Great Lakes Road Trip Day 4 Part 2; Mackinac Island and M-185

As I stated in the previous post I was due for the 8:20 AM boat out of St. Ignace to Mackinac Island. I'm really finding it to my advantage to get up early since nobody really wants to get moving in Michigan before 9 AM. I figured that I would get a lap of the island in on a bike along M-185 before the crowds showed up. The boat rides to Mackinac are only a couple minutes and land on the shore in the city of Mackinac Island.

I grabbed a 7-speed bike near the ferry dock and got started on M-185 traveling island counter-clockwise. M-185 is a state highway maintained solely for non-motorized traffic and is primarily known as a bike route. M-185 is approximately eight miles in length and only has two shields; one in each direction next to Marquette Park. M-185 is known as Main Street in the city of Mackinac Island and Lake Shore Road around the rest of the island. The road that became M-185 was built from 1900 to 1910 and was assigned a trunkline number in 1933. M-185 is open to emergency vehicles but otherwise motorized traffic is completely prohibited. My bike sucked (it kept dropping 6th gear) but it did give me some extra speed over the single-speed cruisers, I've done a distance biking in my time and slow wasn't coming to cut it.

What is now Mackinac Island State Park was originally the second National Park after Yellowstone. Mackinac Island National Park was in place from 1875 to 1895 when it was transferred back to the state of Michigan. Really with the volume of things to do on the island and all the history it is no wonder to me that it was one of the first National Parks. I went to; Arch Rock, Fort Holmes, Fort Mackinac, The Grand Hotel, and cruised the city to find ice cream before departing for the day. Supposedly I got 5.6 miles of hiking in through the core of the island after I dropped off the bike.

Had a hell of a view from the hotel room to enjoy the rest of the night as I was editing photos.

Comments

Hunting the early Lincoln Highway and US Route 48 from French Camp west of Altamont Pass

On a recent weekend I sought to locate and photograph the original alignments of US Route 48 and the early Lincoln Highway from French Camp west over Altamont Pass.

Travel over the Diablo Range via Altamont Pass was not a regular occurrence between San Joaquin Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area until the Central Pacific Railroad began construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1863. The original route of foot and wagon traffic over the Diablo Range within the vicinity of Altamont Pass was to the south via the 1,600 foot Corral Hollow Pass on El Camino Viejo. Altamont Pass ultimately proved to be a far better grade over the Diablos than Corral Hollow Pass due to the favorable terrain and very low crest elevation of 741 feet above sea level. The Transcontinental Railroad was completed over Altamont Pass by 1869. The Western Pacific Railroad was formed in 1903 and joined the previous Central Pacific line through Altamont Pass on a new alignment.

Modern road transporta…

Interstate 80 over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

While on a recent Bay Area trip I drove Interstate 80 from I-580/I-880 in Oakland west over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge into San Francisco.

Any discussion about the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge isn't complete without the massive history of the structure. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Bay Bridge) is a double decker suspension span carrying I-80 over San Francisco Bay. The Bay Bridge at its longest length carrying the westbound lanes of I-80 is 1.95 miles which is slightly longer 1.92 mile length of the eastbound lanes. The Bay Bridge includes an central anchorage point on Yerba Buena Island. This probably goes without saying but the Bay Bride is one of the signature automotive spans in San Francisco Bay Area and California.

Calls for a bridge span between San Francisco and Oakland date back to the California Gold Rush. An advisory committee known as the "Bay Bridge Committee" formed in 1872 seeking to have a line of the Central Pacific routed bet…

1889 Lanes Bridge Location (Old California State Route 41)

Recently I visited the location of the 1889 Lanes Bridge along what was California State Route 41 north of the Fresno City limits on the San Joaquin River.

Previously I touched on former alignments of CA 41 in the Fresno Area which can be found on the following three blogs:

1941 Lanes Bridge Renovations (Old CA 41)

Old CA 41 in Southern Fresno County and the Expressway that never was

Old CA 180 and CA 41 surface alignments in Fresno

As stated in the 1941 Lanes Bridge blog the original crossing of the San Joaquin River was the 1889 Lanes Bridge. The original Lanes Bridge was located about a mile up river north of the 1941 bridge roughly where Lanes Road ends today at the San Joaquin River. The original Lanes Bridge was first called the Yosemite Bridge but soon became known as the Lanes Bridge due Lanes Station which was a general store in close proximity which opened in 1894. In 1917 the original Lanes Bridge had a partial collapse but was quickly repaired. By 1934 the origin…

Gribblenation

Search This Blog