East Jordan to Petoskey - Day 10

Knowing that this would be another extremely hot day, we decided to get an early start. Bananas, donuts, and milk fueled the start of our ride. Our route took us through the rest of the town we had not yet seen. Within the first few miles we found ourselves again in the hill country of northern Michigan, and were walking the bikes up the hills. On the largest hill of the entire ride, a motorcyclist who was starting his descent yelled over to us. "It's a wall, isn't it?" It was not even 8:00 and we were dripping wet with sweat. This pattern f ride and walk went on for about 20 miles before leveling off for the final 8 miles into Petoskey. I appearlantly miscalculated the mileage for this day. It was only 28 miles when I thought it would be 37.

We found the hotel around noon, and they told us check-in was not until 3:00 pm. After a lot of questioning, they found a room for us to get in right away. The heat and hills were taking its toll on me. I was feeling light-headed and slightly nauseated - similar to motion sickness. I think it was heat exhaustion. I was concerned about my ability to ride another day on rodes with extreme hills, so we rented a car to scout the next day's route. The middle of the route was going to be very difficult.