After leaving Dorothy and John’s house, we pushed up over steep hills and dirt roads (a shortcut) to get to the rail trail along Mullet Lake. The trail, though flat, continued to be loose material that impeded progress. Even though the nearby highway had a shoulder, we elected to continue on the trail because the view of the lake was so much better.

When the trail crossed the highway near Cheboygan, we followed the highway into town to a shipping station, where we boxed up all our camping gear–34 pounds worth–and shipped it to our son’s house in Washington. The bike and trailer immediately became more responsive. We stopped for lunch/dinner at a home-cooking restaurant down the road. However, it was now late in the day: we had received a recommendation for lodging from the shippers and rejoined the trail a mile or so later, turning off to stay at LeDuc’s Creekside Motel, a family-owned business on the edge of town, for a short day, but with a lot of promise for continuing our trip. We also found there are plenty of small motels along our route, so we wouldn’t be forced to camp to complete our planned route through the U.P.

When we called for reservations in Mackinaw City, we found the entire city booked, with only a few rooms left in St. Ignace. So, we planned to tour Mackinac Island on Friday, which meant an early start and hard ride to get to the island in mid-day for a short tour before continuing on to St. Ignace. However, it also meant that we would make up time from our unscheduled stop in Cheboygan.