Day 2: Cops & Doughnuts & Raspberries

Day 2:  July 27th, 2016

Pentwater MI to Near Luther MI, 64.3 miles. By Judd Curran.

After a great dip in Lake Michigan yesterday evening, we fell asleep soon after our heads hit the pillow and had a good nights rest.  A really good night's rest.  Awake and out of the campground by 11:30 am (yes, you could say it's a late start), we decided to skip the cute lake-side town of Pentwater, with it's nautical tourist shops, patio dining, and small summer resort town appeal, and head to the larger port town of Ludington for our proper breakfast.  Waking up after cycling all day, hunger sets in before the tent is dismantled.  So, we usually have something around (granola bars, bagels, bananas, etc) as the first breakfast to get us going.  Then, once on the road for a bit, we try to hit up a local establishment for the "real" breakfast.

Because the next nearest town was around 15 miles away, by the time we arrived folks were serving up lunch.  We had our eye on the positively-reviewed Jamesport Brewing Company.  But, before we could get there, our route forced us into a big roadblock that stopped us dead in our tracks -- the historic Clare City Bakery, established in 1898, now serving doughnuts and coffee under a different name. 

Apparently, a local police force saves more than lives.  Nine Clare City police officers stepped in when the historic bakery was about to close and renamed and rebranded the bakery as, "Cops & Doughnuts".  Victoria opted-in for the old fashioned, while I broadened my sampling with a cherry round and a chocolate round, both slightly crispy on the outside and moist within.  Delicious!  And, no-one got arrested to boot.

We busted through that roadblock and moved on to lunch at the brewery.  The food and clientele were both great, as well as the smooth IPA on nitro.  After refueling, we continued North on U.S. Bicycle Route 20 for our last few miles along the shore of Lake Michigan before heading East.

On one of our routine stops along the side of the road, I spotted wild raspberries along the road cut.

It is such a great feeling, indescribable really, knowing Victoria is by my side (or behind me).  It makes the adventure really come alive as we share in exploring the places along our route.

As with most humid places in the Midwest, fields of soybean were common.

In between, expanses of corn.

Unlike my previous bicycle ride through Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and parts of Iowa and Minnesota however, the monotony of corn and soybean were broken up here by cherry and apple orchards, as well as large fields of asparagus.  I remember my dad growing a few asparagus plants under the orange trees in the orchard where I grew up.  But, this was the first time that both of us had seen asparagus in large production.

We arrived in the town of Free Soil, a small village named after a group of individuals that fought against slavery, not out of compassion for blacks, but because slavery meant to these folks that jobs were being taken away from whites.  To us, Free Soil meant cheap food at the community watering hole -- the Heidi Hof Tavern.  After riding through a balmy expanse of farmland and forest, the ice-cold Coors Light was refreshing.  We ate dinner while watching the large table of regulars down the Busch and Coors Light beers as fast as the waitress could deliver them.

The evening right towards our destination was a little bit cooler, and mostly beautiful forest with plenty of shade over the road. 

We passed by several lakes in the area, all equipped with swimming docks and shoreline cabins.

Arriving at the Manistee National Forest campground around 8:30 pm, we were tired and ready for some much needed rest after two full days of riding.

The road to our campsite was unpaved, but short.

We were greeted by a friendly campground host that helped us feel more welcomed and comfortable, which distracted our disappointment with the plentiful mosquitos in this riverside campground, and lack of a shower.

We took the camp host's recommendation to pitch our tent on a bed of moss within our campsite.  Neither of us have slept on a live bed of moss before.  It was incredibly comfortable, rendering sleeping mats obsolete.

It wasn't long after laying on our backs listening to the buzzing mosquitos knocking against the outside of our tent that we fell fast asleep.  Despite any unfavorable conditions, sleep is inevitable after a long day of pedaling.