Leelanau Harvest

I was waiting and waiting to see if the weather was going to cooperate and fulfill the long range forecast hope. Hey it worked!  I had great weather for a weekend in the woods.  The Leelanau Harvest Tour is a charity ride I hadn't ridden.  Starting  a few miles northwest of Traverse City

 on the Leelanau Trail which is also part of US Bike Route 35 following the lake shore from New Buffalo to

 Mackinaw City.

We didn't do  that, but the trail is a beautifully paved trail to start the ride, cutting through the orchards and vineyards of the Leelanau peninsula.

Dancing ornaments were found

as well as the ripened orchards of the area

until we reached the main attraction.  

Lake Leelanau is enourmous and was peeking

 through the trees all along the roads.

Unlike the Paw Paw harvest tour

 there were more orchards than vineyards

 and I missed the fragrance filling every breath.

E-bikers were out gliding through the hilly course,

not with  monsterous mountains

but frequent steep climbs. 

I'll admit to some conceited smugness as 

I pedaled my Sam Hillborne past a number of

 spandex hamsters pushing their 

crabon crotch rockets up the grades.

It was a windless 40 mile ride through the fruit industry

 back to the village of Suttons Bay on the big lake

where a few hundred surviving riders shared 

 lunch, ice cream and stories.

It was a welcome break from the routine and another

night in the woods by the lake at Interlochen.