Euphoric weekend

   The weather forecast for the past weekend was irresistible.  I threw my stuff on the Hunq and took off for the coast for the weekend.  It's a trip I make several times a year but this was the most pleasant by far.   Clear skies, temps in the 60's during the day and 50's at night--good sleepin' weather.  A lot of people had the same idea,

the trail was very busy.

I stopped for lunch at this gazebo in the center of Bloomingdale.

There was no wind on the trail and it gave rise to

a childish "look ma, no hands" moment caught on the cell phone.

For the first time ever, my favorite campsite at the end of the trail was busy.

The first night I spent talking to Jason who had made the trip from Kalamazoo.

He is an experienced backpacker and mountain biker, 

so he did what made sense to him and carried all his gear on his back.

After seeing the arrangement I had on the bike, he may be changing his methods a bit.

Three hours with a load like that would be all I could take on a bike.

The second night I was joined by a father & son out for a weekend together.

Mom had dropped them off at the trail head for them to make the ride, 

and planned to pick them up on the road to Holland on Sunday while they rode north.

Like Jason, it was their first self-contained trip and they did what made sense.

They used their unused child trailer for the gear.  

The more interesting piece was the father's bike,

a mid eighties Miyata he had picked up for $10 from a lawnmower repair shop.

It's a bike worth a few upgrades and powdercoating.  I think it will last him a lifetime.

But they were not the only visitors I had over the weekend.  

There was this "gentleman."

Yep, just what he looks like, he is a friendly drunk.

Full of disjointed memories about his childhood and camping at that very spot before it was a campsite.

 He had a Schwinn cruiser outfitted for, well, let's call it survival.

Check out that light

system

driven off an old dynamo.

He was as beguiling as annoying and took me on quite a ride around the little coastal town.

 During my attempt to lead him away, he showed me to an isolated area of beach

I had never seen and only the locals know about or use.  

For that I'll have to call him a friend.