9/9/2025. Tuesday
Montague to Grand Rapids MI
Stats: Miles: 57. AIS: 5:18. Speed: 10.7 mph Elev. 970 ft
0 assholes
1 dog. Came running but stopped well off the highway. Invisible fence maybe?
at the city campground. Oatmeal breakfast
Today’s ride was a long one. Longer than I prefer but sometimes you just have to go further because of logistics all week. Jim is the trip planner and he does such a good job with looking for camping or motels and trying to keep it under 50.
We left camp about 8:35. Our lovely grassy sight gets pretty dewy overnight so our tent fly was really wet this morning. We have a black garbage bag that we wrap the fly in and then strap it on the outside of our panniers. Then when we get to the next camp we dry it out. In today’s case we have a hotel tonight in Grand Rapids. The tent is spread out over the bicycles in the room. Couldn’t find any campgrounds on the north side of town where we are located.
Grand Rapids is the biggest city we’ve encountered on the ride so far. And I do believe it will be the largest. We are staying north of Detroit, Kalamazoo and Lansing. Basically we are staying north of all the heavily populated parts of Michigan.
First we headed south on the bike trail to the city of Muskegon. This is our last city on Lake Michigan. This city has a ferry across the lake to Milwaukee WI. It was easy going through the city on their bike trail. After Muskegon we started heading southeast toward Grand Rapids.
redline going southeast
trail was closed
Today’s bike trail use had several morning walkers, several (7-8) tricycle riders, 2 recumbent riders and a few cyclist. We were the only “tourers” today.
We were on the bike trail about 35 miles before it was closed for construction. We had to take backroads for about 15 miles. We zigzagged our way on the backroads through farmland. Now the countryside is all farming… gone are the Lakeshore drives and the big orchards. The middle of the mitten reminds me of Wisconsin countryside. Big barns, silos , cornfields, etc. It’s going to be quite a bit different than the last two weeks! Looking forward to discovering the middle.
The last few miles we were back on the trail into Grand Rapids. This section of trail was pretty rough and bumpy too. Sorry I didn’t stop for a photo of the worst parts. Made it the longest 5 miles!
Things I see….
I’m tired tonight. Felt like 57 miles.. especially the last few. Feels good to be horizontal. I’ll be asleep early! Traveling more northeast tomorrow heading toward Bay City MI on Lake Huron by the end of the week. Jim says only 40 miles tomorrow. We’ll be in a teeny tiny town. All trail! Hope it’s in good shape. Ear buds are charged for some podcast listening.
cinnicrew 