Pure Michigan, Biking Traverse City Then the Skybridge

 We awoke to a beautiful day with most of the smoke cleared out. We decided to make the most of the clear days so we loaded up the bikes early to use the great bike lanes and trails to explore Traverse City. 

The first unload with a pedal missing .

But first, a frustrating event. Ed's new bike pedals can be removed with a quick connect attachment. He removes one of them when it goes on the bike rack. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the parking lot, he realized he had put the pedal on the pickup bed cover before we left the campground where it had obviously bounced off somewhere. These pedals can't be replaced with ones from Walmart as they are particular to this Lectric bike. So we headed back to the campground, and I got on my bike to ride along our route to try to find the pedal. Ed drove the truck behind and hopscotched with me along the way. I saw a lot of interesting things along the way--eyeglasses, some kind of smashed electronic device, dead bird, dead porcupine, etc., but no pedal until nearly three miles out, there it was on the side of the road in perfect condition. When I caught up with Ed at the next stop, we did a little happy dance before going back to our planned outing. But again, we vowed not to set stuff down on the back of the truck.

The Traverse City waterfront is mostly public for all to enjoy.

A schooner and a few sailboats in the distance enjoying the nice day.

Such clear water.

We left the city trail and biked the Boardman Lake Trail, a wonderful trial that encircles the lake. 

Swan on the lake.

The white dots are more swans.

Boardman Lake is a natural lake between the Boardman River and Grand Traverse Bay, but the lake had been enlarged more than a century ago with a dam for a mill, then another dam for electric power. With the mill gone and the hydroelectric generators decommissioned, the dams were removed about 20 years ago so the lake is back to it's natural borders. It was quite an interesting ride with descriptive plaques along the way.

The Boardman River

We stopped at a park to enjoy our picnic lunch.

Normally, after a 20 mile bike ride, we would call it a day, but the weather was so clear and gorgeous, we decided to drive an hour to Boyne Mountain Ski Resort to enjoy the Skybridge. We had planned to stop there on our say north in a few days, but we wanted to make sure we saw it on a clear day.

We took the sky lift up to the bridge.

The famous Boyne Mountain Skybridge opened to the public in 2022.

1203 feet long, 118 feet high, and connects to sections of the mountain over one of the ski lifts.

The middle is see through.

And this nut had to simulate falling.

Beautiful views!

We enjoyed a beer and a snack from the food truck before crossing back over to head down.

Another full day. We were tired puppies when we got back to the camper.