Mike Breiding's Epic Road Trips 2015

Michigan Meander

Port Austin to the Le Cheneaux Islands in the Yooper

Michigan Meander: 11 - 12 June 2015
Port Austin to the Le Cheneaux Islands in the Yooper

With reluctance we said good-bye to our deelux accommodations on Lake Huron. We would now leave the tippy top of the Thumb and make our way south along the lake.

We made no stops from Port Austin to Alpena where we would spend the night before heading up to the Yooper on the following day.

Our route was SR 25 down the west side of the Thumb and on through Bay City. We missed our turn here and took an inadvertent tour of the old down town section. Definitely worth another stop when we can spend more time.
It was settled in 1831 and there are lots of old stone buildings, and some fab old mansions. But like our hometown of Wheeling WV, it looks like the boom has burst and many of the old buildings were in a state of disrepair and some looked abandoned. The town is split by the Saginaw River. Bay City, along with nearby Midland and Saginaw, form the "Tri-Cities" region, which has more recently been called the "Great Lakes Bay" region.

At Bay City we picked up US 23 north which hugs the shoreline of Lake Huron all the way up to the Straits of Mackinac.
We were now back in familiar territory having visited this area in September of 2013. That was our "Michigan and Wisconsin Road Trip". We passed through Tawas where we camped for several nights on that trip. It is the so called "Cape Cod of Michigan" alluding to the extensive beach areas on the Tawas Point Peninsula. Very pretty place.
We then passed by Harrisville State Park where we had dipped our toes in Lake Huron. Not so today - cool and rainy so we took a short walk to the beach with our umbrellas and then continued on north.

The rain let up a bit on the drive north but it was still very cloudy and breezy. We rolled into Alpena around 4:00 and found a beach front motel. But no one was there. Betsy called the "after hours" number and was told by the owner it would be around an hour and a half before he got back to the motel. We decided to keep looking.

We drove through the south side of town, through down town Alpena and then were heading north towards the city limits. Where were all the motels!? We saw not one place until were almost to the northern edge of town. We pulled in and Betsy checked us in.

Click on the photos below for a larger image.

This is where we spent the night of June 11th. The place was nearly booked up and we considered ourselves lucky to get a room. The place was clean and roomy with good WiFi. It started raining shortly after we got there and continued through the night and into the next morning.

Here is one of many thousands of dead ash trees we saw. Vigorous and perfectly healthy until the emerald ash borer found them. This insect is native to China, Korea and far east Russia. During the larval stage, emerald ash borers feed under the bark of ash trees. This damages and eventually kills the trees. Bummer...

We left Alpena in a pouring rain. It was still raining by the time we reached Hoeft State Park - a lovely spot with a nice beach and wooded camp sites. We made a quick walk to say "Hi" to the beach and the 1930s CCC built pavilion.

This strange looking cart was parked at the pavilion.

Any idea what it might have been used for? Curious...

By the time we got to Grace and yet another beautiful lake front roadside park it was starting to clear up and look pretty promising.

Yet another nice little beach to wet the feet and enjoy the sunshine.

The water was so clear it is hard to tell I am standing on a rock with my toes in water.

Crystal clear and now relatively calm we were getting more optimistic about how this day would turn out.

This is one of many big American Mountain-ash we saw on this trip. Although called an "ash" (AKA Rowan)it is a different family from the White ash which is being decimated by the emerald ash borer and so is not used as food for the little critter.

One last look down the beach and we were on our way north again.

Just south of the city of Cheboygan we made a quick stop at this road side pullout to snap a pic. A sea of trees and distant Lake Huron.

Driving through Cheboygan I spotted what looked like a pedestrian overpass over the Cheboygan River and moved the car in that direction. We got out for a look-see.