Day 17 - You Can't Go East From Here On A Motorcycle - She Was Right!

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Today was already expected to be an ambitious day, not that many miles, but lots of stuff to do. We both slept really well last night, probably from all the fresh air yesterday, though the bed was reasonably comfortable. The hotel (an AmericInn) was nice enough, but had lousy WiFi, probably more a problem with the area rather than the hotel itself. Munising, MI is pretty isolated. But the lousy WiFi meant I couldn't finish my blog yesterday - I finished the text, but didn't have time to do the pictures or the map before I was too tired and just wanted to go to bed. So I woke up around 5:45 and went ahead and uploaded and annotated the pictures. By the time I finished, showered and had breakfast we were running a little late, but in all fairness we did manage to hit the road by 8:00 so, not too bad.

First thing we noticed is that it was COLD! Checked the temp on the bike and it was 53 degrees. So we bundled up, and Jody went so far as to put on her rainsuit which works very well as a windbreaker. It looked a little drizzly and eventually, there were a few sprinkles here and there. The plan was to follow H-58 through the rest of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and stop at the scenic bits along the way. So we headed back through town and back out past Miners Castle Road where we stopped yesterday. First stop was a scenic overlook of Lake Superior, nothing much, but we did meet a Harley couple while we were there. Not very talkative, but they were coming from where we were going and said they ran into some rain. Since these were the kind of Harley riders too cool to wear a rainsuit, they didn't look too happy. So we proceeded along to a place called the Log Slide. Evidently this is a place that's actually a red sand dune that drops off 500 ft to Lake Superior below. Back in the day, loggers used to slide felled trees down the slide into Lake Superior for easier transport. It looked pretty cool, but there were signs everywhere warning not to try to slide down the Log Slide. It does drop almost vertically for 300 ft which should only take a few seconds to reach the bottom. If you survive, it will take over an hour to climb back up, and needing a rescue could take a little longer as they know from experience.

As we were leaving Log Slide, the rain started to pick up a little and by the time we reached the next stop, Sable Falls, it had increased to a light rain. So I joined Jody and put on my own rainsuit. Most of the trail to Sable Falls had some tree cover, and full rainsuits and waterproof hiking boots are reasonably comfortable in a light rain, so we didn't let it slow us down and made the trek down the stairs to the falls viewing area. As we passed out of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore into the town of Grand Marais (Big Swamp), we continued to follow H-58 east. The Garmin wasn't much help as it didn't seem to know much about H-58 as it is a seasonal road, I think owned by the park service. It was cool that the road had snowmobile crossing signs and speed limit signs for snowmobiles, so I expect the winter character of the road is quite different. So I was following the directions on a MapQuest map that I had printed out as part of the planning for the trip, but I was having trouble recognizing some of the roads. Our goal was to reach a scenic ride path further east and south of Pictured Rocks that continued along Lake Superior as we headed toward our ultimate goal of Mackinac Island.

As we were heading east from Grand Marais on H-58, we passed a nice older couple in a Subaru that waved at us as we went by. A few miles later, we ran into some road construction signs that said "Uneven Pavement". How were we to know that meant new pavement westbound and dirt road eastbound. So we slowed and plodded along until we ran into the "Pavement Ends Ahead" sign which is never a good thing on a motorcycle. So we stopped and were trying to figure out where we were. The rain had slowed a little but it was still drizzling. There was no cell service so the MapQuest on the phone didn't work. When all of a sudden that nice old couple in the Subaru pulled up next to us and told us there was no pavement for the next 13 miles! They were trying to explain to us where to go, but they bot had hearing aids and I had a helmet, so we gave up and I thanked them and turned around and went back to Grand Marais. We stopped at a gas station and talked to the lady inside. She said "You want to go east? From here? You can't do that on a motorcycle!". I told her that I had sort of figured that out the hard way, told her where we were trying to get to and asked her for suggestions. She sent us south on M-77, then east on M-28 and then finally north on M-123. She also told us to be sure and see the Tahquamenon Falls while we were on M-123 near Newberry.

Once I started down her suggested roads and looked back at my MapQuest printout, she was send us down exactly the roads I should have been following from the beginning, so we were back on track. The rain was still coming and going, but the sun was trying to peek out. So we settled back, cranked up the tunes and headed for Tahquamenon Falls. All three roads alternated between being flat and straight where I could crank up the speed and make up some time and hilly and curvy where I could thoroughly enjoy the motorcycle ride. By now the rain had subsided and the sun was starting to come out and the temperature had risen to a blistering 66 degrees!

Tahquamenon Falls was really pretty and seeing it was the first weekend of fishing season, entry to the State Park was free. We walked from one end of the viewing area to the other. We climbed up ad down hundreds of steps to the viewing platforms, and it was fun! We also found an alternate nature path back to the parking lot and hiked that too. The only thing we skipped was the 8 mile roundtrip hike to the lower falls as we just didn't have the time. These were really big falls with massive amounts of water going over, and both of us never miss a short hike with a waterfall at the end if we can help it.

By the time we left Tahquamenon Falls, the sun was heating up and I put away my rainsuit, but Jody hung on for a little longer. She was concerned that the scenic ride would take us back close to Lake Superior and it could be cold again. But, somehow I missed the turn. I was looking for the W Lake Superior Coast Rd and somehow missed it. I suspect I had my hands full with some spirited riding on M-123 when I passed it by. When I reached back to M-28 again, I knew we had gone too far. It was close to 1:00 and when I checked with the Garmin, we were less than an hour to the St Ignace docks of Sheplers Ferry over to Mackinac Island. So I plugged address into the Garmin and headed for the docks.

It was a nice easy ride with the last 10 miles on I-75 and we managed to arrive at the St Ignace dock at 1:50. By the time we parked the bike and bought tickets it was close to 2:00 and the ticket guy said that if we hurried we could get right on the 2:00 ferry over to the island. So we hustled and made it on just as they were getting ready to leave. Since we learned the drill yesterday on teh Pictured Rocks cruise, Jody headed downstairs to keep warm, and I headed to the exposed top deck to take pictures. It was a quick ride over and before we knew it we were on Mackinac Island.

In some ways, Mackinac Island is a land that time forgot, or at least, it tries to be. It's a large island with lots of upscale hotels including the Grand Hotel which was used in the movie Somewhere in Time with Christoper Reeves and Jayne Seymour. There are no cars or any motorized vehicles on the island, so transportation is either by horse drawn carriage or by bicycle. The main street has shops and restaurants on both sides and reminds me a little of St Augustine. The only odd thing to me is that they don't use the bag behind the horse to catch the crap like they do in St Augustine. There are lots and lots of horses and carriages on the street at all times, which is a lot of horse crap dropped on the street all the time. There are guys who come by constantly to shovel it up, but it stinks and you have to be careful where you step when you cross the road. I think it's one of those things that sound better than it actually is when implemented. Just my $.02. I think that's why Jody wasn't particularly keen on a horse drawn carriage tour of the island.

So we wandered in and out of the shops looking for anything unusual, but most was the typical tourist stuff, so we settle in and found some t-shirts, and Jody found some nice Navajo earrings that she liked. They even had a Starbucks, so we stopped for afternoon coffee. By now it was getting really warm, up to 80 degrees and the leather coats were getting a bit much. We thought about staying on the island for dinner, but the food didn't seem particularly special and the restaurants had long lines and were expensive, so we gave up our idea of dinner on the island and finished up. We checked the schedule and the next ferry back to the mainland was at 4:30, just minutes away. So we caught the 4:30 and made it back to the bike.

Now the interesting thing about St Ignace and Mackinaw City is that St Ignace is on the Upper Peninsula and Mackinaw City is on the Lower Peninsula. They are separated by the Mackinac Bridge, which is a 5 mile suspension bridge at the junction of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. It is the longest suspension bridge in the Western hemisphere. As we paid our $4 to cross, the tool boot lady warned us that there were 20 knot wind advisories for the bridge and to be careful on the motorcycle. We have ridden in 20 know winds and greater before on the bike, so we didn't think much of it until we started crossing. It was blowing pretty hard, and we could certainly feel it on the bike. It was a lot stronger than I had expected. The only real problem was at the center where they were doing some road construction. The road surface on the Mackinac Bridge is 2 lanes in either direction. The center lanes are open steel grid and the outer lanes are pavement. Naturally, on a motorcycle, I stayed with the pavement side as it was difficult enough to control the bike in the high winds on pavement, but in the center they were doing road construction on the pavement lanes and I was forced to ride on the open steel grid. It is never a pleasant experience riding a motorcycle on open steel grid bridges without any wind. It's not really bad, but the bike feels unstable and tends to wander across the grid. In a 20 know wind, it amplifies the effect. So I just slowed down and held tight and tried to keep bike as straight as possible until I could return to the pavement lane again. We obviously ,made it successfully as I am writing the blog, but I will always remember the crossing as part of the adventure.

Once we made it into town, we headed over to the hotel and checked in. We have a very strange room. It is called a "triple" because it has 3 queen size beds, but it does have a double sink vanity which will be nice in the morning. Well, the location was right and the rate was reasonable and after all, it's only for one night. For dinner we headed over to a local place called Darrow's Family Restaurant. It was TripAdvisor's #1 pick and we knew the food must be good because we were the youngest ones there! I had the Cajun Whitefish and Jody had the Mackinaw City special chicken breast. Both were great, and the place is know for its homemade pies, but we were too full to have any dessert. Tomorrow we are off to Saugatuck Sand Dunes a ride through the dunes. It should be fun!

238.9 Miles Today

2620.2 Miles Total

9.016 Gallons Today

67.884 Gallons Total

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