The trail was perfect near the whole way. I will say, though, that coming back (south) is quite a bit harder due to the elevation gain. Frankly, we're just not used to it here in illinois. In any case, we had a wonderful trip.

We parked our car at Alpine lodge in Gaylord, and spent the first night there. It's a decent hotel, with a pool, hot tub and some games in an atrium area. Kind of a time warp, but I'm a sucker for those. We set up the bikes and started off the next morning. Within the first mile, we got caught in a downpour. I asked the girls if they wanted to go back and wait it out, but both shouted NO. In short, we were so psyched up to start, nothing was going to stop us (loved that attitude!).

~30 miles north, around 4pm, we found the Tobinbee Johnson Motel. It's kind of in the middle of no where, so we just ended up ordering dinner in. Probably the low-light of our 5 days.

The next day, we rode up to Mackinaw City. About halfway up, we stopped for lunch in Cheboygan (Anchor/Captain? something Restaurant- along the river - nice), and also got the obligatory vanilla malt at the Dairy Barn (do not miss it!). The last 16-18 miles from Cheboygan to Mack City are quite beautiful, but also monotonous. about 8 miles north of Cheboygan, there's a very nice lakeside park along Lake Huron that's easily worth a stop.

From there, we went up to near the tip of Mack City to stay at the Riviera Hotel. I loved this place from the start. Family run, great friendly service and advice, off the beaten and busy path, great views of the bridge and Lake at the point where lakes Huron and Michigan converge. And, right near the original fort and it's park-like atmosphere. Reasonably priced as well. Did I mention the pool?

On our 'off day' in Mack City, we took the tandem over to Mackinaw Island for the day. The girls were pretty tired of biking, so I promised them I would do all the peddling, the 15 year old on the back seat, and the 12 year old in rented trailer. Fortunately, the path that goes around the island is not only paved, but also mostly flat. What a beautiful day we had. Clear skies, slight wind, perfect. We swam some, built a rock castle in the shallow water, and had lunch along the docks. Then, ferried back to the mainland.

We spent two nights at the Riviera, said our good-bye's and peddled south to Indian River. Along the way, we stopped at Mullet lake for a quick swim and cool off. The beach is right along the trail, and there's a gas station right there also (I seem to recall a Chaco Taco!).

At indian River, we met up with our Warm Showers host (great folks!) [side note: if you plan on bike touring, learn about warmshowers.org. you can stay with like-minded, biking enthusiasts virtually anywhere] ... Anyway, we were shown around town by two of the most darling and long time residents. After dinner (along the river - very fun), our hosts took us up river (maybe .3 miles?) to a unique spot that had recently been developed for kids to swim in the river. Basically, it's about 100' long deck at the rivers edge, with no rail. Down river along the deck, is a ladder up from the water. So, you jump in up river, float down, and get out. Very cool. The girls had a blast.

After, our very kind hosts fed us breakfast, we rode off to Wolverine for lunch. There aren't many close-to-trail lunch options in Wolverine, so we ended up stopping at the same place we stopped at on our way north. It's a very local place with only a few tables with very basic fare. Still, we liked it a lot. One of the great parts of a bike tour is that you do get to be in and among the locals of the area, and learn much more than you can imagine doing so. You also meet some really kind people along the way. After lunch, we stopped at the park across the street and sat by the river for an hour or so. The peaceful nature was beautiful. The last stretch almost did us in. My hunch is that most of the elevation gain comes between Wolverine and Gaylord, as we were sure feeling it. We had to stop again about half way at a small pizza place in Vanderbilt. Ice cream, french fries, and Gatorade and then we hit the road again, finally making it back to the car. My 15 year old daughter was SO excited she actually did it! And, admitted to me that she didn't really think she could do it before we started. Still, there it was. Done. I figured we rode about 150 miles in those 5 days.

The MTB tandem had 2" knobbies, the mixte had 1.25" slicks. Both worked fine on the trail.

Bugs didn't seem too bad, but I do seem to recall my daughter using the off a couple of times.

I would definitely recommend this trip, but as with all bike tours, don't created a tight agenda -- but be flexible. I always find it easiest to go with the 'flow'. Particularly true with two daughters!

I rode this from Gaylord to Mackinaw City on Aug 7, 2011. The surface is hard packed with a thin layer of gravel. I had an old Schwinn road-style bike with 27 x 1 1/4 tires which was fine. Wider tires would have been OK, but I was fine. I would not take my 23mm tire road bike on it. The scenery is beautiful and the towns are evenly spaced with good services. I left Gaylord at 6:30 am and was a little nervous about being in semi-darkness, but as the sun came up all was well. I got to Vanderbilt an hour later. Not much there, and all was still closed anyway. Wolverine had a great market with excellent coffee. That plus 2 bananas was only a dollar, and the customer ahead of me paid! A nice surprise and we had a nice visit. Indian River has a bike shop. Topinabee has a roadside park with clean bathrooms and a small store. The trail goes around Cheboygan, so no data about that. From there it's 16 miles to Mackinaw City which is a long slog, but I was tired. Now I'm resting on Mackinac Island which I would say is bicycle heaven because there are no cars, but with some of the inexperienced cyclists here I'm not so sure!

This is a great Michigan adventure. Drive north, stay at the Hampton in Gaylord and ride the rest of the way in !!

June 7th, rode the first 10 miles from Gaylord & back....very nice trail with wonderful farm country vistas & stretches of cool woods & large maples, portions of the trail bordered by bog, tamarack & spruce. The crushed stone is noisier than asphalt, but still a very nice bike ride. Slight downhill grade leaving Gaylord makes for a very fast trip and the return is noticeably more effort returning. At about the 8 mile mark, past the tubing plant & logging yard, there was frequent bear "sign" on the trail. Also ran into an aggressive Ruffed Grouse, which kept attacking the bicycle and ran after us down the trail.
This should be a great fall ride.