Summer Michigan Tour

[Triple]

I haven't taken an overnight motorcycle trip since 2004. This is unacceptable.

With the new year I'm given two weeks paid vacation and two weeks unpaid personal leave from work. Probably not practical to use up an entire month on the road-- though that would be amazing-- or even two full weeks, for that matter. I'm thinking one full work week plus the weekends that bookend it.

Slab it home to Flint on a Saturday and slab it back to Georgia two Sundays later. Nine days on the road, with seven available for my tour. May cut the tour to five so I have a couple days to spend with family and friends.

Obviously, I've seen a lot of Michigan already, but it's been years and I'd like to retrace some of my old routes. That said, I would also like to see some places I've yet to ride. Open to suggestions from others in the area.

There are a few routes I remember riding, but can no longer locate on the map. There is a road on the eastern side of the state (lower peninsula) that undulates up and down like a roller coaster for miles and miles, through towns and trees. Never seen anything quite like it, even in the mountains. There is also a 15-20 mile stretch of twisties somewhere north of Trout Lake (???) that I had written down for some time, but I've lost all my old notes. With very few homes, its runs along an inland lake with a little gas station in the middle (awesome venison jerky, and the fuel tank is above ground). Probably lots of others, because I used to spend many weekends wandering aimlessly. Those were the days...

I'm hoping to have some sort of standard by the summer; I currently have a guy semi-interested in trading his low-mileage ZRX1200R for my Miata. If I can't come up with anything by then, the SV will probably get the nod over the Triumph. The drone up I-75 will suck, but it will be fine once I slow it down inside Michigan.

Basic plan thus far: ride the east coast of the lower peninsula up, spend some time riding wherever between Mackinac and Keweenaw Counties (really want to make it back to Copper Harbor), ride down the west coast along Lake Michigan, and cut east from the Muskegon / Grand Haven area back to Flint. Camp as many nights as possible.