My cousin lived in Wisconsin and had a cabin up on a lake that we visited once (before kids). Wisconsin has the 2nd largest number of lakes in the US with just over 15,000. My sister lived in Minnesota – “Land of 10,000 lakes” (actually 11,842). Having visited there, we appreciated how the homes were set back from Lake Minnetonka and the public still had access, at least where we visited. Michigan has 11,000 lakes (4th in the country behind Alaska (#1), Wisconsin and Minnesota) and of course it’s name sake Lake Michigan (the 3rd largest off the Great Lakes behind Lake Superior and Lake Huron) but I never thought of it as a summer wonderland. Not sure why. I really missed that!
Love the image below that put the Great Lakes into perspective.
Michigan actually touches four of the Great Lakes: Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Erie and also Lake St. Clair. We will spend the month of September traveling down her shores. Of course we had the great debate regarding crossing over to the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, or staying on the Michigan side. With the Gordon Lightfoot song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” playing in the background, we researched the crossing of Lake Michigan (even though the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk on Lake Superior) and found we’d need a good weather window of 4 or 5 hours. At this point, and loopers will make their own decisions, we will stay on the Michigan side the whole way since we’ll actually leave the boat for over 1 1/2 weeks while we are away, limiting our time for a crossing.
Loopers joke about “the fear of missing out (FOMO)” and this one certainly has caused us some angst (missing out on the Wisconsin side) but there is also the reality that it gets mighty cold up here and lake conditions worsen after September. The yellow pins below show where we’ve travelled in the month of August and the Red Arrow is where we are headed today. We’ll start a new color pin on Friday when September rolls around, and travel down the western shore of Michigan, eastern side of Lake Michigan.
Some time after October 1st, we will exit Lake Michigan south of Chicago on the Illinois River and traverse through the Illinois Waterway Locks (which are currently closed and under repair until October 1st.) Between loopers and commercial traffic, the expected traffic jam at those locks when they re-open will be great so we’ll hang back and look to go through a few days later. You can see where I’m going with this….. it’s complicated and each decision, opens and closes doors!
Anyhow….. all that being in the mix, the shores of Michigan have been absolutely beautiful and a great delight, so we will stick to the eastern side of Lake Michigan and hope our Wisconsin family and friends forgive us!
We left Charlevoix around 10:00 am and arrived at Traverse City around 2:00. There was a sailboat race happening in the bay just north of the marina that we had to navigate around and also saw 2 double masted schooners out sailing. Once settled in the marina, we jumped on our bikes to explore a bit and found another very vibrant downtown with shops, restaurants and bars.
Traverse city is larger and busier than Charlevoix or Harbor Springs, but again a very nice set of parks, bike paths and beaches making the waterfront accessible to the public. Grand Traverse Bay got it’s name from French traders when they made “the long crossing” – la grande traverse – from present day Norwood to Northport. Chippewa and Ottawa tribes lived in the region a mission established in 1839 by Peter Dougherty paved the way for white settlers. It was Doughtery’s mission that planted the first cherry trees. Traverse City was founded in 1847 as an important center for lumbering and has subsequently become famous as the nations cherrry capital. The first National Cherry Festival was held in Traverse City in 1925. It was first called “Blessing of the Blossoms” and held in the spring to attract people during the blooming season. Legislature moved the date of the festival to the summer, and it attracts tourists from around the state. During the week the festival takes place, the population of Traverse City rises from about 15,000 to about 500,000. In 2004 the legislature added “Blossom Days” as a spring festival, not to miss out on an opportunity.
We found some live entertainment and a bar with craft beers for a safe arrival drink and snack. Then it was back to the boat for an online search for a Chinese restaurant for dinner tomorrow night, since we didn’t seem to pass on in our travels. Grilled some steaks on the boat and enjoyed a book and people watching from the boat.
Tomorrow we will explore a bit more by foot and bike then head back up Traverse Bay to Northport to visit Carol’s friend Bev who has a cottage there.
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