Tour 26: Five days of Michigan

Losing track…

At this point I’ve been gone since June 14th, so it’s been exactly a month on the road. This was initially supposed to only take approximately 30 days with 25 days of riding and around 5 days of rest. But plans are always subject to change and an itinerary is a guide, not a true day by day pacing guide. Part of that is that I underestimated the actual distances. My initial plan put this route around 1800 miles, but in actuality when the day by day routing is done it will end up being around 2400 miles. I have around 650 left to go.

Holy Toledo… and beyond.

The day after Sandusky put me just shy of Toledo, OH and two riding days from a planned rest with the sister of one of my wife’s parrishoners north of Lansing. The route below is the basic track. If I was exceptionally ambitious I might have been able to accomplish it in a day, but it would have been both horrible and breaking. So I opted to break it into two managable chunks. Toledo to Ann Arbor, and then Ann Arbor to Laingsburg.

As I’ve been going through different cities I’ve been keeping a mental tally of which ones have decent bicycle infrastructure and which are terrible. Buffalo was dreadful. Cleveland was generally good but construction and confusion, with poorly defined bike lanes made it less than perfect.

If I had to rate both, Buffalo would get a solid D. It’s not failing because there are defined bike paths, but they are a minefield I've discussed before.

Cleveland would probably get a B. They’re doing things, but bike lanes still mysteriously disappear or force you to cross 8 lanes to get back to cycling infrastructure.

Toledo was probably a B as well. It had better overall cycling infrastructure, but it was less continuous than Cleveland, often forcing me from a bike line into a shared lane without warning. Or necking the bike lane out of existence over a bridge.

That said, the drivers were quite respectful. I even had a conversation with a driver about her music when we were both stopped at a light. I never felt unsafe, but I didn’t feel considered to the same level.

Putting things in perspective, my own home town of Winston-Salem gets an F- for cycling infrastructure. There are a few disconnected greenwys and then the rest is a madmax free for all with zero consideration for anything but cars.

Like most cities, Toledo slowed me down, but it wasn't longer than an hour and I was through, spilling back out onto the familiar flat, fecund farmland (I don’t use alliteration often but when I do it’s very annoying.)

It was another damp but generally bearable day in the mid 80s. I had been thrown onto country roads with no real shoulder to speak of, but the general lack of traffic and long sightlines made this a non issue. People could see me blinking from probably a mile off.

The only time I felt unsafe was when I was forced to make a detour to get some sunglasses because the light color of the road was blinding in the harsh sunlight. The quickest way to return back to the allotted “safe” path was to take a local highway. In town it had a decent shoulder, but shortly after the shoulder all but disappeared.

I didn’t feel great about trying to take some of all of the lane given the amount and speed of the traffic. So I took the grass verge. I was surprised with how well my bike handled it. I guess I shouldn’t be given the fact that it has 4in tires. But making 17mph over grass ain't bad. The mile and a half to the turn back to the path went by quickly.

I kept spotting the familiar Chickory on the side of the road. If Red-winged blackbirds were the mascot of my travels last year, chickory definitely gets that spot this year. Though the familiar deep indigo to light blue blooms had strangely started to show some random lavender and even white blooms. I saw more than a few plants that had all blue flowers and then a single stark white flower.

Apparently this is a quirk of chickory, certain populations have mutated alleles that give rise to stark white or even pink blooms.

I had also noted that early in the morning that chickory blooms tend to start as a near indigo or what I called “nuclear blue” as I biked by, but then later in the day they would have faded to a pastel.

This is similar to the reason why hydrangeas can be different colors: the blue pigment is reactive with the slow buildup of acidic compounds over the course of the day, fading its blue color as pH in the petals shift from a slightly basic to a slightly acidic over the course of the day. This is driven by their own cellular machinery using up ATP to move water into and out of the vacuole (water bubble) at the center of their cells. As the day progresses more of the acidic byproducts of that ATP use build up, causing the degradation of the blue coloration. During the night cycle those compounds are fully regenerated because the reverse reaction dominates, making the cells more basic.

Science. I haven’t looked into it but I’m betting there is some cool band gap chemistry involved there, I just don’t want to turn this into a textbook entry.

Getting to Ann Arbor wasn’t difficult. In fact on this particular day, for whatever reason, I felt particularly powerful. I was frequently going 20-24mph up significant inclines. When I ran the numbers later that evening they showed me operating about 30% stronger than when I started the tour, but at 10-20bpm lower of a heart rate.

In fact that’s been an ongoing issue for me. I’ve been tracking my calories, except because my heart rate has dropped so considerably during activity my Garmin watch thinks I’m doing low level activities when I’m throwing out 200w+. So it estimates my calorie burn at about half of what is actually occuring. On most days this leaves me in a 1500-2500 calorie deficit.

Ann Arbor

Sixty or so miles outside of Toledo I hit the outskirts of Ann Arbor and settled down for the evening.

The next morning I had to tackle the city itself.

As I entered the city it seemed as though every turn I took I was greeted with another “road closed” sign.

Navigating through the city center took far longer than it should because the detour of the detour would have its own detour. It felt like some cosmic prank. But it did push me through some of the neighborhoods adjacent to the university.

Overall though, Ann Arbor was lovely. Every avenue was full of trees. Many had divided cycleways which are the gold standard. Apart from the confusing construction Ann Arbor was clearly not just trying, but highly successful in making their city accessible to pedestrians and cyclists.

As a result I was quickly though and felt like the day itself would be good. I was just to follow rural roads out of town and through some small communities all day long, following the grid roughly northward and slightly westward all day.

Early in the day I stopped for an excellent late breakfast of eggs and authentic corned beef hash.

After leaving the small town I was in I started to notice what to me was a comical sight:

Every curve, regardless how gentle it is in Michigan seems to have an attendant sign, letting people know that yes, they will indeed need to actually turn the wheel.

Here in NC we absolutely have these sorts of indictators, but they are almost always on a curve in which you would need to significantly slow down to safely proceed around.

After laboring on the backroads for around two hours I was put onto a rail trail that cut directly northward toward Lansing.

It cut its way through the flat farmlands of central Michigan. Often times these fields were closed in on three sides by dense woods or windbreaks, but equally often there would be the sorts of expansive fields I was used to from North Dakota.

Much of Michigan is dotted by lakes and marshlands. Perfect habitat for Sandhill Cranes during their migratory season.

Or Turkeys for that matter. I actually saw a gaggle of turkey toms just outside of Toledo in an industrial yard just standing around like a group of old men in a parking lot talking about the weather.

While on the trail yesterday I actually saw Turkey chicks following behind their mother. They were too quick to get a snap of though.

It was genuinely a beautiful ride through the soy, corn, and wheatfield country. The joys of touring had fully returned to me. Things weren’t perfect, but they were good.

Ending the day around Laingsburg took me through portions where trees densely hung over the roadway, interspersed by smaller family farms and houses.

At around 5pm I made it to my destination where Donna, my host for two nights received me.

As I have in the past, I’ll withold the things we spoke about because that was our time. However, Donna was more than gracious and hospitable. I very much felt like college aged teen returning home and being received like the prodigal son.

It was a wonderful two nights and a day of rest in her care.

Filled with as much protein and fruit as she could stuff into me (as if I would refuse!), I left out on Monday to oppressive heat and a long drive to the outskirts of Grand Rapids.

I was in the spirit to take more photographs but I quickly became consumed with making miles before the heat of the day really ramped up.

Though after joining a similar rail trail I came across a strange scene:

I had to divert around what looked to be a burnt down caboose at the local park and small train museum.

The rest of the day was largely unspectacular. Not ugly, but nothing particularly new. I spent most of my day travelling down an endless tunnel of green on the rail trail. At least until I reached the outskirts of Grand rapids. Again I was greeted by a fairly robust system of bike trails that mostly got me to where I needed to get. There were some places where the infrastructure disappeared in dangerous locations, or forced me again, across an 8 lane roadway at my own hazard. But with the light and my power failing, I finally made the 85ish miles to my destination.

At my endpoint I enjoyed a much needed supper of tostadas.

A drive to Muskegon and the ferry to Milwaukee:

Today — yes, I’m actually caught up — I started out my day at around 7:30am in an attempt to make it to Muskegon by 12:30pm for the ferry that I would need to take.

I had strategically planned my endpoint the night before to immediately put me back on the rail trail that went directly, diagonally towards Muskegon from Grand Rapids. After about 5 miles it straightened out into a nearly unbroken line of smooth asphalt.

Nearly.

Words came out of my mouth I’m not proud of when I saw this sign. I could not afford to take the North-South-East-West roads that crisscrossed the terrain. It would add tens of miles to my journey and put me significantly behind.

So once again, I became a scofflaw.

Diverting around the sign I was on flat asphalt for miles. Other signs would pop up but they were just as easily avoided.

Then I saw them: Two men standing in the Trailway up ahead looking official.

I rolled up to them and they seemed to not even note me. I directly asked if it was OK to use the trail and they basically said yes but there might be some bridges out ahead, so I would need to detour in places.

That indeed did happen not two miles down the road. But quizzically I saw pedestrians somehow threading their way through the obstructions. I wasn’t brave enough to forge through and the detour wasn’t that difficult.

Perhaps an extra mile and I was back on the trail itself. I made another five or so miles before my next challenge. The resurfacing was now an active project and I met a mountain of gravel that I had to portage around.

At the next crossing I was greeted by another closed bridge. It required a quick detour into a small town which gave the opportunity to hit up the local Dollar General for what I will now call “Fart fuel”.

What’s that? Oh, I’ve been battling with the absolute worst gas all tour long. It took me a while to figure out what the common denominator was. But then it was clear that the Natures Own protein bars I was using for one of my two main snacks was impregnating me with demonic forces. Genuinely. So. Much. Gas.

But they have extra protein, and I can get three boxes for cheap… sooooooo… fire in the hole.

Once around this last diversion I was back on the trail, except I noted this sign.

I own a “class 2” ebike, but I don’t use throttle. My bike responds directly to the force with which I pedal. So even though I was technically violating the law, I doubt if someone official saw me that they would bat an eye my way. Hopefully.

I’m not going to go into what the different classes mean other than “more faster” is really all you need to know.

After a brief jaunt through the outskirts of Muskegon I was spilled out onto the bay area.

Right now I am sitting in the terminal for the ferry. I didn’t miss the 12:30pm ferry. It didn’t exist. The 12:30 ferry is for the other side. My ferry is for 4:30.

It will save me hundreds of detour miles but holy moly is this thing expensive. $170 for me and the bike.

As I sit here it’s literally about to arrive. So I think I’ll conclude another update. I expect I’ll have some interesting pictures for the next.

ONWARD TO MILWAUKEE!!!

Home stretch!