Aug 3 – It finally happened—our RV Garmin took us down a neighborhood street with nowhere to go! Luckily, it wasn’t near as bad as it could have been, but it is not a good feeling when you see only a heavily wooded area in front of you with two narrow private drives.
We unhooked the Jeep, and then had enough room to get the motorhome turned around. Since we were within 2 or 3 miles to our park destination we each drove a vehicle to it. I chose to lead the way with the Jeep.
TimberRidge RV Campground
We made it!
Justin welcomes everyone to TimberRidge! Hmm…maybe CVR should think of “manning” our entry guard hut with something like this. 🙂
Settled into our site:
TimberRidge RV Campground was a nice park with lots of activities/amenities for families. They did something I had not see elsewhere – Everyone under the age of 18 had to wear a colored wristband that coordinated with their specific age group. This helped ensure appropriate participation in various activities. This kept the activities more fun for the focused age group, and kept younger kids safer during their activities.
I met a work camper from “Resort Activities” who organized and taught pickleball. The park was in the process of finishing two brand new pickleball courts. We got to play on them. They will be coated/painted next week.
The cornhole area was also new. We’ve been seeing more and more of this type of permanent boards
We decided to explore Traverse City on our bikes since they have amazing bike trails. We were excited with the route we selected, but we knew it meant we would not be making it to Sleeping Bear Dunes on this trip. We were OK with that.
Boardman Lake – Absolutely Beautiful!
We parked at the south end of Boardman Lake. We went up the west side of the lake. Are those really swans out there!?! Awesome. I wished they were closer for better pictures, but how cool to see so many!
As we transitioned at the north end of Boardman Lake to the TART trails, I noticed a planet hanging from a pole. Traverse City has a scaled model of our solar system displayed throughout the area. The sun can be found near the Traverse City Public Library. As you head out away from the sun, you will come to each planet according to their orbits around the sun. Many people are oblivious to these planets as they walk or bike by on the trails. You can’t see multiple planets from one spot. We did not specifically search any out, but I kept my eye out for them as we biked. We saw more than I expected, but I did not take pictures of them since the sunlight was an issue, or the weather over time took its toll on the planet model and/or the corresponding sign of information. I was impressed with the information that was included on the various signs that I could read.
It was nice to see this posted to educate how important water is and our need to know what we do that can help or hinder it.
We continued around the West Arm Grand Traverse Bay towards Sutton’s Bay. Such a great stretch of park and beach areas !
All in flowers/plants! The shape of the state of Michigan, TC (Traverse City), cherries and 22 for 2022. Why cherries? Traverse City is the cherry capital of the US!
When the trail seemed to end, we simply reversed our ride along the water till we connected to the TART Trail that took us up the East Arm Grand Traverse Bay to Acme.
As we were riding along I saw ahead of us, a bushy black squirrel jump up onto the inside edge of a trash receptacle. As we were approaching I was trying to tell Barry so he would see it, but then there was quick movement and the squirrel was air bound and about ended up on me! I screamed, and he was off. There was definite laughter behind me as I then heard, “Dang, I didn’t have the camera going!” (ABBY – I thought of you!)
While it was still a nice bike ride, and we saw things along the way, the trail took us further away from the water than we expected.
We finished by getting back to the north end of Boardman Lake to go south down the east side of the lake to return to our Jeep. The trail on along east side was more shaded. Glad we lucked out with the direction we did the lake loop!
The last of the trail. The bridge that led back to the parking lot. It has been a great day!
Sounds like a wonderful place to visit. Thanks for sharing.
Hey, how are the bugs?? I remember going to see my grandparents in Michigan each summer and the bugs were vicious. Again, great pictures . looks like the weather is perfect.
It was better than I expected. Maybe we didn’t hit their “peak season”, but we always had our anti-bug wipes and/or spray handy. We rarely went out without a little bit on. I did get numerous bites on my legs when we were in Petoskey. From what I researched I think they were chigger bites – and they lasted for a couple weeks. I really expected to be “attacked” by mosquitos as I was as a kid in Yellowstone years ago. Mackinaw City has swarms of some flying insect that people said weren’t mosquitos, but I didn’t stick around to test that theory. LOL