Day 12. Surf’s Up!

9/5/2025 Friday

Glen Arbor to Arcadia MI

Stats: Miles: 47. AIS: 4:34. Speed: 10.3mph Elev. 1643 ft.

1 friendly honk

1 friendly wave out the sunroof

0 assholes

0 chasing dogs

Walk the bike: 2 Suzy 1 Jim

New top number for climbing on this trip… and I felt it! More about this later but I think my already large quads grew🤣🤣

The bed & breakfast made us a great breakfast of quiche and yogurt parfait to get us started.

We are up for today’s challenge. It rained while we were having breakfast but that was supposed to be end of the rain for today… now we just needed to deal with the winds. There was a marine warning for Gale Force wind with 20-25 mph sustained winds and gusts of 40mph. Enough to cancel the ferry crossing from Michigan to Wisconsin! The bike tour group canceled their ride today and they were just going to tour by shuttle van due to the winds.

Now the wind advisory is Beach Warning 5-10 ft waves and rip currents for Friday ending Saturday morning. Tomorrow the winds are lower to 10-12 mph out of the west again.

So the winds were coming out of the west and whipping up big waves. This morning our ride was on a paved bicycle trail in the Sleeping Bear Dunes park. We were deep enough in the woods that we were sheltered from the wind except when we got close to Lake Michigan. Then the wind was horrible!

The gigantic sand dune encourages people to climb it. We didn’t try…1. Too windy 2. Too sandy 3. Didn’t want to

Our first goal and intended lunch sight was Point Betsie Lighthouse. We had to climb a short steep hill to get to it and then it was flat out brutal headwind for 1/4 mile. We found a little building there that had tables for kids to color and people to watch a movie about the Coast Guard years ago. The place was not busy so we used the tables for lunch and we were out of the wind! The waves at this area were breaking big. It was kind of cool to see the lake on a big wind day like today. Truly the Middle Coast today. The beaches are beautiful.

We all stayed pretty bundled up again today but after lunch we had a few really big climbs coming away from the lakeshore. The hills are all gigantic forested sand dunes. We had two really long, steep climbs. They were the kind of climbs that have curves so you can’t see where the top is. I had to stop to strip some clothes off then I resumed climbing and around the next bend the wind was right in my face and still climbing… at this point I quit! I was just grinding in my last easy gear. It was a walk for me and Jim ended up walking the very last part as well. Tough one. Then it had a sweet descent only to have another curvy steep long hill to climb again. This one was a bit gentler in that it eased off in the middle. We stopped for a 1 minute break and managed to make the top without walking. It was tough too! This is when I swear my quads had literally grown. 🤣

Now it was downhill to our destination of Arcadia. But we had a Scenic View pullout to checkout. After all that climbing we hiked up a huge staircase to a lookout for a fantastic view of the coastline and the waves. Worth all the climbing for that view! Just amazing. Paul and I remarked it was “Big Sur-ish”.

Arcadia is a very, very tiny town. We were all kind of chilly when we arrived at our little bungalow. It’s the only place in town and there are no campgrounds. For me it was too cold and WINDY to camp. Just not fun… so we booked a bungalow at lunch. Our bungalow has 2 bedrooms and a little kitchenette and our own outside patio deck. There’s a sauna, hot tub, cold plunge and fire pit. None of which we are doing but some other guests are going for all of it. Good for them… I’m too tired and it’s chilly. I got beat up today with climbing and wind battling.

The tiny town had a nice brand new diner for Fish Fry Friday or a really good hamburger (me😊).

Things I see along the way…

Tomorrow we ride to Ludington. This is Paul’s jumping off point. He will catch the ferry across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc WI on Sunday. (3 1/2 hrs on the ferry). Then he’s driving home to Billings MT. We have a long ride tomorrow… about 50 miles.