Considering a motorcycle trip around Lake Michigan for next summer. Thoughts, input, insight?

This is mostly copied from another space. I'm not sure too many people here, other than Stan, has done something similar to this. But if you have, or just have comments or thoughts about the area, or the idea we are considering, I'd love to hear what you think. We started out thinking about a two week trip to the West Coast and back, but decided that would be far too ambitious.

So instead, the wife and I are planning a 7-9 day road trip for next summer. Starting point would be the far SW edge of Chicagoland, basically where I-80 and I-55 meet. I don't want anything terribly grueling. One, I want to take time to see the sites and enjoy the scenery without feeling we need to hurry to the next destination. Two, I know if we are on the bike eight hours a day every day, her enjoyment of the trip will diminish significantly. So I'm thinking realistically we are looking for something averaging around 200-300 miles per day. Point A to Point B will probably be less, since we'll probably find places off the direct route we want to stop for lunch, to site see, or whatever.

I plotted out a few destinations from our area, and talked to a few buddies. One idea we are strongly considering is riding around Lake Michigan. Considering we would be heading fairly far north, we'd probably plan for July or August.

We would circle around Chicagoland to either Milwaukee area, or maybe as far as either Green Bay, Appleton, or Door County for day one. We have friends in the Appleton area, so we might spend a bit of time with them and not do as much mileage on day two. Maybe Marinette, Escanaba, or Iron Mountain as a final stop. On day three maybe head through Sault Ste Marie to Sudbury, ON, just so part of our ride includes Canada. Day four would be back around and down to Mackinac Island. Spend part of day five going to the island and then head down through Petoskey to Traverse City. Day six could get us down to New Buffalo, MI. Day seven head home.

Those are pretty short days on the bike, so we'd have time for little side trips, or time to stop at local places if we wanted. There is also the flexibility of throwing an extra day in at some of those places. We could always spend an extra day in Door County, or in the UP, or in Traverse City, based on weather and what we felt like doing.

 

If you're riding into Canada you should come to Toronto. We'll show you a good time.

 

Go here: Saugatuck, Michigan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I remember we ate at some cute fish shack kind of place that had a good fish and chip and watched the boats go by. Very pleasant afternoon. The dunes are great.

 

I looked at trying to swing down through Toronto and Detroit. I would've loved to include a couple baseball games in the trip. I think it would add too many miles. Not completely ruled out, just looks like it would take us too far out of the way, considering Mackinac Island, Petoskey, and Traverse City are all on our "must" list.

Good tip.

I can imagine that would be rough. My bike is basically a cruise liner compared to a 250cc VTR. A few hundred miles a day on it is a piece of cake. If I didn't have to account for keeping the wife entertained and comfortable I would consider 500-700 miles a day every day, it's that comfortable.

 

It looks like Martian and I (and anyone else interested) should consider a trip up to The Soo.

It sounds like a fun trip, Borla.

 

We looked at circling Lake Huron as well, I do like that idea. But it would end up meaning too many miles for the amount of time we want to do it in if we also included the definite destinations we want to hit. We have friends that live near Appleton/Green Bay in WI, so that is a definite. My wife has never been to Mackinac Island or Traverse City, and wants to, so those would have to be included. And because of other stuff we want to do next year, we are really limited to making it no more than 9 days, preferably 7-8.

 

Awesome Stan! Thank you for all the detailed thoughts. As of right now our plan is not to take the ferry, but if we do decide to consider it, I appreciate the insight. As of right now, the wife and I would be the only ones on the trip. My goal is to plan it where riding in the rain will be minimal, if needed at all. I'll probably work things out with my job where I'll plan to be off a particular week, but with the flexibility of changing it to a week or two later if the forecast looks like much rain. We'll see. Actually, we have yet to get rain gear, since most of our longer trips have been at the last minute when we knew the forecast would be clear. I need to find some reasonably priced but well performing rain gear sometime over the winter.

Again, thanks for the input. A few things I hadn't even considered, especially the hotel thing. I have oodles of Holiday Inn and Hilton/Hampton rewards points, but I think I'll have an interesting time finding chain hotels for at least a night or two in northern WI and/or the northern bit of MI. As the time gets closer I may try to pick your brain a bit more.

Thanks for the idea, I'll have to look into it. Have to limit the wine drinking when I have to ride the bike home though.

 

I'd love a West Coast swing that would include heading a northern route one direction and a southern route the other, but it's a bit outside of the one week trip I can swing for next year.

 

Plans may be adjusting.

One of the guys I ride with I've known basically my whole life, probably since I was 8-9 years old. We were fairly close friends as kids, had pretty sporadic contact for while (no drama, just didn't live close to each other), and we've become close again in the last couple of years. His wife and my wife get along amazingly, so we've often been riding together with the girls. We had an unseasonably warm day Saturday, so we met up and spent the afternoon and evening with them riding and hanging out. He asked if we had any trips planned and I brought up the idea we had about riding around Lake Michigan. We started talking about other rides we'd like to do, but the difficulty of 1) being 1000 miles away from most of the coolest riding spots, and 2) the difficulty of making that kind of trek while still keeping our wives happy. Both of us could probably pound pavement for a day or two and be halfway across the country, but the ladies would be miserable if we tried doing 500+ miles in a day, let alone a couple long days in a row. For them to enjoy it we'd need to be more in the 200-400 mile/day range.

So we are talking about all kinds of ideas and he says "Well, I have a 26' enclosed trailer. We could throw the bikes in there, spend a day or day and a half on the road in the truck, get the bikes out, ride for a week, and then tow them back." The wheels start turning. He says he has a buddy who owns a storage unit business in Cheyenne, Wyoming where we could safely leave the truck and trailer. That's roughly 950-1000 miles (a long days' drive) away. We could drive out and back in a day or so each way. That would give us a week to ride. The options from there are pretty wide. We could probably make it as far as the Grand Canyon if we wanted to head SW. Or we could ride through the Badlands, Sturgis, etc. Or head NW through Wyoming to Yellowstone.

I'm going to have to think on this. My wife and I typically prefer traveling on our own. We like setting our own schedules, deciding where to stop and eat on our own, figure our own entertainment out, etc. But this couple is very laid back, and I think our budgets and ideas would mesh well. And it could end up being a pretty epic trip. Hmm.

 

Cool, I appreciate your insight. I was hoping you had some as I thought you were not far from that general area. I'll let you know what happens as time gets closer. I also appreciate the feedback on I-25. I think as often as possible we'd try to take alternates to the interstate.

I also hadn't thought about dropping the ladies off for a day or two, but that might be something to discuss. Let them do some shopping or resting while we do a monster day or two. Lots to think about!


As far as riding with this guy, I'm one to prefer longer rides by myself (or with the wife) usually too. But he and I have done a couple long days (up to 400-ish miles) and always had compatible riding styles. I think a weekend trip together a couple months prior would be a good idea though, just to test things further before investing in a 10 day trip.