Milwaukee, WI to Mears, MI

August 16, 2023

Labor Day Monday. Today would be another hot day, the 3rd in a row. Summer is leaving in style.

We left Pam’s around 8 am. on the hunt for breakfast but first we rode out to S Shore Drive for photos of the skyline from the lake front.

The first couple of coffee shops we saw on S Kinnickinnic Ave were closed so we doubled back and ate at McDonalds. A win for Cameron I guess.

Milwaukee, much like Pittsburg, PA is at the confluence of three rivers.

Today we would be crossing the Kinnickinnic River, then later the Milwaukee River into downtown, we wouldn't cross the Menomonee River but passed by the confluence on the Water Street Bridge.

But I'm ahead of myself. From Kinnickinnic Road, we crossed the Kinnickinnic River and followed the river tail to then cross the Milwaukee River on Broadway, then followed the north side if the river to it met at the lake. Here at the mouth of the river was the Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse.

Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse

The city’s first lighthouse was built on a bluff about a mile north of the river’s mouth in 1838, but it was replaced by a lighthouse on North Point in 1855.

In 1852, a new entrance to the harbor was cut, known as “North Cut” a half-mile north of the natural mouth of the river. A small beacon light was built to mark the cut. this light was replaced by a new light, known as North Cut Beacon, exhibited on September 1, 1866.

The two piers at North Cut were extended in the late 1860's and the current lighthouse was constructed and lit in 1872.

By 1875, it was decided that the North Cut Beacon was not “a necessary aid to navigation” and had it discontinued on July 31, 1875.

When the current Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse was built in 1927, the lantern room and lens from Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse was transferred to the breakwater lighthouse.

The fifth-order Fresnel lens used in Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse since 1927 was removed in 2005.

Also at this point there was a view of the Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse.

Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse

In 1882, work began on a breakwater at Milwaukee, once complete the funding for a light to mark the breakwater were delayed. A small beacon was erected in 1902.

To aid navigation, the Milwaukee Lightship, (LV 95/WAL 519) was stationed three miles offshore from the breakwater on November 1, 1912.

In the 1920s, the breakwater was extended. and in 1925 a pier was built at its southern end to support a new lighthouse. The lighthouse and fog signal were finished and first exhibited on February 26, 1927.

Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse was automated in 1966, and its last Coast Guard crew withdrawn. The fourth-order Fresnel lens originally used in the tower was removed in 1994 and loaned to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, where it is currently on display.

Milwaukee Water Tower. We drove by this last night.

After taking photos of the lighthouses, we continued along the waterfront turning at the General Douglas McArthur statue to head downtown on East Mason Street. This is where we crossed the Milwaukee river a second time.

I stopped to take in the architecture of the downtown buildings while Cameron rode ahead to the arenas, his focus for today.

Cameron leading the way as this was his tour of Milwaukee. Objective, the Bucks basketball team arena and the Admirals hockey team arena

German restaurants and beer halls on N Doctor MLK Jnr Drive.

Looking at the time, we needed to start making our way back to south Milwaukee to catch the 12:30 pm ferry to Michigan. We took a different route finding ourselves on closed Chicago Street where there were getting ready for a parade. As I mentioned earlier, we crossed at the confluence of the Milwaukee and Menomonee River.

Just before reaching the Lake Express ferry, we stocked up on Gatorade at a gas station.

I wandered outside to take this photo and then was grilled at the door as I didn't have ID or a ticket. Couldn't believe they didn't remember me as we had just wheeled our bikes through 15 minutes earlier and they had asked all about our trip.

Comfortable terminal. We were able to get our bikes and gear all organized here than wheeled them outside to load first.

For some reason I was expecting something much bigger. Maybe because I had seen how big the Badger is.

After the incoming passengers and cars had unloaded they begun loading. Bicycles first then motor bikes then cars. We were responsible to tie our bikes to a bar using tie downs.

Once under way I climbed to the top deck to take some photos as we departed Milwaukee.

The other side of the Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse.

The ride over was pretty smooth, we heard that a few days earlier when there had been more wind it had been quite rough. Food was expensive, the AC was cranked on to much, I wish I could have grabbed a jacket from my bag but you couldn't go down to the vehicle deck, there was no free wifi and eventually cell service went away. So much for my plan to work on my journal.

2 1/2 hours later plus a time change back to EST, we saw the familiar sights of the two Muskegon Lighthouses, as we motored into Muskegon Bay.

Being Labor Day, the channel and the bay were quite busy with pleasure boats and I was surprised how many got close and didn't seem to care if they were in the way of the much bigger ferry.

Disembarking was the opposite to the loading. The cars got to drive off first and even when told not to start their engines until it was each rows time to drive off, many ignored this. We were standing next to our bikes waiting our turn but the exhaust fumes got the better of us so we moved and waited at the back of the boat.

Once it was our time to go, we wheeled our bikes off and found a place to re-pack, change shoes and get ready to pedal off.

Loading for the last trip of the day, back to Milwaukee.

We set off back around Muskegon Bay, heading towards a section of the Fred Meijer Trail. This section between Muskegon and Whitehall we missed last week as we rode alongside the lake.

This trail was one of the best trails we have been on, super smooth and once clear of Muskegon long distances between cross roads. We made good time to Whitehall.

We rolled into Whitehall around 7 pm. and there was quite a crowd with a band playing at the Fetch Brewing Co, however we found out they didn't actually have food. A guy told us we could order from across the road at the pub. Not wanting to spend that much time, although the beer and band did look appealing, we rode off in the direction of a burger bar. Finding that closed we settled for Subway.

We didn't think to try the next town over of Montague.

Whitehall. Cameron loved these turn boxes.

By 7:30 pm. we were back on the trail heading north with the intention of camping somewhere along the trail when it got dark.

After Montague we were on the trail we had ridden down on more than a week ago. As the evening wore on we passed through Rothbury, New Era and Shelby. We had spied a potential site just south of New Era on the way down but it was way to early to stop so we pushed on.

Eventually it got too dark to ride anymore and we found a place on the trail to camp for the night. A nice wooden platform with a picnic table and just enough room for two tents.

It was after 9 pm. when we jumped into the tents but still quite warm, we both didn't use a fly as there was no rain forecast and would make packing up easier in the morning.

Stealth camping like this was a first for me although I have camped on peoples lawns before. After a while I got less nervous about the whole thing, no one was coming along the trail at this time of night and we would be up and gone at first light. I set the alarm for 6 am, and dozed off.

Today we rode 16 miles around Milwaukee, then another 38 to our campsite in Michigan.

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Today's ride: 54 miles (87 km)
Total: 529 miles (851 km)

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