Health & Fitness with Bill Hauda

The SS Badger bike loop
An unforgettable tour

Bill Hauda (on bike in yellow) and his touring companions bike to Bellaire for beer.  Photo by Bob Krueger

I was somewhat taken aback when the bike shop employee in Charlevoix, Michigan, said, "You're the first ones so far this year." I had just told him three of us from Wisconsin were looping northern Lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Ludington and taking the SS Badger back across the lake.

I thought we had an original idea and were pioneering a fantastic new adventure – about 600 miles, self-contained, in 11 days, through one of the most spectacular bicycling areas in the Midwest; a place where ships, marinas, beautiful beaches, scenic vistas and Great Lakes maritime history all abound.

Not so. We just happened to be the lead group of a bicycling parade that apparently happens every year, starting with the melting of the snow. And it's all made possible by the continuing operation of a historic car ferry, the SS Badger.

"We carry between 750 and 1,000 bikes each year," said Magee Johnson, media relations director of Lake Michigan Carferry which operates the SS Badger. Many of those cyclists are apparently doing the loop.

The Badger is a vestige of the lake's rich maritime history. The 410-foot vessel began service in 1953 hauling rail cars. Today it's the shortest, most economical crossing between middle Wisconsin and middle Michigan for cars, trucks, people and, of course, bicyclists.

Bob Krueger, Jim Cousin and I, members of the Madison Hash House Harriers running club, decided to do a long bicycle trip together. Our first idea to get our bikes and bodies out to Denver and bike back raised some serious logistical issues. So did the idea of cycling around Lake Superior, since we were going to do it in early May and accommodations there are spartan while the weather is iffy, at best, on the north shore.

So both ideas were abandoned in favor of what I now reverently call the SS Badger Loop.

Here's how we did it. We drove to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where we left our vehicles in the Badger parking lot and got on our bikes heading north. We stayed overnight in Green Bay, Menominee, Escanaba, Manistique, Trout Lake (more on that later), Petosky, Charlevoix, Traverse City, Manistee and Ludington, where we boarded the Badger for the four-hour return trip across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc and our cars.

We took two separate ferries at the straits of Mackinac to get from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island, a place with enough historical and scenic wonders that it could have been a great overnight stop, and then from the island to Mackinaw City. Bikes aren't allowed on the Big Mack, the suspension bridge linking the U.P. with what Yoopers refer to as "da trolls down below."

Our adventure came in early May to coincide with the start of the Badger's season schedule. (Dates for service this year are May 9 to October 12.) The cost one-way is $59 per person plus $5 per bike. That's a bargain for the experience you get. It's a fascinating step back into history, when vessels were the main transportation around the Great Lakes.

Early May in the U.P. can be cold so we carried winter riding gear. On our way from Manistique to Trout Lake we hit a mix of rain and snow. Having grown up as a kid in da Yoop, I knew May snow was not unusual. We always said you can only swim up there between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and that's only in the smaller and warmer lakes. Try Superior or Michigan and you can turn blue.

Once we reached lower Michigan, the weather became more moderate. I decided to pack up my winter things and ship them home by UPS to lighten my load. That was at Charlevoix, a positively spectacular lakeshore community. When I stopped at a bike shop to ask about shipping, I discovered our three bikes were not the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. We were simply repeating a journey taken earlier by others.

The continuing operation of the SS Badger makes Lake Michigan cycling easy. While the loop we did was 600 miles, you could make that much longer by exploring all the area's magnificent treasures, like Grand Traverse Bay and the Sleeping Bear Dunes lakeshore. Bob and Jim wanted to skip that because they were headed for beer (more on that later, too).

We hauled all our gear on our bikes, but stayed in motels. Since it was early in the season, no reservations were needed. Doing the trip midsummer when tourist traffic increases would dictate a more formal plan with advance reservations. We simply rolled into town, got what was available or called  a day ahead to chambers of commerce to make contact with motels.

This is a bicycle adventure you can customize to your desires. Although we had Wisconsin and Michigan bike maps, we frequently charted our own course. For example, between Petosky and Traverse City, Bob and Jim took us inland, where we climbed and descended some pretty good hills to visit Short's Brewery in Bellaire. An award winner, Bellaire Brown proved to be the best dark beer I have ever had. It was worth doing all those hills, even on a recumbent.

Most of the route, however, stuck to the shore, which is relatively flat with great scenery. The Petosky area was the hilliest of the cities we went through and also the one where dealing with traffic was sometimes problematic. Stopping a fully loaded bike at a stoplight going uphill was trying, and some motorists, including a cement truck traveling at a high rate of speed, didn't want to give us any room.

Our route included the following:

• Manitowoc to Green Bay: 66 miles (because of a stiff north-westerly head wind, we opted to go north first and then west, though that is not the shortest route).
• Green Bay to Menominee: 66 miles generally following the Schramm's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Wisconsin (SAGBRAW) route in reverse.
• Menominee to Escanaba: 60 miles (Michigan 35 has a good shoulder for riding).
• Escanaba to Manistique: 66 miles (basically U.S. Highway 2, also well-shouldered; in bad weather the blast of air and rain from passing trucks can be unnerving, however).
• Manistique to Trout Lake: 69 miles (U.S. 2 mostly, but then quiet H-40 from Engadine to Trout Lake).
• Trout Lake to Petosky: 72 miles (Michigan 123 and a mix of roads to St. Ignace; Mackinac Island ferries to the lower peninsula.
• Petosky to Charlevoix: 18 miles.
• Charlevoix to Traverse City: 66 miles.
• Traverse City to Manistee: 78 miles.
• Manistee to Ludington: 30 miles.
• Ludington to Manitowoc via the Badger

The latter legs were on a mix of state and local roads, which we mapped out each day depending on what we wanted to do. Our planning resources included the official Wisconsin bike maps, a SAGBRAW cue sheet, a Rand McNally road map of the Upper Peninsula (no bike maps exist for the U.P. because routes are very limited and obvious) and the Michigan Transportation Department's excellent bike map for the northwestern section of the state.

We also had the benefit of some old Shoreline Tour ride cue sheets from Michigan. However, cue sheets from the now defunct Shoreline Circle Tour were hard to use because that event went east to west, so everything was backward. (Ever try to read a cue sheet backward? It was a mental challenge and we joked about reading our maps upside down as well.) The Circle Tour ended when a ferry from the U.P. to Door County ceased operating. The Shoreline West booklet did provide some good advice.

This was one of those unforgettable bicycle experiences that just don't come along often enough. The beauty and history of this area are, in my opinion, unparalleled. I'd highly recommend it to everyone.

Bill Hauda is a bicyclist, veteran of about 50 marathons, including 13 in Boston; a former competitive triathlete; founder and first president of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin; currently a BFW board member; and former director of Wisconsin's two major cross-state bicycle tours, GRABAAWR and SAGBRAW.