Impending trail renovation

     Half the nearby Kal-Haven trail will be closed for the rest of the year.   The West half of the trail has deteriorated into a neglected two track in the woods.  So it's a good thing the DNR is going to resurface it.

                                 

     It's not without it's controversy.  The covered bridge over the Black River in South Haven is also to be torn down and replaced in the process.  Some locals have placed sentimental value to the structure.  It's run down and needs replacing and the protests are a bit strange.  They act as if it's an historical landmark.  From what I understand, it's only about 50 years old, it's not even part of the original railroad.  I get the impression it was built to be cute, but not very well and looks to me like it should be replaced with an upgrade.  

What the hell do I know?  I guess people will argue about it all summer while the work is going on.  What I do know is that I like riding that part to South Haven a couple times a year just to get out and hang around the lake.  I had to do it this week or not at all, so I did.  Wednesday I took off and the weather was great although a bit hot in the nineties.   I stopped at nearly every water pump to refill and pour cold water over my head.  After stopping for lunch at Bloomingdale,  I was rescued by a stray thundershower.  The noise and lightning were south so I didn't worry much.   I was about 10 miles from SH when it went by and absolutely drenched me with relief .  It was truly rejuvenating, the storm was going East, I was going West, everything worked out just fine.

     I reached the Idler in South Haven in mid afternoon to cool off in customary fashion after a 50 mile ride.  South Haven was busy, even after the holiday weekend there were people every where searching the boutiques and enjoying the different restaurants in town.  I had reserved a site at the Van Buren State Park south of town for a couple of nights.

     It's not my favorite place to camp, with hundreds of RV 's and kids racing around the way they do, but the new showers are nice and I didn't worry about leaving my stuff there while I pedaled around the shoreline on Thursday.

Thursday was downright cool in contrast to Wednesday.  The sky was hazy, not from Canadian smoke but just cloudy and humid.  The breezes from the lake were cool and strong enough that a few people actually tried to surf the waves with little success. 

There weren't many people out on the beaches, but a day at the beach is not to be ignored when you have the chance and there were some fool hardy groups in the water despite warnings of waves, wind and rip currents.  

     The ride home was nearly perfect with temps in the '70's and NNW wind quartering behind.  It took little time to make the 50 miles back home and I ran across my friend, Rick Whaley, doing the same thing.  He wanted to ride that part of the trail once this year before it closed also.  There were a number of groups heading out to SH, I assume for the same reason.  In all it was a excellent 4 days of riding about 130 miles give or take a few.