It was early September and I was finally home in NYC after six months of near nonstop traveling. It felt nice, for 5 minutes. Then panic set in. October was completely empty. So, I called up an old pal in Chicago and asked if he was up for a little motorcycle ride. Maybe the Lake Michigan Circle Tour? Nick said yes, and very little else. The two of us have been dodging the clink together for over a decade now, and in that time you'd think I'd have learned to just sit back and enjoy the ride when with him, but I haven't. Because Nick is a fellow to follow if it’s adventure you want, and one to avoid at all costs if it’s not. And well, I guess I just like a good time too much to learn.
All efforts to plan were met with obnoxious retorts akin to, “just grab a backpack, get a bike, and stop worrying.” So I did. Sorta.
I didn’t stop worrying.
Nick laughed at the idea of camping this far into fall. Still I hauled enough gear from Brooklyn to both break my back and keep us covered for a few days well outside the city. Because I'm stubborn, and because camping is fun, and because I thought it’d make for some nice photos. “Michigan gonna eat you alive,” he texted just before my arrival. Pssh.
The general feeling around Chicago was we were too late—we had missed the Midwestern riding season. Had I known the conditions that lay ahead, perhaps I'd have heeded the not-so-subtle warnings. But I didn't, so we didn't. Instead I picked up my BMW R 1200 GS from Countryside, IL and we hit the road with the goal of running the iconic Lake Michigan Circle Tour—or the Michigan Loop, as we preferred. Spanning 1000 miles and four states (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan), the Michigan Loop route is a local tradition. Most do it over a week, and almost exclusively in the summer. It was now mid-October, and we had just four free days. Easy peasy.