Trip along Michigan western coast

Just returned today from a 3 day, 730 mile trip on the Silverwing from Chicago area up and along the Lake Michigan coast and down through the Manistee National Forest. Red Arrow Highway and Blue Star Highway with some Interstate riding to get between some areas faster.  Went with 3 friends who were riding sport touring bikes and a Goldwing, so all above 1000cc's. I was actually the organizer and lead rider a good part of the time, but no issues staying with the larger displacement machines when following.

Moto Centric soft panniers/saddlebags and seat pack, Givi trunk and a dry bag had plenty of room for what I needed and a lot of what I didn't need.  Was even able to carry several cameras, POV video cameras and various mounts as well as my MacBook Pro 13.

Found i was getting 49-55MPG even loaded down. Odo flipped over 10,000 miles today on way home...

Sounds like a great trip. Thank you for the report.

My old stomping grounds! That is a great ride along the shores of Lake Michigan. Would be an interesting trip to take the SS Badger across the lake and come back down WI.

hankster wrote:

My old stomping grounds! That is a great ride along the shores of Lake Michigan. Would be an interesting trip to take the SS Badger across the lake and come back down WI.

FYI You've got to bring along your own tie down straps on the Badger. For some reason they don't feel it their responsibility to offer them.

One memorable Badger trip was the midnight run from Wisconsin to Michigan in August at the peak of the Perseid meteor showers. Deck chairs on the bow watching the fireworks --'till it got too chilly. Lousy food though, so do bring along some pasties & a 6 pack.

Tim

Been on the Badger in a cage, never on a bike. For those taking the Blue Star and Red Arrow Hwys along the southeast coast of Lake Michigan, a great place to eat is Redamak's in New Buffalo. Some of the best greasy bar burgers you'll ever have!

Nice. Thanks for sharing your ride.

Your signature lists a tunnel bag, but it is not on the bike for your trip.

Let me guess, you like the step through and the tunnel bag inhibits the step through?

Modernman1953,

Its actually in the Givi trunk as it didn't work well as a tunnel bag as using it prevented the step through and with the other bags it was almost impossible to mount like a motorcycle without looking like an acrobat or risk going down. I just took it out and carried it when I wanted to use the trunk tyo store my helmet and needed a bag to carry stuff.

I just posted on another thread about this bag moments ago. Thanks and good observation...

bicyclenut wrote:

didn't work well as a tunnel bag as using it prevented the step through and with the other bags it was almost impossible to mount ...

True. Sometimes the answer is less stuff rather than more bags.

A group of us are leaving Sat. to watch the sunset off the Mackinac bridge and sunrise.
I really would like to do the lap around lake Michigan but we will see if they are game.
I want to go up the westside but I'm not organizing the ride. I've been up the west side a few times already and love the dunes. Beside visiting friends up by Cadillac and fishing trips in the Huron Natl. Forest. The scenery is a change of pace from the NE corner of Ind.
So it sounds like my buddy and his Swing plus a Bandit and a couple of Harleys
are heading up too. One dropped out after his other Bandit spun a bearing and can't make it.

http://mackinacbridge.org/bridge-cam-20/

Ozzman,

If you go along the westside we found probably the 2 best sections as far as roads go, to be Lakeshore Drive between Holland, MI and Grand Haven, MI, pick up at Grand Haven Beach State Park right near the harbor and Scenic Drive just north of Grand Haven.  Pretty good roads, some sections newly paved with nice wooded area shaded from sun, curves and the first has many nice homes along the Lake. The photo below is off of Scenic Drive where there is a break in the woods near Duck Lake that has a good view of Lake Michigan.

ozzman wrote:

A group of us are leaving Sat. to watch the sunset off the Mackinac bridge and sunrise.
I really would like to do the lap around lake Michigan but we will see if they are game.
I want to go up the westside but I'm not organizing the ride. I've been up the west side a few times already and love the dunes. Beside visiting friends up by Cadillac and fishing trips in the Huron Natl. Forest. The scenery is a change of pace from the NE corner of Ind.
So it sounds like my buddy and his Swing plus a Bandit and a couple of Harleys
are heading up too. One dropped out after his other Bandit spun a bearing and can't make it.

http://mackinacbridge.org/bridge-cam-20/

Our group fell apart and it was just me and my buddy stuck on going. So with that we were not bound by any destination. I suggested we go up the west side to mackinac but we wanted to do this in a day. Yesterday we hit the west side around 5 pm and red arrow highway. Rode up the blue star highway until threw us behind go to mackinac. Our goal was to try and make it as far north before sunset. Around 8:30 we rolled into Manistee and was looking to bunk in the casino but saw it was packed and headed to a neat little lake town 8 miles north of the resort at Onekama lake. Spent the night in a small cabin and hit the road again before 9 as we wanted to reach the tip of northport before turning around and heading back south through traverse bay. 800 miles later we make it back to the Fort around 8pm. I really enjoyed route 22.
Nice scenic curvy road with a wall of trees on both sides for 130 miles along the lake shore.

Here is a picture from Crystal Lake. One of the largest not accessible to lake Michigan.

So we never made to mackinac bridge but did make as far north as 45th parallel.
Halfway between the North Pole and Equator.

Here is our 45th Paralell photo taken last year. Just a tiny bit west of you guys. Idaho.   

Thanks for the photos.  Bob and I were did a around the lake tour back in 2011.  We enjoyed it a lot.

We stopped and I snapped a pic of lake Michigan on US 22 north of Arcadia.
This was one of the best views along the west side at sleeping bear dunes overlook.

Very nice trip through my childhood playground. We used to vacation in Northport every summer and made numerous trips to fish the Platte River and canoe the Crystal. Spent lots of time hiking up and down the sand dunes and searching for Petosky stones. That is a beautiful area.

Ozzman,

Thanks for the trip  update. Rt. 22 In MI known as the Tunnel of Trees is supposed to be one of the best motorcycles roads in Michigan, in the Top 100 in USA. good that you were able to ride it!

Mark