Closures and Detours

We stayed in Bay City last night and I was able to start this morning’s ride from the hotel. (That is, Lailla didn’t have to SAG me to my starting point.) But I had a heck of a time escaping from the city. Our hotel was on the NW side of the city and I was departing on the SE side of the city. I was supposed to take a “trail” through town. Well, their idea of a trail was this:
That’s a city sidewalk in my book, not a rail-trail. And that was one of the better sidewalk markings; some of them were barely visible. Anyway, with the help of Google Maps, I managed to get part way to where I was supposed to be.

I rode along the west side of the Saginaw River in a nice greenbelt. There was about a half-mile long boardwalk over the edge of the river that was kind of fun:


Then I encountered this:

There aren’t many bridges over the Saginaw River. Of course I was routed to the southernmost one, which was definitely a No-Go closure. Trying to backtrack proved frustrating as Google Maps kept routing me to the closed bridge. I finally just rode north until I was close to one of the other bridges and then Google Maps was helpful.

About 10 miles south of the city, I was supposed to ride four miles on the Harger Line Trail. Upon arriving at the intersection, I was greeted by another closure sign.

A quick detour south to the M-46 state highway provided to be a good alternative. It was moderately busy, but it had a nice, wide (and smooth) shoulder.

The remainder of the day was fairly uneventful. I took a planned shortcut that probably saved me about five miles of riding. I rode another nice rail-trail from Millington to Otter Lake for five-plus miles. I closed out the day with a long, fast straightaway of about 25 miles into Brown City. I finished the day with a solid 80.8 miles.

I’ll leave you with a couple other random pictures from today:
Sandhill cranes in a field.

Another quilt design on a beautifully weathered barn.

Tomorrow we’ll cross into Ontario, Canada.

PS - This is my first blog post done from my phone. We’re staying in a tiny cabin near Columbiaville and there’s no internet.


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