Hello again everyone! For this years bike tour we are riding around Lake Michigan. As usual, we are self-supported. We are carrying our camping gear and plan on camping as much as practical.
We start today by taking the Lake Express Ferry from Muskegon Michigan to Milwaukee. The ferry company has a lit and secure parking lot on the Muskegon side where we can park the van for just $5/day. We decided to skip the Chicago metro area, starting the ride from Milwaukee, riding around Lake Michigan, and finishing back in Muskegon. This will likely take us two weeks plus a couple of days. The ride should be about 700 miles.
Our day started with the ferry ride and a bad lake weather warning with 3 to 5 foot waves! Mark gets sea sick but the ferry provides free meds for just this kind of weather. The ferry has a very nice conditioned passenger compartment with padded seats, restrooms, and refreshments. Whew what a bumpy ride! It was very hard to stand up and walk around. You can go out on the top deck for the lake view, but it was pouring rain so we just stayed in. The ferry was slowed down by the bad weather but they were almost on time.
From the ferry building, Our ride took us from the ferry, thru downtown Milwaukee for the first 3 or 4 miles. It was pouring rain and about 68f. The rain felt cold so we put warm clothes and rain jackets. Milwaukee has a beautiful skyline but the tops of the buildings were in the clouds and we couldn't see much in the pouring rain. We connected to the Oak Leaf rail trail and rode most of the way to Grafton.
The Oak Leaf/Ozaukee bike trail was 100% paved, thank goodness, as the rain went from heavy to even heavier. We believe this was the heaviest down pour we have ever ridden in! Well, some years riding TOSRV, in May, in Ohio, might have been worse. There was so much rain that Mark's iPhone emergency phone notification was triggered. Thanks to all our emergency contacts for checking in!
At Grafton we turned off the trail and rode a couple miles east to our hotel. We walked into the hotel to check in soaking wet. Good thing the hotel had laundry! We had to dry out everything! A long day for just a 30 mile ride.
How in the world are we going to get all that stuff on the tandem!
Ok, well, somehow it fit! Tandem fully loaded and ready to go. Waiting for the ferry at Muskegon, MI.
Nice ferry compartment. We brought iced animal crackers for the ferry ride.
Todays Route (Actual Start was 12:43 PM)
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