Northern Michigan and Mackinac Island

Northern Michigan offers beautiful biking. Our ride from Houghton lake took us around shoreline of that lake and neighboring Higgins Lake, both small but populous communities of year-round and part time residents. The lakes were pretty, but nothing compared to the great lakes as I would soon find out.

That night we stayed in Gaylord, a small village known for its alpine style of architecture. We stayed with Joe W. and his wife Jeannine, who generously took us in with less than an days notice. They were incredibly kind people who Jared deeply about their community. Joe took us around town and seemed to know everyone. He served as a councilman for the city for over 20 years, and still organizes community potlucks every Friday night. They are a model for what it really means to live in a way that builds community and supports those around you.

Gaylord also has a 50 acre elk preserve in the town, and because of his years on the council Joe has a key to it. He actually took us on a bike ride through the elk preserve! It was neat to see them up close- a very different experience from seeing them in the wilds of PA.

Yesterday was our last day riding on the Michigan mainland. There is a bike trail that goes exactly from Gaylord to Mackinaw City, so even though we knew the surface would be hard packed gravel and not pavement we decided to take it. Although the scenery from the path was great- we went through dense forest, towns, swamplands, and alongside rivers- during our breaks we both acknowledged that it required much more energy to pedal. It also tore up my rode tires quite a bit, so much that I had to duct tape them at certain spots. I think they should be fine until Minneapolis, where there will be dependable bike shops to get them replaced or where I can receive new tires shipped from home.

We ate lunch at a picnic table on the shore of Mullett lake. At lunch a guy who was really interested in our trip was talking to us and telling us about his favorite foods to eat while biking: bananas and tuna fish. When he went to pick up a pizza pie he had ordered for him and his family be picked us up a few cans of tuna- very sweet except Zo is a vegetarian and I'm not a huge tuna fan. But its the gesture that counts! I went swimming after lunch and Zo dipped her feet in, as the water was a bit cold. It is only June after all.

We got off the bike path after realizing the damage the gravel was doing. We took mostly, back roads to our campsite. Maybe its because i knew it was there, but somehow i could feel the lakes getting closer. It seemed like we were high up and the land sort of dropped off into the lakes. The last road we went on before reaching the shore line was indeed a steep downhill. We arrived at our campsite, set up camp and then walked up to lake Huron, gazing out to Bois Blanc Island and the Mackinaw Bridge. The great lakes are really something else, oceanic, vast and stunning.

The next morning we woke up to the sound of rain tapping on our tent. It is such a distinctive and calming sound as long as you are dry on the inside, which we were thankfully.  We called Susan, Zoeys mom for the weather forecast since our phones didn't have internet service.  It was supposed to clear up later which was great news as we planned to spend the day exploring Mackinac Island.  We packed up our bikes and biked a few miles to the ferry docks.  The ferry tickets weren't cheap by any means, but the Island was worth it
  It is a spectacular island! There is so much breathtaking natural beauty and miles of public seashore.  The water was too cold to swim but it was enough dipping our feet in and looking out.  Every view was picture worthy.

Another great part about the island is its no cars policy. There are only bikes and horses.  We rode an 8 mile loop around the island, and I was really able to notice the different road culture bikers create sharing the road.  When we pass each other we wave, nod, smile, say hi or in some way acknowledge each other as human beings.  It is a wonderful thing to see everyone smiling as they ride, enjoying a gorgeous day in a gorgeous place.  On the downside, it is really too bad that the island has become such a touristy spot. Everything is very expensive and there is really no way to come here and do it cheaply.  There is no camping on the island, so if you want to stay over you must pay for a motel or bed and breakfast, which we did. We would have stayed on the UP tonight but we have to pick up mail tomorrow from the post office here and today was Sunday.

Tomorrow we will start our ride through the UP, hopefully reaching Minneapolis by the fourth of July.  I am excited to experience true wilderness! It may be a while before my next post as we are camping for at least a week straight and I am not sure about cell phone reception.

The Many Faces of Michigan

It has been a hectic past few days.  Ever since our 100 mile day on 5 hours of sleep we have been perpetually tired.  The terrain has been flatter so our days have been longer, and we find ourselves struggling to stay awake past 10:30pm and barely able to get out of bed in the morning.  Nevertheless, we have made it to our destinations some way or another each night.  So far we have completed 940 miles on our trip over 18 days, including 2 rest days.  I'm not sure exactly, but I think we are about 1/5 done with our trip.

Michigan is beautiful.  It has a little bit of everything: farms, forests, hills, lakes, cities, shorelines, islands, wilderness, wealth, poverty, industry, former-industry, and everything in between.  The biking has for the most part been flat and easy, with some rolling hills interspersed.  Maybe it is because the hills are shorter and more gradual, or maybe it is because I am more in shape, but I can now go up hills without changing gears and at a much faster pace.  It is a great feeling to see your abilities improve as you work hard each day!

On Monday we crossed into Michigan- we were on a residential street in a suburb of Toledo, so there was no grand "Welcome to Michigan!" sign like the tourist in me had hoped.  The day was flat and the scenery enjoyable, until the sky became unusually dark.  I didn't think twice about it, but as we were heading north towards Dundee, MI, a man in a pickup slowed down and told me that there were tornado warnings in the area and we should get off the road immediately.  Once Zoey caught up to me, I relayed the news, and she did not seem surprised.  From going to school in the midwest she has seen skies like this before and knew that they mainly result in huge thunder and lightning storms.  So we turned around swiftly and biked back less than a mile until we found a commercial building, and we went inside and asked if we could wait out the rain.  It was a wholesale auto parts company, and they graciously let us stay.  And then it started- thunder, lightning, and sheets of rain.  We waited for over an hour, munching on trail mix while we kept checking the weather on my phone.  We finally left around 3 pm, with a lot of miles left to go until Ann Arbor.  We arrived in the city around 7:30pm via a bike path.  Our welcome sign was the large blue and yellow "M" outside the football stadium.  We had a few errands to run in the city- we picked up more stove fuel at REI in anticipation of our time in the UP, and bought granola bars and trail mix at whole foods.  In Ann Arbor we stayed with Clarissa F. and her boyfriend Conrad.  They both went to Oberlin and I know Clarissa from playing soccer with her for many years in NYC.  We ate burritos, crashed on the floor of their apartment and ate dumpster oatmeal for breakfast.  They were awesome to hang out with and we had a lot of fun biking around the city with Clarissa looking for a place to eat that was open after 9pm.  Ann Arbor was very cute, and was an awesome college town.  It had a bustling main street with lots of shops and restaurants, and college kids biking and walking everywhere.  I could tell I felt very comfortable there.  It was one type of city I am very used to, compared to the types of cities we would see over the next few days.

Tuesday was hot.  95+ degrees, and we got a late start.  We didn't drink enough water and I felt like I was melting.  It also had rolling hills, which wouldn't be that bad on a normal day but were too much for us to handle in the heat.  We made it to Felton by 4, which is a wealthier suburb 15 or so miles south of Flint.  We stopped to refill water, and gave Cade, our couchsurfing host, a call.  We told him how we were feeling and that we probably wouldn't make it without a cab.  He paused for a moment, and then proposed that he give his roommate Devin a call.  Devin works in Fenton and was able to give us a ride to Flint on the way back from work.  It was perfect timing and we were so appreciative.
Flint has been my favorite place to visit so far because I found its story unbelievably interesting.  On our drive up Devin started telling us a bit about Flint history- which is intertwined with the company policies and decisions of General Motors.  A city that was once 200,000 people strong in the 40's, 50's and 60's is down to less than 100,000 now.  At its peak GM employed 80,000 people (almost half the city) and now it employs 8,000.  The city has been run down since the 70's when GM left and took its jobs overseas.  I have so much to say about it, especially after seeing so much from Cade's awesome walking tour.  Cade is studying urban planning at U of M- Flint and is working through Ameri-corps at a non-profit in Flint that is trying to revitalize the park in downtown.  He was a perfect host for us, and despite all the bad things that had happened to the city, had a very hopeful outlook on the future.

Flint is a prime example of what happens when a city exists on a homogenous economy.  Everything was GM- the jobs that they didn't provide directly were jobs that existed to to serve the population that was employed by them.  They funded the city in so many ways.  Walking down Main Street I can envision Flint 50 years ago with a bursting downtown set back from the looming assembly plants.  As Cade explained, GM had such an influence that the city turned a blind  eye to all the pollution and detriment they did to the city while they were here.  They did not clean up after they left either.  They tore down all the buildings and left the sites to deteriorate, just miles and miles of concrete slabs called brownsites.  The largest brownsite is the old Buick plant, 3 miles out of town.  The one we saw is an old Chevy plant that is nicknamed "Chevy in the Hole".  It is next to the Flint River and is literally a huge concrete wasteland with toxic soil beneath it.  These sites really represent the downturn of the city- a place left to die once its use was done, with no consideration for the people and their quality of life.  The city has gotten funding recently to plant fast growing trees that absorb many of the toxins in the soil, which is a cheap way to hopefully clean up some of the pollution at these sites so they can be used again.

The Juneteenth Festival was going on in downtown when we were there- it is actually one of the largest in the country.  There was a live singer and at several hundred people watching.  The park it was in is the one Cade is working on revitalizing; It was built in the 70's just as GM was leaving as a way to bring the city back to life.  The whole park is an elaborate sculpture with fountains and channels built in to direct the river flow between pathways.  Unfortunately, the dam is keeping the river too low, so the channels have become marshes. The fountain is too expensive to run all the time so it is only on one or two times a year.  The rest of the time it looks like a giant concrete art installment that takes a certain type of person to appreciate.  The city had so many buildings, yet so many were empty.  The streets were pretty empty too.  Cade was saying Flint is like detroit but on a much smaller scale.  I can't even imagine.

On the other hand, places like flint and detroit provide an amazing opportunity.  The real estate is dirt cheap, and it is a place even low income people (like college students) can afford to own a nice home.  If younger people start moving in and starting businesses the city can rebuild.  U of M- Flint, has been a commuter school since it began.  Recently, however, they built their first dorm.  A private company converted a hotel into more dorms.  During the year those dorms are full of students, which has brought more life to downtown.  The college will be a big part of the revitalization of Flint. 
People always ask us why we are doing this trip.  Our usual answer is simply that we wanted to get out of the bubble we created for ourselves and see the country.  We want to really see the country, in all its fame and desperation, and that is why we went through flint.  Flint is America as much as New York is.  I'm really glad I saw it.

Next we rode to Midland, an equally hot day but much better planned on our part.  We started earlier, took more breaks and drank more water.  Also, the headwinds saved us.  Whenever we rode west we had a constant fan blowing in our faces.

Midland is exactly like Flint was in its glory days.  The city is h ome to DOW Chemical, the largest chemical company in the US.  Everything is funded or connected to DOW in some way- the parks were funded by the company, the buildings were designed by H.H.Dow's son, the Dow family gardens are open to the pubic, the museum, the jobs, the high schools.  The city wouldn't exist without it.  On our way in we rode past all the reactors- thousands of interwoven pipes and reactors, all kind of scary looking.  What does Dow Chemical make, we wondered.  The answer is everything.  Polymers.  All sorts of plastic that is used in everyday items.  They make the raw materials, so in that sense the industry is much more stable than the automotive industry.  We stayed with my friend Steven's family, Tracy and Fagen.  They are both chemists- Fagen works for Dow testing pestiside formulas and Tracy works for a foundation connected to Dow.  They cooked us a delicious meal of chinese and indian food and set up beds for us in the basement.  They gave us the grand tour of Midland, taking us downtown and to all the tourist spots.  They were outstanding hosts and such kind people.
 
Today we rode from Midland to Houghton Lake, another mostly flat day.  Our first 20 miles were on a cool bike path that went from Midland to Clare.  It was sunny but cool, for a change.  I ,sent  another 5 pounds worth of stuff home to lighten our load, and while we were at the post office it started down-pouring.  We started talking to a nice lady, Ann, who offered to treat us to lunch after hearing about our trip.  We declined unfortunately, as we were not done with half our day yet and we got a late start.  It rained for a bit but after it cleared up it was the most beautiful w eather i have seen yet.  Sunny and breezy, 75 degrees.  We rode on a rode through a gorgeous state park, staring up at the expansive blue sky.

We are staying with Arvid and Irena from couchsurfing tonight, and they live on the lake in a house they built all by themselves.  We have a whole apartment to ourselves!  Tomorrow we will bike by many more lakes on our way to Gaylord, MI.  In two days we will be in Mackinaw City, and then on to Mackinac Island and the UP, which everyone we talk to is raving about.  It should be an exciting week!

Wild lillies that are abundant on the side of the road in the midwest

Lillies Up Close

The Fountain in the Park in Flint

Zoey and Cade look towards the brownsite "Chevy in the Hole"

On the other side of the river is the brownsite "Chevy in the Hole"

The Sky starts to get dark before the tornado

The massive tornado rain

Ann Arbor and U of M

Zoey and I  in front of the first GM carriage factory in downtown Flint

The dam in Flint

3 point bridge and the midland waterfront park

Zoey, me, Tracy and Fagen in Midland

The beautiful sky

The sunset from Arvid and Irena's balcony over Houghton Lake

Milestones

I love that biking lets you get lost in your mind, thinking about everything and anything.  My thoughts are unrestrained and wandering.  I ideate, I sing, I process what I see, and I notice.  I love to notice.  Everything we pass has a story, a reason.  We will most likely never find out exactly, but we can guess and think about it.  I love the positivity this brings in, as there is hardly disgruntlement and lack of motivation.  Most of the time.

There is so much beauty in what's around us, and watching the land change is an amazing thing.  Zoey and I had an interesting conversation yesterday.  Objectively, she said, cornfields swaying in the wind have a tremendous amount of natural beauty.  But at the same time, she hates them for what they are- GMO monocultures eroding the soil and polluting our water.  If you separate their meaning from their aesthetics it is easy to find beauty in the sights.  I see this, but for me it is very hard to make that separation.

On Friday we biked 65 miles from Punderson State Park to Oberlin, over many hills.  Some of them were sizeable, even compared to what we saw in PA.  It was also very hot, and we were biking very slowly.  We spent much of the day going through extremely wealthy Cleveland suburbs like Chagrin Falls (which reminded me very much of Wellesley, MA where I go to school).  For lunch we asked a woman gardening if we could rest in the shade of her tree.  She obliged, and even brought us cold towels and water.  We were both extremely tired and lethargic, and napped for over an hour under her tree.  They were wonderful naps, but getting up afterward and climbing to the top of the hill she was on was challenging.  But then, once we got west of Cleveland, it flattened out.  Finally!

We came into Oberlin on the bike path, with Zoey leading the way and giving me a tour of all the places to eat dinner in downtown.  I jokingly said we could eat at all of them.  We ended up eating at two places, because one dinner was not enough.

We stayed with Zoeys friend Amanda and her housemates.  They were very much into farming and composting, and even had a worm bin in their kitchen!   They were really nice and fun to hang out with.  It was good timing that we came to Oberlin on a Friday night and were going to be there on Saturday for a rest day, because Saturday was a festival in Oberlin called Juneteenth.  Juneteenth marks the anniversary of emancipation, which was June 19th 1865.  The day included a parade, kickball games, local organizations tabling, and history tours of Oberlin.  I convinced Zoey to go with me on the tour, and it was fascinating!  We learned about Oberlin's participation in the Underground Railroad, and  how they entire town rallied to support and protect emancipated slaves who were threatened by slave catchers to return to slavery.  I love reading about the history of people and places, whether its through reading plaques or through talking to people.  It is cool to stumble upon towns that may look dead from the outside but have extremely vibrant histories.  For example, yesterday Zoey and I went through Milan, OH, which is the birthplace of Thomas Edison.  They have a little museum and town square, and invention themed shops.

In Oberlin we shopped at the farmers market and bought vegetables to cook dinner for the house.  It felt so good to actually cook again and have pots and tools at your disposal.  We ate a delicious meal on the porch of pasta, stir-fried vegetables and italian spiced beans.  Zoey's friend Ben ate with us and took us to the Oberlin bike co-op afterward to work on Zoey's bike.  We ended up replacing the stem with a shorter one(the joint that connects the handlebars to the frame) to make it so she didn't have to reach as far.  That went smoothly, but when I was putting her handlebar bag mount back on the bike I snapped one of the mounts.  For the next hour we had to put together a kluge solution to make a new one.  We ended up using a bent spoke that went around the handlebars.  It won't provide much structural support, but it will prevent the other mount from having too much torque applied.  We left the bike co-op around 11:30pm, just in time to get 5 hours of sleep for our century ride tomorrow.

We did it yesterday- our first and hopefully only 100 mile day.  It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done.  Around 80 miles was when I just wanted it to be over.  We were up when it was dark, and had done 20 miles before 9:00 am.  We rode through the pouring rain, the hot sun, headwinds and sandstorms.  We did about 20 miles total on bike paths, which were pretty and very fun to ride on.  We also rode a lot on township roads, which are narrow small roads that have almost no cars.  We passed by a lot of farms and ranch houses and endless fields of corn and soy.  We did our last 20 miles on a strip mall street that had car dealerships, fast food chains and other places like that.  I feel like I have seen streets like that a million times before, and it was extremely boring to bike on.  It made it that much harder to push thorough and finish.

We noticed how segregated Toledo was.  We biked through extremely poor parts where the roads were cut up and the streets spewed with glass.  Once we got out of town a bit to the villages on the western edge the streets had green islands in the middle, the houses looked like castles, the streets were smooth and the same bike path that had been rough a few blocks back was perfectly paved.

Part of me was nervous biking through the poorer neighborhoods, but then I realized- what are we really afraid of?  We have been so conditioned to fear poverty and unknown places that we are not able to think clearly and rationally about the actual situations we are in.  We are two women on bicycles, who are just riding through.  We have no reason to be stopped or hassled, and do not look threatening.  We got lots of waves and hi's and smiles.

I am glad we accomplished 100 miles, but it is not something I would do again.  It was stressful and I was so worried about getting there before dark (we did) that I couldn't enjoy all of the journey.  We spent 14 hours on the road and 9 hours pedaling.

Last night we stayed with my friend from college, Mark G. and his family.  He made us vegetarian enchiladas and we had pumpkin pie and chocolate fondue for dessert. But more importantly we had fun getting to know them and warm showers and beds to sleep in.

Today we will get to Michigan and explore Ann Arbor!

Learning about Oberlin's history

Edison's birthplace- look closely at the restaurant name

Mike S., who we stayed with in PA, said: "You will never get lost in the midwest because anywhere you look you can always see a water tower or a grain elevator."

Soy (foreground) and corn (distance)

Cabbage?

Toledo!

Surprises in Ohio

We are in Ohio! Pennsylvania is done- we went through 16 counties, 3 mountain ranges and it took us 7 days.  I miss it already.

One of the first things I noticed about Ohio was the distinct lack of roadkill. The amount of roadkill is directly proportional to the volume of cars on the road, as well as the speed the cars go.  It also obviously depends on the amounts of wildlife in the area.  We were on a small road with not a lot of cars, but there also could just be less wildlife here because there is so much farmland. 

Zoey was thrilled to cross into Ohio. We are a really good lunch under a shady tree outside a church in Kinsman OH- a perfect lunch in a perfect state, she said.

When planning the route my main  consideration was to find the straightest route to our destination, a campsite in Punderson State Park.  We ended up staying on route 87 west for almost the whole day in Ohio.

Little did we know that route 87 took us right through a sizeable Amish and Mennonite community around the towns of Mesopotamia and Middlefield.  It is actually quite a tourist spot- the Amish operate little penny candy and ice cream shops, as well as fancy cheese and wine stores.  We did stop for ice cream and chatted with an older couple who were kind enough to watch our bikes while went in.  We also replenished our supply of trail mix. All of the stores, even the supermarket have designated areas for horse and buggy parking- how cool!

The Amish communities and ways of living are so interesting to me! They wear extremely modest clothing and the men grow long beards. As bikers on the road they were extremely friendly towards us.  They rode in horse and buggy, and there were indentations in the roads where the horses tread to show for it.  When the buggy passed each other going in opposite directions they would pause for a minute to greet each other and talk. 

The terrain was overall much flatter, although the second surprise came when we saw hills. Big hills. People had warned us that they would be steep, but we kind of dismissed their warnings. Zoey had promised that Ohio would be really flat, so we assumed that Ohians idea of steep was a bit skewed. But it did look vertical from a distance, and even the horses had trouble.

We did around 70 miles today, our longest day yet. We are definitely tired, but not completely beat the way we were the first week.  I don't really feel sore anymore, although some parts hurt depending on the position I ride in.

Tomorrow we will get to Oberlin, and hopefully the ride will actually be flat this time.

The Pennsylvania Wilds

I have really loved biking through PA.  Despite all the rough terrain, the people have been hospitable and friendly, and the drivers have been kind.  We have gotten many warm wishes and seen so many beautiful and historic places.  For me, the downhills always make up for the uphills, no matter how steep or long.  I love the feeling of reaching the top, out of breath but with a huge sense of accomplishment.  I love the downhills even more, especially when I feel safe enough to pedal hard and go as fast as possible.  On two different downhills so far i have reached 40 mph.  But my absolute favorite downhills are the ones that are long and not two steep, so you can just go for miles coasting while your head is up enjoying the scenery.  Those days are almost over for a while- tomorrow we will cross into Ohio, one of the many flat states we will bike through.  It will be very different biking there- more headwinds, longer days, more farms, less people, and a lot of corn.

These last few days have been memorable. Sunday night we biked around 55 miles through rolling hills from Renovo, PA to Weedville, PA where we stayed with Linda S, a retired schoolteacher we met through warmshowers.org.  She was one of the most wonderful people I have ever met, hospitable and welcoming beyond words.  When we hadn't arrived by 5:30 she went out looking for us- it turns out we had just missed each other.  She left granola bars for us on our pillows to take with us, and sent us leftovers from dinner to eat for lunch.  Best of all, she rode out with us on her bike the next day and we had the challenge of keeping up with her on her 15 lb carbon bike!  She lives in Elk County, and when we expressed that we would like to see an elk before we left she took us for a ride to an elk viewing spot so we could see some elk!  It had been very hot that day, almost 100 degrees, so at around 8 pm just as it was cooling down, the elk were beginning to come out to feed.  We saw many female elk (called cows)- they are majestic, strong creatures with robust frames and stalky legs.  But Linda insisted that we see the male elk- they are the ones with antlers that are velvet this time of year.  Just as we were leaving and driving home, we see two make elk (bulls) standing in the middle of the road.  They were indeed very beautiful.  They actually aren't native to the area, they were brought from the west when they were threatened with extinction. The heard is now up to about 1500 elk in the area.

That ride from Renovo to Weedville was our first taste of really rural PA. We rode for 20 miles without seeing a single house.  There were some towns on the map that we passed through that were hardly noticeable as towns- they were only a few houses clustered together.  We were exhausted when we finally made it, but we were really proud that we had worked up to doing such long, hilly days.

The next day was even longer. We biked from Weedville to Cook Forest State Park, up 4 memorable large hills.  We spent a lot of the day on very seldom traveled roads through state game lands (basically state hunting land) and rolling farmland.  On those roads we would see a car every hour or so.  For lunch we bought delicious fresh strawberries from an Amish family.  The second part of the day we rode along a flat road called River Rd. that hugged the Clarion River.  I really enjoyed reading the history of the area and the river on the plaques posted.  We stopped at a canoe launch site to read them and wade in the river, which was extremely shallow almost all the way across.  The area along the Clarion River was a huge logging area when it was first settled by "Americans" in the 1800, and they would clear whole areas before moving on.  As would be expected, they soon exhausted the resources and the local economy collapsed.  Now it is a very touristy area with a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities.

The next morning we awoke in our tent to pouring rain at 6:30 am and decided to take a rest day.  We did laundry and spent the day writing letters and talking.

Today we biked over 60 miles from Cook Forest to Cochranton, PA.  The ride today was very flat in comparison to what we've seen.  Only a few times did I have to get into my lowest gear, my chug gear, and pedal up long hills. We got up very earlier and managed to do 30 miles before lunch.  We ate in historic Oil City PA, which was the site of the first oil drilling in the USA.  The town itself is pretty run down, it seems to have fallen as the oil industry moved south to bigger rigs and refineries.  We did bike along a sweet bike path from Oil City to Franklin, which was dotted with remnants of the past.

We are staying with a lovely couple, Mike and Sandy S.  We talked for hours tonight about bike touring and our love of REI and their fabulous garage sales.  It is their computer that I am using to type this post.

Tomorrow will be even flatter as we go into Ohio!

Zoey and Linda

ELK!!!!

Linda riding with us

Zoey at the top of a hill

The Sunset at the Elk Viewing Point

Zoey looking for elk through binoculars!

If you look closely you can see one of the oil rigs along the bike path from Oil City to Franklin