August 4, 2021
Day 6 - Muskegon State Park to St Joseph
After eating the last of the blueberries and packing up we left the campsite at 9:15 am.
Our destination today is Benton Harbor to get back to the car, so we plan to rent a UHaul truck to transport ourselves and the bikes back. Of course UHaul depots are never in a bike friendly place and this one is on busy Hwy 46.
On the way out of the campground we stopped for a different view of the lighthouses along the channel.
The road briefly took us along the lake past the beach Simon swam at last night, before heading inland. Going north from here looks like there may be more opportunities to ride along the lake than we we had on this trip. We will leave this for another day.
We retraced our steps from yesterday on Memorial Drive, Ruddiman Drive and Lake Ave, before turning south on the Muskegon Lakeshore Trail.
Once over the Muskegon River we turned east up Marquette Road to avoid Hwy 46. Marquette Road wasn't to busy and after a couple of turns on other minor roads we got on our last road to get to the UHaul depot.
Sth Mill Iron Road had recently paved with new chip seal and the cars certainly did not slow down when passing, so it was head down each time a car passed to avoid a rock in the face.
Mile 15: 10:45 am. Arrived at UHaul to pick up truck.
Got to the Uhaul place and their corporate office had moved my reservation to Grand Rapids, 45 minutes drive away, but the nice owner of the place got us switched to a larger truck and after 30 minutes we were on our way.
Leaving the depot at 11:15, we were soon cruising down Hwy 31. The only issue we had was finding a place to stop to eat. Wanting to stop and eat quickly we found most fast food were drive through only and drive throughs are not made for 15 foot trucks. We eventually found a Wendy's on I196, at a truck stop ironically.
By 2 pm we were at the drop off location in Benton Harbor and after a quick load up were on the bikes again. A busy road greeted us until we passed under the I135 and crossed over the St Joseph river. Things got a bit better once we turned onto Glenlord Road but the last 8 miles were some of the worst roads we rode all trip.
Mile 23: Arrived back at car 2:50 pm
Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 231 miles (372 km)
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