After a good nights rest we headed off on what we knew would be our longest day of the trip, but we didn't realize how tough the hills were going to be. The day started with a short ride back to the Sleeping Bear trail. The 6 miles of trail from Glen Lake to Empire was all paved and forested. There was a fair climb to tackle but not steep at all.
After breakfast in Empire, we have another significant hill on the way out of town. We were back on route 22 again and the shoulders were very nice and wide. After a long flat stretch on 22 to Crystal Lake we turned west to ride around the lake and immediately hit the strongest headwind of the trip so far. The few miles to get to the west end of the lake and turn south again was really challenging. A few more miles down the road was the town of Frankfort. While it was a bit early in the day, we had lunch at the Birch and Maple of a view of the small bay the borders the town.
Leaving Frankfort, still on route 22, we encountered a series of hills that really challenged us! Most of the route around Lake Michigan has been very flat, today was a big change! The sequence of hills was one shorter 150 foot climb, then three climbs each at about 300 feet each, and finally another 150 foot climb. Sherri said her Elemnt bike computer read between 8% and 12% steady on all five climbs! Tough on a loaded tandem. Luckily after each climb there was a long flat section that helped us recover. Whew!
It was a long day, and we were happy to see our motel in Manistee. We needed to do some laundry, but by the time we got in the laundry was closed. We asked at the motel desk and they graciously agreed to do our laundry for us! Nice touch. Have to give these guys a great review! As night fell we walked to TJ's Pub for dinner. It was a nice evening so we took a table outside. Great food and good service. The pub looks across the road to the city's drawbridge. Sure enough while we were eating the horns sounded and the bridge went up. The river is quite narrow but a huge ship made its way very, very slowly past the drawbridge down the river to the Lake. What a sight to see.
Rest stop at one of parks on the route.
The final descent was incredibly steep. Good thing we were headed down!
Storm on the water at a Lake front park just before Manistee.
Taken from our outside dinner table at the corner pub. The ship moved through as if it was just on a city side street.
Todays route
No comments:
Post a Comment