More Biking and Hiking on the Lake Huron Side

We took another bike ride through St. Ignace, biking seven miles to another trail in the Hiawatha National Forest north of town. We rode through a defunct old campground to the Foley Creek Trail trailhead. We haven't seen many other folks hiking here probably because the tourists come mainly for the ferry ride to Mackinac Island and beach time on the lake. Regardless, we need to keep moving and the water is a bit cold for us so bike and hike it is.

The old water faucet identifies this as an old campground for sure. It was a touch creepy as we were the only ones there.

Pine forest to hardwoods to muddy bog to sandy beach, really interesting 2.5 out and back trail. We did finally pass a couple more hikers before we left.

Looks like the Forest Service is building walkways over these muddy bogs, but not finished yet.

It was a little shocking to come out of the woods and find a sandy beach with fog rolling in.

The creek the trail is named after emptying into Lake Huron.

It was a warmer day causing fog over the cool lake water.

We took a walk along the beach then headed back into the woods to the bikes for the 7 mile ride back.

The next day had a 60% chance of rain forecasted so we took the day off to stay home. We got a total of about 30 minutes of rain so in the afternoon, so we hiked the two mile trail in the State Park.

Another foggy day--can hardly see the bridge from the overlook.

After the storms passed north and south of us, a nice front passed bringing cool north winds and beautiful clear skies. We drove back south across the Mackinac Bridge to Mackinaw City, did a little sightseeing, then pushed our biking limits by biking 16 miles on the North Central Rail Trail to Cheboygan, Michigan. 

The Mighty Mac from the south side.

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse.

We spent our museum time on the USCG Mackinaw Icebreaker Museum. We've been in many ship museums before but never an icebreaker, a concept very unfamiliar to us. Built in 1944 to keep the Great Lakes open to shipping during WWII, the Mackinaw (WAGB-83) served 62 years until her decommissioning in 2006. Our southern brains can't comprehend the amount of ice on the lakes that this ship could break up. The museum included photos and videos of the process as well as a tour throughout the ship.

Six of these monster diesels with two propellers at the stern and one at the bow for moving water from under the ice to weaken it.

The Mackinaw took over the job of the Christmas Tree Ship after it sank, supplying Christmas trees every December to needy families in Chicago.

View of the marina and town from the conning deck.

View of the train loading dock for the old Chief Wawatam train car ferry.

One of the Mackinaw's propellers

With our museum fix in, we rode a couple of blocks to pick up the North Central Rail Trail, a flat crushed limestone trail that runs from Mackinaw City to Gaylord, Michigan. Rail trails are bicycle rails built over old railroad beds and are generally well maintained, pretty flat and fun to ride. We agreed that if the 16 miles one way seemed too much, we would turn around, but the plan was to make it to Cheboygan, have a picnic lunch, do a little walking tour then ride the 16 miles back. We revved up the ebike motors a bit to add speed, but we both peddled the entire distance out and back. 

Cool breezes and a tunnel of shade most of the way made for a comfortable ride.

The Gordon Turner Park on the Cheboygan waterfront was a wonderful place to rest and have a picnic 

The beach and lighthouse in the park.

We rode a few blocks into downtown Cheboygan, then took a walking tour down Main Street. Cute bike racks all over town.

Nice little downtown area. Cheboygan is a much smaller town than we expected.

A city park on the Black River.

A beautiful mural with descriptive plaques depicting Cheboygan's history. The sun angle made it hard to get a good photo.

The 16 mile ride back tested our backsides and my bike battery, but all held up until we returned to the truck in Mackinaw City. We biked a total of 34 miles, and bedtime was well before dark. 

The next day, we took advantage of the cool breezes and low humidity to do laundry that had piled up. We had no water and sewer hookup, but the community water faucet was next to our site so a short distance to haul water buckets. Our portable sewer tank hooks up to the truck hitch to be hauled to the dump station. We try not to use laundromats any more than necessary. My sensitive skin reacts to many scented laundry products that often linger in the dryers. Doing laundry like this while reading our books is much more pleasant than sitting in a laundromat anyway, not to mention less expensive.

Our outdoor laundry setup. When we are hooked up to water and sewer, we place this washer in the shower inside.

Hauling the laundry water to the dump station.

We hung around the "house" for the afternoon after laundry was finished and just relaxed. We are enjoying this slow paced traveling. It probably doesn't seem from my sharing that we are slow paced, but moving less often and short distances between each move allows us to enjoy the area, get plenty of exercise and still have plenty of down time to relax and enjoy the wonderful cool temperatures.