Jul 282015
 

We were up and out by 9:00 am today to head to a favoured spot on Mackinac Island. The island is known for its historical and early settler days. When you get out of the marina it is a step back in time. No cars of any kind are allowed on the island. There are horse drawn carriages and bicycles as the only other means of transport other than walking. The island is very large so traversing the island by bicycle is recommended.

We are staying at Mackinaw Island State Dock on an extremely short dock of 30 feet. They wouldn’t put us on a proper dock as a lot of the larger docks have been reserved for months. We made due after taking over an hour of tying fenders, lines, and removing Low Voltage into a safe spot. The ferry wake is impossible to escape. There are mooring balls out in the harbour and I’m sure they are rocking as much we are. There are at least 5 ferries running on a regular basis. It is now 9:30 pm and they have quieted down but there is still meandering left over wakes from the day. The marina is full even at dusk when a lonely 50 foot sailboat shows up and is put on the outside space to spend the night.

We rented bikes and rode around the island. We stopped at “the crack in the island” in the middle of the forest. Saw a couple small private planes take off, rode the bikes on pavement and in the off road areas. I would recommend seeing “the arch”, the coastline on the east side of the island which is numbered with thousands of Inukshuks made by people who have visited.   The “main street” is a crazy busy place with bikes everywhere, horses waiting for their passengers, people in every shop. There are ice cream stores and homemade fudge shops on every corner. Hotels and bed and breakfast places are abundant for those coming in by ferry and wanting to stay the night. History is what this island is all about. Owned by the Brits, taken by the Americans, taken back by the Brits and finally landing as an American Island. It has quite the story to tell and is a very interesting little spot here in the north.

Rain is expected and south winds too. We plan to head to the east side of Lake Michigan only because there is nothing on the west side for 140 miles. A bit far in a south wind. Wifi is still tough to get and we apologize for not staying in touch daily. We do update daily but not able to post.

 

 Posted by at 8:43 PM

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