6-25-10 Day 21: Mackinaw City, Michigan to Manistique, Michigan: 88 miles in 6:20 hours. Rt 2 west the whole day.
Man, the weather these last several days has just been a real pain in the rump! Popped my head out of the tent this morning and what I saw just didn’t look good – totally grey and ominous skies. I raced to get packed before I got dumped on and then beat feet down to the the call box in downtown Mackinaw City to call for someone from the bridge to pick me up for the bridge crossing. You cannot ride a bicycle across the Mackinaw Bridge. Can’t even walk across it but for one special day a year. I learned that the hard way back when I was a young pup. Yep, I bet a buddy that I could get away with riding a bike across the bridge back when I was doing a 2-week bike trip up into the UP. Got almost all the way across that 5-6 mile bridge when a very P O’d bridge guy stopped me, yelled at me, and threw my bike in the van and took me across the final 1 mile. I was young and kind of stupid, and now, can’t believe that I thought I could get away with it.
Now at 53 years of age, I’m definitely out of the idiot stage of life, and had no problem ringing the bridge people and waiting the 30 min for a worker to drive a truck over to pick me up. As I was waiting the rain began to set in. And by the time the truck pulled up to load all me gear into his pick-up truck, it was a steady rain. The bridge guy told me that the forecast was for partly sunny – yea right. It looked totally socked in as far west as I could see. Got across, paid my 2 bucks, put my rig back together and then set out in the rain with my North Face anorak on. And it came down pretty strong for about a half hour. As I was getting soaked I kept telling myself that I’d rather be out there than sitting in a tent or motel room……hmmmmmm don’t know if I was totally on board with that as rain was spraying all over me, but what the heck, I was out there and wet, so might as well make a day of it. Then I saw the sign: Manistique: 88 miles. OUCH!! Going to be a very long day if the rain continued.
Well, I at least had a really good road to ride on, Rt 2 west, which has the mother of all berms, nice and smooth and about 6 feet in width with a rumble strip on the left side to keep pesky traffic away from me. Rode out of the rain, took the anorak off and continued, thinking that maybe I got away with just a short soaking. Nope. Then came another road. And another, and another. Anorak on. Anorak off. Over an over. I hadn’t had breakfast or even a coffee in the morning with my rush to get packed and across the bridge with the way the weather looked, and with the rain just continually reappearing, I didn’t want to stop for fear of chilling out – the morning temp was 52 degrees to start! Not bad when you’re riding in the rain and it’s 70 degrees out, but 50’s – not good, and my fingers were a bit on the numb side to boot. So I kept it rolling into a very light 5-8 mph westerly headwind. Yipppe, at least the wind wasn’t kicking my ass!
Was maintaining a 13 mph average on relatively flat roads that go across the very top of Lake Michigan. But it’s deceiving in that there are these long, long false flats that just go forever. You only notice it because it’s just harder and harder to maintain the pace you’re doing on the flats. And when I looked back to see if I was indeed climbing, I just saw this ever so subtle false flat the went for miles behind me.
It’s really beautiful up here, what with the north country feel and the Great Lakes, but with the rain, I wasn’t about to stop and snap pics around every turn! Couple of times I was so tempted to stop for food and coffee, but the clouds and rain made me decide otherwise. I wanted to get in at least half the day before I stopped, so I kept pushing. Finally I hit a dry spell, and since it was around 3:10 hrs into the ride, and I’d knocked off 44 miles, I stopped in the town of Naubinway for a bite to eat. Went to a little mom and pop restaurant for some breakfast. Very nice lady waited on me and was asking me about me trip, having seen my bike and my pretty disheveled look of having been rained on for 2.5 hours. I ordered the 2 eggs and 3 pancakes, and was about to order more when she stopped me and warned me that the cakes were monsters. She even told me I’d not be about to eat them all.
Thanked her for the head’s up, but told her I’d probably be able to finish off the cakes. She smiled and refilled me with some piping hot coffee. When she came back with the eggs and cakes my jaw dropped. I mean these cakes were each as big as a dinner plate. No &^%^#$#. No lie. I ended up putting on a half pound of butter and a quart of syrup – just kidding but I put a lot on for sure. And be damned if I could NOT finish those cakes. I got down to one half of one cake left and I was just stuffed. Didn’t want to get back on the bike and just feel like I had a belly full of cement. So I told her I surrender. Rarely do I quit on food, but that massive stack of cakes just whipped me.
Got on the bike…..and the rain had started again. And it really cranked up again, forcing me to don the anorak again for the umteenth million time. Lost count of all the anorak on’s and off’s. Still kind of cold and not very agreeable, and……the westerly wind was picking up! So I was soaked again and riding on great road, with roadkill that was just stinking to high heaven when I’d ride by. Just add a little rain to the ooze on the road and it’s a pretty nasty sight and smell. Matter of fact a fresh roadkill had splattered fresh bits of flesh, bone, hair, teeth and all sorts of goodies on a stretch of berm and I just dreaded getting something thrown up on the wet tires and sticking to my leg or torso. I slowed down and picked my way through the mess.
The rain finally let up, and then the sun actually cracked through the sky for a stretch….and the westerly headwind got even worse, working into the double digits in intensity, which made my day pretty tough for the finish. I was in and out of the saddle for the last 2 hours just trying to keep some semblance of pacing. From the 115 miles yesterday, my legs were pretty shredded by 75 miles in today. Butt was pretty sore to. I just tried to enjoy the Lake Michigan scenery when it wasn’t raining and press on. Five miles out of Manistique I saw this wall of black in the west, and I was wondering if I’d make it into town before then heavens opened up in a very big way. Clicked a few gears down and really tried to push it in. With a mile to go the rain started as a drizzle.
No tenting tonight. Nope. I went straight for one of those little efficiencies. Now this is a vacationer’s market up here. Unfortunately there are just so many businesses that have gone under that everyone is giving discounts on lodging. Matter of fact I went through one little town and there were 5 motel/cabin places…..and only one was still in business. It’s staggering how many little places are OOB up here – motels, restaurants, tourist traps, gas stations. For every little town I road through, I saw at least one motel/efficiency OOB, not to mention all the other side businesses that deal with tourism.
So I found a great deal for 30 bucks. Just as I pulled the bike in the rain came down, harder, and harder, and harder. Went over to a little place to eat and by the time I sat down the rain was just coming down so hard you couldn’t see 200 feet out of the window. True gully washer! And it rained like that for 45 min straight. I sat inside eating the dinner buffet – and it was just out of sight. Tons of salads, veggies, and meats. Just sat and munched as the rains came down like no tomorrow. By the time I left it had let up enough for me to go back to my little abode. Feels pretty good knowing that I don’t have to deal with this rain the rest of the day and night.
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