable we are isn't it? Big ride in the morning to The Bean and beyond!

Day #14-Illinois Beach State Park to Chesterton, IN. 104 miles. What a day for bicycle tour of Chicago's lakefront from north to south! We rode into town on the Robert McClory Bike Trail, Sheridan Road and the Lakefront Trail. The northern suburbs are something else! We ran into Steve, who was riding to the local mini mall in Winnetka, Illinois.  He led us on relaxed ride along several side streets to get to a local bike trail and off of Sheridan Avenue.  Apparently his daughter and some friends were going on a bike trip along the Pacific Coast Highway and he felt they didn't have a clue about what they were doing.  He thought we might have some wisdom for them.  We parted company not on the bike trail but back on Sheridan Avenue which looked more bike-friendly along this stretch.  Almost immediately we found a Starbuck's and stopped.  Inside we found Steve waiting line!  Once we got closer to town, somewhere in Rogers Park, we exited the roads for the Lakefront Bike Trail.  

Taking a break with the Emerald City in the distance.   That's the Lakefront Bike Trail on the right. 

What a wonderful ride into the city!  We saw plenty of people taking advantage of the Divvy bike sharing program along the lakefront. People on the beaches and some even swimming! Stephen Arndt and I were pleasantly surprised by all the improvements south of the loop as well. There's new pavement on Lake Shore Drive (US #41) south of the South Shore Country Club, the southern terminus of the bike trail,  and bike lanes from there all the way to the bridge over the canal. The euphoria faded once we got back to Indiana. There was no cool lake breeze to keep things comfortable. It was a long hot trudge on familiar bike trails-Erie Lackawanna Trail, Oak Savannah Trail, and finally the Prairie-Duneland Trail.  We finished up back where we started fourteen days and 1000 miles later. Of course neither the place nor we are the same.

Yea, we're whipped!