My first bike touring/camping adventure in July has ruined me for all else. When we got back, all I could think of was where I would go next. My son - the literal day we got home - headed for the airport and took off on a solo backpacking trip in the West. HIS tent has gotten plenty of use. Meanwhile, mine sat.
When he returned, I gave him a week to recover and now we’re pointing our bikes north and heading to the top of the Mitten (that’s the lower peninsula, in Michigan-speak) for a few days. We will dip our tires in Lake Michigan and then in Lake Huron, when we reach Mackinac Island. Two of the Great Lakes, in as many days.
I went back to Ride with GPS, determined to have a better experience planning my route. I was set on cycleways this time, as most of our former trip had us on busy roads that were loud and scary. I had all the same problems I’d had before. I’d lose where the cycleways went when looking for points of interest on the map. Trying to route to them would lose my actual cycling route and I’d be opening Google maps and trying to switch back and forth to see around the area. It was hopeless. I threw myself on top of the bed where my husband waited and wailed, “I’m too stupid to be a bike camper - I can’t even plan my trip!!!!”
The next day, I brought in the big guns: Pamela Murray. She has never turned down a Zoom call about bike topics, ever. She filled in the missing pieces I needed and now the clouds have lifted and I might not be too dumb to be a bike camper after all. The biggest “AHA!” was that I did not realize you can toggle maps on Ride with GPS. You can switch to a Google map view so you can see around you - food, restrooms, hotels, sites of interest… Once I could see THAT a lot of other things fell into place. The control points remain finicky, but I understand those, too. You can split the route, add your own points of interest…so many great perks and I finally see why everyone loves the program.
We are riding from Charlevoix on the Little Traverse Wheelway and catching the Northwestern Trail up to Mackinaw City. From there, we take the ferry to Mackinac Island. My son has never been, so he’ll get to see how quaint and lovely it is, plus we’ll ride the one and only car-free highway in the United States, which circles the island. We’ve got camping reservations at 2 campgrounds, so we’ll get to use our gear again. It will be a great send-off before I have to part with him at the start of the fall semester again.
L
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