Preparation / Planning

I first got the idea to ride the Lake Michigan Circle Tour back in 2010 when riding my normal training routes along the Chicago lakefront and north on Sheridan Rd.  My commute to work takes me along Highway 41 which is Lake Shore Drive and on the weekends I typically will go north along Sheridan Road which runs north all the way to Wisconsin.  During these rides I would see the green highway signs for the Lake Michigan Circle tour.  I did a bit of research online and saw that this was a pre mapped route that went not just through Illinois but Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana circumventing the entire perimeter of the lake.  I started thinking about how long it would take and if it would be possible to do it on a bike.

I started by mapping exactly how many miles it was around the lake.  I assumed a travel distance of about 100 miles per day and from my door went north to Milwaukee which was about 100 miles.  I continued around stopping at the nearest town to the 100 mile daily limit and determined that the entire route was just about 950 miles.  Doing the math I figured I would need a minimum of 10 days to complete the trip.  This minor bit of planning was all the further I would take it until the summer of 2012.  The idea was always stuck in my head but it seemed like such a daunting task that it was really no more than a dream at this time.

At the beginning of the racing season in 2012 I was working with a guy and got to talking about doing this epic ride later in the year.   Once he was on board my planning really took off.  I did a thorough and detailed mapping of the route and determined the exact towns where I would stay at the end of each day.  This took quite a bit of time because I was following routes that would avoid major highways but also follow scenic trails and also the contours of the lake.  As I got closer and closer to an actual route the miles crept up closer to 1,000. 

As the route got more developed I started seeing that the daily mileage would exceed 100 on some days while others would be quite shy of 100.  To minimize my stays in hotels I tried to stay with friends and family as much as I could.  My wife’s Aunt and Uncle live in Harbor Springs Michigan while my Aunt lives in Traverse City Michigan.  I also have a distant cousin who lives in Holland Michigan.  Knowing that I had places to stay in these towns I made sure to make those towns finishing points on the route.  Finally I completed the route that would take me around the lake in 10 days.  It would start with a short 90 mile day to Milwaukee followed by three back to back 120 mile days to get to Harbor Springs, Michigan.  From there there would be two short days before kicking up to 100 mile days to take me home.  The final planned route was 975 miles.

The 10 day time frame was really a matter of convenience and a result of remaining vacation time off work.  My planned duration allowed to me to take five days of work, using both before and after weekends, as well as the Labor Day holiday, thus giving me ten total days.  The downside to this plan was that there were no extra days built in for breakdowns, injury or any other problem that might come up.  Having no extra time for delay would mean that I would rely quite a bit on luck to make it around and in the days leading up the trip this became one of my major worries.

In early 2012 just as my plans were really taking off I suffered a major setback.  My friend Dan who was planning on doing the trip with me left the company to go work out West.  This meant if I was still going to do the trip I’d be doing it solo.  Then in July, I suffered a really bad injury while on vacation in Colorado mountain biking.  I shattered my collarbone in 5 places and cracked some ribs which required surgery.  I was out of work and off the bike the entire month of July.  Although, I was able to ride indoors on the trainer my racing season ended and so did the dreams about doing the Lake Michigan Circle Tour. 

Towards the end of July, after I had started to heal up a bit I began to think about the rest of the year.  I had already put in for the vacation time at work and aside from my partner being gone there was no reason to NOT do the ride… that was, unless I was not cleared by my doctor to ride.  I had to wait and be patient during my recovery and decided that I wouldn’t go against his recommendation if he said I could not ride.  But I also started to think that if he cleared me to ride I would have about a month to get ready and do it.  The next few weeks leading up to my final doctor’s appointment were filled with anticipation.  If the x-ray showed that I was healed enough and the doctor cleared me to ride the ride was on!

On August 6 I went back to the doctor for my follow up appointment.  He took an x-ray and as he sat there examining it I was holding my breath.  He turned around and said everything looked good and gave me the green light to ride outside again and do the trip if I was up for it.  I had to ask him again just be sure I heard him correctly and he confirmed that yes I was all healed.  I decided right then and there that I was going to go for it. The trip was on.  I remember leaving the hospital with this amazing euphoric feeling of excitement and anticipation.  The time was right and everything had come together in just the right way making it seem like it was meant to be.