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leelanau county news • traverse city news • michigan news

The Cherry Capital Cycling Club and Hagerty Cycling Team host the inaugural Cherry-Roubaix Old Town Criterium this Saturday (Sep 20). The Cherry-Roubaix pays homage to the Paris-Roubaix, one of the oldest cycling races in the world. It will feature professional riders going really fast through the streets of Traverse City and should be a great time!

The event kicks off with free races for kids at 3:30 with competition beginning at 4 PM. The start and finish will be in front of the Firefly Lounge on Cass St in Traverse City.

Looks like it will be great fun and you can get all the info right here and in this article in the Record-Eagle.

On Sunday, September 21 the The Cherry Capital Cycling Club will host the annual Leelanau Harvest Tour. It's an annual bicycle road ride that drew 1,000 riders last year and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. To honor this milestone, a bluegrass band will perform at the end of the ride and special surprises along the routes are also planned.

The tour starts and ends at Glen Lake School, and route options cover 15, 25, 45, 67 and 100 miles through the hilly countryside. In an effort to encourage families and less inexperienced riders, the 15-mile route was added this year. The rides feature unique food stops every 20 to 30 miles at lakefront parks with a menu that includes specialties from area merchants and restaurants. Pre-registered riders will also enjoy a pasta and salad meal after the ride, which is included in the registration fee.

Proceeds from the tour benefit the Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation (TART) Trails and cyclists may register and get more details at leelanauharvesttour.org or by calling 941-4300.

From the current edition of the Glen Arbor Sun:

In early June, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (the local branch of the National Park Service) will hold three identical public meetings on consecutive days to present four action alternatives, including the Park's "preferred alternative," for a new General Management Plan (GMP), and solicit public comments in the process. The Park will hold meetings on June 3 at Platte River Elementary School in Honor; June 4 at the Hagerty Center in Traverse City; and June 5 at the Glen Arbor Township Hall — all from 5:30-8:30 p.m. The public can also comment on the alternatives at the Park's website until June 13.

Read the rest in Park unveils revamped General Management Plan to public from the Sun.

View the alternatives, make your comments and get all the details on the GMP from the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The proposed plans include options such as a bike path, a 30 mile bay-to-bay hiking path stretching from Platte Bay to Good Harbor Bay and some changes to recreational use (though not nearly as extreme as the last round).

Photo credit: Sleeping Bear Dunes - photo by Don Miller/Glen Arbor Sun

The 2008 Tour de Leelanau bike race took place on Sunday. BMC's Taylor Tolleson took first place in the very close men's race (followed by Bissell riders Ben Jacques-Maynes and Teddy King) while the women's race was blown wide open by Anne Samplonius of Cheerwine, who finished over 2 minutes ahead of teammate Leigh Hobson and Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco).

Tolleson and Samplonius win at Tour de Leelanau from the cycling blog podium in sight has a great recap of the race and links to other reports including the one from Cycling News (with photo gallery).

You can also read a story on the race in the Traverse City Record-Eagle, check out some great photos by Gary Howe and see a video of the racers heading toward Inspiration Point.

Photo: Women on Tower Hill I by Andy McFarlane (slideshow)

The 2008 Priority Health Tour de Leelanau bicycle race will be held next Sunday (May 25). This race is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union, UCI, and USA Cycling and is a heck of a lot of fun! It had been held in September but is moving to Memorial Day Weekend this year. Race director Steve Brown explains "We have moved the event forward on the racing calendar in order to capitalize on the teams' enthusiasm for racing in early summer compared to the end of the season." While they are hoping to draw more racers and crowds this year:

One key element of the 2008 Priority Health Tour de Leelanau that has not been tweaked is the course. Leelanau's reputation as a "hardman's race" continues to grow throughout the US. Tower Rd is still located at mile 60 (97 kilometers) and promises to whip up a frenzied crowd cheering on racers from every team as they hammer their way up the steep (21% gradient) climb.

The race features $20,000 in prize money and all kinds of climbs & sprints set against the beautiful Leelanau landscape. You can get all the details and maps for the men's race (11 AM start in Leland, 109.5 miles, 3:30 PM finish at Peshawbestown) and women's race (approximate 12:40 PM start in Glen Arbor, 69.5 miles, 3:30 PM finish at Peshawbestown), course tour & maps, the race expo and all the rest of the events surrounding the race at the Tour de Leelanau web site

Here's our report on the 2007 Tour de Leelanau. You can also check out the tour de leelanau tag on Flickr (slideshow) and more photos in the Tour de Leelanau group on Flickr.

Photo credit: Tour de Lelanau. Men's sprint line in Glen Arbor, Michigan by cyoas55

Speaking of photos:

Priority Health is sponsoring a Tour de Leelanau photo contest where you could get your photo on the cover of next year's Tour Trumpet & receive a check for $500. To enter:

1. Take a picture at this year's event.
2. Upload it to the Priority Health Cycling Flickr pool at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/phcycling/
   Note: You will need a Flickr/Yahoo account - signing up for one is FREE.
3. Add the tag to your image: "Tour de Leelanau"

Over on our Absolute Michigan web site, we're featuring Leelanau's own National Lakeshore in Dig Michigan: Sleeping Bear Dunes. It begins:

The October 21, 1970 Act of Congress that established the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore declared that "...the Congress finds that certain outstanding natural features, including forests, beaches, dune formations, and ancient glacial phenomena, exist along the mainland shore of Lake Michigan and on certain nearby islands in Benzie and Leelanau Counties, Michigan, and that such features ought to be preserved in their natural setting and protected from developments and uses which would destroy the scenic beauty and natural character of the area."

Before it's all over, you will have hopefully enjoyed the photos, maps and links and checked out 5 "must-do" ways to experience the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. (I'm hoping folks who know and love the Dunes can add many more tips for visitors!)

Check it out - I'm really happy with how it came out!

Photo: canyon of trees by metrolens

South Manitou Island is an uninhabited island just off the coast of west Leelanau County. In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries the island was a popular harbor and fueling station. In the 1800s the island was inhabited by farmers - their buildings, equipment, schoolhouse, and cemetery still remain on the island today. The island now has many miles of trails crisscrossing the island, an inland lake, a beautiful lighthouse, and the Manitou Passage State Underwater Preserve. The longest trail on the island is 7.4 miles, with others as short as .6 miles.

The village on South Manitou Island was located in the natural harbor on the west side of the island. The strategic location of the island and the fact that it had one of the only protected deep water harbors between Chicago and Buffalo, made it ideal for refueling the steamers. As a result, it became the first settlement in the area. In 1847, the village included Burton's Warf, a house, blacksmith shop, grocery store, barn and a wooden tamarack railroad track extending from the Warf inland to haul wood for the steamers. The current village is located south of the original village near the Life-Saving Station and lighthouse. The houses in the village were used as summer cottages. The Visitor's Center is located in the former General Store.

Cool things to do: bike to the old farms on the island, hike all the many miles of trails, check out the lighthouse, walk to the Virgin Cedars and check out the shipwreck on the way, take a guided tour of the old settlements, swim, scuba dive to explore the wreck of the Morazan.

Watch out for Poison Ivy! It can be found all over the island, a way to help remember about Poison Ivy is this little rhyme: Leaves of three, let it be. Before you go check out Wikipedia: Poison Ivy to learn more about it. The Poison Ivy in Leelanau County is normally ground cover and not a shrub. As long as you do not touch the Poison Ivy you will be fine.

How to reach the island: you can take a personal boat, canoe or kayak (beware it is 8 miles of open water from Pyramid Point), or take the Manitou Transit. When you take the ferry and do not plan on camping you have 4 1/2 hours to tour the island.

Garrett Peltonen (Priority Health) won the men's race of the Tour de Leelanau with a time of 4:21:03. He finished just 18 seconds ahead of Ryan Roth (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Scott Zwanski (Priority Health) finished third. In the women's race, Tina Pic (Priority Health) took the medal with a time of 3:17:58, defeating Laura van Gilder (UCI Cheerwine) in a photo finish with Julie Bellerose (Team Aberdeen) just 3 seconds behind.

They have posted complete results from the Tour de Leelanau web site, and we'll add links to other articles as they are published. Here's the Leelanau Enterprise story with some great photos. The article also says:

If things go as planned, the 2008 Tour de Leelanau will be held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Brown said with the Tour de Missouri endurance race being held over an eight-day period in September 2008, most of the professional race teams would not be available to compete in the Tour de Leelanau if it continues to be held on the third Saturday in September.

The photo above is In the peleton by John Clement Howe and you can get some great photos of the Tour de Leelanau from Flickr (slideshow) and check out a video of the start of the men's 2007 Tour de Leelanau and also the Herman Rd King of the Mountain on YouTube.

Robert Dobbie from the Wolverine Sports Club Elite Road Team has an entertaining racer's account of the Tour de Leelanau that you should definitely read for passages like this:

Tower Rd (mile 60) seemed shorter but steeper than last year, but I had pretty good legs for it. I also got an extra boost from what seemed like a hundred fans gathered Tour de France style at the top. We passed through single file to the sound of ear-ringing cheers and clanging bells. That was fun.

The annual Tour de Leelanau bike race will be held next Saturday (Sep 15). The Tour de Leelanau is a point to point open road race for the top professional and amateur cyclists in the Midwest. The men's course is 109 miles long and starts in Leland at 1 PM. The women's race is 69 miles and starts at the Homestead around 2 - 2:30 PM. Both races wind all over the county and finish at the Leelanau Sands Casino in Peshawbestown.

This year's Tour de Leelanau is sanctioned by USA Cycling and held under permit by the United States Cycling Federation making it one of the nation's premier road biking races! You can get much, much more information at the Tour de Leelanau website and see more photos of Michigan's most scenic bicycle race at the tour de leelanau tag on Flickr (view slideshow) and also in the Tour de Leelanau group on Flickr.

On Wednesday night I attended a very interesting event hosted by the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association <lpwines.com> (LPVA) regarding ways that businesses and organizations in tourism-related fields can work together for mutual benefit. A few of the ideas discussed by representatives from the wineries, chambers, arts organizations and galleries, lodging and agricultural businesses and others included:

• More "cross-marketing" efforts to copy the successes of states like Wisconsin, Western North Carolina (Handmade In America) and industries like the cruise industry and deliver a more complete visitor experience.
• More events for the January - June period.
• Input from geographic communities and also business sectors along with the creation of new initiatives like Project Authentic Leelanau, CraftWORKS Leelanau, a Leelanau Art Gallery Trail, a Leelanau Agricultural/Culinary Trail and the Leelanau Tourism Initiative.
• Joining together to tell more people what a wonderful experience the Leelanau Peninsula offers.

Working with the LPVA's Rick Coates, we at Leelanau.com have pledged to provide a space for discussion of these efforts and for periodic reports from ongoing meetings with all kinds of organizations & communities.

In early 2007 Rick will be coordinating community-brainstorming sessions in each of the villages. These will be open to all interested in coordinating a peninsula wide effort. Check back here for dates and locations of these sessions.

Have an idea or a question? Don't be shy - post a comment! Too shy for that? Call Andy at 231-256-2829!

Photo credit: Little Girl at Port Onieda Beach by Jim Sorbie