You’d think I’d learn. I dropped a glove again (the other one) looking for a place to eat in Alpena. I noticed it was missing after lunch, and found it the same way. {sigh}
Stopping in Alpena turned out to be a good choice and a bad choice. It was good because it delayed me while some rain blew through ahead of me. (The steady headwind delayed me by about 5mph as well.) The road was often freshly wet, and even though I don’t like riding on wet roads, it’s better than riding on wet roads in the rain.
It was a bad choice because my timing was wrong for arriving in Tawas. It started raining during my approach to the park, and by the tine I got to my site, it was pouring.
Not knowing how much of this I’d have to put up with, I decided to pitch the tent. This is a nerve-wracking thing to do in the rain, because while it’s going up – before the rain fly is in place and adjusted – it’s vulnerable to the rain. Fortunately I’ve had a lot of practise putting up this tent, so I managed it without getting the interior or sleeping gear substantially wet. I stayed out of the tent, however. My “partial shade” site was a great help, giving me “partial rain shelter”. The main reason I didn’t take refuge in the tent is that it’s a kind of a commitment. I can’t take the rain gear into the tent with me, and if I leave it out it usually gets too wet to use. If it was close to bedtime I’d relent and commit to being in the tent till morning… but not at 4:30pm.
After about an hour, the rain tapered off, and the park came back to life. Tawas Point park is kind of like Holland State Park, more of a beach destination than a wilderness experience. It’s big, and even though the sites are a decent size, it still feels a bit like a while bunch of RVs (and tents) stacked row upon row. (On the other hand, the city park in nearby East Tawas has the RVs packed in almost side by side on cement “pads”, with one row of them separated from M-23 by just a chain link fence. Still the city park is packed, with some people apparently setting up summer cottages (on wheels) there.) The state park is located on a long sandy hook that forms a bay with nice shallow swimming beaches. The sandy point also makes it a prime bird-watching site, and the only nesting ground for piping plovers east of the Straits. I’m no serious bird-watcher, but I enjoyed hiking the trail.
I’m at the half-way point of the trip, which means it’s time to do laundry. There’s a coin-op laundrette near the park, which helpfully bought ad space in the park’s map/brochure. So I’m sitting with nearly all of my clothes in the washer, wearing just my shorts, my jacket, and my camp shoes.
There’s more rain coming soon. The forecast said the probability was dropping from 60% to 30% around now. It was wrong. So it’s back to the camp site, and when the rain hits, hunker down for the night.
