Having found a few other things we wanted to do around the area, we ended up staying at Traverse City State Park an extra night for a total of six nights. One of my cousins lives a little over an hours drive from here. We hadn't seen each other in quite some time, maybe on the order of 30 years! She and her boyfriend drove down one day and after having lunch and catching up a bit, we decided to drive up one of the arms in the Traverse Bay Area and visit a few wineries.
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| Me and My Cousin |
The Mission Arm effectively splits the Grand Traverse Bay in half. It was a very pretty day and the scenery was quite nice. We stopped at Chateau Chantal Winery. This winery was very busy. We had to wait 10 minutes before we were guided to the tasting area. One interesting option was to pick out 3 wines you want to taste, they pour them into 3 glasses, label them with a marker and then you head out to the big patio/deck to enjoy the views.
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| Nice View at Winery |
Our next stop was 2 Lads Winery. This was a smaller one but it had a great view. It too was busy, so you get a number so you can check out the gift shop while you wait. The wine was apparently good enough there for each of us to pick up some to go.
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| View at 2 Lads |
Since we had explained geocaching to our visitors (or are we the visitors?), we decided to kill two birds with one stop and head to the tip of the peninsula to see the Old Mission Lighthouse and do a nearby geocache. Again lots of people were there, but since it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon on Labor Day weekend, maybe not surprising. My cousin used one of our GPSr units and not only led the way but made the find too. It was great to catch up even if it was only for a handful of hours.
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| Old Mission Lighthouse |
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| Jack and Chris Enjoying the Trip |
Another find we made while in Traverse City was a great mountain biking area called the VASA Trail Single Track Loop. There is a big loop with two cutoff trails making for 3 options - a 3 mile easy loop, an 11 mile intermediate loop, or a 13 mile advanced loop. Since the geocaches were all placed along the intermediate loop, we picked that one. The trails are in excellent condition. Since we were stopping for all the geocaches, I never got too far ahead of Chris before she caught up to me. The terrain was not too steep and although there are plenty of sandy sections, none of them were very long or deep, so it was fairly easy to get thru as long as you kept your speed up.
One other day of biking was along some of the other trails in and around the city. The TART trail is actually right behind the campgrounds with a gated entrance between the two. We followed the trail west into town before it turns north and heads to the various beach areas along the Grand Traverse Bay. On our way back, we headed south down the eastern side of Boardman Lake on the trail similarly named. This was a fun ride and other than the very southern section of the trail was all paved although the gravel portion was in great shape and not an issue. We ended up doing over 17 miles and got to see a lot of the town.
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| Along Grand Traverse Bay |
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| Marina in Traverse City |
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| Interesting Artwork |
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| Beach at Clinch Park |
Some of the interesting sights along the trails were plaques describing the various planets of our solar system. Including a hanging piece of art depicting each one. The visitor's center had something right outside the front door that I had never seen before. It was a bike rack with about 8 tools one might need to fix a broken down bike including a pump with both Presta and Shrader fittings. I was almost sad I didn't need to use it at that time. At Boardman Lake, a guy on a jet ski had a customer in a pair of those water shooting boots - apparently called fly boarding. It looked to be quite difficult to master. In the 10 minutes we stopped to watch, I don't think he ever was upright for more than 15 seconds at a time and only a couple feet above the water before usually having some spectacular crash back into the water.
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| Bike Rack, Hanging Tools and Pump |
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| Flyboarding |
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| View at Geocache on Boardman Lake Trail |
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| The Southern End of Boardman Lake |
After dinner one evening, I decided to head back to the VASA trail by myself to really enjoy the great trail without needing to worry about Chris having problems. Maybe I should have been more concerned for my safety. Since I had limited daylight to work with, I stuck with the 11 mile loop hoping to be done in an hour. I was doing great for the first two thirds of the loop. There is one section where the trees are very close to the trail with less than a foot clearance for your handlebars. I smacked my right shoulder into a tree. The impact actually swung the bike around so I could keep going with only a sore arm. Shortly after this I got to this one switchback turn where I was unable to unclip a shoe from my pedal when I lost my forward momentum, I simply fell over on my left side. I laid there on the trail looking up at the fading daylight through the tree canopy and realized neither I nor the bike were seriously hurt and made my way back to the car. It ended up taking 70 minutes so I wasn't too far from my one hour goal.
We did one more trip up the Mission Arm to do a couple more wineries and a geocache with a large number of favorite points. The cache is named Old Mission Inn and Out. It is at an inn that wasn't busy the day we were there. As we pull in the driveway, the arrow on the GPSr is pointing straight ahead at a small out building and we thought, "that has to be it". Sure enough the old looking outhouse was the hiding spot. Since my hands were full with the camera and the GPSr, I had Chris go in for the grab!
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| What Greeted Us |
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| Approaching the Cache |
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| Also Found His Changing Room |
Next we headed to Chateau Grand Traverse Winery. They were one of the few wineries that actually give tours of the facility. We got there in time for the 2 PM tour. It was a small group with only 3 couples but it was interesting to see their operation. We managed to finish the tour before the torrential downpour struck while we were at the tasting bar. By the time we left, it had briefly let up. Only to start pouring again just as we got to Brys Estate Winery. This is a much smaller place with only 8 wines to pick from. One last stop was over to the Leelanau Peninsula and to the Mawby Vineyards. They only produce sparkling wines. A couple samples there and it was time to head back for dinner.
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| View of the Vineyard |
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| Lots of Wine! |
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| Bottling Line Down for Preventative Maintenance |
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