Blue Skies and Headwinds

We were packed up and on the road by 8 this morning. The Windy app had predicted some pretty strong headwinds for the afternoon and we were hoping to have most our mileage done by noon. 15 to 20 mph headwind is never fun. There was a coffee shop within a mile from camp and to save time we headed there instead of making it. We had packed up all our cooking gear last night to help with the early start.

By the time we had finished our coffee and answered the regular 20 questions from several of the local residents we were no longer getting a very early start. We got a donut from a bakery to have for our second breakfast and got on the road around 9:30.

The day was absolutely beautiful and the road was pretty good for riding. Not much traffic.

However the headwind was quickly taking away most of our enjoyment. I was told by another rider that a headwind was a hill with out a soul. Today I agreed with that theory. We had our donut after ten miles. It had taken us an hour and a half to get that far. While we rested at the picnic table we started looking for places nearby to camp. Mason County had a campground aptly named Mason County Campground. It was 8.5 miles away. We headed for it. Without the urgency of trying to do a lot of miles we went even slower. Often times I was only going 5 or 6 mph. We stopped at a little local fish market to get something for dinner.

After looking over there small but really delicious looking case of seafood we realized they also would fry whatever you purchased. That seemed to good to pass up. So we got a half pound of Lake perch and a half pound of smelt. I had never ate a smelt. I sure have smelt plenty of times though. Haha. Both were delicious. I really liked the smelt, they were like little fishy French fries. Fish fries I guess. Lol

After our lunchbreak we had a few more miles to ride. There were some beautiful views of Lake Michigan. It was unbelievably blue.

Finally we got into camp around 3:30. There was no ranger at the ranger station when we arrived. I took that as a bad sign that the campground was full. A lady driving by saw us looking forlornly at the posted signs in the window. She stopped and asked if we were hoping to camp. We said yes. She said she would call the ranger but she thought the campground was full. I crossed my fingers waiting for the ranger to show up. After unlocking the door and turning on her computer she said you’re in luck! We just had one cancelation a little bit ago. Rose did a little happy dance. My dancing skills are not up to par so I settled for a big happy smile. We were surprised the campground was so full. Most sights had multiple tents,campers,rvs and boats. Everybody had a boat. I did not realize it was salmon season. People were staying a week or more at a time and fishing every day. It was fun to hear everybody talk about their days catch or who caught what. Just from everything I learned from all the conversations I overheard I think I could become a guide. Haha. But I did learn that the water is too warm. It’s 71 degrees so the Salmon are stacking up in deep water at the mouth of the creeks. They won’t travel upstream until the water temp is 68 degrees. This sounded reasonable to me and not just fisherman lore. I will Google it sometime though.

After getting to our assigned campsite we were rather perplexed that at first glance it was full. A van was parked on one side of the fire ring and a boat on the other. And there was no picnic table. After parking our bikes between the van and boat we looked around to see if someone “borrowed” the table. We couldn’t see any extra tables around. But then the man next to us came over and apologized profusely about the van. His Dad had came to visit and fish with him and had parked it there. The van was no problem we said but we really need a table. Thankfully he knew where the table was and graciously helped me carry it back to our site. He was a really nice guy and a great camp neighbor. He even shared some smoked brisket and smoked salmon he had made himself! I felt like I won the lottery.

The campsite itself didn’t have any trees so we walked up the hill that was behind us to hang our hammocks. It might not of been the best campground we have stayed at but it was one of the ones we were most thankful for. And the people we met helped make it a great stay!

The brisket and fish were frozen. I thawed out the brisket in our frying pan. We had gravy left over from our pork chops the other night so couscous smoked brisket and gravy was our dinner. The brisket was delicious. It’s been a while since we have had beef.