Road trip 2010

Day 5: Saturday, July 10, 2010

Frankfort Michigan to Mackinaw, MI Indirect Total Miles: 209

Total Miles to Date: 801

Road Trip Around The

UPPER GREAT LAKES....

Following an overnight stay, Friday, at the Frankfort, MI yacht harbor, I again headed the camper North on M22 that would take me along the Lake Michigan shoreline through Betsie Point, Empire, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park, and the towns of Glen Arbor and Leland.

Each area provided good "photo op's", that included more lighthouses, scenics, old fishing villages and a teenager falling out of his kayak.

Following a dinner visit with my 2 teenage kids, who are working at (1) and attending (1) a summer camp at Pyramid Point, I headed East to Traverse City on M72. My goal was to get through the usual traffic gridlock at Traverse City with a late night sprint through town, (when most of the vacationers were in their hotel rooms), and eventually hook-up with highways US 131& 31 that would take me further North to Mackinaw City, where I would spend the night before heading South along the shore line of Lake Huron.

As approached Traverse City just before 10 p.m. car and truck traffic was quite light as I expected...

What I did not expect were the thousands of people sitting on blankets and folding chairs along the entire 6 to 10 miles of Grand Traverse Bay shoreline. There were people everywhere... It seems I ran headlong into the crowds gathering for the Fireworks show at the annual Cherry Festival.

Halfway along my route through town it was gridlock.. but not with cars.. but huge groups of pedestrians sprinting from the midway amusement rides on the south side of the 4 lane road, to the waterfront park on the north side...The fireworks were just minutes from starting... I considered stop in to make some pictures... There was not a parking spot for miles...

Lighthouses at Betsie Point, (L) and Empire (R)

Historic 1850’s Fish Cannery and commercial

fishing boat at Glen Haven.

The 1850s barn of D H Day and the Lake Michigan National Lakeshore near Glen Haven.

Dunes Climbers and the Glen Lake Picnic grounds at the at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

I happened upon a large group of teens crossing one of the many

Portage’s on the Crystal River near Glen Arbor.

This Portage is especially difficult because of the sheer drop from the road to the river and it is quite common to loose control of your kayak and/or loose your footing when getting back into your craft, as did the boy in the photo at the right... I felt like yelling to him “ don’t feel bad, (about falling) I did the same exact thing in this same spot last summer....

The throngs of people wait to cross the highway from the Cherry Festival Midway to the city park to watch the Fireworks Show..

Traverse City Michigan Cherry Festival:

Just as I had given up finding a spot to photograph the fireworks, the highway began to hug the shoreline so close that I had an unobstructed view of the Bay and downtown Traverse City, even though that I was ten miles from the “action”.... My 600 mm lens came in handy to get these shots that are shown here “at full frame” and not retouched.. I thought the show was spectacular (the 4 vertical red dots in the photos are lights on a radio tower,)

My long day ended at Mackinaw City with this midnight view of the famous seven mile bridge that connects Upper and Lower Michigan, and where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet in one of the most treacherous bodies of water on the Great Lakes..

Come back to this site often and ride along with me around the Upper Great Lakes.

New photos will be posted every day or two..