59 miles. Includes a little detour first thing this morning while we were “temporarily confused.”

We slept in a little this morning since we knew we had a relatively “short” day ahead. The weather was sunny and we had a little tail wind all day… the wind wasn’t always right at our backs but it was seldom in our faces. After a run to the north, Rte. 2 headed east across the UP following the Lake Michigan shoreline. For the most part we had a generous and smooth shoulder to ride on but oh, the trucks!!! This is logging territory so there were many heavily laden log trucks with upwards of ten axles meaning at least 40 tires all whining as they zoomed by. Big rigs used to be 18 wheelers but 40+ generate a lot of noise and wind. As I said, we had a wide and smooth shoulder to ride on so didn’t feel at risk from the trucks just slightly deaf in one ear from the ride!

The lake shoreline is beautiful and the vastness of the lake, the dunes, the seagulls all contribute to the feeling of being on the ocean. Again we saw many very nice-looking cabins and homes right on the water. Many of the mailboxes had French names on them (Robataille, LeFleur, Gagne, etc.) reminding me that French missionaries and trappers were the first settlers in the upper Great Lakes region and were only finally pushed out after the War of 1812.

 

We rode into Manistique (tomorrow we will hit Epoufette and maybe get to St. Ignace – again the French influence) and saw our favorite sight, an ice cream shop that made malts. We are becoming experts on malts and while we didn’t rate these particularly highly, they tasted mighty good.

We parked our bikes and walked the boardwalk out to the lighthouse and had our photo snapped by a couple from Colorado who spend part of the summer here at a beach cottage.