Representative flat road on Day 1	Riverside Park

Gary, Kevin, and Wally sort of fell behind. Don and I caught Larry at Riverside Park in Alma, where the National VFW home runs a cookie stop for us. Pizza Hut was its normal good stop. Their pizza bar always features some unusual pizzas, which are interesting to try. I got some BBQ pork pizza this time. Everyone else had to scramble to try it. They also had dessert pizzas and breadsticks.

We were making good time, so after lunch we slowed down a bit. We found a new route out of town, which avoided the worst of the traffic along the business strip. The standard DALMAC route goes around the business strip, so it’s not a problem for the majority of riders. The last 20 miles of the day were unremarkable. Straight, flat roads and little cover from the headwind. I didn’t hear any complaints, but I could see it was slowing many riders down just a bit. We got to Mt Pleasant at 2:00 and saw the baggage trucks had already been unloaded in the back field of Rose Center at Central Michigan University. We set up our tents and showered, then walked over to the store across the street for something to drink. By then it was in the upper 80s (F), so we sat in the shade while we downed our Big Gulps (tm).

Dinner was fair, but not up to past standards: pork chops with dressing, mashed potatoes, and mixed veggies. After dinner we hung out and visited with other campers. I didn’t do a recumbent count, but my rough estimate on the road was at about 10% recumbents. It seemed nearly half the groups out there had at least one recumbent among them.

There was a game at the football stadium, with fireworks at 10:00. By then most riders were in their sleeping bags, so it was more of a nuisance than anything. We got a break overnight: for the first time in memory, there was NO TRAIN!

Miles: 79, Average Speed: 18.1 mph

Day 2 - Mt Pleasant to Lake City
We awoke to heavy fog. I mean, really heavy. Car headlights appeard out of the gloom 100 feet in front of us. We trundled through it, not knowing when it would burn off. A new route out of town complicated matters, since road markings were difficult at best to see. Northward, Beal City was shrouded in fog, making most of it invisible and eerily quiet.

Flat slowly turned to invisible hills in the fog. It was tough gauging climbs and choosing gears without being able to see. In the wet, my speedometer started going crazy. Top speed read 73 mph, and current speed bounced randomly between 4 and 26 mph.

The overall gain for today was something like 800 feet, so not all the uphills got paid back. Finally the fog simply disappeared around 10:00. There was a few minutes of hazy sky then -poof- the sun came out and blue skies replaced the gloom. Weird. We once again bypassed the popular stop, this time at Lake George Campground, and instead went to downtown Lake George for lunch. We were presented with two choices: the Family Restaurant and the Lounge. We chose the Family Restaurant. Maybe we should have kept going to the next town, because they were only serving breakfast, which didn't hit the spot after riding for three hours. By the time we finished, the sun was starting to get hot. Oh no, another boring, warm, sunny afternoon!

After lunch, we started hitting some notable hills. There may have been a few in the morning, but I couldn’t see them. Being able to see them definitely made it easier for us to deal with them. I gave Don a recumbent climbing lesson, showing him to charge down the small lead-in downhill and power up the larger climb. With a quick double-downshift near the top, I crested one big hill at 24 mph while the upright riders were laboring up in their lower gears. Perspective is funny; in the pic below, the part that looks like a downhill is really a flat before the final rise.

We got to camp at 1:30 pm, in time for me to help unload the truck. While I don’t like doing it, I generally don’t shirk if I’m there for the unpleasant event. It lets me get my stuff earlier. We set up our tents and everything dried out quickly in the sun. No wonder, it was about 110F in my tent! While things were drying, a few of us walked ‘downtown’ to McDonalds for an early-afternoon snack. Back in camp, I showered and snoozed until supper. Showers were cold, which is normal for this place. Because of the heat outside, they actually felt almost good.

Supper was plain, but satisfying: Spaghetti, potatoes and green beans, with salad and rolls, and ice cream for dessert. Spaghetti and potatoes? Who thunk that one up? After dinner we walked around visiting. I let several people take test rides on my Baron, which resulted in a few humorous takeoffs. Everyone seemed to get the knack for riding it quickly, though, and return directions were always much steadier than the outward bound ones.

Miles 78, Average Speed 17.8 mph

Day 3 - Lake City to Central Lake
This morning was foggy, but not as bad as Friday morning. It was a bit cool taking off. A vest would have felt nice, which of course I didn’t have with me on this trip. Oh well. Unlike yesterday, the fog slowly dissipated as the sun came up.

Don, Larry, and I took off, resolving to take it easier for ‘a while,’ whatever that means.  We were doing OK out of town, but eventually a couple of groups passed us and we were forced to speed up.  As in past days, we were far from the first ones out, so there were plenty of bikes ahead of us.

Don practiced his recumbent climbing techniques, and he was a fast learner. Top speeds ran in the mid-40s as we barreled down and powered over the tops of the rollers, some of which were reaching the upper limits of size for what I’d call ‘rollers.’ For definition’s sake, a roller is one that I can take like a roller coaster; the momentum of the first gives the speed to take the next. Not to be confused with ‘rolling hills’, which I define as "no switchbacks required," and no cliffs to look over. On one memorable hill, I began coasting just as I passed a group of riders near the top of one hill, then continued to coast back down, then over the two subsequent hills, reaching 43 mph. The upright riders were pedaling furiously but couldn’t keep up as I coasted away.

Don complained of an intermittent squeak. Of course it went away when I listened. Eventually though, came back worse than ever. Finally it was nearly constant and I convinced him to pull over. His rear brake was rubbing slightly; not enough to feel, but probably enough to take off a mph or two from his top speeds.

We stopped at Elk Rapids for a restroom stop The restaurants were already clogged, so we aimed for lunch in Torch River. We stopped at the marina for a short relief stop before continuing. Unfortunately, when we stopped at Torch River, the target restaurant was apparently under new management and didn't open until 5 pm. Our next fallback was Alden. We were still ahead of the crowd, so the restaurants were uncrowded. After a nutritious lunch of taco salad, I hit the Muffin Tin to visit Aunt Janie. She was confused, but happy to see me. Some 5-Day riders and Century riders had already been through town and told her I wasn’t on the route this year. Well, I wasn't on  their  route.  I got a lemon-blueberry muffin and a couple of chocolate chip cookies.
 
 

Quick stop at Elk Rapids marina	Torch Lake Road: We almost had the whole road to ourselves.

Camp space is a bit cramped in Central Lake, so tents were scrunched in any available flat spot. Wally wanted a place in the shade, so we gave him a choice: one next to the stream and one next to the port-potties.  He took the one by the stream. It was so heavily shaded that the grass was still wet from the morning’s  fog, but he didn’t care. We changed our clothes and walked down to the beach for a short swim, then came back to camp and took our showers. The showers were still warm!
 
 

Wally plays with his bike while John Abbey looks on.	Here's Da Man, Dick Allen himself. Dick threatened that this might be his last year to ride. Say it ain't so, Dick!

Dinner was the traditional hamburger cookout, complete with baked beans, potato salad, pasta salad, and corn on the cob. As usual, I had to roll back to the tent. They had a dessert table, too, but for me dessert was courtesy of the Muffin Tin. It goes without saying that the cookies and muffin were awesome.

Miles 79,  Average Speed 17.4 mph

Day 4 - Central Lake to Mackinaw City
Today started cool but clear. Knowing that most riders are in a hurry to get out of town and up to the bridge, the baggage driver had the truck open at about 06:30. It was still twilight when I took off at 6:55. I wasn’t out of town yet when I discovered my speedometer wasn’t functioning at all. I put it in my pocket. Note to self for next year: pack a small piece of plastic wrap to protect the speedo in wet weather. The first hill out of town was pretty rude, requiring 3rd gear in the small chainring. About 5 miles out was a screaming downhill. Of course, my top speed will forever remain unknown. Darn! Lots of steep hills today, but at least I could cruise pretty well in between them.

Most everyone who buys the DALMAC jersey wears it on the last day, so lots of riders were on the same team as me!

At around 15 miles, I arrived at  Jordan Lake. My bike wasn't shift into the small ring very well, so I planned to shift to it immediately and use the taller cassette gears to give me at least some speed on the mile and a half climb out of town to The Wall. Unfortunately, I dropped my chain and Luis'  buddies got past me. I could't hope to catch them on the climb, it was  a 'standing only' climb for them, and I couldn't stand!  Sure enough, they were all grouped at the top of the climb. I kept watching for them, but after I passed them at the top of The Wall, I didn't see them again.
 

The sun rises over a distant ridge, a few miles out of Central Lake	The Wall: the curve in the forground is at about a 3% grade, the steep part is somewhere around 16%.

Following The Wall was Boyne City. The route out of town was different from years past, but still included a nice climb. There were several notable hills between there and Petosky, the kind where you can coast at 45+ mph but the trip up is ‘a bit’ slower. The 7-Sisters, a backroad route along Walloon Lake, wasn’t on the route this year. Somehow the route we took seemed flatter than I remembered. Still, some of the hills were of Southern California-esque proportions. I kept my speed to 40 mph on the downhill to US-31 on the north side of Petosky, then stopped at my traditional spot for lunch - Burger King. There were still 5-day people riding around town, not surprising since it was only 9:30 am.

A local discussed routes with me, and I decided to take M-119 all the way to Harbor Springs instead of the normal route going through the State Park. The normal route is a bit like a bike path: narrow, bumpy, and crowded. The highway is smooth with a nice shoulder but it’s longer and hillier. A few miles later, I wasn’t too sure I’d done the right thing; the traffic was fine but the climb was lasting forever. Eventually it quit, though, and I was able to cruise the rest of the way to Harbor Springs at nearly 30 mph. Way fun!

North of Harbor Springs is my favorite part of the entire trip. I love blasting through the trees along the narrow winding road. There are long shallow grades, with a few short steeper hills mixed in. This year, a SAG driver got stuck behind me for several miles. He remarked to his wife that I never went below 25 mph the whole way. Twenty miles of that was finished all too soon, and I carefully rode through a mini-traffic jam at Cross Village. The sand dunes were just as fast, until I turned away from Lake Michigan for the last inland stretch. The uphill through the cedar and jackpines seemed to last forever, or about 4 miles, whichever came first. Finally, it ended and I was back up to speed. I used the last of my water near Wilderness Golf Course, so I took a quick break at Cecil Corners to get something cold to drink. After that, the ride was pretty predictable. The Lake Michigan shoreline was beautiful, and I took the long downhill into Mackinaw City and pulled into the high school parking lot to finish my ride.

Legs Inn in Cross Village, built in the logging era  (photo by Wally Kiehler)	Bikes line up for the crossing as family and crews mill about (photo by Wally Kiehler)

I was in time for the first crossing, but since I was being picked up in Mackinaw City by my wife, I helped to police the crossing. 'No Pay Ray', famous in the midwest for doing all the major rides 'bandit,' tried to jump into the crossing at the Bridge's entrance, but police and volunteers were able to nab him in time. The Bridge Authority  takes a dim view of unauthorized bikes on the bridge; maybe it would have been better to let him on the bridge and have the Authority take him off.

Miles 92, Average Speed 18.6 (calculated based on mileage and elapsed time)

Postlogue:
We had four days of sunny skies, mild winds, and warm temperatures. I don't think we've had a DALMAC with better weather; although last year was pretty good, too. My great ride on the last day turned into a tough afternoon, as my wife was several hours late picking me up and I couldn't find one of my bags; but I found it (and her) eventually. I felt a lot better after a warm shower and some food. With bike and bags loaded, I headed south for home. For me, the Mackinaw City baggage drop was a great deal; even with the wife arriving late, I was still home earlier than previous years.

I noticed that I didn't make any notes about breakfasts. Not being a morning person, I don't usually take much notice of breakfast, I only eat it because I have to. This year I noticed that breakfasts were distinctly vegetarian: no meat at all. I hope that situation is remedied for next year or I'll like breakfasts even less.