I was cringing earlier this year when I learned that a friend of Nancy's was getting married during the July 4th weekend up in the Leelanau Peninsula. I was going to make the best of it though and packed my toys into my truck for a west side adventure. The wedding, in Suttons Bay at The Vineyard Inn (pictured right), was one of the nicer weddings I had been to. The ceremony was right on the beach and the dress code was beach-wear casual (no, not bathing suits, think Don Ho). The topper was Bell's beer on tap at the reception. Yummy. While Suttons Bay is about 20 minutes north of Traverse City, make a note to yourself to NEVER attempt to drive through the cherry capital around July 4th. It took us a good 30 minutes to travel a mile. People were everywhere.
It was play time the next day as I took the bike off the truck and headed for a loop at the Big M within Manistee National Forest. I had the entire trail to myself and was able to work off a few of the beverages from the night before.
My lodging for the night was at the Ochs' compound on beautiful Hackert Lake on the east side of Ludington. The mission there was to play with toy number two, my kayak, the following morning. It was already close to 80 degrees when I got out on the water around 7 AM. The fish were hitting so it didn't matter if it was snowing, my mind was centered on putting more worms on the hook as the total take was about ten. I lost two whoppers I am sorry to say. A little too giddy on bringing them closer to the boat I guess. Patience Tim, patience. Thanks John and Linda for the lodging and some good eats.
After the float, I packed up the truck and drove the back roads of west Michigan. South from Ludington, I veered through many winding roads and got an up close look at Pentwater, Silver Lake, Stony Lake, Montague, and Whitehall. The road quality wasn't that great so I may need to hold off on a motorcycle ride on this route but the views were exactly what the doctor ordered. As Fred Bear says in the Ted Nugent song, I got the effect that cleansed the soul. I stopped for lunch in Pentwater at an establishment called The Brown Bear. They specialize in burgers and I had their main speciality, a one pounder called the Bear Burger. It felt like something out of one of my favorite shows on the Travel Channel, Man vs. Food. It wasn't a stack of quarter pounders either; it was one huge mass of meat. And cooked just right. I am happy to say that Man won this challenge versus Food as it went down smooth with a couple of cold beverages to wash it down. I am sorry to say that Food won the next day, however. I'll get to that in a minute. The destination the next morning was Cannonsburg, a small town just northeast of Grand Rapids for two mountain bike trails I had heard about from a fellow rider. The first ride was at the Cannonsburg State Game Area. This is where the Man vs. Food topic comes back to the story. As I mentioned earlier, getting the burger down the previous day wasn't a problem, however; as I parked the truck at the trail head and was getting my bike ready, that burger was putting some serious pressure on my back side. No air was coming out without something behind it; similar to the scene in Dumb and Dumber when Jeff Daniels took the laxatives. To make matters worse, the parking lot had no bathroom. No bathroom and a code red; what to do? I did what we do on the backpacking trips; I looked for a tree with a bend in it, grabbed on, leaned back like I was water skiing and let nature take its course. Food definitely won that battle. After getting that off my mind, I was ready to ride and a fine trail it was. I would compare it to a slightly difficult version of Island Lake. The stone-laced hill (pictured below) had visions of another hospital visit going through my head but I happily made it down in one piece.
The second ride of the day was just up the road at the Cannonsburg Ski Area. The trails are to the east of the ski hills. The six mile loop was similar to Pontiac Lake without the rocks. Two thumbs up to the Grand Rapids area trails.
Trail Head
Trail Head
