Michigan 26 Day 6 - Spanish to Little Current

 It's been a long time since I've stealth camped. I used to stealth camp all the time, but my tolerance for spending money on motel rooms grows year by year, and I like to charge devices, access the Internet, and have a shower.

But here I am stealth camping. Because I have no choice.

This is the back of the maintenance shed at the Mountain View Cemetery about four miles outside Little Current, on Manatoulin Island. 

Manatoulin is the huge, sparsely populated island in the north part of Lake Huron. There is one bridge onto the island, from the north. It's a single lane swing bridge that opens every hour for ships to go through. 

You can also take a ferry from the south side of the island to the mainland. The ferry ride takes two hours. That's how I'll be leaving.|

Manatoulin is really beautiful, and full of lake cottages, and campgrounds, and B&Bs and a few small hotels. And since this is the long weekend for Canada's "August Civic Holiday", and since there is a huge festival in Little Current (with a Little League Baseball tournament and fireworks), and since there is also a giant First Nations Pow Wow, every single room and campsite on the island has been booked. For weeks. I was completely shut out. I rode and asked all the motels in Little Current. 

So I rode to the police station and explained my situation. When you do this, the answer is usually "Oh just go set up in the town park/school yard/other public land next to the bathrooms, and you can only stay one night". But not on Manitoulin. 

On Manitoulin, the answer is "All the land on the island is privately owned, and if we get a complaint we have to come and make you pack up and move along." This is absolutely not something I want to do after a long, tough bike ride.

So stealth camping it was, with an emphasis on stealth.

So I started looking at nature reserves and parks, where there might be some with some good out of the way woods. No luck. Manatoulin is full of farm fields and marsh lands.

And then I spotted the cemetery on Google maps. Four miles out of town in the direction I want to go. The cemetery goes far back from the road, it's buffered by the neighboring farms by forest, and there is a maintenance shed in the very back with some clear space behind it. 

I had some dinner, which was not-so-great broiled Whitefish at Hawthorn\s Family Restaurant before setting out for the cemetery. I asked the restaurant owner what he would do in my spot. "Just go down to the parking lot of the marina down by the park (where the festival and fireworks are) and set up there. Nobody's going to care. I used to sleep in my car down there all the time." OK, but that's not exactly stealthy.

I headed out to the cemetery two hours before sunset, and put my bike behind the maintenance shed. I wanted to hang out in my spot for a while to make sure nobody will be able to see me, and no people will be coming around, and then if it all looks good, pitch the tent right before dark. I brushed my teeth and took my vitamins just like I would before bed anywhere, Then I changed out of my bright yellow bike clothes into drab sweats. Then I unrolled my Thermarest pad where the tent would go, and settled down to read a book until sunset. It's perfect. Nobody comes to the cemetery, nobody can see me.

When the sun went down, I set up the tent (which is dark green) and put all my stuff in the tent or under the rain fly, with the bike leaning on the back side of the shed.

I hunkered down in the tent reading my book as it got totally dark. I was almost giddy that I had the perfect spot, and it was perfect. Nobody came into the cemetery all night, it was totally dark and quiet (except for some turkeys and a Great Horned Owl). I packed up and left at dawn without seeing another person. I left no trace.

I was so happy, because it was a pretty tough day. I like to plan the days to be less than 60 miles and/or 2000 feet of climb. This day was 67 miles, 2400 feet of climb, and the first 30 miles were into a headwind. I was totally feeling it. But I slept great hiding in the back of the cemetery.

The day started with even more riding on the Trans-Canada Highway. I finally left it for good after 15 miles in Massey.

Now this is more like it. Fifteen miles of serene, peaceful back road to Espanola. Still into a headwind though.

In Espanola I had a very tasty burrito in a nice little taco shop.

Espanola was halfway. After Espanola, the route turned from heading east to heading south and west, so the headwind became tailwinds, but the hills started. I was pretty wiped out by the time I rode over the bridge onto Manitoulin in to Little Current.

Here's the Strava Track: https://www.strava.com/activities/19576045740