I took a walk on the state park beach after making camp, and took some snapshots. It’s nothing spectacular, just your usual lovely sandy Michigan beach with dune grass and trees and thistles and stones and gulls… one tends to take these things for granted. 🙂 Not so the German couple with their two toddlers, for whom it was an exotic vacation in a faraway land.

A well recommended restaurant very nearby was Mim’s Mediterranean Grill. The traffic on M119/US31 (the road between the park and Petoskey itself) is crazy fast and heavy, so the less of that the better. Expecting a standard sit-down restaurant it turns out to more like fast food… but good. I had chicken shawarma (like the Avengers had in the movie). It’s a brightly decorated converted house. I’d say “cozy” but the neon goldenrod walls don’t really fit that.

After supper I explored the Petoskey waterfront. The first time I came through here 10 years ago (by car) I thought it didn’t have one, or a proper downtown. US31 takes you right past the bay with scarcely a stoplight, and if you miss the unassuming turnoff for downtown, or the road that leads to the marina, you’ve passed it and there’s no obvious way to go back. I had the same experience three years ago when I came through on my way up the Lakeshore. This time I had the time, and was determined to find them, such as they are.

They are pretty nice, it turns out. Heading west from the park (the opposite direction from my previous visits) I pulled off at Sunset Park, which looked like a token “scenic lookout” plot of land with a wooden platform overlooking Little Traverse Bay. Except the platform was really a tall staircase leading down to Bayfront Park. And the marina. And the pier. Which are all worth a visit if you can find them. (There’s another entrance further into town. Near the turnoff for downtown, which is ironically on the hill above US31 and the marina.)

The rain has dissipated and drifted south, leaving cloudy skies but no rain. Tomorrow is forecast to be dry. And importantly: not much wind. Because I’ve got a bridge to cross.

I made it to Petoskey, reasonably dry. I abandoned my originally planned route, which was pretty much stuck under a raincloud, and took a chance by going inland. I rode about an hour east, to the village of Fredric, which lies on good old Old 27. Thats the road I took two years ago to get to Mackinac, so I knew it’d be suitable for riding. And it was – so far – experiencing only sprinkles. My hope was to at least get around the active rain and get to Petoskey to make camp before it was deluged.

It worked. The rain system was still drifting eastward, but even at 30mph I could outrun the worst of it. It rose above a sprinkle here and there, but with full raingear on, I stayed pretty dry. My Frogg Toggs – which are designed for hiking – weren’t fully effective where my legs lie on the seat, but that’s just a little damp.

I took Old 27 to a little spot on the map called Wolverine, then took the only paved road winding from there to Petoskey. The whole ride was low on traffic, except around towns, which made an otherwise blah ride more enjoyable. I did pretty much no stopping “to smell the roses”, in part because of my mission to reach Petoskey, and in part because it’s just no fun in the rain.

In the meantime, the north end of the rain system appears to be breaking up. It isn’t over, but it isn’t raining here at the moment, and what’s left should be isolated.

I like Petoskey State Park. I checked out the day-use area when I came through here three years ago, but this is the first I’ve seen the campground. It’s woodsy. Lots of trees and each site is somewhat isolated from the others. And mine has a path up to the sand dunes.

At least it isn’t hot.

It’s been a cold, windy, overcast morning. The temp is about 65F, and combined with some wind and the lack of sun, it’s downright chilly. I even put on my raincoat to cut down on the windchill.

Not an especially scenic ride, either. Largely farmland and some woods. I saw a deer on the side of the road, and slowed down. It backed into the woods then returned to the road, as if getting up the nerve to cross. But by this point I was getting close and it ran back into the trees.

I also passed a small alpaca farm. Didnt feel like stopping to gawk and take pictures though.

One of the roads that was supposed to take me much of the way to Kalkaska ran out of pavement, requiring me to backtrack and take another route. The road I took was freshly (re?)paved, which isn’t as nice as it sounds. It was paved with ground stone, which is usually treacherous for motorbikes, but fortunately they’d sprayed it with just enough tar coating to keep it from acting like loose gravel. And that led to a nice winding road, so it worked out.

I’ve stopped in Kalkaska for lunch, a little earlier than planned, mostly because I got an early start. Trout Town Country Cafe serves a yummy chicken philly sandwich. Also has wifi, which is nice because cell data coverage around here sucks.

The rain seems to be mostly stalled over Lake Michigan, but encroaching on the territory I’m about to ride through. I’m considering trying to take a more easterly route around it. Unfortunately that would mean busier roads.

I honestly don’t know what to make of the weather. The forecast stills says 30% chance of scattered showers when there’s a mass of rain marching this way. The wind is still for the east but the rain comes from the west.

Since I can’t do anything about it, I’m just breaking camp, equipping the scooter for rain, and heading on.

I slept OK last night. I woke up a few times needing to change positions to get comfortable, but that happens sometimes in my own bed.

The wind has been blowing in the trees above all night, sometime picking up enough to ruffle my tent. It definitely cooled off, down into the 60s. A little sprinkling of rain.

The real rain comes later today. That same mass of rainclouds is still trudging this way, slowly. Which means that when it gets here it won’t blow over quickly. At least it doesn’t look especially intense. It’s hard to tell how long before it’ll get here, just that I won’t be able to just wait it out before leaving. Besides, I don’t have a house here to wait it out in.