Day 3 - Ludington to Platte River NP

Miles today  - 77.4

Trip miles - 202.2


I awoke at our usual time which is around 5 AM. Tim is asleep early and up early. By 5:00 he is packing up the gear in  his tent and starting breakfast. I'm awake but resisting getting out of my sleeping bag. At some point my bladder refuses to allow me to lay there. Then I start the routine. It must be  possible to go faster but somehow it takes 2 hours to be on the road. For breakfast today we scrambled 6 eggs with milk and cheese and a package of dried potatoes. The other half dozen eggs from the Dollar Store were hard boiled for next day snacks. 

Thinking about food is one of the things I do on the bike. I'm trying to avoid the problem of not taking in enough calories. Today we made a stop at a road side diner in Manistee and had pancakes at around 10:30. I ate 2 huge ones. Tim couldn't finish so talked the waitress into giving him a zip lock bag to save it for later. 



There's a river walk in Manistee. The fish charters were cleaning their cat h. A few dozen big salmon at least 2 feet length. The customers were very happy. 

We rode thru several nice coastal towns and a lot of rural countryside. There were a few hills requiring climbing 300 feet. Not too hard even with the fully loaded touring bike unless the grade is too steep. In that case I walk. The reward is a long fast downhill. In Frankfort we stumbled onto a fishing derby. Literally hundreds of people partying and telling fish stories under a huge tent along the waterfront. Instead of sticking around we got some groceries, checked out the town beach, and climbed out of town to head to camp. 



The final stretch was along Crystal Lake. Very beautiful and flat easy riding. We lucked into the last available campsite at the Platte River National Campground. A friendly clean place to shower up and enjoy our camp. Dinner was a pound of ground beef and Hamburger Helper. The local ice-cream shop was a great way to end the day. The world is abetter place when your stomach is full of ice-cream. 


Almost 80 miles today mostly flat. Felt good just tired at the end of the day. Already in the rhythm of the bike tour. The days blend together. And the tour will be over before know it. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2026 at 7:27 PM

    We’ve donated to the Betsie Valley bike trail for decades! It’s a special community that has worked tirelessly to preserve public access.

    ReplyDelete

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