Road trip around lake Michigan

[jaysun0ne]

well when i got back from my trip last month i had the idea that it would be cool to take a few days and ride around Lake Michigan.

i have a 4 day weekend for labor day weekend and figured its now or never. i want to start planning this trip but i thought some of you locals might have some good ideas on roads to take or places to stop, or join me for a part of the trip.

i will have a cell phone this time, it was a pain in the ass last time and i still feel bad for standing up the Toronto guys.

anyways i wanted to camp out for at least two nights
my plan is to go up the east side of the lake first staying at some camp ground place (still undecided) middle part of the second day cross over into the upper part of Michigan. find another camp ground half way to Wisconsin. third day drive thru green bay and find a place between there and Chicago

so if anyone has any ideas please speak up

thanks

[NT696]

i will have a cell phone this time, it was a pain in the ass last time and i still feel bad for standing up the Toronto guys.

Fuggggetttabouit! No offence taken. Just inform your cell provider that the world is not flat, and does indeed extend beyond the northern states.

[icycle]

Sounds like a great trip. Sadly I work all of Labor Day weekend otherwise I would join you for a short bit.
As far as any good roads I would recommend M-119 from Petoskey north. Nice ride. Just be carefull, lots of bikers crash on this road as it is curvy and can have suprises around the corners.
Make sure you go through Mackinaw before Labor Day itself. The crowds will be horrible due to the bridge walk. Campgrounds around the area can be pretty busy also. There are a few small state and federal campgrounds along US-2 west of Mackinaw that are ok, rustic, but still ok.
If you think you might want to stop in Mackinaw for a minute let me know and I'll shoot you my cell #. Work might have me tied up during the busy weekend but if you get through here early enough I might be free.
I'll try not to pull you over.
Are you riding the Hawk or the RC51?

[motorcycleman]

I was out there years ago... On the upper penninsula pictured rocks national seashore (or park) is a very nice place to camp with an awsome beach.

When I was there in 1990 there was an abandoned state park about halfway up the east coast of Michigan- right on the water and free. I can't tell you where it was North of port huron about an hour I think.

Mackinaw bridge is a bear in high wind. Great shot for the scavenger hunt, however

[jaysun0ne]

icycle

i plan to go over the bridge mid day sunday
if your free sunday let me know
im taking the rc51, still working on the hawk
15k miles on the beast in two years is my goal lol

thanks for the tip as far as roads, i will study the map really well before i go. dont worry about pulling me over i will be by my self just cruising. this trip is more for sight seeing than anything. going to make alot of stops taking pictures and crap like that.

its coming up soon less than two weeks

[jaysun0ne]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Garfield+Ave+%4041.557410,+-87.454340&daddr=M-22%2FPilgrim+Hwy+%4044.665120,+-86.246210+to:W+Harbor+Hwy%2FM-22+%4044.923990,+-85.879990+to:M-22%2FS+Shabwasung+St+%4045.113470,+-85.615090+to:CR-81%2FWilderness+Park+Dr+%4045.745570,+-84.828210+to:WI-57+N+%4044.769990,+-87.520190+to:44.119142,-87.637939+to:Indianapolis+Blvd%2FUS-41+%4041.556640,+-87.471270&mrcr=5,6&mrsp=6&sz=8&mra=dpe&sll=45.178165,-85.484619&sspn=2.86143,4.993286&ie=UTF8&ll=43.953282,-85.352783&spn=5.844272,9.986572&z=7&om=1

more or less my planned trip this weekend
plan to take alot of pictures

i like the new drag and drop thing google has now

[icycle]

Instead of going north on Pleaseantview Rd. from Petoskey keep going west and up M-119. It will take you up the coast and is a much better and more scenic ride. You can keep going north along the lakeshore from Cross Village all the way to Mackinaw City, or you can turn east on Levering Rd. in cross village and over to Pleaseantview Rd. to get back on your original route. If you stray from the course and get lost you can call me for directions.
According to your route when you get to Mackinaw on Wilderness Pk. Dr. Just up from the water and across from the Historic Village you'll pass by my house.

[MVRC51]

Hey Jason, I hope you had a great trip and made it home safely!

I went on a ride with a few guys from CLSB so I have a closer route for us to try in the next few weeks.

[jaysun0ne]

whehh good trip

got back monday around 6:00pm

im going to write something up and post a few pictures later on tonight


anyone that finds them selfs on the easter side of lake michigan i highly recommend route 22 man was that nice. it was 5-6pm on saturday and didnt see a car for about 15-20 miles had the road all to my self.

[jaysun0ne]

well I started about 10:30 am from NW Indiana. I headed north on i-94 into Michigan, took that to 196 just north of Benton harbor hoped on 31 when that came up. at this point I was finally off the freeway. was having fun and stopped at Manistee for a brake.



nice little town but it was time to move on. the next leg looked to be the most promising. turned out to be the high light of the trip. route 22 started a few miles north of Manistee and it was about 5:30pm at this point. I went around crystal lake, through sleeping bear dunes and ended up at Northport about 7:00pm. after stopping for gas at north port I realize I went farther than I originally planned. but I couldn't help my self route 22 was just that nice. the hole hour and a half, I maybe saw 4 cars on the road. and it was a nice smooth surface, no cracks, no tar snakes, no loose gravel, it was perfect. I would come into set of turns 4-8 at a time and then a small strait and another set of turns, for an hour and a half!!!

north port looked small and I knew an affordable motel would be hard to find so I kept going to Traverse city, and found a dump of a motel very close to downtown and right on the water. but cant complain about a $60 room. it was about 8:30 by the time I get in the room. so I grabbed some food and watched the local weather for tomorrow (sunday) and went to sleep.

took my time getting up and was back on the road 9:30 or so. from Traverse city I got on 31 and moved north. when I got to Charlevoix there was a lot of traffic in down town so I stopped had lunch and took 66 to Farry road. basically went around the lake. stopped in Boyne city and took a few more pictures.




I met back up with 31 around Petoskey and take 119 as recommended by icycle (john). the first part of this road was nuts. it reminded me of those euro motorcycle videos you see on the net. some guys going way to fast on a road that's way to small. the road had two white lines painted on each side of the road but no line in the middle and it was narrow I would say 8-12 feet across in most places. and to compound the problem they had a bicycle event going on so I had to pass up cars and bikes on a small narrow road running through a forest. so I took my time and made the best of it. there was some really nice houses in that area. it was about 3-4 pm when I made it to mackinaw city home of officer john aka icycle. he was working so my stay was short we chatted for about an hour and I moved on. icycle has a nice looking bike too.



it just happened to be windy that day, and they where escorting larger trucks and rvs across the bridge. I didn't find it to bad just got one good gust that pushed me about a foot. but the interesting thing was that one lane was metal grate and the other was paved. me being curious I moved over the grate for a short time and looked down wile moving. what a trip I moved back over the paved part and across safely.

north part of Michigan was very scenic. you literally had the road running right on the shore line most of the way. it was about 5:00pm and I rolled into Manistique get some hardees and realize I made it further than I expected again so I find another motel for $76 and go take some pictures before the sun sets.




the next morning I eat at big boy they have a breakfast buffet that's pretty good. when I get on the road and moving it was about 10:00am and I decided to just make a mad dash for home. because the north and west coast line was boring and uneventful, and didn't really feel like moving inland at all. got on 41 and headed south, I made a stop in green bay and was not impressed, people are not joking when they say its a small city. took 43 south and drove thru Milwaukee about 4:30 hit Chicago with very little traffic and was home about 7:30 monday night.



over all it was a good trip. the weather treated me very good. roads and traffic was good. took a ton of pictures, these are just a few. and 1050 miles

[motorcycleman]

I see you were tavellin' lite.... the only way to fly!

Looks like you had some excellent weather, too.

What kind of panorama camera is that? Cool pix!

[jaysun0ne]

the camera is a canon g6 it has some software that stitches the pictures together its not to bad. i should have used a tripod, the seams would have been less noticable on a few. i should post the high res versions. this trip was the most i have ever used that feature.


ya 3-4 day trip. a small tank bag and storage in the tail is all i need.
plus i spent a few extra bucks on motels instead of camping. if i had camped i would have hauled more gear with me, good thing too, it got down into the 50s in north michigan.

[icycle]

Well I'm jealous. Looks like a great ride. I wish I could've joined you for a little while . You are good luck however. I was swamped until you came and right after you left the calls started up again.
If you do it again I'd love to join you for a little while. Last weekend was way to busy to get any time off. I'm really glad the weather worked out for you and isn't riding on the grate over the bridge great! I love looking down as I ride on it. I've gotten to ride over it while looking down at a freighter, makes you realize how high up you are then.
Again sorry about the bike tour, I didn't realize it was going on. The road would've been better without it (and it gets to two lanes farther north).
Remember, if you ever want to get rid of that bike let me know...