No Wind - Take a bike to the beach

October 23, 2011 Near Empire, Michigan

The ride started off on the wide beach by Otter Creek,  we found the sand hard packed down near the water and it made for a smooth fast ride and we made great time to Empire.  We had a to take a quick detour in to town as Matt forgot to bring a pump and let too much air out of his tires and needed to pump up as the conditions were much better than expected.  

Once we were back on the beach we got some great looks from people on the beach as we pedaled down the boat ramp and headed north.   Next known obstacle was North Bar lake and it was unknown if that was going to provide a water hazard that we would have to cross. 

Lucky for us the lake wasn’t draining in to Lake Michigan, after passing North Bar the beach started to narrow and we ran in to a few more rocks along the way.  The next stop was at the bottom of the Dune Overlook on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.  The dune here is about 450 feet tall and very steep.  I had never been down to the bottom here as the climb back up would be a dreadful exercise in one step forward two steps back, but the bikes provided us easy access to this spot.   

Dune Overlook (Note the spots are people trying to climb back up the dune) 

Heading North again the beach started to get rocky as we started to round the point.  I expected to find some rocky shoreline but not 3 miles of it.  The bikes did very well and it sorta became a fun challenge to pick out a line through the rocks.   The large tires acted like suspension and made the ride very tolerable but we did end up dropping our speed considerably.  

We were very happy to see the beach return to sand as we rounded the point into Sleeping Bear Bay,  we knew our objective wasn’t far away now.  Then we found our next surprise remains of a shipwreck sticking out of the sand.

Shipwreck

After checking out the wreck we continued on to an area where the dunes had blown out creating an open area.  I decided to climb up the dune to test the bike in the soft sand while Matt stopped for a snack break.   I was pretty easy to climb the wind packed sand and I wish I had a helmet to rip the decent but played it safe and did a good test of the brakes on the way down. 

I rode up the dune in the background

After the ship wreck it was an easy cruise to the old Canery at Glen Haven,  with our final obstavle being 75 feet of super soft sand as we climbed up from the waters edge to the parking lot.   The ride was a blast and took about 3 and half hours.   I would suggest that it only be attempted in cool weather as being by the dunes under the summer sun would be a great way to get cooked.   and I can’t wait to do another ride along the beach to explore some more new areas. 

 

- Dave

A bit about Fat Bikes:

We were riding Salsa Mukluk’s which sport 3.8” wide tires and are specially built to accommodate those giant tires.   The bike has the height of a 29’er but handles like a 26’er.  Its a very compfortable ride and you’ll feel like you can go anywhere and you pretty much can too!  A big thank you to Brick Wheels for providing the bikes for the ride.  If you want to see a Mukluk in person head over to Brick and see Matt for a test ride.  And check out Salsa Cycles site at http://salsacycles.com/bikes/mukluk/