The Trip from Mackinaw City to Petoskey, Michigan

Despite Bernie's threats to hold her breath until she turned purple, we are starting our return trip. We've decided to come back down the Michigan side of the lake and stop in some of the places that we missed on the "up trip". As you can see from the map, this still may take a little while.

Oddly enough, even though there were winds and rains that caused power outages on Friday, the next day (Saturday September 8) was a beautiful warm day in Mackinaw City. The straits area was a bit choppy but the beautiful blue sky and water almost made us change our minds about heading back. But, since all the geese up here are flying back to Chicago for the winter, we thought we might as well come back, too. So the blue line is the return trip line.

The trip to Petoskey took us, again, through the Gray's Reef Shoals area. This is Phil's favorite area when moving about on Lake Michigan. The water was so calm and clear. We stopped in about 20 feet of water to just marvel at the water clarity. We could see the rocks (and occasional boulders) on the bottom, and it was as though you could just step onto them from the swim platform. (but Bernie wouldn't let me try)

We got to see another freighter. It's amazing how those huge ships must deal with all the recreational boaters that dart around them.


Soon we were heading into Petoskey Municipal Harbor. In the slip right across from us were the couple in the Chris Craft that we'd met in Charlevoix -- the ones who stay up here on their boat the Roma Lisa in the summer and then move back to Florida in the winter.

The Little Traverse Bay area has the greatest sky. Here is the first of what will be a few Petoskey Sunset pictures to come in future blogs.

Wilderness State Park (Mackinaw City, Michigan)

As our bicycling stories go, this one is going to be fairly tame. But don't think things are getting boring - we have a doozy of a bike story when we catch you all up to our present location.

We had read about Wilderness State Park when we were in St. Ignace. It's in the northeast corner of Michigan. It's mainly a campground, but it also has rustic cabins that can be rented, mountain bike and hiking trails. It also has a number of endangered plants and birds that call it home.

So, on Thursday September 6, we packed up the water, fruit and Poptarts (our standard bike trip food) and road off to ... The Mackinaw Bakery for some Buttermilk Sticks and Caramel Pecan Swirls. One should never start a bike trip without proper nourishment! Then we were off to Wilderness Park. The bike route through the park is a beautiful, laid back type of ride that runs along the main road of the park (Wilderness Park Drive). Parts of it hug the Lake Michigan shore, with great views of the Lake and the Bridge. There are small beaches along the way. Other parts are entirely wooded and you can smell the pines and cedar while you ride.


We came across a very large boulder that the sign states was transported there by a glacier during the last ice age. There are also a number of hiking trails that you can take. We biked the entire length of Wilderness Park Drive, about 15 miles from Mackinaw City. The Drive ends at a hiking path that goes out to Waugoshance Point. We followed the trail, marked by rock piles as far as we could, about a mile. We're pretty sure we didn't reach Waugoshance Point, but we did find an end to the trail. At least, for us it was since we didn't have wading boots with us (how neglectful of us to leave those back on Meridian).

We're still on the lookout for the elusive Michigan Moose. We didn't see one on this bike trip. But we did find this cute little frog who gladly posed for us.

Mackinaw City, Michigan

Somewhere in the short span from St. Ignace, Michigan to Mackinaw City, Michigan, the weather changed from overcast and cool back to sunny, clear and warm. At least for a little while.

Mackinaw City is the most "touristy" of the ports we've been in so far. We think that's because it is more the "jumping off" point to Mackinac Island than a specific destination. But it does have some fun things to do, which is good because there's barely any internet service.

Oh, by the way, we're skipping Mackinac Island on this trip. They closed the Mackinac Island Marina the day after Labor Day (except for a few boats that had prior reservations) to start a $5 million renovation project that is expected to be completed by next May. They aren't adding any slips but they are supposed to be re-doing the marina buildings, services, grounds, and switching to floating docks.

Fudge is available from almost every store here (as are T-Shirts and Bridge souvenirs). Ice cream is available at some of the places (we liked the ice cream at Joann's). But Mackinaw City has the one of best old-fashioned bakeries that we've encountered. The Mackinaw Bakery and Coffee Shop has fresh baked goodies every day. Our favorites were the Buttermilk Sticks, Peanut Caramel Swirls, and the Blueberry Pie Sticks. YUMMM! There is also a very accommodating bookstore - Island Bookstore. When we were here for the Bridge Walk (and no one here really believes there were only 57,000 people either), we had cinnamon rolls from Audie's Chippewa Room, so we went back there for dinner one evening.

Mackinaw City also has a good marine service place and ship store. Shepler's also runs the ferry service to Mackinac Island. They were having an "end-of-season" sale that we took advantage up. In particular, we bought the Richardson Guide, Port of Call and Navigational Charts for Lake Huron. This will let us work on next year's trip over the loonnnnngggggg winter. Phil stocked up on some spare parts for Meridian as well. Sheplers also does marine storage and they were doing quite the busy business while we were there. People up here seem to put their boats away right after Labor Day. We're not sure if they do boat sales but we did find our next cruiser in the marina area. It's even decked out with the appropriate flag. We just haven't figured out where we'll put the bicycles.

We hadn't initially planned to stay over on Friday, September 7. But a weather front moved through on Friday. This created some cool clouds and some pretty gusty winds and rain. The waves were over ten feet high out in the middle of the straits. On the plus side, though, it gave us a reason to stay over and attend the Mackinaw City Hopps of Fun Fest. The Hopps Fest (Bernie kept calling it Hoops Fest even though it had nothing to do with basketball) featured beer and wine tastings from Michigan (and vicinity) Breweries and Wineries. Although the rain and wind (notice how this table cloth is blowing around inside the tent) caused all of Mackinaw City - including the marina - to lose electricity, the Hopps Fest went on. It's nice to see a town with its priorities in order.