To read from the beginning, click here.

We got up early to avoid the coming 8 AM rain. We woke up at 6:30 and started breaking down the tent and got on our way into Petoskey around 7:40. The rain did start, but it was a light drizzle, though we did eventually don our rain jackets. 

We ended up in our favorite rainy day place, McDonald’s, for coffee and breakfast and free Wi-Fi. It’s getting to be a habit. LOL! We had our coffee and breakfast and  looked for the next place to go and decided on Eastport. It was a 36 mile ride versus the 64 we did yesterday. Once the rain stopped, I stayed at Macca’s and worked on a blog post while Dana went to the grocery store. By the time we got on the road towards our destination it was noon, but the day was warming up and the sun came out somewhat, but still mostly cloudy. 

We are on US bike route 35 today. It’s a sometimes paved trail, sometimes a bike lane, sometimes quiet back roads and sometimes nothing more than a sign on a busy highway,  Much of it, though, is right along the either Lake Michigan or an inland lake, so, beautiful views as we ride. I’m sure you’ve seen enough of our water pictures but it is truly stunning.

Our biggest Nemesis today, besides fatigue, is a 15 to 25 mph wind from the west southwest. Of course we are heading west southwest so our plan for getting tailwinds down the east side is not working out so today. 

The hills weren’t easy either. No big climbs, but a lot of small up and downs. We were in pretty remote country, lots of apple orchards, Cherry orchards, peach orchards, occasional cheese farms. We were heading to Barnes City Park campground near the North end of Torch Lake. Not as many miles as yesterday, but still a long, hard day. 

Dana had called ahead for a reservation, so we were at least assured of a spot. It was a nice little campground but it had rained that day and things were pretty wet. We nestled the tent in between couple of pine trees, hoping for some protection from the expected rain that night. We walked to the beach and looked for Petoskey stones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petoskey_stone but like most of the people hunting for them that day. came up empty. Dana didn’t however go home empty-handed and she found some interesting 🤔 stones to take along as at least coming from where Petoskey stones were commonly found. 

We got showers and moved to a pavilion in the park to make dinner. There was a well there, and after a little pumping, we had  pasta cooked in fresh Lake Michigan groundwater. It’s getting darker earlier, so we headed off to bed, hoping for a rain-free night.

Pics to follow soon(ish)…