It’s been almost a year since I finished my quest to visit every county in Michigan by scooter, but I’m not finished scooting.
On my first ride back in 2009, I went half-way around Lake Michigan: up the west coast of the Lower Peninsula, along the south coast of the Upper Peninsula, and down into Wisconsin, before taking a shortcut across the Lake to get back home. This time I’m going to finish the loop: riding around the south end of the Lake. I’m still “scooting around Michigan”… it’s just around Lake Michigan this time.
The basic itinerary is this (leaving on the 19th):
- Sunday: Down the Blue Star and Red Arrow Highways to Indiana Dunes State Park, just the other side of the border.
- Monday: Around Chicagary (as best as I can manage) to Chain O’ Lakes State Park, just south of the Wisconsin border in Illinois.
- Tuesday: Up into Wisconsin (steering west of Milwaukenosha) to High Cliff State Park on Lake Winnebago.
- Wednesday: Angle northeastward toward the Door Peninsula (Wisconsin’s analog to Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula) up to Peninsula State Park.
- Thursday: Ride to the tip of Door and exploring Washington Island, then Rock Island where I’ll camp.
- Friday: Head back south to Manitowoc, where I’ll catch the S.S. Badger‘s overnight crossing to Ludington.
- Saturday: Ride home from Ludington.
On my previous rides, even the last one, which included quite a bit of distance in Wisconsin, I never spent the night outside of Michigan. The closest was sleeping on the Badger while it was crossing the Lake. This time will be the opposite: I’ll have one night in Indiana, one in Illinois, and three in Wisconsin (with another on the Lake). So instead of this being a “MI way” expedition it’s more like “INILWI way”. But let’s overlook that, OK? I’m not changing the web site.
I’ll admit that this ride doesn’t excite quite the same anticipation that last year’s ride to Isle Royale had, or the two times I rode across the Mackinac Bridge. Sunday’s ride will be a repeat of one I’ve done before, Monday is going to be an urban/suburban slog, and the final leg on Friday night/Saturday is a re-re-run. But on the other hand, Door County should be more scenic than scooting across the southern farmland counties of Michigan a few years ago. 🙂
And any day scooting is better than a day answering support calls.