Day 4 - Mackinac Island ride 30 miles - 146 total

The Arch on Macinac Island

Keith and I were up and ready to ride by 8:30. We were coming back to the same motel so we didn't have to pack up our gear. It felt good to just get on the bikes and head out. We stopped first at the Starbucks and got a coffee for the ferry ride to the island. The ferry ride was nice although it was cool enough to keep us inside instead up on top of the ferry. The ferry went under the Mackinac Bridge on it's way to the island. They usually don't do that, only a couple of trips a day go under the bridge.
We landed and headed off to find a restaurant for breakfast. We found a nice restaurant and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. After breakfast, we started out for a ride around the island. We noticed the rock cairns that have built along the shore. The tradition is that everyone builds one and nobody knocks them down.

Rock Cairns

We were amazed by all of the horse drawn equipment and also about the amount of horse poo that we constantly had to dodge. Keith talked to several of the drivers and found out that the horses spend about six months on the island and then they are shipped back to the mainland. That must be quite and operation to get all of these horses loaded onto the ferries.
We rode around the island and then headed up over the top to see the airport, golf course and British fort that are located on the highest elevations of the island.
We then headed back down to town to have lunch.

View from on top of the island

Cemetary on the island

We found a nice patio bar and restaurant overlooking a minature golf course and of course Lake Huron. We spent a couple of hours there just enjoying the day. After lunch we took another ride around the island. This time we stopped and added our personal touch to some of the rock cairns. We decided to go back to the same patio bar and have another beer/hard cider. It was a lot of fun watching the kids playing miniture golf. One little boy was playing in the lake with his putter and it slipped out of his and into the water. We laughed and the dad just shrugged his shoulders and said what can you do!
We went for another ride around the island and wound up back in town. We watched them making fudge for a little while and then caught the ferry back to our motel.
We had dinner just off the dock and went back to the motel. The sun was still shinning at 9:10PM.
Tomorrow we head out for the town of Petosky Michigan. More good weather is in store!


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