This sixth day of my trip around the Upper Great Lakes constituted my first ‘turning point’ as the night before I had reached the top of the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan and camped with a midnight beautiful view of the seven mile bridge over the Straits of Mackinac.
Day 6: Sunday, July 11, 2010
Mackinaw Michigan to Alpena, MI Indirect Total Miles: 107
Total Miles to Date: 908
Road Trip Around The
UPPER 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..
All Photography by Ken Stewart © copyright 2010
Sunrise revealed a view of the same spectacular bridge, and memories of my crossing many years ago while riding my motorcycle. At that time, a gust of wind at the top of the bridge blew me from the paved right lane instantly to the corrugated steel center lane, a harrowing experience, as motorcycles don’t like corrugated steel roadbeds. The checkered steel causes the bike to wander left to right and it is very easy to loose control. Fortunately I made it back to the pavement without wiping out, or being hit by a passing truck....
But I digress...
Today, following shooting a few pictures of the old lighthouse in Mackinaw, gassing up the camper at a greatly inflated price, (the locals like to gouge the tourists), and wandering around the the town looking for a WiFi hotspot to upload the latest page to this site (I found one at a local Days Inn hotel), I unceremoniously turned South on US 23 to follow the shoreline of Lake Huron.
My first real view of the lake came about 35 miles south of Mackinaw at a nice little roadside park at Hammond Bay.
Continuing south from the roadside park it began to rain which forced the many motorcyclists, (there seemed to be a lot of them on this picturesque highway) to stop and scramble to find their rain suits, (more memories of my biking days). As I headed further south the rain went from a shower to dry, then another shower, then dry again.
During one of those dry spells I found my way to Presque Isle Harbor (Harbour for you Canadian readers) where I got a few shots of the state marina and the “New” Presque light house before a full fledged thunder storm blanketed the area.
The building storm clouds and heavy rain was my cue to move on further south (at no more than 35 MPH) and out of the driving rain and wind...
Eventually I reached the town of Alpena where the rain had passed and was now sunny. There I spotted a sign pointing to the Alpena Fairgrounds, where they welcome RVers to camp on the grounds, provide electric hook-ups, water and a waste dump station all for less than half the cost of a state park or commercial campground..
It was a no brainer to pull in to the fairgrounds for the night, and top off the water tank and use the dump station, before continuing my trip south to the lower tip of Lake Huron, where I will cross the border to Canada.
Sunrise revealed a view of the spectacular bridge over the Straits of Mackinac and the historic 1850s Mackinaw lighthouse museum.
The Huron Shores
roadside park at Hammond Bay.
Motorcyclists
scramble to find their rain suits as the camera catches my windshield wiper in motion.
Storm clouds, moving in from over Lake Huron, sends a seagull to shore at the Presque Isle Harbor Marina.
Presque Light Station, known as the “New” lighthouse, it was built in 1870, to replace the “Old” lighthouse built in 1840.
This ‘new’ 113 foot structure is is now a museum. With its light still operational and automated since 1970.