8/26 Little Traverse Wheelway from Harbor Springs to Charlevoix

This was our last day at Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground, so we took the van to Harbor Springs as our jumping off point for the Little Traverse Wheelway Trail.

We rode through Petoskey, Bay Shore, and on to Charlevoix when we turned around. A total of 57 miles, all of it paved this time.  Here's some of our snaps...

Palatial trail council setting. We loved the stonework of the building.

These murals were on the back of a strip mall along the trail. Great way to avoid graffiti. Surprisingly we have seen very little graffiti along this entire trip. From the Top of Michigan Trails Council description...

The part between Petoskey’s Bayfront Park to Petoskey State Park follows closely the path of the original Little Traverse Wheelway that stretched from Petoskey to Harbor Springs in the 1880s and ‘90s. A gate over the trail at the east end of Bayfront Park proclaims “No Teaming or Driving,” and ... is a reminder of a time when people were prohibited from riding horses or horse-drawn carriages on the trail.

 

Beautiful scenery along the edge of the lake, and much resort potential. (We just rode by.)

This drawbridge was open and blocking our way into downtown Charlevoix. Since it didn't look like it would be shut anytime soon, we decided to turn around and take advantage of the temporary hiatus from car traffic that it created.

8/22 - 8/24 Mackinaw City, Mi

Now it's on to further exploration Michigan's lower peninsula. We have a campsite at the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground. This campground is amazing! It has over 800 RV/tenting sites and cabins available at varying prices based on how close to Lake Huron you are. There are many people who just bicycle around the park.

Temperatures have finally dropped into the 70's, so while still humid, the heaviness of the 80's has abetted.

We biked into Mackinaw City initially to get the lay of the land. The tourist shops didn't float our boat, so after a luncheon we headed back to the campsite. I have caught a cold, so an afternoon nap did wonders for setting me up to heal. Only 14 miles today.


Then yesterday we took the ferry over to Mackinac Island. This is a lovely tourist destination with at least 6 fudge shops in two blocks of their main drag, but the island has a grand bicycle route around it. With no motor vehicle traffic allowed on the island, everything is at a slower pace. We saw horse drawn carriages and draught wagons, a plumber riding a bicycle towing his cart of tools, and package deliveries by bicycle. No one complained about our pedal assisted trikes, but we couldn't fly our flags, because it could have spooked the horses.

A lovely day where my computer registered 40 miles, but that also included the ferry ride back and forth. Check out our snaps...

Once we returned on the ferry, we found Biere De Mac, a local brewery in Mackinaw City. This place was amazing! We want to go back there to try their food; their beer was superb! We love beers aged in oak barrels for their finish, and these folks had several we thought worthy of sampling again.

Then today we decided to take the North Central Trail in the other direction towards Cheybogan. 32 miles today of unpaved, pea-gravel trail, largely tree covered.

We stopped first at a portion of the state park that has rebuilt a sawmill on Mill Creek, the only creek in the area with sufficient drop to power a water-driven mill.  They showed how trees used to be cut by hand, and how the sawmill was such a boon. The sawmill was originally built during the late 1700's, and supplied lumber to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island.

Of course in Cheybogan we found the local brewery, so after getting a sandwich to share, we returned to the brewery for a flight to share. The brews this time were quite unusual but very tasty: Blood Orange Honey, Blueberry Cream Ale, Lighthouse Amber, and Chocolate Covered Cherry Stout. Not beers we would typically choose, but each was distinctive and tasted fine.

Cheyboygan had some weird street that we thought we should show you...

We returned to the campsite just before it began to rain. What do bicyclists do when it rains? Trip plan of course. We're charting our continued adventures. Stay tuned.

8/19 - 8/21 Van Buren State Park

We had a grand time with Sarah, and as we said goodbye to her, we allowed as how it would feel good to get back to bicycling and simple eating. We splurged royally in Chicago, had a wonderful time, and decided to get back to basics.

Our next campsite was at Van Buren State Park. It was nicely set up, however I got pretty aggravated by the amount of campfires smoke from our fellow campers. Sore eyes and throat each morning made me ready to leave. It turns out I was also coming down with a cold.

While there we did the unavoidable required laundry, and got to ride the Van Buren Trail. Some was paved, some was hard-packed limestone. The riding was great and the trikes got dusty. We ducked into South Haven to explore. This is a tourist town with a boating area, so it attracted people. At South Haven, the Van Buren trail ends and the Kal-Haven (Kalamazoo-Haven) trail begins. We rode the Kal-Haven on to Grand Junction, and then did the return route. Trail had the typical tree covering and very few other riders. A lovely 36 mile day.

We also decided that if we should return, it would be fun to do the entire run to Kalamazoo on the Kal-Haven. We also missed the southern end of the Van Buren trail to Hartford. Sorry folks, not many pictures... We'll do better next time.

8/15 thru 8/19: Playing with Sarah in Chicago

What fun!  Sarah flew into the Chicago Midway Airport to spend a long weekend with us. We had many grand adventures. Sarah brought "The Book" which identifies must see place, restaurants, and activities that are not to be missed. We were able to accomplish many of them.

Dinner the first night was at the Gage.  Here are our two beers, and Sarah's cocktail. The appetizer was a fresh cherry salad with ricotta cheese.

The next day we took a food tour. We got to experience authentic deep dish pizza, a German Tea Shop, a spice shop where they grind their own spices, a chocolate shop where they had the most divine toffee I have ever had, and a middle eastern restaurant where we had falafel sandwiches and very strong coffee. Our tour guide is a retired chef, so we got to hear all the details behind the lovely presentations.

You would think we wouldn't need dinner, but after Paula and Sarah did some shopping, it was off to  Eataly, three floors of all things Italian and related to food.  We finished our evening with cannoli, but Leslie said Boston's North End bakeries did a better job with lighter shells than these.

The next day Paula and Sarah took the Frank Lloyd Wright house tour in the morning, and we all took a boat tour in the afternoon. Our tour guide gave us lots of architectural tidbits about the buildings we saw. Here's a cross section.

This is a paddle/beer boat on the river. We checked into it, but the waitlist for it is weeks long.

This mosaic wall was fun. It had a water fountain under it that the children were playing in. Each of the human gargoyle models is reputed to be a Chicago native.

Then to our great surprise, Carmina Burana was being performed at this outdoor shell. The accoustics were amazing.

And one cannot miss the Chicago Bean!

And the lights at night were wonderful too. We felt fine walking around this big city and experienced much it had to offer.

On our last day, we moved out of the downtown loop and explored Andersonville... because it had a gastropub listed in Lonely Planet. It's a fine star in the constellation Chicago's unique neighborhoods.  We arrived around 10 am, far too early for lunch and fortified ourselves with handmade coffees and pastries at La Coulomb. Quite lovely. We shopped a bit and then headed to Hopleaf. The food was excellent and the beer selection even better.  Andersonvillle also lays claim to having one of the last nine feminist bookstores in the entire U.S.  Leslie shopped here when on a business trip over 25 years ago. So glad they still exist. We shopped antiques, handmade crafts, and Paula got an "edgy" haircut from Caleb and a little kibbitzing from Sarah. Short hair under a bike helmet is a thing of beauty.

Since we're off to Michigan's lower peninsula for more bike riding, we couldn't resist this poster hanging in Hopleaf.