Ryan and Lydia Do The Mitten: Day 3 - Grand Haven to Silver Lake State Park

TL;DR: bicycle touring is awesome and you are awesome, so you should give it a try.

A bicycle tour can really make a person think about the sheer size of this world. When travelling at freeway speeds, it is hard to appreciate distance. Towns, forests, lakes, and streams rush by your window with barely enough speed to register their existence, let alone to appreciate them. Everything slows down when travelling by bicycle. There is no "Town so small, if you blink you'll miss it." Even if a town is only composed of the meeting of two roads, it may still take several minutes to coast on by. Taking it slow allows the traveler to appreciate the minute detail in a 20 foot tall carving of Paul Bunyan, or to watch juvenile trout feeding on top water, the ripple of the water with every tiny strike visibly even in the shade cast by the bridge under wheel.

And I think there is something about strapping fifty pounds to a bicycle and pedaling from town to town that draws the attention of others and brings out their talent for both conversation and altruism. Each day on the road, we have met people who have stopped what they were doing to share some advice on places to visit along the way, offered to loan their tire pumps or electric generators, even share exciting life stories over a cup of tea. It seems like everywhere we go, people smile, point, honk their horn (in a kind way... well for the most part) and ask us where we are headed.

I know that the places we camp during this trip will be memorable in years to come. But what really strikes me about this trip, and what I believe will be the most important part, is the opportunity to view the contour of our beautiful state, the plants and animals that live in each unique niche we travel through, and the chance to watch people go about their days from morning until night. All of these things slowly come into view, focus through time a foot traveled, and linger until they fade into the distance, with always something new ahead.

Ah well, enough of the wax poetic. What did we really do? In short, it was a good day. Lydia and I took way to many pictures and video, had plenty of beach time, good roads, and finally a beautiful place to rest at the end of the day. We had some tough climbs, (1280ft gained today, several climbs over 10% grade for the cycling nerds reading this) and even better descents. As always, more photos and videos are available at the photos link at the top of the page.

Enjoy!

L+R

We started our morning in Grand Haven the way we usually do, searching for wifi, drinking espresso/cappuccino, and uploading photos and videos to the blog

One of the beautiful beaches in Muskegon State Park. Highly recommended route!

Pit stops in Muskegon State Park. Got yah!

Muskegon State Park has some of the most beautiful beaches, forest, and smooth road that we have come across.

Shameless selfie!

Pretty paint!

After riding through miles of agricultural land, we decided to take the road (way) less traveled. It lead us through a few hours of gravel and sand road riding. Definitely gunked up our drive trains a bit! The route took us through several miles of beautiful peach and apple orchard land.