Lake Michigan Tour Day 14: Manistee to Montague, MI

July 2, 2022

Something went wrong with my GPS data that created the video above - it was July 2, not 17. My data even said I started at 11pm...not true! The route is correct, though.

Wow! What a beautiful day! Weather stayed in the 70s, wind was light and never a big issue, and the scenery was wonderful.

This sort of sight is every few miles in Wisconsin and Michigan. Just don’t see it much in Colorado where it’s much drier. I used to ignore these ponds when I lived in the mid-west, but now that I’m in Colorado, they seem unusual.

This pair of geese was sitting on a nest in the Pere Marquette River. If you look just to their left in the reeds, you can spot a gosling or two.

Here’s a July 4th image for you – an intrepid sailboat next to the flag. This was on a ridge after a long climb. The breeze up there felt amazing!

These two pictures are from a hydro energy setup from Consumers Energy – the main supplier of electricity in this area. What struck me was how far up I was from when I photographed the geese.

A few miles later, I had descended enough to be near this beach at a local public park.

I had lunch at a place near Pentwater – this is looking north towards Pentwater after I passed it.

23 miles before the end, I received an unexpected gift. I was in a tiny town called Hart, and suddenly found myself on the Hart-Montague trail. The picture above is about as good as trails get: shady, cool, smooth – this would take me the rest of the way to my stop for the night.

A quick shout-out to water-towers! Sometimes, they are the easiest way to know where you are. Whenever I see one, I know there will probably be a gas station, or some other kind of rest stop, and I know where I am on the route.

10 miles before the end, another gift appeared. Country Dairy is an institution around here – they were right on the trail, and I felt like ice cream. I ended up getting a java-moo malt, which has chocolate and coffee in it – it was amazing, and powered me to the finish.

Once I got to my motel, and I had showered, my sister and brother-in-law picked me up to take me down to Muskegon. They had driven from Dubuque, IA to Milwaukee and taken the ferry to Muskegon. Last time I saw them was at their home in Dubuque during my ride last summer

We went to Muskegon Beach – what seemed like a couple miles of beautiful sand.

There’s a restaurant in the middle of the beach – we had to wait about 30 minutes for a table as it was pretty busy – they are known for their barbecue.

After dinner, we walked over to the channel that separates Lake Muskegon from Lake Michigan. There was a Navy submarine there that was famous for sinking several Japanese vessels during WWII.

Next to that was a Coast Guard vessel I had never heard of called the McLane. It was fairly small – just 125 feet, but had also sunk one Japanese submarine while in the Pacific in WWII. It’s been floating here as a museum with the submarine for almost 30 years.

Just before we left, a cruise ship came through the channel – I think it was headed towards Milwaukee, but believe it was the same ship I saw at Mackinac Island when I arrived on the ferry.

All-in-all, it was a really nice day! Tomorrow I keep heading south to Holland. I’ll see my sister again (it’s where she went to college).

Best song today was an extended mix of Let it Happen by Tame Impala.

Stats: 73 Miles, 2171 vertical feet, average speed 13.7mph

Today's ride: 73 miles (117 km)
Total: 861 miles (1,386 km)

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