Riders Block X

DAY 10

Petoskey, MI to Land O’ Lakes, WI

330 miles

 

Most of my days on the road have started out the same: the day looks gray and cloudy, as if the sky will open up at any moment and unleash on me, but then the clouds leave and the sun comes out and it is brutally hot.  Today is no exception.  After the downpour last night, I am hesitant about the weather and leave at a quarter ‘til eight in order to get a good jump on my long ride, and I start to head up the coast towards the Upper Peninsula.  After about forty minutes I reach the six-mile-long Mackinac Bridge that connects the two Michigan peninsulas, which are separated by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  The bridge rises so far above sea level that looking down on the water can give you acrophobia.  The sky is dark and cloudy but there are a few breaks in the seemingly endless cloud cover, and the sun shines brightly through them.  On the Lake Huron side, the light breaking through the clouds shimmers in a perfect circle on the dark blue water and looks as if heaven is casting its brilliant light down on the earth.

Route 2, which starts in the UP and runs all the way to Washington state, runs mostly along the shore and at some points the water is so close it looks like the waves will crash right up on the road.  Along the road there are several places to pull over and swim, but the weather is still grey so I continue up 77 to 28 through the interior.  The roads through the center of the UP pass through national and state forests and government protected wetlands.  The road is flat and straight and pine trees seem to lean in over the pavement. Several huge skeletons of  burned-out train cars sit along the train tracks that run parallel with the road.  After Munsing, the road joins the northern shore and the clouds evaporate and the sun begins its relentless assault on my skin.  At a deserted public beach just off the road, I stop and I sit on the sand for a while, getting as hot as I can.  The waters of Lake Superior are clear blue but prove to be freezing once I jump in.  I can only swim for a minute or two before the water temperature drives me to the shore.

I stop again to swim in Harvey but the beach is rockier than I anticipate and I almost spill onto the slippery rocks while trying to get in the water.  I force myself to stay down in the chilly liquid, knowing it will help me stay cool on this hot day, and I manage to stay submerged for almost five minutes.  I stop in Marquette, which is built on the hills overlooking the lake, and have lunch at an Irish pub called the Wild Rover.  I eat a cup of cabbage soup and an entire chicken potpie while sitting outside in the sun.  I get some coffee before I skip out of town and then continue down route 28 into the Ottawa State Forest.  I spend the rest of my trip driving on long stretches of road through forest only to see the trees break for a bit as I pass through what passes for a town, a collection of a gas station and a few businesses, and then am plunged back into the wilderness.

I hit central time about an hour before I cross the border into Wisconsin and when I arrive at my cousin’s place in Land O’ Lakes, it is only two thirty.  My cousin Chris and her husband Dave have a cabin in the northern woods of Wisconsin.  As the name of the town would suggest, the area is an enormous collection of lakes, all linked by small channels, rivers and other waterways.  The area is called Sand Country because the soil there so devoid of nutrients that nothing grows except wild grasses and trees and if you want a garden or grass in your yard, you have to ship in topsoil.  The area is also the snowmobile capital of the world and the trails run through the woods for miles up into the UP and all over northern Wisconsin.  Chris and Dave’s house is a beautiful mahogany color and built entirely out of the trees that were cut down to make room for the house.  Their yard is mostly sand with weeds poking up but they have a deck and a fire pit with benches crafted out of logs and stumps.

We meet up with the gentleman who built the house and his wife and go with his kids out in a pontoon boat on Mamie Lake.  We cruise around the lake for a while, drinking and hanging out.  Bald eagles fly over the trees on the river’s edge and we see an enormous, one-thousand pound nest with a young eagle sitting on a branch below it, his head still brown, not yet bald.  I jump in at the middle of the lake and am pleasantly surprised that the water is about twenty degrees warmer than Lake Superior.  Al Weber, the homebuilder and captain, is very friendly and he and his whole family likes to drink and just hang out.  Every time we stopped at their house or at a bar they wanted us to come and have a drink and everyone in their family speaks with the delightful Minnesota accent.  After a three hour cruise we finally go back to the cabin and start dinner.  Chris has a new recipe for Beer Can chicken where you put a whole chicken on the grill and still a half-full can of beer up his ass and let the beer steam the chicken from the inside.  The chicken takes about two hours to cook but is very tender and delicious when it is done.

We stay up late, sitting around a fire and drinking.  Dave smokes cigarette after cigarette and tends to the fire.  I eventually crash around one as it has been a long day and sleep soundly until morning.