Lake Michigan Tour Day 17: Saint Joseph, MI to Portage, IN

July 5, 2022

I’ll start off by saying I didn’t sleep well last night. I got to sleep about 10:30, but sometime just after midnight, two locals probably named Bubba & Buford started setting off cannon-like fireworks in the parking lot next to my hotel, or maybe the hotel next door.

I didn’t feel like going outside to tell them that since it was past midnight it wasn’t the 4th any longer, so I kept trying to sleep. They had good sleep-inducing pauses before setting off another round of 3-5 booms.

I think they finally stopped because of the thunderstorms that rolled in. Several waves of storms with loud thunder and rain that pounded the windows kept me up further. Add to that the constant drone of traffic from I-94, which I could see from my room, and it just wasn’t a good night.

I got on the road about 10am, knowing I’d be gaining an hour when I crossed into Indiana. BOY was it humid! The temperatures were high 70s to low 80s, but the humidity was at 90%, so in just a few minutes of mild exertion I was all wet. It reminded me of the humidity in St. Louis when we lived there.

About half-way through my ride, I passed into Indiana. I spent 6 years there in junior-high and high-school, although that was much further south.

The cloud cover burned off and the sun made the day hotter, but the humidity didn’t drop much. My whole day I didn’t need a bathroom break (a first on this ride) so I forced myself to stop every 5 miles and drink fluids.

North of Michigan City is a resort area called Long Beach – full of vacation homes and lake-shore cottages. This view is looking north from the bridge at the center of Michigan City.

And this view is from the same bridge, looking south. A gigantic power plant, and a lot of industrial stuff. As I rode south from here, it stayed industrial for quite a while.

Then I suddenly hit dirt. Literally, the trail turned into a crushed gravel trail called the Calumet Trail. I had known this was coming, but hoped it was like the hard-pack trails I rode in Wisconsin last year.

Initially it wasn’t bad! It ran under the power lines so there was no shade, but other than that the pace wasn’t too much slower than being on a road.

That changed a couple of miles into the 9 miles of trail. More and more pools of standing water in the path. It got worse than this picture – at one point I had to just go through the middle, and a couple of the pools were deep enough that my feet were submerging in the water. I managed not to fall, but after 9 miles of this, I was exhausted, and my hands were numb from white-knuckling trying to keep control on the uneven surfaces. My average speed (11-ish at the start of the trail) dropped to 7-8 as I had to slow down to get around and through all the water.

The last mile or so it did improve, but I wondered if anyone was taking care of the trail, or if whoever does has the resources they need? At times there were strange patches of loose gravel (not crushed) of several different types, as if someone thought spreading it out here would help the trail surface. I think they just take donations and throw them in various places. If it’s not crushed though it rides much more roughly than it should. The whole time, I never saw another soul, so that tells me how popular or used this trail is.

*Update – I read some reviews and commentary about the trail online the next morning – they’ve been talking about the large puddles, weeds and holes for years. In the last year or two there seems to be an effort to get it paved, but “environmental issues” apparently are holding things up. With a railroad, electric pylons, and a highway not far off, I wonder what environmental impact could possibly result from running a strip of asphalt over what is an existing trail.

After that, I just had another 8 miles or so of normal trails and roads. I’ll chalk the lousy day up to poor sleep, high heat & humidity, and that nasty trail. I think tomorrow will be better as I head up into Chicago. I found when I got to my hotel, the temperature was high 90s with a heat-index around 110. No wonder I was so hot!

Best song today was It’s My Life by Talk Talk. It was in the morning before things got harder.

Stats: 57.9 miles, 986 vertical feet, 12.7 average speed.

Tomorrow you should get some more interesting pictures of the Chicago skyline. If it’s not storming, that is…

Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 1,049 miles (1,688 km)

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