Traverse City really is a small city. It has the feeling of a resort area and also sort of a college town. There are lots of young people around, lots of runners, lots of bike trails. We had one of the best dinners of the trip at Poppycock. The soups were especially good.
This morning we felt lucky to have explored enough to find possible bike trails to get us to our first turn; our road out of town is NOT a bicycle-friendly choice. Two lanes, plenty of fast traffic, no shoulder or parking space. By the way, this has nothing to do with Adventure Cycling. We wanted to stick to the lake shore for a couple of extra days, so we had to find our way back to the official route ourselves. I am obviously not ready to get into the bike map business.
So, on the path for a short distance, then back on the road after the first turn. Not a happy place. We tried heading west a block to find a parallel street. Great, except the parallel street ended in one block. Several more blocks west found us a road with an official bike route sign which got us maybe a quarter mile, then dumped us off on a path which was? was not? was? no, definitely was not paved. So we took it, for another quarter mile or so until it ended at a big, busy road with no signs telling us where we were. Sigh. Our road turned out to be close, but still to be busy and shoulder-free. We tried briefly, then spotted a bike path on the other side of the road & managed to get to without dying. And so on. The first twelve miles or so took all our attention and were not fun.
The next fifteen or so were ordinary. They offered plenty of places to find food and nice people and some attractive farms. There have been fruit stands all over for a couple of days, and their big crop right now is cherries, my favorite.
The second half of the day has been in Manistee National Forest land, lovely and peaceful. Most of it is pine woods, but there were some deciduous areas about knee-deep in ferns. Just about ideal riding. We arrived at our night's destination at 3:00. Bruce is napping outside. On a picnic table.
We are in a log cabin with musty old chairs & beds scattered all over it. The Little Manistee River is about fifteen feet away. The insects are buzzing, the trees are still. It's a perfect summer afternoon.
Miles today: 59
Total miles so far: 3080
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