Camp, Bike, Wine, Paddle, Repeat…

 The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.  

– Marcel Proust

Calling it a “staycation” might not be totally fair since we just arrived back in the area a few short weeks ago.  While we’re certainly not tourists, claiming to be locals isn’t exactly honest either.   In the past five years, Leelanau County, Michigan, perhaps more than anywhere else, could qualify as home simply because we’ve spent more time here.   During that time, and all the years I’ve been coming here since college, I never really thought about going camping.  Being at my parent’s cabin was the whole point of coming “up north.”  We never even laid down our sleeping bags further away than the back deck overlooking the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay -- and we loved it.  

No matter what we might call it, the forecast promised dry, warm weather and we aimed to take full advantage of it.  Leelanau Peninsula offers many beautiful places to camp, trails to hike, bike paths to ride and miles and miles of shoreline to paddle, not to mention enough craft breweries, wineries and distilleries for a population 8 times its size.  Why restrict our explorations to the same old family visit haunts, when that is not how we roll anywhere else? We wanted to see this familiar area with new eyes.

Leaving our tiny-home-on-wheels (our 1957 canned ham vintage trailer) parked in my parent’s driveway, we hit the road with no reservations, and just enough time to have our bikes, boats and camping gear loaded in the truck.  This early into the season, and mid-week just after Memorial Day, gives us lots of options for camping.  We head straight to Traverse City State Park, simply because we can.  This campground on the sandy shore of East Bay, within 2 miles of downtown, is typically booked from July 1^st to Labor Day in this vacation destination and the thought of carte blanche camping without a reservation is too tempting to resist.  If we are going to be a tourist in our own area, at least we can pick the best time to be one.

The Grand Traverse Bay area is known for many things, the name comes from the long paddle crossing the fur-trading voyageurs encountered as they plied the waters of the great lakes in their long canoes in the 18^th century.  With beavers extirpated and European hat fashions swinging from the rich fur from the west to exotic silks from the east, it became the hardwood rich hills and open expanses of fresh water on which to float them that created an industry.  With the old growth trees mostly gone, cherry orchards took over the cleared land.  The area remains the “Cherry Capital” of the Midwest, but over the last 20 years the fruit of the vine seems to be catching up.  When the bottles are all gone, who knows what will come next?

Since I’ve been coming to the area over 25 years, it seems like a new winery, cider house, or craft distillery hangs out their shingle each year; now there are more than 24 in Leelanau County alone.  What began as small production semi-dry whites and sweet reds matured into a rich tapestry of vintages spanning the spectrum of the industry from sparkling wines in the Champagne method to big bold reds aged in French and American Oak.  Michigan is the 6^th largest producer of wine in the US and much of that gets made in the area surrounding Grand Traverse Bay. 

Of course, there is a direct connection between the lake, the bay, and grape production (they are all interconnected), but this isn’t a wine blog so I’ll reign in my inner fermentation nerd a little bit and stick with the point; wine is big here!

The roads wind through bucolic orchards and vineyards with little traffic; there are even 21 miles of traffic-free bike path between downtown Traverse City and Suttons Bay in the heart of the peninsula.  Many wineries are along or close to the bike path and they become our target for the afternoon.

After setting up camp for the night, we jump back in the truck to cut a few miles off our ride since we want to get out on the Leelanau Wine Trail and access as many wineries as possible using the bike path.  Of course, the path goes right by the campground so we could just leave everything in the campground, but the point is more tasting and possibly less mileage.  Wine tasting and bikes, what could go wrong?

I don’t know how many times I’ll have to re-learn this, but I should always park the car where my wife suggests.  Since we’ve been hurrying to pack for our spur of the moment trip, we don’t start our ride until almost 1:30 pm.  While we have an awesome picnic lunch packed, it remains in the vehicle.  Shari’s vision of driving to one specific winery, eating lunch while doing a tasting, and then riding for the rest of the afternoon gets trumped by my impatience to get on the saddle.  Within 15 minutes she gives me the food face, and I give her the I’m sorry should have listened to you face and inside of 30 minutes we are back in the car implementing her plan.  Bottom line: always listen to your wife, and never ignore calories when cycling -- especially while wine tasting.

Her plan turns out flawlessly after I finally get on board, lunch on the back patio with a flight of sparkling wines at a winery specializing in the Champagne method.  The playful names, “Fizz,” “Freestyle,” “Sex;” battle it out with the whitefish pate or blue cheese spread to see which will knock your socks off first. The early season vines leafing out around us provided the perfect pastoral setting to begin our wine tour.

Jumping back on the bikes we make for the path and our next two, or perhaps three, destinations.  The path rolls through old orchards, young vineyards, new hop farms and small patches of forest.  Along the way we stop by a few more wineries and sample, sip, comment on the finer nuances of oak barrel aging or stainless steel like we know what we’re talking about and leave a five spot in the tip jar.  There are some wines we love, some we like, and some we don’t.  The palate of the northern Michigan tourist wine drinker spans a broad spectrum from sweet and fruity to bold and bone-dry, so the wineries do their best to make a wine for nearly every taste.  There seems to be plenty of folks out and about along the path today and more than a few make their way into the tasting rooms.

 

Our last winery is just a few miles off the path, but right on the 45^th North parallel, and boasts an officially recognized single track mountain bike trail through the vineyard in addition to world class wines and ciders.  After our afternoon, I find my cycling ambitions sufficiently sated and make a deal with myself to return another day when I’m more prepared. 

Back at camp with a bottle of Sex, we turn to making one of our staple dishes, camp-fired pizza.  Nothing goes down better with a glass of bubbly than fresh mozzarella, grilled onions, peppers, and mushrooms.   As we settle down for the night, so does the traffic from the busy M-72 highway just a few hundred yards away.

We might be on vacation, but the morning’s steady stream of cars rolling into downtown wakes me with rush hour and reveals our city park location.  This is the perfect place to stay for a tight budget and keen desire to be close to the action of downtown, Traverse City; but if you wish to sleep in, perhaps choose a more pastoral location.  We gave it a night, and then said, “let’s see what else is out there.”

Pulling up camp after breakfast we pull out on M-72 and head west to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on the shores of Lake Michigan.  We cruise into the Platte River Campground and have most of the campground to ourselves.  Before this area became part of the National Park Service, it was a Michigan state park and the campground reflects the differing values.  Free showers, and electricity at most of the sites isn’t typically among the amenities at a NPS campsite; but since there is no difference between price here, we plan to take full advantage.

   

For the afternoon’s adventure, we slide the kayaks into the calm waters of the Platte River, which gently trickles out to the big water from several small inland lakes.  The current is so gentle we decide to just leave the car at the put-in and return by paddling back up stream.  No need for a shuttle here, but there are plenty of services and canoe rental places who will do just that.  A bike shuttle would be easy enough and could add another level of fun along the easy winding road.  Turn in your adrenaline kick for a mellow chill and you’ll be on just the right setting for this float. 

We paddle out to where the Platte enters the lake and it is nearly glassy calm.  On the northern horizon, I can see the dune climb bluff rising 450 feet above the lake, and further west the Manitou islands.  This rare opportunity along this windward facing beach offers us the chance to pull away from the other river revelers, and leave the boat ramp behind.  We find a place to lunch all by ourselves, and take up enough section of sand to stretch out, lay back and grab a few winks in the early summer sun. 

For most folks I know, when they take a “staycation,” they really mean that they take time off work to really clean out the garage or finally do something about the backyard landscaping.  But why can’t it just be just a few days focused on being away from it all, getting into the spontaneous traveler mindset, and seeing the place where you live with new eyes?