Well, darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable
And lightness has a call that’s hard to hear
– Closer to Fine, Indigo Girls

Michigan has some terrible roads. I spoke with some of the locals, and they said that their county is notorious for how bad the roads are. Many of the side roads are either dirt or broken up pavement with patches on patches on patches. It was slow going for about a third of the roads today, and sometimes it was faster just to go through the gravel and other junk on the side of the road than to stay on the “pavement”. It took me a while to stop feeling sorry for myself, as I was crawling along and getting beaten up, and pull out a map to take charge of my ride again and get back onto good pavement. Darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable but in bicycling, as in life, you have the power to change the course of your ride.

On the positive side there was some nice bike trail for about 20 miles so that was lovely and I wasn’t getting beat up the whole day.

Tonight, it’s stealth camping.

It took me five weeks to cycle to Saginaw

I’ve gone to look for America.

-Sorry for the mashup to Simon & Garfunkel

I didn’t sleep very well last night again. This is probably due to me drinking iced tea late in the day and my campsite neighbor running his generator and keeping the lights on on his RV all night. When I did get to sleep, it started raining, which woke me up too. It was still amazing hearing the coyotes yipping fora while through all the noise.

Today was kind of a transition day as I’m working across Michigan on my way to the shores of Lake Erie.

Still, I got a nice inexpensive hotel room in Saginaw and I’m looking forward to one last day in Michigan.

I said goodbye to Lake Michigan this morning and decided to start heading across the state toward Lake Saint Claire and Ontario. I used Komoot to calculate a route, not taking into account that I had to eat sometime during the day. So, after about 60 miles and getting hungry, I had to alter my route to actually head for a real town and so had nothing but candy bars until about the 80 mile mark. Oops! I ended up in a campground where I had to negotiate about 2 miles of often soft sand to get to it. My bike did not like that at all but now I’m all settled into camp. Phew, 103 miles today.

I’ve been looking forward to this stay for a while. The tour today followed the northwest Coast Lower Peninsula along Lake Michigan. The first part followed a road locally known as the Tunnel of Trees.

This is many miles of narrow windy country Road with a canopy of trees and little traffic.

There was a bridge out at one point where I had to carry my bike down an embankment, through the woods,, and wade across the stream, then up a steep embankment on the other side. Just another day on the trail.

Most of the rest of the day was bike trails, and ice cream, and swimming in Lake Michigan when it got hot.

Tonight, I’m in a nice campground in Eastport, Michigan, and met my first fellow bike tourer since North Dakota, Frank and he’s a great guy.

Last day on the Upper Peninsula (UP) and first day on the Lower Peninsula (LP). Lake Michigan is just beautiful. The water is incredibly clear but it’s missing that smell of salt that we get back home from the Atlantic Ocean.

To get from the UP to the LP, I took the ferry from the St Ignace to Mackinac Island and then a second ferry to Mackinac City.

More and more people are noticing my bags and stopping me to chat about my touring adventure. There is a huge cycling community here so I’m not the only one in spandex shorts. and no one’s giving me the side eye.

I ended up finding a campsite through Airbnb. The only downside was that there were ticks everywhere especially those tiny little deer ticks. So, the first thing I did was rub myself all over with DEET and then do a careful tick check (and remove). The picnic table  was on the verge of a catastrophic collapse, but at least the porta potty was sweet smelling, and it was quiet. So, overall, a decent spot.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” asked the mole?

“Kind,” said the boy.

– The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

I’m still getting used to being around a lot of people again after my experience in Montana and North Dakota. So many random folks have been coming up to me though and wanting to chat that it’s making the transition back so much easier.

I went to a folk festival today that had no food trucks. I didn’t know such a thing existed and was horribly disappointed. Seriously, what the heck! The folk act that was playing when I was there seemed to be a bunch of kids singing 60s tunes, which was OK, but once I found there was no food. I hightailed it out of there.

I ended up with a beautiful tent site by Milakokia Lake with my own little private beach. The water was warm and clear and beautiful, with the sounds of loons at sunset. It was a great way to end the day.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends – The Beatles

My tubeless tire setup was in rough shape and has been getting worse over the last few days. Neither the front nor the rear tire could hold more than about 25 psi of air anymore and both had big chunks of the rubber gouged out. 2200+ miles of bicycle touring can do that and I was one big pothole from putting my bicycle out of commission. It’s not like there are many bicycle shops on my route. Fortunately, I did connect up with “Mr Bicycle” in Escanaba over the phone a few days ago and am now all set up with a new pair of burly Continental Gatorskins. When these kind of things happen, I realize how dependent I am on folks all across this country to help me complete this journey. When folks ask if I’m biking solo, I have to tell them that folks everywhere are helping me out.

Short day today at only 50 miles or so and it was really nice getting into town early and settling into a nice motel room. It reminded of all that I’m missing back home. Sometimes you don’t realize how good you have it until it’s gone.

“Most of the old moles I know wish they had listened less to their fears and more to their dreams.” – The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

I met an older woman, Gina, towards the end of the day while I was eating an ice cream and sitting on the sidewalk next to my touring bike at a convenience store. She asked where I was bicycling from and where I was going and when I said that I was bicycling from Oregon’s Pacific coast, across the country, and to my home on the Atlantic east coast in Massachusetts, she had me repeat it a couple of times because she didn’t understand why anyone would or could do such a thing. I told her that I was chasing this dream of seeing America in slow motion from the back of a bicycle and meeting people like her along the way. Gina started crying and telling me about the two trips that she had taken abroad, one of which was to Israel in 1974 with which she still has vivid memories of lemon trees and lush watered fields. She cried because she thought it was too late for her to live out any more of her dreams. My response was and always will be, if you want something bad enough, you’ll find a way. We talked for almost an hour.

Hey, after 4 weeks on the bicycle, made it to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Michigan, so far, has been pretty hilly. The hills aren’t very long but there are a lot of them with the grades sometimes hitting 10 or 11%. Today, the ride consisted of making a beeline toward Escanaba Michigan, which is on the shores of Lake Michigan. Tonight, I’m stealth camping by the side of the road. It’s nice to have this as a back up plan. It feels very bohemian. I went swimming last night in Star Lake with all my clothes on so, with only one day of sweat and grime, I feel pretty fresh!

Another beautiful day in Wisconsin. OK, there was a bit of headwind all day and mosquitoes were still out, but still beautiful. One interesting thing that happened was I stopped at a diner for a bit of lunch and there was an Eric Hovde campaign event at the same time. He is running as the Republican challenger against Tammy Baldwin, in the Wisconsin Senate race. I ended up having a good long conversation with the gentleman next to me who was up from Madison to visit a friend. We ended up exchanging information and we will probably get together at some point as he’s considering Boston University for graduate work in sociology.

Near the end of the ride, there was about 25 miles of nice bike trail, and there were a lot of people out using it. On the road, there are more and more tiny little sharp hills now with grades up to 10 and 11%. I can’t imagine going up some of these with 50 pound load out it seems a lot of people are carrying.

OK, I think I’m gonna go out for a swim. I hope the mosquitoes don’t find me.

Northern Wisconsin is lovely! It’s a lot like the Lakes Area in New Hampshire, but without the mountains and the roads are in much better shape. There’s actually quite a few people up here and there are a lot of towns. Wherever you see lakes, you see lake homes, and there are lakes everywhere. It’s a bit of a culture shock from the vast emptiness in western Oregon in Washington, Montana, Idaho, and North Dakota. Most of the vehicles are cars not trucks now if that provides any indication. It looks like a great place to raise a family and the people are super kind. If I grow up here, I’d probably have never left.

Tonight, I’m sleeping in Marion Park in Glidden Wisconsin. They let people camp here for free. The rest rooms are open all night and I’m the only one in the park. No fireworks and the ATV people have all gone to supper. It should be a good night for sleeping.