The weather changed in the early morning. We were prepared with our tarps already over our hammocks so one could sleep in until the rain passed. I was awake at 430am and mulling over riding to the corner bakery for coffee and fresh donuts. Rosie was all for it because it involved coffee and fresh donuts. About 530am, I got up and quietly rolled out. Only a half mile ride, then stealthily returned with donuts and hot coffee ☕. Matt was still asleep.

Rosie and I ate our share of the donuts. We made Matt a stronger coffee in my hydroflask. Shaking the coffee woke him up.. so we brought him a chocolate eclair and coffee in bed as it started to rain. ❤🦄☕

The rain had no plan on leaving. It was a steady rain most of the day. We decided to stay another night as neither of us felt up to riding in the rain the entire day.

That evening we made dinner early. Al Pastor pork with couscous in a whole wheat tortilla. It was absolutely delicious.

We cleaned up camp and went to bed early. We were hoping to get an early start due to major headwinds by noon the next day.

Morning light filled the trees. It was after 7am and I was still in my hammock. Oops. We packed it up and rolled towards town to get coffee and ice.

https://stellasmerch.com/

We made our way Northward out of the small town of Hart. It would be road riding most of the day. Mid morning we found US bicycle route 35 as it turned and ran along Bass Lake. It took us up to Bortell’s fish market. We both love fish and decided to stop. Absolutely delicious! We had fried lake perch and smelt. Neither of us had smelt before and it was great! Small provisions of smoked coho salmon and smoked lake trout made it into our ice mule for later.

During our time at Bortell’s, a recumbent cyclist stopped by and shared with us his stories of touring and local info. He was a Warmshowers host who lived in Ludington, but was rarely available to host due to his schedule. Today was no exception as he was heading back to Ann Arbor after his ride.

Matt and I finished up our lunch and looked at nearby campgrounds. With our bellies full and our motivation waning with each gust of headwind we made our way to Mason County Campground. As we climbed our last few hills for the day we came upon the power station that supplies Michigan with power. I saw the massive impeller from the roadside and thought.. SHADE! I navigated my bike over, parked and laid my weary body down under the impeller. Matt arrived and we took a very short break before pressing on.

Matt and I pushed our bikes up the last hill of the day before we found the unoccupied ranger station for the campground. Once camper rolled up and called the ranger, who shortly returned. We were thankful she called because if we had rode our bikes to find a campsite we would have missed it. The only available campsite was a cancelation and it was incognito with other campers vehicles. Ranger Sue was very helpful and got us in. When we arrived at the campsite, I went into search mode to find our picnic table. At this point, I just wanted to sit my tired self down and it showed. The surrounding campers moved their vehicles and helped locate our table.  We unpacked and made tea. Neighbors came by and chatted with us. The majority of campers were here for salmon fishing. We sat down and opened up the smoked coho. We both knew it wouldn’t be too long before that was gone. It was delicious! Shortly, afterwards we set up our hammocks and took a well deserved nap.

Late afternoon, Matt and I broke out the scrabble game and played a short game. Our other neighbor came by and offered us some of his smoked salmon and brisket. We thanked him and decided to make dinner with the brisket. It was amazing!

We pulled dinner together with our leftover gravy, parmesian couscous and beef brisket.

We cleaned up camp and went to bed early.  The next day it was forecasted for tailwinds!

With plans of leaving reasonably early, somehow we did not make it out of camp until after 11am. We found ourselves on US bicycle route 35 and stopped for ice and necessities before heading northward. Along the route between townships we found a roadside church that had an overhang with SHADE! I parked my bike and sat down on the blacktop. Matt rolled up and took a short break and then continued on.  Today we were not being very kind to each other as our patience and tone were wearing thin on one another. I could have sat there for another 20 minutes but decided to get back on the bike and press on. I eventually caught up with Matt on the two lane, zero shoulder section of the bicycle route. The positives were that it was signed US bicycle route 35 with pass with care signs along the route. I’m still not convinced all drivers can read, or even care for human lives other than their own.

Matt and I were approaching Fat Catz roadside market. He was done braking on the downhill and decided to safely passed me. We were two abreast for maybe 50 feet when a passing car generously applied their horn. As the owner of the road passed us, I applied my smile and wave. Matt snapped back asking if I had flipped him off. Offended and pissed, I yelled back NO! At this point, I was done for the day and welcomed the sight of roadside market picnic table. We grabbed some snacks and sat down. Nearby was the National Forest and even though our tailwind was good, we set off looking for a stealth site. Rosie and I followed Matt off onto the forest road where he found a stealth site a few miles back. He set up our hammocks and made us take a nap.

Over a campfire, we said our apologies and made dinner. Hot tea, red eye grits with smoked salmon. Soon we wrapped up camp and retired to the peaceful sway of our hammocks.

Sundays plan is to get up and out early to take advantage of the tailwinds. The sound of restful sleep is coming from Matt’s hammock as I am wrapping up this update. Its 8am. Time to shoot for 9am start time. Wish us luck! Hoping for big miles today with great tailwinds! Swish Swish!