The past week began with temperatures soaring into the 90's. On Wednesday I had my dad drive back to Reed City and deposit me onto the White Pine Trail, where I had finished my 100-mile day almost two weeks prior. It was an easy ride, despite the heat, because of a gusty tailwind pushing me the 45 miles back to Dad and Denise's house in just 3 hours. I stayed there one more night.
The next morning I woke to find the heat wave had passed. Sixty degrees became the new high throughout the remainder of the week.
I spent Thursday heading west toward the shore of Lake Michigan. Many gravel roads and bike paths loosened up my stiff muscles. That night I camped in the Platte River Campground in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, just a couple sand hills from the big lake.
The next morning I encountered a few sprinkles but managed to stay fairly dry as I proceeded north along the shore, passing the famous Dune Climb (pictured above), into the Leelanau Peninsula, the pinky finger in Michigan's mitten. At the tip of the peninsula I camped in view of the water (pictured below), listening to the crashing waves and the gulls as I dozed off to sleep.
During the night a persistent raccoon made several attempts to sneak into my food supply, but I managed to wake each time I heard him sniffing and scare him away. He abandoned all hope around 5 a.m. when storms crept up and showered the campground with a cold rain. I hit my internal snooze alarm and drifted back to sleep.
When I stirred three hours later, the storm had passed. I packed up my gear and cruised down the east side of the peninsula along the placid Grand Traverse Bay (pictured above). Vineyards and cherry orchards decorated the rolling hills of my southerly route. I hopped on the TART trail system and rolled into Traverse City, a town I know fairly well from the first third of my life. Everything was how I left it, so I had no problem navigating myself to the bike shop to purchase a badly needed new rear tire.
Last night I camped in the Traverse City State Park, which was uncommonly empty for a weekend, due to the cool, overcast weather no doubt. A creature of a different sort attacked my panniers during the night. Hundreds of sow bugs were crawling over them this morning.
It is now Sunday and I am once again heading north, this time with the Mackinac Bridge in my sights. I predict it will take me two full days of travel to reach the Straits. After crossing I can resume my occidental voyage.
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