June 28, 2022
Lake Michigan Tour Day 10: St. Ignace - Mackinaw City (Rest Day)
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Rest day! I got up and had breakfast at a diner next door before boarding the ferry to Mackinac Island. This was one of the ones each day that goes under the Mackinac Bridge, giving me the opportunity for a nice picture:
Once on the island, it was a crazy melange of bikes, horses, and pedestrians. No motor-vehicles are allowed on the island, so everything moves around by foot, pedal, or horse-drawn wagon.
The main town on the island is like every tourist-trap you’ve ever been to. Every block had 3 t-shirt shops, 3 ice-cream shops, 2 fudge shops, and a couple of “gift” shops selling all the ticky-tacky stuff you find everywhere, but at a higher price.
I started off down the road that leads around the island. The first part was shady and ran through pine forests, which smelled wonderful! You just have to watch out for the occasional pile of horse droppings.
Then it opened up to beautiful lake views. If I could make my whole cycling trip on a road like this with views like this, it would be perfect!
I passed a spot where lots of people were taking pictures of “Arch Rock”, so I did too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The trails were full of people at some points. Hard to go fast, so I just pedaled slowly and enjoyed the ride. Eventually I got back to town, and decided to have lunch at a local pub before catching my next ferry.
The crossing to the island was super windy, and I caught a few drops of water. But going down to Mackinaw City, I sat in the wrong part of the boat and got quite wet. Here’s what the spray looked like:
Just a couple of blocks from the ferry terminal, is the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw – the largest ice breaker ever used in the Great Lakes. It was commissioned in 1944 with an eye to keeping iron ore flowing through the Great Lakes to keep up the WWII effort. It was decommissioned in 2006 after 52 years of service, and is now a floating museum.
All in all, it was a nostalgic tour. I never did any sea-time, but remember communicating with the Mackinaw a few times, and have been on a smaller ice-breaker based in Sturgeon bay once. The uniforms, terms and seeing all the nautical gear brought a lot of memories back. Unfortunately, they didn’t let me see the radio-room – that would have been the icing on the cake for me (I was a radioman in the Coast Guard). The lady running the gift shop tried to have someone open it for me, but they were short-handed that day and couldn’t spare anyone.
No music today, so no best songs.
Stats: 8.8 miles, and I didn’t calculate mph or track vertical feet.
Tomorrow I start riding again, and head southeast to Charlevoix. This turned out to be a good rest day, as it was spitting rain on and off most of the afternoon. Tomorrow will be cool, but not rainy.
Today's ride: 10 miles (16 km)
Total: 614 miles (988 km)
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