Today’s journey started with parting ways. Dylan and I had an awesome breakfast with our couch surfing host, said our goodbyes and went our separate ways; he back to Chicago with a stop at the Harley Davidson museum in Milwaukee and I on the road to my next stop in Marquette Michigan.

I can’t say enough about this idea of taking the road less traveled. The official Lake Michigan Circle Tour road was highway 41 coming right out of Green Bay, but it was fairly inland and resembled your run of the mill highway. I opted to take some roads that were closer to the lake. Lakeview Rd sounded like a good option.  Despite it’s name though, didn’t really have any lake views. Eventually it turned into highways J, S and Y along the way, running just east of 41 most of the time.

This path did have some great features though, including a pretty neat transformation of scenery. Quickly things turned from farmland to fields of untamed grass and seemingly undeveloped land. I was the only one on these roads for most of the time making for a very serene ride.

The towns I was taken through were excellent. Oconto is perhaps the quietest town on the planet. Nothing seemed to be happening, and if it was you couldn’t hear it. Though I might also be going deaf from the noise of the wind. Nice.

Peshtigo was great. I’m not even sure what it was that made it great, and I didn’t even stop, only road on through. Just the quaint, humble nature of the place, it seemed completely friendly.

Eventually these roads lead back to 41 and you cross over to Michigan in Marinette. Now here’s where it get’s really good, Michigan Route 35. By far the best road I’ve been on so far. It’s just miles of road hugging Lake Michigan, sometimes revealing houses along the lake, sometimes natural, untouched lake shoreline, something I can’t even recall seeing ever anywhere else. Grassy fields are becoming tree lined forests and the lake breeze was like mega bursts of AC on full blast.

Toward the end of the journey on 35 I noticed a brown sign with a Camera on it. Sweet, picture time. A decently long road brought me to a gravel parking lot for something called Portage Point. The waves reminded me more of an ocean than a lake. It was an entire little peninsula of nothing but natural shore.

The north is definitely pristine. The farther I went, it seemed like the air was just getting fresher. I eventually made it to Marquette and was surprised to see some hills and rock formations here and there. A good change up to the flat land I’ve been on the last 400 miles.

Lake superior is no exception in being pristine.

I met up with my couch surfing host, helped finish making the largest batch of pesto I’ve ever seen, had some dinner and jumped in the lake just as it was getting dark.

Day 2 complete. Traverse City here I come.