Straits of Mackinac

Straits of Mackinac

Travel tip: “Mackinac” (Island) and “Mackinaw” (City) are pronounced exactly the same, with the “aw” pronunciation. My brief research suggests the spelling and pronunciation is derived from British colonialists, through French trappers’ translation of the original Native American word “Michilimackinac”(The place of the Great Turtle). 

There was really no reason to rush out of camp this morning, we had only 38 miles into St. Ignace. Then again, there was nothing compelling us to stay either. So we packed up after eating some oatmeal and coffee/cocoa. 

This is the third day of travel on US 2. The noise from the relentless traffic was starting to get to me. The gorgeous views of the lake shore mitigated some of the nervousness. After 8 miles the route took us off US 2 on a quiet local road surrounded by trees and only a couple cars. The reprieve lasted 4 miles but was just enough to get my nerve back. 

There were a couple rest areas which overlooked Lake Michigan, which also gave us some rest from the traffic. Oh yeah, it’s Saturday. Like us, I’m sure others are headed to Mackinac Island or to Lower Michigan for the weekend. 

Brevort had a cafe so we stopped for a real breakfast. And to quote Forrest Gump, “and that’s all I’m going to say about that”. 

The traffic thickened as we road closer to I-75 and St Ignace. Navigating the exchange to get under and across I-75 was exciting. But shortly thereafter we turned and found camp in the Straits State Park. 

Camp set, showers taken we road our bikes into town to explore. We found one of the ferry terminals and arranged passage(a nautical term for tickets) to Mackinac Island in the morning and across to Mackinaw City in the afternoon. We will play tourists tomorrow. Stay tuned. 

We then ate buffet pizza and salad bar at the BC Pizzeria. Never offer hungry cyclists an all you can eat Buffett. Satiated we started back to camp through the marina, where we met Dan and Tom. 

From Wisconsin, they are circumnavigating Lake Michigan counter clockwise on their bikes. We exchanged details of our routes and best places to camp and more importantly, eat, as each of us will be backtracking the others’ route in the coming days. They won’t be stopping in Brevort. We however have Deb’s Diner to look forward to. We are excited. After they get camp established they’ll be joining us in our camp for some more intel breifings. I need to find my pen and paper.