Tuesday, Aug. 5 (The Thumb and Caseville)
We had breakfast at Kay's Restaurant with Don and Dolores and their senior group. Then we departed, driving through a fog for the first hour, to Port Huron and continuing up the Thumb. S.R. 25 is easy driving, and has a wide shoulder for any potential long-distance pedalers. We look at the marinas in Lexington, Harbor Beach, Grindstone City, and Port Austin. We set up our tent at Sleeper State Park, east of Caseville. After checking out the beach area, we began our ride at 4pm. I picked out our rides this week from 'Short Bike Rides in Michigan' by Stovall. This ride is called 'Inside the Thumb'. We rode along the Lake Huron shore for 4 miles, then headed inland on county roads. Near Pinnebog, there were a lot of poppies out in the fields. We had great $1 ice cream cones at a country store in Pinnebog, then started a long pull west into the hot sun to get to Caseville and the Lake. In Caseville, we explored the marina and had perch dinners at Shakers Diner. After supper, we had 5 more miles back to the State Park, at 7:25pm. Pedaling is harder after a full meal. Mileage was 26.8, with 12.8 mph average, 20.2 mph maximum, and 2hr, 12min, pedaling time. The campground was mostly full, but fairly quiet. As is common for state campgrounds, there are lots of RV's, trailers, and pop-up campers. There is too much smoke from campfires, and lots more lights than necessary. Ice-cream-cone lights are the new thing this year.
Wednesday, Aug. 6 (Tawas Bay)
After a light pre-dawn rain, we packed up our wet tent, had breakfast in Caseville, and continued the drive around Saginaw Bay, passing through Bay City, Pinconning, Standish, Au Gres, and then Tawas City/East Tawas. As with yesterday, the shoreline is 99% developed with houses and cottages, with 1% undeveloped or public access. We also noticed lots of lawn signs for 'www.saveourshoreline.org'. This is an organization trying to change a new state?federal? policy not allowing weeds and plants to be pulled to groom the sandbeach. When we arrived at Tawas Point State Park (at 11am), there were only 6 sites left in the campground. But we got a nice tent site along the perimeter, next to the pond. We checked out the lighthouse and the beach area, then read in the car as 3 separate rainshowers passed through. When we thought the rainshowers had passed through, we left at 2:40pm. Unfortunately, we were hit by 3 more rainshowers during our 3-hr ride, with periods of sunshine in between! Once again, very nice scenery on the country roads. However, M-55 wasn't great cycling in the rain. The shoulder was somewhat narrow and the traffic moved fast. Our ice cream stop today was at the Tawas City Beach. We ate beneath a picnic shelter to stay somewhat dry. We finished back at the state park at 5:40pm. Distance was 27 miles. Our top downhill speed was 26.0mph. Supper was at the Bay Restaurant in Tawas City, right on the water. In the evening, we had a great sunset at the campground. Because the Park is on a spit of land, the sun sets over Tawas Bay and the mainland. We also could see the slowly flashing lights atop the nearby Tawas Point Lighthouse from our campsite.
Thursday, Aug. 7 (Au Sable River and Sterling)
We had more rain that night. We had breakfast in Oscoda, hoping the tent would dry, but we packed it up wet again. We drove north again to Oscoda, bought groceries for supper at Linda's house that night, then took the very scenic River Road up the beautiful Au Sable river. We started our bike ride at Lumberman's Monument at noon. We first rode west on River Road, stopping at Canoer's Monument, Iargo Springs, and finally at 5-Channels Bridge and Dam. The forest is mixed pine, hemlock and beech. The road was great for bicycling, with light traffic in the early afternoon. Our stop at Iargo Springs was the best. It is considered the most photogenic part of the river, and has a staircase (>200 steps) going down to the springs and the River. We returned on River Road, continuing past Lumberman's Monument and went on Cook Road to Cook Dam. This was our longest non-stop pedaling of the trip, about 10 miles (the last 2 miles in the rain). We also hit our top speed of the trip, descending Cook Road at 34.4 mph until I had to break for some loose gravel on a turn. Cook Dam had a popular boat launch site (even with an impending lightning storm). On our return trip, we hit our heaviest rain of the trip. We started our ascent but didn't get too far before we had to walk the bike. (The front derailleur wouldn't shift to the smallest freewheel, which cost us some efficiency.) We must have looked pathetic, walking our tandem up the hill in the rain, because a UPS driver stopped his truck and offered to deliver us to our car. We appreciated the sentiment, but declined, since we were only 2 miles from the car. We finished our ride at 3:30pm. Distance was 21.2 miles, 1 hr and 41 min pedaling time, 11.0 mph average speed. After drying off and packing up, we drove to Linda's house in Sterling, using county roads and lesser-traveled state highways. We arrived at 5:15pm and got to rest and warm up before Linda returned from work at 7pm. Nancy made a beef and pepper stir-fry and the two of them did planning for their September Isle Royale backpack trip.
Friday, Aug. 8 (Midland)
We had breakfast in Sterling after leaving Linda's house, then drove to downtown Midland. We stopped first at the Dow Garden Center, which has 115 acres of well-groomed gardens. The Pere Marquette rail-trail starts at the 'Tridge', at the confluence of the Chippewa and Tittabawassee rivers. Once again the weather was gray and threatening. We departed just before noon. The paved trail is exceptionally flat and straight. After leaving the riverside parks, we have woods and meadows on the sides, with lots of wildflowers on the edge of the mowed border with the trail. While the trail is a pleasure to pedal, the scenery does seem too 'translationally invariant'. Later in the trip, there are some stops at river overlooks, bogs, and towns like Sanford to break some of the monotony. We are on the trail about 11 miles, then turn around when we had enough rain and head back, returning at 2:40pm. Total mileage is 23.8, with 1:52 pedaling time and 12.1 mph average speed. Maximum speed was 18.2 mph. (Mileage for the entire trip was 115 miles.) We then drove to Frankenmuth for shopping at Bronner's Christmas Store and supper at Zehnder's, then drive home.