Just so everyone doesn’t think i’ve dropped off the face of the earth recently i’m happy to say that I completed the Michigander. The michigander is a bicycle tour through Michigan, the route changes every year so they can showcase different parts of Michigan. This year it started in Muskegon, MI on the Western coast of Michigan and ended in Traverse City, MI (the cherry capital.) The distance we rode this year was close to 300 miles and took 6 days to complete, camping in different schools each night.
I’ll be posting my thoughts from the 6 day tour over the next several days but wanted to preface it with some information first.
First I have to say thanks to a lot of family around here for making this happen. Thanks goes to Luke for letting me borrow his bike, without which it would have been impossible for this experience to happen. Thanks also goes to Renee and Mike for letting me borrow their tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad (I had these in case the hammock idea was a flop.) Thanks goes to Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Homer for getting me orginized and setup with duffel bags, bottles for water and general support. Finally thanks goes to Bill and Sarah for the help throughout the journey and for general entertainment, it ceartainly was an experience I won’t soon forget.
I got to be known on the tour as the “Hammock guy” since every day after getting into town I would go in search for 2 trees to set up my hammock tent. I found this while doing research on lightweight camping options and i’m pleased to say that it exceeded expectations. It didn’t take much time getting used to sleeping in the hammock and setting it up takes me 4 minutes at most. I rode out a thunderstorm in it while in Traverse City and I managed to stay bone dry. So far i’ve been completely happy with it and can’t endorse it enough.