Only 1 day behind the original plan. Today’s route:
The goal was to reach Traverse City at 119 miles or however far I could get. After 80 miles I thought I should look for a place and at 90 miles I was by the Torch inn which was reference by the adventure cycle Association. They had one room left there and it was really a cottage and it was $204. Initially I said no and started to phone around and realized that everything else was closer to $300 if they had availability. I guess this was due to the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City combined with a July 4th weekend. I decided I would take the room but it was already gone – sold over the phone. I then searched for camping. There was a facility only half a mile away. I went there and they had no campsites. Since I was only staying one night they said I could put up a tent in a non-standard spot. Or I could use campsite 54 which was reserved but the people would not be here until Sunday. I opted for a campsite 54. More on that later.
The day started out fine. There seems to be a lake effect rain that can set up depending on the wind and only seems to be in the morning with the sun appearing only after sleeping in. So sometimes I got a refreshing spray.
Rode through a mini dune area that’s part of a preserve. Then through a 20 miles national registered section called the tunnel of trees. It was like the leaves were the top of the tunnel. I wonder if when the leaves fall, it is no longer a tunnel of trees. Maybe they should just cut the trees down and then use the logs to form a horizontal tunnel then it would really be a tunnel of trees.
Very nice bike trail system in the the Little Traverse bay area. Right on the water.
South of Charlevoix, the really nice homes and private enclaves showed up. Guard houses and all. Should be a good area to live in after the zombie apocalypse.
Lots of hill climbing on the bike today Short Hills but fairly steep 5 to 10% grades.
So the camping set up went quick. Site was only 30. One had to take a cold shower or pay for a timed hot water. Very crowded park on lake Michigan.
Mostly families except for the young 20 something’s in my area. I thought they might ask about the velo and share some beer😀
I fell asleep listening to their music around 9. Woke up around 10:45 to the amateur fire works show with powerful explosions seemed to be a mobile launch site. Over by 11:30.
Decided that Traverse City and the holiday celebration traffic might not be worth it. I had seen the sleeping bear dunes and surrounding area years before, so I enlisted google to reroute me directly to Manistee. Considering the number of turns, I am hoping not to miss one of them.