Iron Butt Challenge - Ride Around Lake Michigan
Some things you do just to see what it is like to do them. A large selection of my bucket list is made up of foods, trips and activities that at one time or another has peaked my curiosity. Going around Lake Michigan on a motorcycle was one such trip suggested by my good friend David Livingston.
The week before July 4, 2008 was our time to find out what Michigan had to offer. David (on his Harley Ultra Glide), Kat (on her Suzuki Burgman 650) and myself (on my Honda ST1300) headed out from Greenwood, Indiana. We like to take roads less traveled so we exited I-65 onto Route 52 and made our way northwest toward Chicago.
Rain clouds began to build and just before we reached I-294 we decided to stop to put our rain gear on. Dave discovered to his dismay that his saddlebag had come open and his Frog Togs had sailed away miles ago. He bravely insisted that we press onward despite the low hanging thunderclouds. Moments later the storm hit.
We were on I-294. Cars and trucks were zooming past us with waves of water washing over us in their wake. We had zero visibility and the pavement was very slick. I do not scare easy but the combination of the torrential down pour, the heavy traffic and the gusting wind made my hair stand on end. A slight misjudgment here would mean disaster, as I doubted the heavy traffic could avoid a sliding biker and would simply run over whoever fell. To make matters worse I could feel my bike hydroplaning wildly under me. Blindly I lead the way to the only shelter available, an underpass. We parked the bikes and climbed the bank to watch the storm. Dave was soaked, cold and shivering. Rain had found a way in through our Frog Togs as well. This was a fierce and intense summer storm and I was so thankful to be off the bikes. We waited about 45 minutes before the tempest past and the clouds parted in the west to allow the evening sun to poke through.
Poor Dave, soaked and cold, climbed dutifully back on his bike and we headed out again. At 50 miles an hour the wind can chill you on a warm summer day, now imagine yourself wet and the air slightly cool on a bike speeding away at 65 mph: cold! In addition, nature herself was kicking up a wind with gust of about 50mph hitting us from our right. At times my bike was leaning at about 30° perpendicular to the pavement just to fight the wind.
We made it to my brother-in-laws house in Plainfield, IL and all of us crashed hard on the sofa. We were exhausted. That was our first day.
The next day, after a short visit with our relatives, we departed heading northward on I-55 to I-294 to I-94. Traffic was frightening. Traveling in Chicago by car is bad enough but on a bike there is little time to think of anything else but the road. It took us 4 hours to get far north enough for traffic to become tolerable. Chicago is not a trip I would recommend to beginners. By mid-afternoon we where in Milwaukee.
During the last part of June and the 4th of July week Milwaukee stages the "Largest Music Festival" in the world. Combine that with America's largest beer brewing capital and you have a party! Summerfest draws some of the biggest names in music to play for 11 days and nights. Once you are on the grounds you can just find the band or performer that you are looking for, set down with a cold beer and enjoy. I only wish that we could have spent the remainder of our vacation right there, but at last we pushed on to Green Bay.
Green Bay was just a stop over for us, we wanted to get to the Upper Peninsula so we road 41 out of Green Bay and then took 35 along the coast. Scenery immediately escalated in value as we begin to get frequent glimpse of the Great Lake. Escanaba was our next stop. It seemed that every little town along our way was having some sort of summer or freedom festival. We walked along the downtown streets of Escanaba nibbling on carnival food and ice cream, just having the time of our lives.
Up past Escanaba the population thins out and traffic is almost non-existent. At every rest stop we always met other bikers making a similar trek around the Great Lake. Easy riding, friendly people, and some of the best scenery the north has to offer made this section of the trip my favorite. I was almost sad to see Mackinac.
The bridge spanning from the Upper Peninsula to Mackinac City was indeed a highlight of our adventure. Dave, who has a phobia bridges, had selected this trip for the precise purpose of coaxing himself over the bridge and beyond his fear. None of us, however, had had a true vision of the size of this behemoth. Mackinac Bridge, at the time of construction in 1957 gave the Golden Gate Bridge a run for the title of worlds largest suspension bridge. Wind out of the west gust up from the Lake over the bridge in 50 to 60 mph burst making motorcycle riding a bit tricky. The pavement gives way to metal grating over part of the Lake and you can look straight down to the water some 200 feet below. Unnerving as you are trying to keep your bike upright while fighting the wind and the grate. Kat, ever the daredevil, held the video camera in one hand and the handlebars in the other and filmed our passage. Our passage over the bridge took just about 6 or 7 minutes and then we were in Mackinac City.
For those interested, you can catch a ferry out to Mackinac Island. No vehicles are allowed on the island, you travel via true horsepower from one end of the island to the other. We decided to leave the ferry trip for another visit in the future and just kicked around by lake front visiting the various touristy shops. This was the perfect summer evening to end a perfect summer day.
The next day we were headed south. We intended to ride the "Tunnel of Trees" road but missed our turn and so pushed on past Traverse City, Michigan. All of this area is very beautiful in summer and the climate is just about right for touring. With the Lake popping in and out of the trees and the sun on our faces you get a sense of timelessness. We traveled all the way down to Muskegon before stopping.
We sought out a suitably expensive hotel and along the way picked up flyers advertising Muskegons Summer Music Festival. Our hotel was within walking distance so we were off for an evening of rock n' roll with Blue Oyster Cult and REO Speedwagon. Guys in the band are aging a bit but then so am I. We had a blast.
The final leg of our trip came the next day when we set out for home. We couldn't resist however, visiting our old college stomping grounds in Berien Springs, Michigan. Much, of course, had changed and we were at once nostalgic as we recalled where Kat and I had met.
The ride home was a difficult one due to weather and fatigue. Wind from the west was very strong and even cracked Kat's windshield. Evening was upon as we rolled into home. The motorcycle trip around the lake had taken us seven wonderful days and we racked up 1500 miles.
