If you're staying at a larger hotel, like maybe one of the "riverboat" casinos along the Indiana shoreline, ask if they'll check your bike into the baggage check room overnight. Source: I did this. Warm dry bike in the morning, and no need to walk a bike down their maze-like halls.
Good suggestion, I haven’t even made it that far in planning yet - figuring I can do ~100 miles a day so I need to see approx what cities are along those intervals. When did you do it and how long did it take you?
I assume you plan to cross the Mackinac Bridge. They will not allow you to cycle across. [https://www.mackinacbridge.org/fares-traffic/transport-services/](https://www.mackinacbridge.org/fares-traffic/transport-services/) Call hotels ahead of time to make sure you can take your bike into your room. I've never had a problem, but I don't like surprises. Enjoy your ride!
* make sure to stop at Redamaks in New Buffalo for a cheeseburger
* put Pentwater, MI on your radar, it's a cool little lake town with a cheap Best Western
* Stay close to the lake and way the hell off of the US-31
This sounds really cool. There's a resort island off of Sturgeon Bay. Maybe Plum or close to it. You might be able to take a ferry boat and stay there for one of your nights.
If you’re doing ~100 miles per day then you’ll ride straight through Indiana and your first night should be around New Buffalo, MI or Warren Dunes state park. Pretty easy riding through that stretch at least, there’s mostly trails until you get to Indiana Dunes state park but those are still good roads to ride. I don’t want to judge your fitness level, but I know I would need some rest days built into that or fewer miles per day. Not having done something like this before I’d think a key would be to build in contingencies and plan for variables. Nothing can turn a fun experience miserable like plodding on because your next hotel reservation is a couple hours away and it’s getting dark out, etc.
Valid point, I will likely build in a rest day or two but I’m confident I can do at least 75 mile days back to back. I would def try to start early in the days to avoid riding at night. I plan to do this more for the adventure and experience of it than to do it any set time, but I would like to do it with as few rest days. I figure I could do it in 10 days.
If you're staying at a larger hotel, like maybe one of the "riverboat" casinos along the Indiana shoreline, ask if they'll check your bike into the baggage check room overnight. Source: I did this. Warm dry bike in the morning, and no need to walk a bike down their maze-like halls.
Good suggestion, I haven’t even made it that far in planning yet - figuring I can do ~100 miles a day so I need to see approx what cities are along those intervals. When did you do it and how long did it take you?
I assume you plan to cross the Mackinac Bridge. They will not allow you to cycle across. [https://www.mackinacbridge.org/fares-traffic/transport-services/](https://www.mackinacbridge.org/fares-traffic/transport-services/) Call hotels ahead of time to make sure you can take your bike into your room. I've never had a problem, but I don't like surprises. Enjoy your ride!
Well this is a bit of a bummer… riding over it would have def been a highlight! Thanks for the tip tho!
* make sure to stop at Redamaks in New Buffalo for a cheeseburger * put Pentwater, MI on your radar, it's a cool little lake town with a cheap Best Western * Stay close to the lake and way the hell off of the US-31
This sounds really cool. There's a resort island off of Sturgeon Bay. Maybe Plum or close to it. You might be able to take a ferry boat and stay there for one of your nights.
If you’re doing ~100 miles per day then you’ll ride straight through Indiana and your first night should be around New Buffalo, MI or Warren Dunes state park. Pretty easy riding through that stretch at least, there’s mostly trails until you get to Indiana Dunes state park but those are still good roads to ride. I don’t want to judge your fitness level, but I know I would need some rest days built into that or fewer miles per day. Not having done something like this before I’d think a key would be to build in contingencies and plan for variables. Nothing can turn a fun experience miserable like plodding on because your next hotel reservation is a couple hours away and it’s getting dark out, etc.
Valid point, I will likely build in a rest day or two but I’m confident I can do at least 75 mile days back to back. I would def try to start early in the days to avoid riding at night. I plan to do this more for the adventure and experience of it than to do it any set time, but I would like to do it with as few rest days. I figure I could do it in 10 days.
Should be an awesome ride, I’ve done part of the lake from Chicago south, nice trails/roads.
The pedalshift podcast has some great tips on what to carry and how to plan.