Man-Powering Across Michigan Recap

Man-Powering Across Michigan was a success! My bike ride started in Chicago at around 10:30AM on Friday, May 7 and finished up in downtown Detroit at roughly 4:30PM on Sunday, May 9. As with just about any ride of this magnitude, there were some difficulties along the way. I’ll talk about them here, and offer up details on what I learned along the way about distance riding, preparation, planning, nutrition, equipment, navigation, morale, etc, etc, etc, as well as some general observations/tips I’d give to anyone attempting something similar for the first time.

Additionally, the Prostate Cancer Foundation donation page I set up a few weeks prior to the ride raised $790 $810! That is amazing, and well beyond any expectations I had when I first got the idea of using the ride as a way to raise money for a good cause. To everyone who donated and/or helped spread the word, I truly appreciate your generosity and was inspired by it throughout my journey.

Here’s The Story…

Day 1: Friday, May 7 (78.5 miles)
The first day got off to a bit of a late start. I had hoped to leave at around 8 or 8:30 in the morning but there was a thunderstorm unleashing its fury on Chicago, so I decided to wait until the worst of it had passed. At around 10:30, the skies parted and the sun came out. The weather radar for the Chicagoland area indicated that this good fortune would not be permanent, but I seized the opportunity and started the trip anyway.

Within a half hour, the cloud cover returned. Though the sky got really dark, the rain held off for a full two hours. I made it into Northwest Indiana (just north and west of Gary) without incident, roughly 30 miles from home. But as I was cruising down Industrial Highway, all of a sudden my back wheel locked up and started skidding across the pavement. I had no idea what had happened, but I could no longer pedal forward. Right before I came to a stop, I heard a loud POP that I knew was my rear inner tube.

I got off the bike to survey the damage, and saw that I had somehow gotten one of those ‘S’ hooks from the end of a bungee cord caught on my frame near the rear brake caliper, and it was positioned perfectly such that one end of the hook dug into the side of my tire and left a 6-inch gash. I had two extra inner tubes in my CamelBak pack, but no spare tire. I’ve punctured many tubes in my years of riding, but nothing like this has ever happened to me and I admit that I was not prepared for it.

As I sat there realizing that I was screwed and trying to figure out what to do about it, the rain started up again. Hard. I used my phone to do a Google Maps search for the nearest sporting goods store, which was in East Chicago, IN, 2-3 miles back the other way. I called the store to find out if they had what I needed, and of course they didn’t. I explained my situation to the guy who answered the phone and he suggested that I try Ridge Cyclery, which is “just down Cline Ave. a little ways” It turns out that Ridge Cyclery was actually about 9 miles away, but at this point it was my only option.

Before heading south, I remembered that I’d packed a few feet of Gorilla Tape (think duct tape on steroids) into my bag, and thought I’d channel my inner MacGyver and try to rig something up that would allow me to ride to the bike shop to get a new tire. I pulled out one of my spare tubes, installed it inside the ruined tire, and inflated it to about 20 PSI. Then I wrapped the Gorilla tape tightly around the tire and rim where the gash was and put a little more air in the tube. It looked pretty decent, but I could tell that the tape’s adhesive wasn’t sticking very well since everything was wet. Still, I had hope. I started pedaling and my god, it was actually working! My face must’ve looked like that of a kid’s who just took his first few pedal strokes without training wheels. I thought my day was saved! But then, the tape gave out and the tube came shooting out of the cut. Damn!

Out of ideas and unwilling to call anyone in Chicago for a bailout, I started walking. The first few miles were uneventful aside from the rain, but as I was looking at my map I saw that I was going to have to cross I-94 to get to the bike shop. The intersection of Cline Ave and I-94 is one of those big clover interchanges, not exactly pedestrian-friendly. Google Maps showed that I could walk yet another mile out of the way (and another mile back) to a road that went over the expressway, or take a shortcut that involved walking along a couple miles of railroad track. Naturally, I chose the shortcut. Luckily my bike frame is aluminum, so carrying that weight on my shoulder wasn’t a big deal.

After a total of about three hours of hoofing it in the rain, I finally made it to “Northwest Indiana’s Largest Bike Shop” which was not very large at all, and bought the LAST TWO tires they had in the size I needed. I also bought a couple more tubes for good measure. As I was changing out the tire in the parking lot, I noticed a woman walking toward me from the direction of the business next door. As I looked up, she handed me an unopened bottle of water and said “Here, you look like you could use this.” Things were finally going my way!

With the new tire on my bike, I plotted out a new route through Gary that would take me along the city’s south side and eventually up to US-12, my original route out of Gary. Apart from having to ride on a few streets with drainage problems so severe they looked like mini lakes, I made it out of Gary pretty easily.

A few miles down US-12/Dunes Highway, the rain started to let up. This road is tree lined and fairly low-traffic, so that was nice. Unfortunately though, I’d lost about four hours to the tire fiasco and it was quickly getting dark. I did have my head/tail lights on, which most certainly kept me alive but as I’ll explain later, I discovered that I made a poor choice in selecting my headlamp and was delayed even further by having to deal with that. I planned on making it to Niles, MI by the end of Day One, but I was only to New Buffalo by 10PM and riding along US-12 when it’s dark out is unnerving to say the least. So, I decided to call it a night in New Buffalo, hoping that the weather would be nicer to me to me the next day and I could make up the mileage difference then.

Day Two: Saturday, May 8 (140.5 miles)
Though I was hoping for nicer weather, I certainly didn’t get it. I woke up at 6:45AM to the sound of the wind howling outside my window. I opened the curtains and saw the trees outside my window thrashing all over the place, with rain absolutely pouring down. Great.

I went down and had breakfast, taking my time, and listened to the weather report. 40 degrees and rain with winds out of the northwest at 25 miles per hour, with gusts up to 40-45 MPH. AWESOME! The only good part about all that was that the thirty miles between New Buffalo and Niles are straight to the east, so the wind would be mostly at my back.

At around 7:45, I saw a clearing in the sky to the west(ish). Since the wind was coming from that general direction, I saw it as a great sign. I finished up breakfast, got everything packed into my bag, and checked out at around 8:15.

The clearing turned out to be nothing but a tease, however. Ten minutes into the day, the rain came back and would remain until sometime between 4 and 5PM. I made great time on the way to Niles though, averaging over 19MPH, thanks to the wind. I sat up tall in my seat for most of it in order to act as a sail for the wind. Yes, it was cold and I was wet, but it wasn’t horrible.

Then, shortly after Niles I changed directions onto M-60 towards Jackson, which is a northeast heading. The wind was still blowing hard from the northwest, so now it was hitting my left side straight on. During the gusts, which seemed to be happening more and more frequently, the rain was coming down sideways. The temperature was still hovering in the low 40s and I was COLD. My extremities were going numb, and my clothes were completely soaked. Though I wasn’t riding into the wind, it was certainly trying its hardest to push me off the road.

I powered on for another thirty or so miles until I got to Three Rivers. There, I spotted a Meijer store. As soon as I saw it, I veered off the road thinking about nothing other than the thermal underwear Meijer surely would have for me. I was to the point where I was shaking and had no control over it, so I knew I had to get into some warm/dry clothes fairly soon. Apparently Meijer stopped stocking thermal underwear for the year since it IS May, so I had to settle for cotton pajama pants, a hooded sweatshirt, and a bandanna. Stylish, I know. I wandered around in Meijer for 15-20 minutes in an attempt to thaw out, picked up some Clif bars, and headed back out to the parking lot. At one end of the lot was an Arby’s which, unfortunately, looked to be my best lunch option.

This is where my morale hit its absolute low point for the trip. As I walked across the parking lot to the Arby’s, I started feeling what I was sure was freezing rain. I checked the weather on weather.com and though it was still 41 degrees, the wind chill was 31. I sat there in Arby’s totally on the fence as to whether I should/could even continue on that day. The thought of turning this into a four-day trip was sounding REALLY good. I was soaked, dirty from road spray, shaking from the cold, and totally unmotivated to attempt the 77 remaining miles left between there and Jackson (Day Two’s destination). I remember saying to myself, “there’s tough, and then there’s just stupid.”

Somehow though, stupid won out that day. I convinced myself that if I could go another twenty miles to the next decent sized town and things still hadn’t improved, I’d check into the first motel I saw and break up the remaining distance to Detroit over the next two days. I went into the bathroom and changed into dry socks/underwear, put my new pants on under the pants I was wearing, and got my new hoodie on over my long sleeve shirt. Dressed for success, I got back on the road.

It was still just as nasty as before, but now I had some clothes that were dry for the time being. Around this time, I started laughing hysterically at the whole situation and how ridiculous it was, being the first week of May and all. I yelled at the sky, challenging it to give me the worst it could muster up. Of course, I probably looked and sounded like a lunatic. It made me feel better though, thinking that things couldn’t possibly get worse and yet I still hadn’t given up. It was right then that I knew I would make it all the way to Jackson that night. Willpower took over and there was nothing that could have stopped me.

Sometime between 4 and 5PM, the rain stopped and the sun came out. I was still 40 miles from Jackson, but I was moving along at an average of about 16.5 MPH so the end was well within reach. Unfortunately, I got a flat tire twelve miles from my hotel in Jackson, but it was an easy patch job that I completed in about ten minutes. Still, during that ten minutes two different people pulled their cars over to see if I needed help. Though I had it under control, I thought that was pretty cool.

A few miles from the hotel, I almost hit a deer. I was flying down a hill on a road with dense trees on both sides, and right near the bottom a buck jumped out not too far in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, and as soon as he saw me he scrambled on the pavement a bit and took off. Though I was at least 15-20 feet from him, that was plenty close as far as I was concerned.

I finally made it to the hotel at 9:50PM, just in time to take a shower and settle in for the Red Wings game. The Wings lost and as a result were knocked out of the NHL playoffs, which was a real bummer. That shower, however, was probably the most satisfying shower I’ve ever taken or will ever take.

Day Three: Sunday, May 9 (78.4 miles)
Day Three started much different/better than the previous two. Though it was cool at 8AM (39 degrees) it was sunny and clear. I ditched the pajama pants but kept the hoodie just in case. By 11 AM I didn’t need the hoodie or the pants I originally brought with me, and it felt good to be free of them at last.

My route from Jackson to Detroit was pretty much a straight shot east. Though it was fairly uneventful, the scenery was gorgeous. A good portion of the route was actually on a dirt road (Joy Rd, between Dexter and Plymouth Township) but it was packed down so hard that it was practically like riding on pavement. Also, there was virtually no traffic so I didn’t have to worry about being confined to a shoulder while on it. There were lots of picturesque farms and fields along this route. At one point I stopped to take a picture of a bunch of horses hanging out in a field. As I took the picture, a group of six or seven deer went running across the road not too far from where I stood. I took it all in for a few minutes before getting back on the bike, ecstatic over how much things had improved compared to the previous day.

Eventually the dirt portion of Joy Rd. ended and I popped out into Plymouth Township. Realizing I was finally into metro Detroit hit me like a shot of adrenaline. There were still something like 28 miles to go, but being back in civilization made me feel like the remaining distance was nothing. I was flying, going over 20 MPH for quite a while.

With only sixteen miles remaining, I put the call in to my dad to come and meet me downtown with his truck. I took Warren Ave from where it intersects Ann Arbor Trail out in Dearborn Heights all the way to Grand River in Detroit. Most of that road was in bad shape and I passed through some really rough areas, but I didn’t care. I had the end in sight and though my knees and thighs were on fire, I was pedaling like crazy.

Finally, just after 4:30 on Sunday afternoon, I reached my goal: the base of the Spirit Of Detroit Statue downtown. It was such a great feeling. Though I certainly would’ve preferred not to have dealt with the weather- and equipment-related issues that came up, it made finishing the ride seem like even more of an accomplishment. I would love to do this ride again, though next time I will probably do it during a month where I can be sure to have warmer weather.

Lessons Learned/Advice

Assume that any/every possible point of failure will become a problem at some point.

BE PREPARED. Bring at least one extra tire (assuming you have matching front and rear tires), 2-3 extra tubes, a patch kit, extra batteries for your lights/charging solutions, extra chain links (or better yet, an extra chain), chain lube, etc. A handy tip for transporting liquid chain lube: empty out a bottle of eye drop solution (I used a bottle of ClearEyes), pull the tip off with some pliers, fill it with chain lube, and then replace the tip. I can’t imagine needing more lube than this on a 3-day trip (I didn’t use any, and it rained like crazy), and doing so will save you a lot of space in your pack.

Always have plenty of water and a quick calorie/carb source on hand.

I started each day by filling my CamelBak reservoir (labeled capacity is 3 liters, but it’s actually more like 2.5-2.75) This was sufficient for the eighty miles I rode on Days One & Three but I ended up adding another liter later in the day during Saturday’s 140-mile ride. Having instant access to cold water is huge. I suppose you could get the job done with a few large water bottles mounted to your bike, but then you have to mess around with reaching for them while trying to keep your eyes on the road, and also they probably won’t keep the water as cold as the CamelBak will. With a CamelBak, all you have to do is stick the hose in your mouth and bite down on the end to get the water flowing. Also, carrying that much water will eliminate additional stops for refills. NEVER be without water!

Next, Clif bars are great. They are around 230-250 calories apiece and typically contain over 40g of carbs. There are a bunch of different flavors so there is probably at least one you’ll like. I’ve had the Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Chocolate Brownie, and the Mountain Mix Clif MOJO bars and liked all of them. I found that whenever I’d start to feel hungry in between meals, it wasn’t long (within minutes) before I’d get lightheaded and absolutely NEED a calorie boost. So I’d pull over, eat most or all of a Clif bar, and drink some water. Usually after a few minutes I’d feel much better. It worked out such that I ate one Clif bar between breakfast and lunch and another one between lunch and dinner. When you’re burning tons of calories on a trip like this, don’t mess around with trying to power through and make it to the next planned food stop. You might end up in a ditch somewhere. My body was quick to let me know when it needed fuel, and I was always prepared for that.

The bottom line is that you never know what your food situation is going to be like down the road, or what kind of shape you’ll be in when you get there. Therefore, have more than enough of whatever energy/hydration sources you need to get further than you think you need to get. It’s not like riding in a car and being able to go on for another hour or two even though your stomach is rumbling. It only makes sense that as you are rapidly burning calories, you’ll want to replace them as frequently as you can.

Even when maintaining or exceeding your target pace, trip segments will ALWAYS take longer than you expect them to.

This was true for me. Maybe your planning skills are sharper than mine, and you’ll be able to more accurately predict the amount of time it will take to go from point A to point B, including all stops, but for me it was tough. And that’s not even counting unforeseen mishaps such as flat tires, strong winds, etc. Water/snack breaks add up, and it’s not good to feel rushed – i.e. the sun’s going down and you’re still fifteen miles from your destination.

Get a GOOD headlamp and tail light.

When shopping for lights, the first thing you’ll notice is that they seem really expensive for something that is relatively simple. I thought the same thing, and I went with what was probably the second cheapest option available to me at the time for each.

For the tail light, this worked out well. The one I chose was a red Planet Bike model with 5 LEDs that lets me choose between on, flashing, and off. It takes 2 AAA batteries and though I had it on for roughly half of my trip, it never showed any signs of dying. Though it’s not fancy by any means, I can’t really think of a reason why I’d need a more expensive one. Big? Check. Bright? Check. Lasts a long time on 2 AAAs? Check.

The headlight, however, was a different story. The one I bought is a Blackburn Flea which uses 4 white LEDs, is smaller than my bike computer, and charges via a USB adapter. Since I knew I’d have my MintyBoost USB charger with me, I figured I could just charge it up each night and that would be that. Unfortunately, the Flea’s battery life is terrible. I couldn’t get more than 2-3 hours (if that) of use on its dim setting on a full charge. Since it was dark when I finished up on Days One and Two, this became a problem. The first night, when I was unaware of its short battery life, I actually had to stop twice in order to juice it up enough to continue on a few more miles, eating up roughly ten minutes each time. I also had to do this once on the second night, even though I purposely left it off in situations where I’d have normally left it on during the day. Though an integrated rechargeable battery seems like less hassle and is “greener”, I can tell you from experience that the ability to stop at any gas station anywhere and pick up new batteries to power your light is something you absolutely want. Next time, I will pony up and get something more substantial.

Get a portable device with some sort of mapping software and GPS functionality.

Yes, this seems like a total yuppie move and yes, I know that many people have taken longer, more complicated trips without such newfangled gadgets. It is totally possible to get from Chicago to Detroit without a GPS-enabled device, but it will take you longer to do so. Here’s why: Even if you spend hours memorizing your route ahead of time and know it like the back of your hand, you WILL get off-course at some point. I did several times, from having to hike to the bike shop on the west side of Gary to buy a new tire to just flat out missing roads that weren’t clearly labeled. One such road (Blackman Rd.) just outside of Jackson, MI, was basically a hole in the side of an embankment that held elevated train tracks, barely big enough for one car to fit through. When I saw it, it didn’t even dawn on me that it could be the road I was looking for.

You could go analog and rely on maps, but this approach is only good if you don’t plan on straying from larger roads at all, or if you plan on carrying a giant stack of maps. For example, between Dexter, MI and Plymouth Township, MI I stayed on Joy Rd. which was the most direct route and also one of the most scenic roads of my trip. Even the blown-up portion of southeastern Michigan on the backside of a current Michigan map only shows a portion of this road as being in existence.

Good news for iPhone, Android, and probably most other smartphone owners: the Google Maps application is more than sufficient for figuring out where you are and how to get to where you want to be. Unless you feel the need for turn-by-turn directions a la TomTom or Garmin dashboard-mounted devices (c’mon, where’s your sense of adventure?!) opening up Google Maps will not only show you where you’re at and let you plot a route if you so desire, but it will also let you know what your upcoming food/lodging choices are (assuming you have cell reception) so you can plan your stops accordingly. So not only was my iPhone my line to the outside world and my music/audiobook player, it was also my map.

Appreciate the little things.

This is probably more of an observation than it is advice. When you’ve been riding for hours in conditions that are significantly less than ideal, it’s easy to get bummed out about it. Riding in shitty weather is a lot more stressful and a lot more work than riding in 70 degrees and sunshine. Things that don’t seem like they’d normally be a big deal, such as shifts in wind, inconsiderate drivers, missed turns, etc, get magnified after you’ve been fighting weather for a few hours. Though my first day saw an equipment problem that put me severely behind schedule and it rained for a good portion of the day, it really didn’t bother me all that much since I still had a lot of energy and enthusiasm. The first sixty-three miles of day two, however, nearly broke me. The temperature never got above 45 degrees, it rained constantly for eight hours, and the wind was fierce (20-25MPH, gusts up to 45MPH). The wind chill factor even dipped below freezing for a while. Despite this, there were a few moments that really cheered me up.

In retrospect, it sounds kind of silly but there were two or three instances where the sun peeked through the clouds and just seeing a few stray sun rays shine down on the horizon gave me a huge boost, both mentally and physically. Even though I knew it was probably temporary, it gave me hope that at some point the weather might let up (it did, eventually).

Another thing that lifted my mood was chatting up gas station/restaurant employees whenever I stopped for food and supplies. Normally I’m not a fan of small talk, preferring to get in, get my stuff, and get right back out. But you run across some of the nicest, most genuine people in small towns who are more than willing to chat your ear off if you seem receptive to it. Talking about nothing in particular with them for just a few minutes really helped lift my mood.

Audiobooks

Though I love to listen to music while riding, listening to audiobooks while doing these 10-14 hour days really helped to pass the time. The stories keep me engaged more so than music does and I feel like the miles go by faster since I am not thinking about the physical act of riding as much. I’d say I probably listened to one hour of audiobook per two hours of music along the way.

If you see something good to eat, eat it.

No, I’m not talking about roadkill. Don’t pass up a dining choice you like just because it’s not technically time for a meal. This is especially true if you have dietary restrictions, such as vegetarianism, food allergies, or something similarly prohibitive. If any of those conditions apply to you, though, you probably already knew that. If you are passing through a lot of small towns, you will typically have two options in each: Ma & Pa’s Family Restaurant or McDonald’s. Ma & Pa’s will always take more time than you want to spend and McDonald’s, in addition to most of their stuff tasting gross, has very few options that are not totally grease-filled, or “heavy”. High calorie count is good, “heavy” is not. Even if you have an Internet-enabled smartphone you can’t count on having a usable signal when you’re out in the sticks, so planning to Google your food choices on the fly is a crapshoot, at best. Now, I’m not advocating stuffing yourself two hours after your previous meal and then getting back on the bike. That will inevitably make you feel like garbage. I found that I could eat pretty much whenever though, since I wasn’t eating large portions and I was burning it off so quickly. If you have extra storage space in your pack(s), order more food than you think you can eat and save the rest as a snack for later.

Be aware of your surroundings.

This seems obvious, but it’s important. Ninety percent of my trip was spent riding on the shoulder of whatever road I was on, with cars periodically whizzing past me at 60+ miles per hour. Some of the particularly inconsiderate drivers would wait until they got right next to me and then lay on their horns. ***Note: If you’ve ever done this, don’t ever tell me about it because if you do I won’t like you anymore. Also, stop doing it immediately.*** Though I was listening to either music or an audiobook the entire time I was on the road, I always had only my right earbud in so that I could hear approaching vehicles on the road to my left. Surprises are the last thing you need, whether you are riding right on the white line or have a 6-foot wide strip of fresh asphalt shoulder to work with. A slight knee-jerk reaction could leave you in the loose gravel to the side of the road and on a bike with skinny tires going 20 miles per hour, that usually doesn’t end well. Look ahead to every road you approach, as far as you can in both directions. Even if cross-traffic has stop signs or traffic lights, never assume a driver will stop. Most people aren’t used to looking for bicycles on country roads and may not see you until it’s too late. Right of way means nothing in these situations. If you’re on a bike and the other person is in a car, you will ALWAYS lose.