Day 46
Travel Time: 5 hours
NM today: 41
NM total: 1027
Locks today: 0
Locks total: 70
We left Drummond Island
at 8:00 to get to Mackinac Island today.
We scrapped our original plan of visiting an anchorage before coming to
Mackinac Island due to the prediction of inclement weather for tomorrow. We heard many times that Mackinac Island is a
major highlight for the Great Loop adventure, and we wanted to experience all
that was available on a non-rainy day.
Luckily we found space available for tonight so we jumped on it.
The boat trip to
Mackinac Island was uneventful and seemed to take forever. The online site to reserve space
midnrreservations.com stated that checkout time is 1:00 and check-in time is
the same. Leaving at 8:00 put us right
at the Mackinac Island Harbor at exactly 1:00.
We got our slip assignment, ditched our cold-weather attire we needed
for the travel on Lake Huron, and jumped on our bikes to go tour the island.
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| Mackinac Island State Harbor |
No cars are allowed on
Mackinac Island – only horse-drawn carriages and bicycles are seen on any of
the roads. Hiking trails and bike trails
cover the island. We got recommendations
from the staff at the marina regarding which trails to focus on. The really nice part is that the roads and bike
trails are all paved. With our
undersized tires, asphalt is important for a comfortable ride. To circumnavigate the island requires a trip
of approximately 8 miles.
We did the 8-mile ride
around the perimeter of the island after we rode our bikes probably 5 miles over
interior roads and trails. Clark wanted
the full island experience. We first
went to the Arch Rock, which in my opinion lacks the beauty of Arches National
Park, but we found it interesting just the same.
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| Arch Rock |
Then we followed the Leslie Ave bike trail
through the interior of the island providing the fun equivalent of a bike
slalom with gradual ups and downs and curvy rights and lefts.
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| Bike Trail through Mackinac Island |
Since Leslie is primarily a bike trail, the
natural output of all the horses on the island did not cover this route as much
as it did the routes used by the horse-and-buggy teams. It paid to keep eyes glued to the road
everywhere we traveled as we did not want to bring any unpleasant smells into
the cabin with the bikes.
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| Horse-drawn Vehicles everywhere except on hiking and biking trails |
A multitude of people on
bikes passed us going counterclockwise around the island. I wondered repeatedly if they all knew
something we did not as I peddled hard going downhill against the wind and saw
a minimal number of people traveling in the same clockwise direction Clark had
chosen. Clark assured me that we would
have the wind with us on the opposite side of the island as wind would not be
circling the island. However, I became more and more skeptical as I
continued to pedal against strong winds for the entire 8 miles, I doubted either
his reasoning or his willingness to tell me the truth. I wasn’t sure which but either way I got a
good workout today.
Another 13 miles added
to my exercise log. Now if I could just
stop eating ice cream, I’d be in great shape.
I can tell my legs are getting stronger and stronger as I now continue
to pedal up hills that I would have walked the bike up a month ago. On the steeper hills sometimes I do not look to
see what is coming, I just focus on one pedal at a time going up and down along
with breathing in and out to help me keep going.
In addition to our
biking, we stopped along the route to visit Fort Holmes at the highest point on
the entire island. Folks coming down
when we got there said the view was not to be missed as the entire island and
water surrounding it are visible from the top.
We had two choices – walk up the 141 steps to the top or bike
uphill. We opted for the 141 steps. I had to stop a few times to get my heart rate
down before continuing the climb.
Two forts are here in
Mackinac Island – Fort Holmes and Fort Mackinac. Someone told us that previously Fort Holmes
was a pile of dirt with a plaque. This
year, however, a full-scale replica of the original fort sits on the site. We could not tour the inside as it is still
under construction, but we could poke our heads in the guard gates to take a
few photos. Fort Mackinac required an admission
fee be paid to tour the grounds. We had
insufficient interest to pay the entrance fee, so we took some shots of the
outside and kept on biking. Fort
Mackinac has a full daily schedule of activities including canon firing
multiple times a day along with revelry in the morning and taps at night.
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| Fort Mackinac |
By the time we concluded
our bike tour of the island, I was more than ready for dinner. Fortunately we opted to eat out, so I was
off-the-hook to cook tonight. We decided
on an inexpensive restaurant followed by ice cream. When we left the boat to walk into town, my
leg muscles rebelled. After sitting on
the boat for just a short time before going out for dinner, my legs had
stiffened up on me. I found walking to
be a bit of a challenge after all afternoon on my bike.
When we checked in at
the marina upon arrival, the staff told us to make sure to sample the
fudge. As we walked around town tonight,
we understood why as we found one fudge shop after another. In addition to fudge, we had multiple choices
for ice cream as well as flavored popcorn and peanut brittle. We made a poor choice with minimal ice cream flavor
choices as we selected a shop before we realized that every other store offered
both fudge and ice cream. Ah well – we
enjoyed the treat anyway!
Clark took almost 100
pictures today with so many good ones making the photo selection for the blog
very difficult. We are staying for a second night to make the most of this excellent vacation spot.
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| Bikes on every street |
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