Day 8 – Michigan Shoreline Tour

Friday, August 08, 2008 Charlevoix to Harbor Springs – 57 miles

 

Well, we did have our first flat this morning….sometime after midnight, we woke up on the ground. Our air mattress definitely had a hole in it. After breakfast, we aired it up again, found the hole and put a bicycle tire patch on it. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for tonight.

Looking for a leak

 

What with playing around with the air mattress, we didn’t get out of camp this morning until 8:30. We were definitely one of the last few out.

 

About 10 miles into the ride this morning, the regular route had a lake crossing on a ferry, and an alternate route added another 8.8 miles by circling the lake. We opted to circle the lake, in spite of being told that it was kind of hilly. We stopped at a convenience store in East Jordan, which was at the very tip of the south arm of Lake Charlevoix.

 

After rejoining the route, our next stop of the day was in Boyne City, which is at the very tip of the main arm of Lake Charlevoix. We stopped at a bakery to sample their goods, and while we were setting in the sun enjoying them, a gentleman came up to talk. He’s from just outside of Peoria, IL, but in his words, his father had the foresight to buy a house on the lake 75 years ago, and they had managed to keep it in the family since then. He was interested in our ride, and we even learned from him how to go about catching a bat the next time we need to.

 

We caught up with Linda and Bill (one of the people she rides with) a little before lunch time and planned to meet them in the port city of Petoskey for lunch. After eating, Bill went ahead and Linda, Pam and I walked around town a little, then went over to their pier and enjoyed the sunshine and clear sky for a while. When we finally moved on, we took a bike trail instead of the normal route, and that was a very wise decision because the regular route included a very busy highway.

Enjoying the lake scenery

 

 

We stopped at a state park and walked down on the beach a little while before finally making our way into Harbor Springs.. The ride into town was very impressive, as we passed by what seemed like hundreds of what we would call mansions, but were probably only summer and vacation homes of very wealthy folks who were probably “old money” people. I’ve honestly never seen anything quite like it….they were absolutely gorgeous old homes.

 

Before heading up to the school, we stopped one more time to walk through town, but it was really just a carbon copy of several of the Lake Michigan port towns we’ve passed through in terms of the stores and shops.

Explore posts in the same categories: Cycling, tandem