www.iFourWinns.com

My wife and I are planning a 2 1/2 week trip on Lake Michigan at the end of this summer! We boat on the south end of the lake, and the furthest north we have been on the Michigan side is Grand Haven, so we are having alot of trouble planning an itinerary. We drove to Michigan today to the visitors center to grab as many travel guides as possible, but we really neeed to hear a boaters perspective on which ports are worth stopping at, the ones worth stopping at for more than one day, and the ones that aren't worth the time and gas!

Our ultimate goal is to reach Mackinaw Island while stopping at as many ports as possible, travel across the U.P, and down the Wisconsin side to back home. It's ambitious, and very weather dependant, but hopefully possible. So far here are a few ports we want to stop at, but other than reading about them we have no first hand knowledge about them:
Ludington
Manistee
Traverse City
Petoskey
Beaver Island
Mackinaw/St. Ignace

Would you swap out one of these ports for another? Also any resturant recomendations or cool things to do in a certain port? We really appreciate any insight you can give us for this trip. Thank you in advance!

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Once in Grand traverse bay, stop at Suttons Bay,Elk Rapids, Charlevoix. Beaver Island is great, you will enjoy that stop. If you are in Machinaw, stop at the new Straights Marina in Machinaw City. The port in Leland is worth a stop as well.

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2000 268 Vista
Flying Dutchman
"Howl with me boys"

+1 for GTBay's comments.
If you like more small town feel, swap harbor springs for Petoskey, maybe stop in Petoskey at their day dock then zip over to Harbor Springs. If you want a hiking adventure, anchor at the manitou islands. I would recommend beaver island as a stop too. Going across the UP, stop in Manistique, then Gladstone.

Restaurants off the top of my head:
TC: Apache Trout Grill or North Peak
Charlevoix: Weathervane (finer dining) or some pubs downtown
Petoskey: Perry Hotel or Mitchell St Pub (bit of a hike ~6 blocks from marina)
Harbor Springs: The Pier, Julierettes, Gurney's for sandwiches
Beaver Island: whatever you can find, ie shamrock is about it
Mackinaw City: we usually hit up one of the pizza joints, not sure how good the other places are
St Ignace: Clydes Drive in (probably too far from the marina though)
Mackinaw Island: Pink Pony (downtown) or The Woods Restaurant (finer dining and a nice carriage ride past the Grand)

Hopefully that helps...there's a bunch of us from West Mi on here, so we can answer your planning questions.

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'99 Horizon 200

It seems the only info I can find on Leland is about the Carlson's fisheries/Fishtown. Would this make a good day stop to shop or a good place to spend more time in?


I really like that idea! Harbor springs does look really nice with plenty of things to do! I picked Petoskey because of the "irresistable old world charm" as noted by the cruising guide. I'm a big history/historic preservation dork, so any place with a nice historic downtown and I'm happy!

I should also mention that we are going to atempt to bring our bikes with by using something like this http://www.newworldmarine.com/cg.html. I'm trying to fabricate something similar to this by converting a car trunk carrier. This looks nice, but the price seems a little steep. Also the bow rail on the 268 seems too low to try to mount them on the bow. There seems to be alot of nice bike trails and parks to see up there that we might miss out on if we didn't bring them. Has anyone carried a set of bike on a small cruiser before...was it worth the hassle and how did you do it? Thanks for the suggestions and please keep them coming!!

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

I would say make your slip reservations as soon as possible. They fill up fast! We are crossing in July to Frankfurt for two nights, then to Petoskey for two and wrapping up at Charlevoiux for two. We made our reservations two months ago.

We did TC last year and loved Clinch Park Marina. Everything there is within walking distance, the Omelette Shop is awesome for breakfast!

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Michael Bova


"Swept Aweigh"
2003 Four Winns 328 Vista

Previous Boat
2003 Crownline 230CCR

Sounds like a great trip.

When you are in Ludington look up Ronnies Rib Rack. It is a little hole in the wall that makes the best smoked pork ribs I have ever had. Honestly, the to-go meal I had sitting at the picnic tables by the marina is probably one of the best I can recall. They have sort of odd hours, so it is a good idea to call ahead. Last I knew they were closed Sundays.

In general Ludington is a nice little town. They have a nice down town with a lot of nice little shops. If you are up for a good bike ride you could take a ride up M116 towards the state park. It is a nice road along one of the nicest beaches anywhere.

Regarding bikes, if I were you I would find a way to bring them. A couple of years ago I even figured out a way to bring bikes on my 18' cuddy. Unfortunately, our trip to Mackinac Island got rained/winded out so we ended up taking the ferry instead. I had rigged up a Thule roof rack to sit over the motor doghouse on the boat. I think you have the right idea to take a trunk mount style and rig it to work on your 268. Just make sure it is very secure. For extra measure I would have some secondary means of tieing the bikes to the boat.

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Current Operational Boats:
'04-Four Winns 180 Freedom 150 HP Evinrude
'72-Chris Craft Commander 31 Sedan Twin-350Qs

Haha..I like the sound of that, nothing beats good ribs and a cold beer!

Thats great advice, and I really need to get this mapped out so I can make reservations!That brings up a good question. Do we make up a travel itinerary, make reservations according to it, and if bad weather hits skip the next port on the plan to catch back up to the itinerary/reservations? It would seem that a couple day storm could derail our entire reservation plan , and in a small boat like ours on Lake Michigan that may happen more than once! We really have no experience planning a trip like this, so these posts are really helping us out! Thank you

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

Here are some web sites to check out.

http://www.mynorth.com/

http://www.leelanau.com/

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2000 268 Vista
Flying Dutchman
"Howl with me boys"

Now that you and your wife have made it back alive, how about the boat? Any damage ? Did the pedally bikes stay on the transom ? I have about a dozen more I could come up with.

Trip report please.............

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Haha I figured that was coming soon I promise a full trip report is coming soon! We have between 1500-2000 pics and about 100vids I'm going thru now. It's taken forever b/c every pics is too large of a file so we are resizing them on my wife Mac so we can put them on Flickr. The good news is we did make it home with the boat in one piece, and our bikes still attached!

_________________
Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"