Rest day
Day 8: Saturday, May 28th
Fenton, MI -> Grand Rapids, MI
Miles: 41
Total miles: 546.45
Average speed: 12.1 mph
Weather: Mostly sunny with moderate headwind, some rain
I began the day feeling defeated; knowing the roads would be terrible and google maps would send me down the worst roads and the drivers would rage at me and I had to ride more than 100 miles.
I still felt okay setting off, and enjoyed my ride for a bit before I decided I didn't want to spend a day being miserable-- and it would be nice to have a break. I'm already taking a ferry across the lake anyhow! I took my warmshowers host up on her offer to pick me up, and after riding 40 miles I stopped in a town to wait for her. While waiting, I meandered around a farmers market and a nearby park and I think I accidentally fell asleep a little bit.
The atmosphere around the town was lively. Kids were chattering and people were milling about calmly and luxuriously. Long weekend!
Suzanne arrived in a big suburban and whisked me away enthusiastically, with offerings of lemonade and cookies. On the ride home, I found out that she thru-hiked the PCT in 2008 and biked across the country in 2010. We had a lot to talk about! Suzanne had all kinds of interesting stories from the trail and from her bicycle ride.
Soon after getting home and showering and doing some bicycle maintenance, we went to dinner and then had ice cream. It was all so delicious, and I really enjoyed getting to know Suzanne. We shared our solo camping and hiking experiences with each other. She told me about two times she was camping alone and scared herself into thinking she was in trouble.
One time, there weren't any good places to camp and she was in logging country so it was pretty barren. It was getting dark so she finally decided to just sleep on one of the logging roads; she saw the marks from someone else's sleeping pad, where someone must've slept recently. She set up her sleeping pad and tried to sleep when she heard an engine and saw lights in the distance. She realized it was a car and flashed her headlamp at it so that they wouldn't run her over. She then started to panic because she had just given away her position and what if they were serial killers? She threw all her stuff into her pack and then ran away into the woods, without using her headlamp because she didn't want them to know where she had gone. She stumbled into the woods and then waited, trying not to breathe as they came closer and finally stopped on the spot she'd been lying. Eventually they moved on and left but Suzanne was scared and couldn't sleep, and she didn't want to hike because she didn't want to turn on her headlamp and give away her position again. She waited until it was just light enough and then hiked on, trying to hide from the loggers, who she was convinced were out to get her.
Another time she was camped alone, she looked out of her tent and saw a black bear eating close to her. She remembered that you're supposed to make yourself big and make lots of noise to scare them off, so she did, but it didn't move. It didn't pay any attention to her. In her mind, that seemed wrong, so she quickly threw her things into her pack and moved along to find a new place to camp.
Today has been a great and restful day! Although I feel a teeny bit bad about skipping 60 miles on such a nice day... Oh well, an adventure is an adventure and it's been nice to have a bit of a break. Tomorrow I take the ferry across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin!
Fenton, MI -> Grand Rapids, MI
Miles: 41
Total miles: 546.45
Average speed: 12.1 mph
Weather: Mostly sunny with moderate headwind, some rain
I began the day feeling defeated; knowing the roads would be terrible and google maps would send me down the worst roads and the drivers would rage at me and I had to ride more than 100 miles.
I still felt okay setting off, and enjoyed my ride for a bit before I decided I didn't want to spend a day being miserable-- and it would be nice to have a break. I'm already taking a ferry across the lake anyhow! I took my warmshowers host up on her offer to pick me up, and after riding 40 miles I stopped in a town to wait for her. While waiting, I meandered around a farmers market and a nearby park and I think I accidentally fell asleep a little bit.
The atmosphere around the town was lively. Kids were chattering and people were milling about calmly and luxuriously. Long weekend!
Suzanne arrived in a big suburban and whisked me away enthusiastically, with offerings of lemonade and cookies. On the ride home, I found out that she thru-hiked the PCT in 2008 and biked across the country in 2010. We had a lot to talk about! Suzanne had all kinds of interesting stories from the trail and from her bicycle ride.
Soon after getting home and showering and doing some bicycle maintenance, we went to dinner and then had ice cream. It was all so delicious, and I really enjoyed getting to know Suzanne. We shared our solo camping and hiking experiences with each other. She told me about two times she was camping alone and scared herself into thinking she was in trouble.
One time, there weren't any good places to camp and she was in logging country so it was pretty barren. It was getting dark so she finally decided to just sleep on one of the logging roads; she saw the marks from someone else's sleeping pad, where someone must've slept recently. She set up her sleeping pad and tried to sleep when she heard an engine and saw lights in the distance. She realized it was a car and flashed her headlamp at it so that they wouldn't run her over. She then started to panic because she had just given away her position and what if they were serial killers? She threw all her stuff into her pack and then ran away into the woods, without using her headlamp because she didn't want them to know where she had gone. She stumbled into the woods and then waited, trying not to breathe as they came closer and finally stopped on the spot she'd been lying. Eventually they moved on and left but Suzanne was scared and couldn't sleep, and she didn't want to hike because she didn't want to turn on her headlamp and give away her position again. She waited until it was just light enough and then hiked on, trying to hide from the loggers, who she was convinced were out to get her.
Another time she was camped alone, she looked out of her tent and saw a black bear eating close to her. She remembered that you're supposed to make yourself big and make lots of noise to scare them off, so she did, but it didn't move. It didn't pay any attention to her. In her mind, that seemed wrong, so she quickly threw her things into her pack and moved along to find a new place to camp.
Today has been a great and restful day! Although I feel a teeny bit bad about skipping 60 miles on such a nice day... Oh well, an adventure is an adventure and it's been nice to have a bit of a break. Tomorrow I take the ferry across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin!
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