Michigan West Shoreline Tour

  

 

For the last few years, Pam and I have been taking a tandem bicycle tour as one of our vacation weeks.  This year, we chose the League of Michigan Bicyclists Shoreline West Tour.  We had heard last year that it was a really nice ride, so when it came time to plan for this year, we decided to go for it in spite of the fact that it was quite a distance from home.

 

Day 1

 

Day 2

 

Day 3

 

Day 4

 

Day 5

 

Day 6

 

Day 7

 

Day 8

 

Day 9

 

 

Pics from trip on Flickr

 

Closing Thoughts….

 

• Man, it’s a long hard drive from Springfield to Mackinaw City. Too long for us to consider doing this particular tour again. If we had left the car in Spring Lake, it would only have been a horrible drive instead of the terribly horrible drive to Mackinaw City.
• The Lake Michigan shoreline is beautiful, and the beaches much prettier than I expected. It’s an awesome place to visit.
• Tourists abound in a lot of the towns. So many, in fact, that I found them to be quite annoying. In a lot of the towns, traffic was kind of bad and not really biker friendly.
• Every lake shore town we passed through, whether on Lake Michigan or not, was really pretty, with a nice park down on the waterfront. By the end of the week, a lot of them began to look a lot alike.
• There were way more uphill grades than I expected. It seemed like we spent a whole lot of the time grinding away at a 1, 2, or 3% hill that lasted forever. The last three days were especially tiring.
• Compared to Springfield in August, the Michigan Shoreline weather is wonderful!
• We were really pleased with our decision to take the Prius instead of our truck. After 1,800 miles, the average MPG for the trip was 52.0. Awesome!
• It was good to see old friends from prior rides (Linda and Joann) as well as make some new ones (Stellie, Ron, Paul, Cary, Mike, Roger, Bill, Claudia).
• Stick with the tried and true. We bought two bottles of Neutrogina sun screen specifically for this trip, and I hated it. It wouldn’t rub in because of all the zinc oxide in it, it left my skin looking blue (kind of like a corpse), and worst of all, it made my arms and legs break out in an ugly looking rash. Next time, I want my good old Coppertone SPF 30!