| Author | Message | ||
     Marc |
I've had a few requests for the route for a recent ride around Lake Michigan which Paul and myself enjoyed. I'll post a few photos as well at the same time. Our route begins in Chicago, IL and traverses counter-clockwise around Lake Michigan back to Chicago. This was a 1000 mile trip and we completed it in three days. Pull out your IL, IN, MI and WI maps and follow along if you want to consider this for your Lake Michigan Loop Trip. Day 1 Friday June 8 - 9am Depart Lockport, IL - Ride East on I-80/94 to Hwy 51 at Lake Station, IN - Take Hwy 51 North to Hwy 20 - East on Hwy 20 to Hwy 249 - 249 North to Hwy 12 "Dunes Hwy" - Hwy 12 East for quite a while to Buffalo, MI where Hwy 12 becomes South Red Arrow Hwy. - Stay on S. Red Arrow Hwy until it magically turns into Red Arrow Hwy - Somewhere near Glen Lord, MI Red Arrow Hwy becomes S. Lakeshore Drive (aka Business 94). - In St. Joseph, MI Bus 94 turns into Hwy 63. - Near Lake Michigan Beach, Hwy 63 heads inland and you should get on the Blue Star Hwy. - Stay on Blue Stay Hwy to Saugutuck, MI which is a cute tourist area. Have lunch at one of the restaurants on Kalamazoo Lake. - Get back on Blue Star Hwy after lunch and keep going North - Once you pass the Tulip County Airport, transition to Hwy 31 N. - Right before Rothbury, MI take the B15 exit. B15 is a quiet, scenic and fun paved two lane paved country road. - B15 will lead you to Silver Lake State Park which was my favorite part of the trip. - Silver Lake State Park has 400+ acres of Sand Dunes where you can rode Offroad Recreational Vehicles. I highly recommend you set aside 2.5 hours to rent a dune buggy (www.silverlakebuggys.com) and enjoy riding on the dunes with other horsepower crazed Americans. A 90 minute rental was $135 and well worth the fun we had on the two place buggy. Silverlake buggys made it real easy for us to enjoy and left us to ourselves with the buggy which we pushed quite hard without braking. It took two days worth of showers to remove the sand from every crack and crevice of my body but it was still well worth it. Silver Lake State Park Buggy fun photos:     - You are probably exhausted after the sand buggy ride so head directly to 31 or take B15 North if you have time and want to see more country. - 31 North all the way up to Traverse City. We made it to Traverse City Hotel by 8:45pm with the dune buggy diversion. - The AmericInn of Traverse City (1614 US Highway 31 North, www.americinntc.com) was about $90 per night and is a good location with restaurants and tourist activities nearby. Pool and Hot tub was nice to recover from the day of riding. Free breakfast in the morning. Saturday, June 9: - Ride North on 31 by about 9:30am. - 31 turns into I-75 which is the Mackinac Bridge crossing. Cool to ride across. - Immediately after paying a toll on the North end of Mackinac Bridge, take the exit for Hwy 2 West. - Hwy 2 is real pretty. Be advised it is a speeding ticket haven and the cops are out in force and will pull you over. Marc was pulled over once and got a ticket. The officer gave me a break as he clocked me at 78 in a 55, but only gave me a 60 in a 55 ticket. Paul was also caught speeding later, but Paul got an even bigger break and was let go as Paul had a clean record. After two speeding pullovers, we finally decided to slow downn....slow learners I guess. Learn from our experience and take it easy on Hwy 2. - In Escanaba, MI transition from Hwy 2 to Hwy 35. - We arrived at Marinette, WI around 9pm on Saturday night and stayed at a hotel without a pool which we would not really recommend again, so find something else in Menominee, MI or Marinette, WI. I can't remember what the mediocre hotel name was...sorry.   Part of the fun is getting off the major roads and exploring. Here are a few fishing expeditions which we took off of the major paved roads which make up the route I've shared in this post.   Sunday, June 10: - Depart hotel around 9:30am heading south on 41 - We quickly transitioned to Wisconsin Y, then S, then 41 South again through Green Bay - Once you are past downtown GreenBay, take Hwy 57 South. - From Chilton, WI we took a few letter roads South. If you have a GPS, I’d recommend just heading south and enjoying some letter roads twists and turns. - Somehow, we ended up back on Hwy 67 and took it South. - We ended up near Lake Geneva on Hwy 14 and then meandered home on 47. - Depending on where you need to end your trip you have many route options from here you can pick out on your IL Map. As we neared IL, we ran into these two gentlemen and their 1944 BMW "German Army" motorcyles. These two gents were from Poland and part of a military historian group. They were at a re-enactment of a WWII Battle where they were part of the Polish Army. The Poles as you may remember were over-ran in 1939 by the Germans and those who escaped fought alongside the Allies with any equipment they could steal from the Germans...as an example these BMW 650cc offroad motorcycles w/sidecars which were liberated from the Germans. Top speed was about 45 mph for these offshore motorcycles. With side cars they weigh about 1000 lbs each.   There is our Lake Michigan Loop route. There are plenty of places to explore off of it so pull out your map and go for it. - Marc and Paul | ||
| Coolice |
Great story guys! See you at Homecoming?  | ||
| Johnnyvince |
Way Cool!!!! Wish I could have gone. ....Maybe next year?? | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Love those military bikes. | ||
| Arcticktm |
Great ride post - thanks. Makes me miss riding in Michigan. I have also seen lots of speeding tickets issued on US 2. If you have an extra day, it is way worth it to go up into the Keewenau peninsula, all the way up to (and past) Copper Harbor. There are nice roads up there, it is beautiful, and Superior is always cool when it gets hot. I did a dual sport ride a couple years ago where we went past Copper Harbor on fire roads and jeep 2-tracks. We ended up at the TRUE tip of the peninsula, at an old concrete pad where NASA used to launch rockets. There is just a stone marker and an old rocket launch rail there now, but it is right on a beautiful agate beach (where I almost got stuck). The rockets were apparently tiny model size rockets, so their really isn't anything much there except a beautiful rocky beach. Would be great on a Uly. GPS recommended, as we were following a GPS route from the Michigan Cycle Conservation Club UP Dual Sport Ride. There is also a really cool old mansion in Calumet called the Laurium Manor. It is now a partially renovated B&B, but the rates are close to a chain motel. It is like staying in an old haunted mansion. | ||
| Manofthefield |
I've never done the circle tour, but I've been on a lot of the roads you described, so it brings back good memories. I grew up in Wisconsin, went to school in the U.P., and now I live in western Michigan. I haven't checked out the Silver Lake sand dunes though... that's on my list of things to do when I get a job. Arcticktm brings back even more good memories of roads in the Keweenaw, as I went to school at Michigan Tech. I got to spend a lot of weekends exploring the roads and historical sites of the Keweenaw. Getting out to the farthest point on the peninsula is very cool, even though I made the trip in a truck. It's weird to think about NASA trekking way out to the middle of nowhere just to launch a few rockets. | ||
| Arcticktm |
Manofthefield: If you are a BSME from MTU, and willing to relocate, look here http://www.borgwarner.com/careers/NA/us-locations/ us_north_carolina-asheville.shtml It is about 1.25 miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway, in Asheville, NC. Close to Utopia for twisty and scenic street riding. Turbochargers are one of the few areas of auto suppliers doing well these days. | ||
| Manofthefield |
Arcticktm, yup I'm a MTU BSME. Unfortunately for me, I'm not looking to move too far, if at all. My girlfriend and I spent a year in Minnesota after graduation, but she wanted to be closer to her family in MI. The job market here sucks, since it is so dominated by the auto industry. BTW, how are supercharger mfgs doing these days? I just applied to Eaton the other day  Or if only I could get in at Buell  |
