Skip to main content

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

By
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.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The case to move Interstate 73 in Southern Ohio onto US 33

By
Every decade or so, Ohio pushes to revisit the proposed Interstate 73 that would connect Michigan to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  It's been happening since Congress legislated the route in 1991.  Within Ohio, Interstate 73 generally follows the US 23 corridor from Portsmouth through Columbus to Toledo, and into Michigan. Since High Priority Corridor Five was created , Ohio has really done nothing to move forward with Interstate 73.  Sure, there have been feasibility studies here and there.  But actual dollars and construction just haven't occurred. The US 33 Nelsonville Bypass appears to have been built to Interstate standards. However, Ohio has been slowly upgrading US 33 to a full freeway through Southeastern Ohio.  Bypasses of Lancaster and Nelsonville opened in 2004 and 2013, respectively.  Other sections of two-lane road are being twinned, some to freeway or, at a minimum, to expressway standards.  Currently, a $274 million widening project in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Local Sign Find - The last remnant of Business Interstate 95 between Kenly and Rocky Mount , NC

By
As you head north on Interstate 95 at Exit 107 for Kenly and US 301, you'll notice something odd about the overhead sign for the exit.  Peeling off the sign for all that can see is the word 'NORTH' off-center from the US 301.  This old sign (probably close to original from when this section of I-95 opened - more on that in a little bit) gives a hint to a short-lived Business Interstate Route that ran from here to Rocky Mount. The last hint of the Kenly-Wilson-Rocky Mount Business I-95 (Shaun White - August 2020) Interstate 95 in North Carolina has a unique history.  But one of the overlooked and forgotten pieces of Interstate 95 in North Carolina is the 38 mile section between Kenly and Rocky Mount.  When opened to traffic in late 1978, it was the next to last piece of Interstate 95 in North Carolina to open replacing a four lane US 301 from Battleboro through Rocky Mount and Wilson to eventually tying back into the Interstate in Kenly. Though it was not delayed in l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

By
Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by.  Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s.  That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain.  Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot.  The milkshakes.  (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.)  Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal!  The fancy salad and hot foods bar.  Going to Rax was special.  Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight.  By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...
Post a Comment
Read more