Ludington, Michigan

What Ludington lacks in a downtown area, it makes up for tenfold with its municipal marina and its state park. Sadly, Ludington's downtown area has a lot of empty storefronts (and with two more stores having "going out of business" events, there seem to be more in the near future). We suspect a superstore on the fringe of town may be to blame but we didn't venture out that far to see.

At $41/night for our boat, Ludington Municipal is a huge bargain. It is a very well protected marina. The main boaters' building has a cozy reading room, a great deck that overlooks the marina, probably the nicest showers (overhead shower heads), irons, big washers and dryers (30 minute cycles for $1/load), beautiful grounds and two opportunities a day to see the Badger. (We didn't know they shipped semis over! You can see into the Badger's cargo area as it turns around before docking.) We can't say enough nice things about the marina.

It does seem like Ludington is going through a transition. As mentioned, the downtown is losing businesses. However, they are constructing some nice condo buildings by the waterfront. They are highlighting their waterfront area with an art walk and have quite a number of historical murals on buildings scattered throughout the town (Ludington is apparently known as the "town of murals"). There is a good grocery store - Best Choice Market - that is "walking distance" from the marina. We had a nice dinner at PM Steamers, named for the Pere Marquette River and the steamers that used to travel it, right across the street from the marina. Ludington also has its own microbrewery - Jamesport Brewing Company - which lets you order a flight of beers to do a tasting (5 5ounce portions for $6) - kinda neat! (We recommend the Nitro Stout - which is as smooth as cream - and the Hefeweizen - a great summer beer.) Chef John's Bakery has great cookies, cinnamon rolls, and cherry struedels. We also were lucky enough to be able to visit the original House of Flavors Ice Cream Shop -- right by its production facility.


We also took a historic house walk and found this prime architectural example of the McCaulian era in Ludington.



The Ludington State Park is about 6 miles from the marina along M-116. It is a very easy bike ride and the shoulder of M-116 is very wide (it's almost like a designated bike lane). On Friday, September 21, we biked over and visited Big Sable Point Lighthouse, (we'd passed it the day before on Meridian). The cool thing about the park is that its trails and roads run between some huge sand dunes. We've never had the opportunity to bike between open dunes before. And these are some pretty large, old, and fairly stabilized dunes. They also have an under-sand shipwreck. In 2004, the changing water level of Lake Michigan enabled some researchers to identify the dimensions of a 93 foot possible schooner wreck. It's under sand now but some of the wood is exposed.


The sand is an interesting consistency and, when washed by waves, forms shelves almost like wafer cookies. The park also includes Hamlin Lake. The Hamlin Lake area is an old lumber town area with an interesting history including dam breaks and moving (straightening) the river. The bike path around Hamlin Lake is a combination bike path and historical walk with signs that give the history of the region. An interesting piece of information that we got from the harbor master was that each year they release about 200,000 baby salmon by the present Hamlin Dam. Guess that explains why the dam is a popular fishing spot. But, its probably a little disappointing for the salmon -- they'll never get up that dam!

During our ride we came across this old guy. Guess he's tired of having to share the lake with all those salmon. They get all the attention.

We've taken advantage of a weather window (although the lake wasn't as calm as we expected). We're currently in Whitehall (on White Lake) and planning to move to Grand Haven or Holland or Saugatuck tomorrow -- depending on the weather of course.

Silver Lake Dunes Area

Silver Lake State Park is about eight miles south of Pentwater right on Lake Michigan. We saw the dunes from the lake as we were approaching Pentwater. During our stay in Pentwater, we decided to take a bicycle ride down to the park.

The bike ride down there was very nice. You take County Road B-15 (no, it’s not B-17, but it’s pleasing nonetheless, mister). The road winds around Pentwater Lake and then heads south down along the Lake Michigan shore to Silver Lake. While riding down there, you never really see the lake but it’s a very nice ride along forested areas that make up the crests of sand dunes. The speed limit is slow enough that cars don’t zip by too fast, and there are just enough hills to make it interesting but not tiring.

Upon reaching Silver Lake State Park, you enter a very different world. It’s almost like something out of a Mad Maxx movie. There are dune buggies and off road vehicles EVERYWHERE. The closer you get to the park, the weirder it all gets. Apparently, riding up the sand dunes is a big thing there. It’s quite interesting to see, just for the sake of seeing it. Here’s a picture of the staging area for the vehicles, prior to entering the park.

Once you reach Silver Lake, you see just how scenic the dunes really are. On the day we were there, the lake was a deep blue colo, and the dunes really stood out against the color of the water.

Looking closely, you can see some of the dune buggies on the dune. The orange flags you see at the bottom of the picture are attached to vehicles. The flags are generally on poles that rise six to ten feet above the vehicles.

Unfortunately, our return ride was not quite as pleasant as we would have liked. We decided to take a more direct route back to Pentwater. According to the map (and the GPS), we could head east along Taylor Street, then take 60^th Avenue north and end up at the east end of Pentwater Lake. That was a shorter route, avoiding a lot of the winding back and forth on County Road B-15.

All was well until, after a mile or so, 60^th Avenue turned into this . . .

Yes, it eventually became a narrow loose sand road the cut through the woods. Think of a logging road made out of very loose sand. Our mountain bikes could only make headway for about half the time – at best. The rest of the time we pushed the bikes. This went on for several miles. We made the mistake of continuing on instead of turning back because, well, this can’t go on forever. Well, it did.

When we finally hit asphalt, it was like a person crawling through the desert who reaches an oasis. Not sure if it’s a hallucination or if it’s real. That little mistake turned a pleasant two hour ride into a four hour ordeal.

So . . . if you are in the Pentwater area, by all means take a quick trip down to Silver Lake. But if you are on bicycles, stay on County Road B-15 for the trip back and forth from Pentwater! Avoid those little side roads – such as 60^th Avenue – at all cost.