From: gross@frith.msu.edu (Steve Gross)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.rides
Subject: TOUR: Lansing, MI to Muskegon, MI and back
Date: 25 Aug 92 20:19:35 GMT
Organization: Michigan State University, College of Engineering, East Lansing
Originator: gross@frith.egr.msu.edu


    Last week, my wife and I rode our bikes the 350 miles from Lansing,
MI to Muskegon, MI and back.  I had promised a trip report to some net.
people, so here it is:

    Pre-history of ride:  After querying the net and receiving much 
advice regarding touring bikes, my wife and I each bought Trek 520s.
We are very happy with the bikes, less happy with the bike shop. 
Before we left, my wife's bike was back in the shop 3 times: once for a
loose fixed cup on the bottom bracket, once for a noisy pedal, and once
because the *&%# Hype-glide chain BENT after a (barely) missed shift.
She didn't even scratch the paint! 

    Saturday, 15 August:  We packed, cleaned the house in preparation
for our house-sitter, packed some more, test-loaded everything on the
bikes, and tried to go to bed early.  Memorable packing quote (me to my
wife): "Don't bring all those extra maps, they weigh too much.  My maps
are perfectly good."  

    Sunday, 16 August:  We were up early, but we didn't get out of the
house until 10AM.  After only minor hassles getting out of town, we
ended up in beautiful farmland on a smooth, wide road.  The temperature
was about 73 degrees F, the wind was minimal, and the riding was
glorious, until..."Hey Steve, your 'perfectly good' maps don't show
which roads are paved and which aren't!"  Three miles of gravel later...
pavement again!  The Treks handled well on the gravel, but it was slow
going because we pack more than Jobst does.  A lot more.  But, as soon
became apparent, still not quite enough.

    Our only negative encounter with a motorist was when one asked us
for directions and then refused to believe that she had made a wrong
turn and gone 20 miles in the wrong direction.  This was startling in
itself because she was on a three mile trip (a three mile trip...).

    After 60 miles, we arrived at Yankee Springs State Park and found a
nice campsite.  Then we found the beach.  Then we cooked dinner for the
only time on our trip.  Then night fell, and we went to sleep.  Then it
got rather cold, and we woke up again and realized that we should have
packed more than one sleeping bag.  Of course, there wasn't room for
more than one sleeping bag, or we would have brought two in the first
place.  Quite a dilemma! 

    Monday, 17 August:  We were up early, but didn't get out of the
campsite until 9:30AM because of the thick fog which descended upon us
in the night.  After a nice breakfast, we headed off toward Lake
Michigan.  The roads were less smooth and less wide, but the scenery was
again great.  Rolling hills, a light headwind, and frequent stops kept
our average speed down but our average enjoyment was quite high.  

    We hit Holland (a mostly "tourist" town right on the shore of Lake
Michigan) after about 45 miles, and stopped off at the local
camping supply store to buy 2 Therm-A-Rest mattresses, which handily
solved our sleeping bag problem.  We ate dinner at a reasonably nice 
restaurant, the 8th Street Grille.  They had a really good soup bar.
Our campsite was 5 miles out of Holland, and a bike-path looking thing 
went from downtown to the State Park.  I say "bike-path looking thing" 
because it was completely unlabelled, but appeared to be an asphalt
bike path.  We rode on it for a while (because the road to the State
Park was very busy), but were totally unimpressed.  As others have
said, bike paths don't seem to work.  Far too many motorists turned off 
from the busy road and crossed the bike path at 45 MPH.  

    After a brisk, cold swim in Lake Michigan, and two huge chocolate
brownie, fudge, and ice cream desserts, we returned to the campsite for
sleep.  Here we discovered the delights of the Therm-A-Rest pads.
Highly recommended.  

    Tuesday, 18 August:  We were up early, but didn't get out of the
campsite until 9:30AM because of the rain which descended upon us as we
awoke.  Once we ate tons of poppy-seed and lemon muffins, we were ready
to head out in the drizzle.  We headed out on the bike path along
Lakeshore, but abandoned it when it began to cross the street frequently
and without warning.  This caused us to incur the mild irritation of
several motorists, but when a passing police officer ignored us I felt
fully justified in staying on the road.  After all, has anyone ever done
something illegal in front of a police officer and not been stopped?  I
didn't think so.  

    We rolled into Grand Haven (another tourist town on Lake Michigan)
just as the rain subsided.  Well, we didn't want the anodizing on our
rims anyway!  It was here that I noticed that my wife's brakes were
adjusted improperly, so we took a beachside break and fixed them.  We
had lunch at the Natural Earth Cafe (huge vegetarian sandwiches), and
bought every pannier hook we could find in town.  Remember when they 
used to come with the racks?  We stopped at The Bicycle Shop, owned by
a 66-year-old Dutch guy, and chatted for an hour.  By the time we left,
the clouds were completely gone.

    On to Muskegon (an industrial town on Lake Michigan), where my
wife's parents live.  They provided a nice bed, dinner, and a washer and
dryer.  Then, back out to the bar with some friends!  A short, 40 mile
day.

    Wednesday, 19 August:  We weren't up quite so early, and didn't get
on the road until 10:30AM.  We had to slog through Muskegon, but the
riding north of Muskegon was good, except for the headwind.  

    We stopped in Montague (an industrial town on polluted White Lake),
where we visited with another friend in his bike shop, The Bicycle
Depot, located at one end of the Hart-Montague bicycle trail, which is a
converted railroad track.  He pointed us to a good bar, where we had 
gigantic dinners and lots of beer.  

    We were still an hour from our campsite, but we changed directions,
converting our headwind into a sidewind.  We arrived in time for a
brief, cold swim.  Then, more food and sleep!

    Thursday, 20 August:  We slept in, because when we first woke up, my
wife said "It's nasty cold" and refused to do anything except go back to
sleep.  When we did wake up, the trucker who was camping next to us
offered us coffee, which I couldn't refuse.  We ended up talking with
him until about 1PM, when we decided we had to leave, or we wouldn't get
anywhere that day.  It was about 75 degrees F by then, so off we went.

    We had a rather uneventful ride to Cedar Springs, about 60 miles
away.  There was a tailwind, so we hit camp by 6:30PM, set up, and
headed out to get pizza.  We were going to go to a pizza restaurant, but
some Harley riders saw us and pointed out that the bar next to the pizza
restaurant also served the same pizza.  And amazing pizza it was!  The
Harley riders seemed to consider us as some kind of brothers in spirit. 
Admittedly, much younger, somewhat retarded brothers, but brothers
nonetheless.  

    Friday, 21 August:  We awoke early and ate quickly, intending to get
an early start.  Of course, the effort was doomed.  This was to be our
longest day, and it proved to be our fastest day as well.  We had 80
miles to go until St. Johns (a small town very near home), and it was
about 80-85 degrees all day.  We were somewhat plagued by construction
and closed roads, but fortunately we were warned in advance by some
passers-by and made plans accordingly.  

    We had some difficulties finding pavement on our new route (the maps
my wife got to augment my map tended to lie about things like pavement),
but we always found someone to ask for advice.  About 6 miles out of St.
Johns, when the pavement gave out again, we ran into a farmer driving
his tractor down the dirt road.  He stopped and proposed what proved to
be a reasonable route into town.  Everyone we saw wanted to know what we
were doing, and why, and how well it was going.  We could have talked
with some people all day!  The farmer offered to let us sleep at his
place if we didn't want to go into town, but we had already made plans
to stay at a friend's bed and breakfast, so we had to decline.  

    When we got to St. Johns, we headed for the Classic Bed and
Breakfast, an old Victorian house with period furniture.  Our friend was
out to dinner, but she had left us a key.  We were afraid to go in!  We
had never gone to this B&B unshowered before.  However, in we went and 
straight for the shower.  We ate on the beautiful front porch, and
had a nice chat with our hostess when she arrived.  She was on her way
to Mackinac Island with the Michigan Honda Goldwing Riders' Association.
They were leaving at midnight, so we bid her farewell and went to sleep.

    Saturday, 22 August: We awoke early but had a leisurely breakfast on
the front porch.  We were only 20 miles from home, so we weren't in a
hurry.  After breakfast, though, we were off, and home shortly after
noon.  

    All in all, it was a good week.