Wilderness Ride

For our second bike ride at Wilderness State Park we got some advice from staff and took
Swamp Line Road to South Boundary Trail to Nebo Trail which is about a 7 mile loop.  Swamp Line Road was a somewhat grassy path through the woods,  mostly flat but due to the softer surface required constant pedaling.  The only thing new that we encountered was a lot of these cute little blooms along the side of the trail.

After turning onto South Boundary Trail things got a little rougher.  It was a little wetter and at times the trail was almost marshy so I had to hop off my bike and push it through.  I saw bear scat at least 6 times on this segment, but no bears.  Staff told us they were "shy" around here.

The Nebo Trail was by far the firmest surface, dry hard-packed forest floor, and it was mostly downhill which was a welcome break!  The road is designed for cars driving out to Nebo Cabin which is for rent and has its own pit toilet.  The cabins are the one thing about the Michigan Parks that I wish we had in Wisconsin.  Wait! What's that through the trees?

Both Wayne and I stopped our downhill momentum at the same time and backed up.  Alas, it was a tree stump and not a black bear.

Nebo Trail led out to paved Wilderness Park Road which had access to the shoreline.

No sandy beaches this far north on Lake Michigan, but farther south the beaches are backed up by sand dunes in most places. A few years ago we did a driving Circle Tour of Lake Michigan which I haven't posted about yet.  When winter rolls along and I'm out of fresh material I'll make sure to dig out those photos.  All that sand and sun in December will be nice!  Two more posts about our trip to the U.P. to go!