Michigan Tour of the UP-day three

Sunday 9/8-44 miles

We were eating breakfast by 7:00 and had everything at the truck by 8:00.  I forgot to mention that on this tour they carry everything but you and your bike so we headed out with just a pannier for our personal stuff.

The first leg was short, a couple miles.  We were going to cross the Mackinaw Bridge, but in a truck since you cannot ride a bike across the Big Mac.  By 10:00AM we were riding on the UP.  The ride to our next camping site was fairly flat but the ride was chilly, about 60.  A little over forty miles later we pulled into Trout Lake Campground and picked our site.

It was a great site.  Thick grass.  Trees giving us some protection from any wind or rain.  A picnic table right next to us.  Just one problem.  We did not realize the bathhouse was at the other end of the campground.  It was a ten minute hike to get there.  Checking bathhouse location first was added to my pre-tent setup list.  After biking to get a shower I was talking with some locals.  They set me straight on the UP.

First of all it is the Yoo-Pee.  Not “up”.  The people here refer to themselves as yoopers.  They are also considered the northern equivalence of the redneck, so I fit right in.  I found them to be really nice folks.  They are also a hardy bred that thought the 60d high was warm.  Of course their summer shirts were wool plaid.  It’s the only place I have ever seen someone wear shorts and a parka.  They say they shovel snow in the winter and swat mosquitoes in the summer.  In the spring and fall they rest up from shoveling and swatting.  We spent a lot of time swatting.

Bear Butt or Bear butf? and what the heck is it?

Taking a break along the way

Chimney Rock in the UP

Max ready to roll.

Lake Superior

Camp.  We are way at the end.

Michigan Tour of the UP day two

Saturday 9/7

We woke up to drizzle.  After a quick mop up of the tent floor we drove into town for breakfast and by the time we got back the sun was shining and last night was history.  We jumped on the bike and headed to town to explore.  By the time we got to camp, around 2:00, the rest of our group was arriving.   Set up right next to us was Max.

Max is 74.  He lives in Southern Michigan.  He is retired and bikes for enjoyment, as well as runs Iron Man triathlons for fun.  Yeah, he is not you’re regular 74 year old retiree.  He is also a great guy and we spent the rest of the tour riding together.  Although he could have dropped us at any time he rode at our pace and was great company. 

That evening we meet tour staff and the other 43 riders that made up this tour.  After a short orientation we ate supper, our first meal of the tour.  And what a meal!  The cook and helper toured with us in a big truck complete with an outdoor kitchen and the food was magnificent.  That night we had steak and salmon with all kinds of veggies. 

After talking and meeting we finally headed to our tent for night two.  It was a beautiful night and you could see the Milky Way in the darkest sky I have ever seen.  I actually saw it a couple of times as I had to make a few bathroom runs during the night.  Yeah, getting old is not for the weak or faint of heart.  

Thu tent

 Dining area for the group

 The kitchen.  Some great meals came out that camp kitchen!

 Susan enjoying a rare sunny day in camp

Max

 Tent city

Michigan Tour of the UP

Michigan Tour day one

We pulled out Thursday around 9:00 AM, 9/5 headed for Michigan.   We were headed for an “Adventure Cycling Tour”.  Around 9:30 PM we pulled into a Holiday Inn in Dundee, Michigan for the night.  We were still 300 miles from Mackinaw our final destination.   We were finding the great frozen North to be a long way from Travelers Rest, SC.

Friday 9/6

We got up around 7:00 and headed for breakfast.  We quickly noticed we were right next door to Cabela’s.   We could not leave without checking it out, and man is that place huge!  It also full of more stuffed animals than most zoos have alive.  The Cabela’s, Dick and Mary, must have come close to single handedly causing the extinction of half a dozen different species.  I couldn’t find a single animal they had not killed, multiple times!

We finally arrived at the Tee Pee campground around 3:00.  The weather has been beautiful but we can suck the joy right out of a pretty day when we setup a tent.  Today seems to be no exception.  The forecast is for rain tonight but for now the sun is shining and we head to town. 

Mackinaw City is a tourist town on the dividing line between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  Neither of us has ever seen the Great Lakes and these were pretty cool.  We could not get over how clear the water was, even along the docks.  The town itself looked like many tourist town we had seen before but we enjoyed it anyway.  As usual Susan bought lots of stuff and I caught up on my reading.  Got to love those Kindles.

After eating supper downtown we headed back to camp in a light sprinkle.  Within the hour it was a down pour.  Now, we have three tents.  The one we bike camp with which is absolutely waterproof.  It is almost submersible, but it is small.  We didn’t take that one.  We have a big tent we truck camp with.  It is an LL Bean and it’s like having a roof over you, but it is heavy.  We didn’t take that one either.  We also have a 4 man dome tent we bought for sixty bucks brand new when we first started camping because it was cheap.  It is also now old.  We took that one.  Brand new it was barely moisture proof.  As we lay in the tent I soon discovered it had gotten worse.  Much worse.  Water seeped through the fly and ran down the underside of the fly until it dripped into the tent making small puddles around our queen size blowup mattress.   Fortunately we were high enough above the puddles to stay dry.  That was night one.

 One of the many dioramas in Cabela's!

 Mackinaw fudge, really good!

 Lake Huron

SC flag flying over the Lake Huron.  Notice seat covers for rain.