We rode 57 miles from Turtle Lake through Traverse City to Torch Lake. We are staying with my buddy tonight so we got a chance to go to the grocery store and get some burgers and a bottle of wine to celebrate our four year anniversary. We sat on the beach of Lake Michigan at beautiful Barnes Park and watched the sun set to our right and a thunder storm to our left. Pretty fantastic day! Have a great night all!
A brief stop in Traverse City for our first view of Lake Michigan! It's weird to think we haven't seen the big lake until now even though that's what were biking around. We've seen enough smaller lakes though. We filled up our water bottles and had a granola bar and are good to go. 13 miles to elk rapids for another pit stop and 16 more to the northern tip of Torch after that.
We stayed the night at Turtle Lake Campground, but we definitely cut it close with the sunset. We got here just before ten and had to set up the tent in the dark. We rode through Crystal Mountain Resort yesterday before being forced onto some creepy seasonal, dirt roads. One of them turned into a two track. The sandy parts of it were tough to ride through, but I have never seen Skye bike that fast before. We made it though and have 53 miles to bike to my buddy's place on the north shore of Torch Lake today. We went 51 miles the first day and 61 miles yesterday.
We stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom and there was a fire truck hosing down the ground because a motorcycle pulled in on fire. Odd. I swear the weirdest things happen on trips like this. So we got a five dollar sub to split and ate it at this nice little park on bear lake. Currently taking a decently long break. We were planning on heading to Benzonia tonight, but I found a cheaper place slightly further so were heading there. 19 miles to go and its on turtle lake.
We started the trip in whitehall and saw a turtle in the first mile. I thought that was a good sign, oops. I'll just briefly sum up yesterday. We were on a rail trail for a while but got bored because of the flat and straight terrain so we hopped off at shelby. From there, it seemed like it was all uphill with the wind coming straight at us. It made for a tough day of biking. We got to ludington and stopped at a grocery store to get some chips and cook dinner in the parking lot. Of course, I spilled half of the noodles while straining them. So Skye ate the good half and I had a granola bar and peanut butter. We made it to a campsite ten miles north of there, but not before I got a flat. Pumped it up and it held the rest of the way, but was flat when we woke up this morning. Changed the tube and made it to manistee today! Currently eating lunch at TJ's.
Test to see if I have enough service to blog. I wrote a long one last night but it couldn't send. Skye's blog nickname definitely suits her well.
